Marketing

A Reminder about Picking Metrics for your Startup

A Reminder about Picking Metrics for your Startup

It’s near the end of the year once again. And the end of the year always reminds us about metrics. We’ve suggested before that it’s a good time to assess what’s working and what’s not. If you want a reminder about the most important metrics for startup marketing, check out our previous blogpost on the topic: Metrics, Metrics. And if you want to be reminded about how to do an end-of-year audit, check out our blogpost: 3 Important Metrics to Audit.

A common theme in these two blogposts is that it’s important to keep your metrics simple. In fact, just this week we were looking at some analytics and were amazed at how unhelpful some metrics can be. So we wanted to share two examples to get you thinking.

What can Startups Learn from the Super Bowl Ads?

What can Startups Learn from the Super Bowl Ads?

We mostly focus on startups and let’s be clear that few startups have the budget for a Super Bowl ad. Still, the Tactical Implementation iceberg in the Marketing Ocean is so fraught with challenges that it’s good to look anywhere for clues about what works. And, the Super Bowl is the equivalent to the Olympics when it comes to advertising.

Coming into the 2021 Super Bowl, no one knew what to expect of the ads and advertisers. 2020 was a crazy year. Most NFL teams are still trying to figure out how to best connect with fans. Add to the mayhem, the NFL sold 30,000 cardboard cutouts of fans to place in stadium seats for $100 each, or $3,000,000, to help defray lost ticket sales.

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The Key to Startup Marketing is Understanding Language of your Customers

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The Key to Startup Marketing is Understanding Language of your Customers

If you’ve read our book, The Titanic Effect, you know that we are strong proponents of picking a customer segment to target at the start. Then you can expand by segments over time to grow. But, you really have to know who is your ideal customer. If you need more ideas about what an “ideal customer” is, check out our interview on the Creative Warriors podcast. Once you know who your ideal customer is, you have to frame your ideas in the language they use.

Hopefully, you have the ability to do deep, insightful research with them. But, if you don’t there are unobtrusive ways you can figure this out, too. You can start by using some online tools to better understand the language people are using with they think about your product. While not perfect, keyword planning tools available from companies like Google, Google Trends, Keyword Generator, Keyword Sheeter, Answer the Public, and others will give you lists of keywords for both broad and narrow topics. They start with the keyword(s) you provide and give lots of related words. Some will also give you search volume estimates. Traditionally, this is the first step in SEO (search engine optimization) which you should also do. But it can also be used to develop a hierarchy of language around your offering.

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Is Marketing Spend an Expense or an Investment for Startups?

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Is Marketing Spend an Expense or an Investment for Startups?

When macroenvironmental challenges (like a recession or a pandemic) occur, many companies immediately slash their marketing budgets. We saw this in the recession of 2008 to 2009. We are seeing it again in the coronavirus pandemic. The argument goes like this: 1) we are not generating as much sales revenue, 2) we need to cut costs, and 3) let’s just cut all costs.

If marketing dollars are included in these moves, they are being treated like an expense. Well-spent marketing dollars can and should generate sales levels that are multiples of the spend. When this happens they are like an investment with a positive ROI.

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Startups can Leverage Customer Insights to Build a Stronger Relationship

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Startups can Leverage Customer Insights to Build a Stronger Relationship

You know that restaurant you love to visit. You walk in the door, they say hello, and they call you by name. You chat with the server. It could be any server, because you’ve chatted with all of them. Now the pandemic hits and you can no longer visit your favorite restaurant. Guess what, they probably don’t even really know who you are.

Most small and new companies have never put together a customer database. Yes, they know frequent customers when they see them. But how does that work when you no longer “see” your customers? It doesn’t. Now is the time to pull together a useful customer database so you can see insights about who your customers are.

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What Does Academic Research Tell Startups about Advertising?

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What Does Academic Research Tell Startups about Advertising?

Since we are business school professors, one of the things we do is read and review academic research on business topics. Specifically, Kim is an associate editor for the Journal of Advertising Research. Of course, this journal focuses on what makes advertising effective. And the bulk of academic research is on TV advertising which might be beyond the reach of most startups. Kim also gets to vote on the “best” article of the year. So we thought we might review the best articles from 2019 and give you the highlights that are relevant to startup advertising. Here are top four facts about advertising we learned last year:

Why B2C Startups Need to Understand Walled Gardens

Why B2C Startups Need to Understand Walled Gardens

Let’s start by making sure we all know what we are talking about. First, “B2C” means Business-to-Consumer -- startups that sell products to consumers as end users. We can contrast B2C with B2B, which is businesses selling to other businesses. Each type – B2C and B2B – have different selling processes. So today, we are going to focus on B2C and the challenges they might experience selling through e-commerce sites.

So far, so good. But, what’s a “Walled Garden?” It is just what it sounds like. It comes from olden days when rich people had beautiful, luscious gardens that they locked behind a wall so that others could not see in. We use the term to describe the big tech giants. Here’s a more specific definition from mediarithmics_what is:  “A Walled Garden is a closed ecosystem in which all the operations are controlled by the ecosystem operator.” Think Google, Facebook, Amazon to start. They’ve created a really interesting marketplace in which they make the rules and they have all of the data. Together, these three companies control 70% of the all the digital ad spend. 

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The 10 Steps to Physically Starting a Business

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The 10 Steps to Physically Starting a Business

Someone who read our startup book, The Titanic Effect, reached out to us to say, “I think I understand the decisions I need to make. Now, I am ready to start my business. What are my first steps?” While our last blogpost shared how to develop a process for making complex decisions, this one is for those of you who are ready to actually start your business. So, here are your first 10 steps. In case that number intimidates you, they are interrelated and can be done concurrently. You are already working on another step while completing an earlier one. And we assume you already have the business idea. These are the steps to physically start that business. 

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The Power of Getting Customer Input for Startups

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The Power of Getting Customer Input for Startups

One of the toughest questions startups have to answer is how they create value for customers. We’ve already shared how to avoid the customer value void. But recently, we were reminded about just how powerful getting customer input can be. So, we wanted to share three examples to inspire you to get your own feedback.