Marketing For Founders | Growth Hacking | Startups | Direct Response Marketing

MFF025 - Turn Podcasting Into A Marketing Machine

The are many key components to creating a successful podcast. From the technicalities of recording the audio to the format of the show. Asking the right questions before you sit down to create your podcast, is the first step. Determining the information and content of your show, will ultimately determine how well it sells your products or services.   When beginning your show you will need the following: A uni-directional USB Microphone. An acoustically quiet environment. A computer to record your audio.   Components to determine before recording: What is the length and format of content that your market prefers? What are your call to actions? What will be your show format? Cold Start, Music intro, Humor? Is there any time sensitive material in the script?   When podcasting it is important to note that anytime you use time sensitive material, it is important to maintain and manage your library of podcasts. In many cases you will need to remove those shows to ensure your audience is not listening to out of date content. Finally, podcasting will build authority among your peers and audience, so start and end your shows with calls to action, and drive listeners to your website.  Listen to the show at Marketing For Founders: http://marketingforfounders.com/podcasting/

MFF024 - Should You Fall In Love With Your Idea?

When You Came Up With Your Idea Was It Love At First Sight?   Many entrepreneurs believe that their next big business plan is as easy or hard, as coming up with an original idea, and putting it down on paper. What many don’t realize is new markets don’t often blast off into riches. Many great businesses start by finding an opportunity for growth and improvement, and doing it better than all those before.   Too often, entrepreneurs are blinded by ideas, and become easily attached. When the reality is, there are tons of limping or old foundations in place for businesses, that with the right ratification, could create a ton of cash.     Today, we will discuss the best way to get on the right track to a new business idea.   Identify a need or opportunity in a market.   Create a question, that if answered would solve a problem in a market or industry.    Continue to refine and build upon that idea, until it shows signs of success.   Tip: Don't waste too much time trying to come up with original ideas, they often end in bloodshed.   Listen to the show (and nickname Jack) at:  http://marketingforfounders.com/idea-romance/

The Long Slow SaaS Ramp Of Death - MFF023

Most startups enter the world of SaaS (Software as a Service) thinking everything is going to be rainbows and gold coins falling from the sky; where you upload your final code and watch the money pour passively into your Cayman Island bank account every single month without lifting a finger. Turns out this is NOT the case (Tim and I can both say from personal experiences). Running a SaaS product is extremely difficult, but sometimes the majority of that difficulty is self-inflicted. Common wisdom says that it should be a long, slow, painful, ardous process, but we disagree. Tim and I will discuss a couple reasons why we believe most startups end up in the Long Slog SaaS Ramp of Death: Not understanding the market Not solving a paindful enough problem in that market Only using one marketing channel to reach that market Being passive rather than active in your marketing and sales Having a crappy pitch, and blaming it on your feature set Failing fast in a binary way Links mentioned in the show: Gail Goodman, Constant Contact. How to Negotiate the Long, Slow, Saas Ramp of Death Amy Hoy – Sales Safari in Action Patrick McKenzie – Long-Term Revenue Growth Is Harder Than Short-Term Revenue Growth Justin Wilcox – How I Interview Customers Listen to the show at http://marketingforfounders.com/saas-ramp-of-death-mff023/

Money Making Marketing Metrics - MFF022

Knowing How To Increase Your Revenue Starts With Knowing Where To Look… Many startups know to track Cost Per Click (CPC), but not what to do with that knowledge.  CPC really isn't that important until a startup needs to optimize their costs.  What is really important is how much a new customer costs to acquire (CAC) from that ad spend and whether the company can afford it. If an average customer has a high lifetime value (LTVC) then a company can afford to spend a lot to acquire a customer. But... That pesky thing called cash flow gets in the way.  A self-funded startup can't afford to wait years or even months to get its money back where a funded startup may have enough cash in the bank to keep running until the high lifetime value pays off. How Much Can You Afford To Acquire And Keep A Customer? What is your cost of acquisition? What is your churn rate and churn points? Lifetime value of a customer is an estimate, but a critical one. Do you know your cost of goods sold? How much and when you charge a customer is critical to startups. Get additional insights from links mentioned in the show by going to: http://MarketingForFounders.com/marketing-metrics/

Building Profitable Lists And How To Convert Them Into Sales – MFF021

Because Having A List Doesn’t Mean Much If You Never Use It… As most online startups by nature require an e-mail signup, chances are you’ve already got yourself an established mailing list. In many cases though, startup founders fail to actually contact these potential or current customers, and if they do they’re usually not doing it very effectively. But don’t be fooled into thinking list building is only useful for an existing product or service. Maybe your company is pre-launch, in which case it’s the perfect time to start thinking about what kind of lists you want to build, then leveraging these to test your market and build a buzz surrounding your upcoming service. Whatever your situation, effective communication with your existing or potential customers can make or break the future of your company. So it’s critical to understand the various types of lists and the different ways in which we can give maximum value to those we wish to see as return customers for years to come. How Much Can You Afford To Give A Perfect Experience? What type of lists do we want to build? Building lists pre-launch. Purchasing lists and what to avoid. How many mailings is too many? Building loyalty and creating a habit. Converting initial customers into return customers. Spending money to make money. http://marketingforfounders.com/building-profitable-lists-and-how-to-convert-them-into-sales-mff021