Start-up Marketing School: Class 1- So you’re planning to be the CMO someday?
Perspectives on marketing in a start-up. How to plan for the unplanned whether you’re bootstrapping your venture or funded to the hilt. The format will be a panel and town hall discussion, including the views of three people who’ve taken different paths to the lead marketing role in successful a start-up. So what does it take? How do you prepare yourself to build a marketing machine from the ground up?
Panelists:
Rich Ullman, Former SVP of Marketing at Ripple6
Deena Bahri, VP of Marketing at Birchbox
Jeff Grill, VP of Marketing at Mimeo
Notes from the discussion:
develop brand- content and cases, story, distribution, customer base
look at analytics- how do you measure?
Deena’s advice-
- started in offline world
- focus on brand
- product being the center
- what makes product different
- really know your product, get close with product teams
- website is very important
- understanding the customer- really talking with them
- “voice of the customer”
- focus on the metrics
- money, head count -> prove ROI
- measuring and communicating
- spread the news
Jeff’s advice-
- started as a media planner
- ran focus groups- literally talk to customers
- “the whole world is being rewritten”
- you are limited by what you work on
- he needed to learn direct marketing
- went back to agency world as true integrative marketing
- in marketing, “always have a hypothesis about why something will work”
- mimeo- online version of fedex
- continuously felt constrained
- too much of a bystander
- “i don’t trust a marketer that doesn’t actively market”
- integrative marketing careers are built, they don’t just happen
- start-ups don’t understand marketing, keep it simple
- think again if you can’t measure it
- marketers are not magicians understand what others are doing, what customers are asking for, what you are trying to do
Discussion- Startups and their small marketing budget
Deena-
- money equals more options, can test more freely
- helps if you want to outsource
- yet you don’t want to get too far from home base
- haven’t figured out the product-market fit
- money allows you to be more creative
Jeff-
- tremendous amount of accountability with money
- life span of a CMO is 10 months
- problem comes when you want to test things that are more expensive
- have to find a balance between spending money and cheap
Discussion- Is it about money or culture?
Deena-
- startups by nature are disruptive, no rules, bring ideas to life, passionate
- there is risk and appetite involved
- lack of structure
- can be hard to let go of pieces of your job as your company grows
Jeff-
- job gets smaller as company gets larger
- make it up as you go along
Discussion- How do you deal with being the middle hire? Who’s the first person you hire?
Jeff-
- hire an analyst, brought outside resources in-house
- better to keep everything compartmentalized
- with start-ups, sometimes you need to prove certain channels don’t work
- its always a work in progress
Deena-
- always be prepared to adjust
- bring in copy design- don’t outsource brand identity
- want to be hands on in all aspects of company’s marketing
- place a lot of importance on analytics
Rich-
- Outsourced results need to be taken with prejudice
Discussion- what are some free marketing techniques?
- referrals, really looking at what is important to your customers, video
- what tools? facebook, twitter, youtube dashboards
- nothings free-spending time, money, effort
- create content by listening to customers
- facebook is an avenue to communicate
- people will stumble upon online
Q: what is the relationship between content and marketing at Birchbox?
A: very separate. we have our content, then we have selling to beauty products, and selling to the customer
Q: How should you do offline marketing for online businesses?
A: combine offline media with direct marketing tactics
online has to back up offline
never underspend in a test
there is a myth that online media is unmeasurable
use different channels but always project the same message
sometimes company is too small to handle all projects
Q: is there tension between brands and subscribers at Birchbox? You want customer opinions but also want to sell product
A: don’t manage any negativity
publish to brands, but not everything to consumers on website and forums
peer reviews and comments can be very powerful
Q: do you want specific customers?
A: you want profitable customers
shoppers and referrals can both be very profitable
someone with money vs.someone who tweets a lot
delivering customers something that they are looking for
analytics has to differentiate between new and existing customers
Q: What tools do you use?
A: Google analytics, queries on the database, mailchimp for email, social media platforms individually
need to stay lean
crosstraining people on platforms
friendbuy- drive referral engine, prompted to share
would rather use fewer tools
be careful with any tool that gives you a monthly invoice
Q: When do you look at metrics? How do you check the progress?
A: organize data around your best customers. Check data three times a day- tap into dashboard
have someone look at win/loss customers
align metrics around your goals
KPIs and planning- don’t overplan, plan for action and then immediately put it to use
start-ups change so frequently- stop planning and start doing
have to be “adaptive and adoptive”
look to others, copy what works, keep your eyes open, keep listening to others and understanding new ideas
Q: Are there helpful tests for good product market fit?
A: designing campaigns, experiments with controls- use same demographics, population
easier to do testing control
hard to test buyer experience
marketing doesn’t own any real estate
have a kitchen table focus group
bring in a customer and watch them
use their UI and get feedback
focus group- qualitative research
listen to the passionate focus group member
listen to the emotions
if you can get a good idea about your customer group, then make a focus group with similar demographics
look for the “power users”
everything is now lean and agile
