3.2 – Launching a Beta Product
Validation has been a common theme in this startup journey. This stage isn’t any
different. After the MVP has been built, the next step allows customers to use it and give feedback on the product or service. This module covers:
Techniques for testing marketing and distribution channels
Building an early user base
At the end of this module, you will:
- Recall various channels to acquire a customer base
- Identify relevant channels of the business idea
Section A: 19 Channels of Traction
Gabriel Weinberg, the Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, Inc., a privacy search engine and Google competitor, wrote a book called Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth[2].
In this book, Weinberg defines 19 channels startups can use to market and acquire customers:
- Targeting Blogs – Getting featured on existing blogs
- Publicity – Getting featured in publications
- Unconventional PR – Contests and PR stunts
- Search Engine Marketing – Paid search ads
- Social and Display Ads – Paid social media ads
- Offline Ads – Billboards
- Search Engine Optimization – Organic search engine optimization through keywords
- Content Marketing – Writing your own blog
- Email Marketing – Direct emailing potential customers
- Viral Marketing – Generating a viral piece of content
- Engineering as Marketing – Building a calculator or widget
- Business Development – Building relationships to support sales
- Sales – Direct sales, often to businesses
- Affiliate Programs – Compensating other businesses for selling for you
- Existing Platforms – Promoting on existing platforms like Reddit
- Trade Shows
- Offline Events – Hosting your own events
- Speaking Engagements – Speaking at conferences
- Community Building – Building your own customer and user community.
Optional Readings
Weinberg, Gabriel. “The 19 Channels You Can Use to Get Traction.” September 20, 2015.
Section B: Experimenting with Channels – The Bullseye Method
In Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth, Gabriel Weinberg also lays out a method for running experiments and testing each one of these channels to see which channels are most effective. Weinberg refers to this method as “The Bullseye Method.” Review the resource.
Step 1 – Brainstorm All Possible Channel Strategies
For each of the 19 channels, brainstorm a strategy for how your startup can use that channel. For example, if your customer profile targets millennials, for the Social and Display Ads channel you would most likely brainstorm buying ads on Instagram or on Snapchat. If your customer profile targets an older generation, for the Social and Display Ads you would most likely brainstorm buying ads on Facebook.
Plan
Step 2 – Narrow Down to Probable Channel Strategies
Of the 19 channel strategies you identified in the step before, which are the best ideas? Not all channels have a natural fit as marketing channels for all types of businesses. For example, if you are selling directly to consumers, “Sales” is not a normal fit for your startup, but “Community Building” might be.
Plan
Of the 19 channel strategies, pick three channels to move forward with. Use the following criteria to narrow your decisions:
- Which channels have a natural fit with your business?
- How much will it cost to run this experiment?
- How many customers can you reach with this channel strategy?
- How much will it cost to acquire a customer through this channel strategy?
- Are these the right types of customers you want to acquire right now? For example,have you selected “early adopters” who demand to solve the problem and buy your solution, or have you chosen “early majority” customers, who get engaged later in the technology adoption cycle?
Step 3 – Set Budget & Run Experiments
Before actually running the experiments on your three top channels, you need to set budgets and design the experiments.
- How much will each experiment cost?
- How large an audience can you access?
- How long will the experiment run? For example, three days or two weeks?
- How will you know if the experiment is successful? For example, acquire X customers for Y cost per customer in Z weeks?
Pause
Plan