Sin #2– Focusing on Website Design instead of Website Conversions.

There can be a lot of “pixel polishers” among a startup’s founding team. By that we mean, focusing on the design minutiae of the website instead of what’s core to driving revenue.  It’s expected that when a startup launches, a huge part of the critical first impression a startup makes is the experience of visitors on the launch site. It can become quite a debate for startup founders to argue the structure of the global nav, or whether the sidebar should be on the left- or the right-hand side of the page and so on. Don’t get us wrong:  a founder giving birth to their startup has every right to pick the pantone colors and fonts that help to define their brand. But in our experience, all of those design decisions, subjective choices and internal debates can be settled with a lot less work if the focus is on the user experience and not some argument over aesthetics. In other words, conversions first, not design. Every page, and every asset on every page of your site, needs to be in support of your launch goals. And for launch, we work hard to make every decision regarding the website focus on capturing, converting and analyzing visitors to the site.

Sin #1: Writing the launch news release at the end instead of at the beginning.   

Almost every product launch we lead includes briefings of targeted analysts, press, and bloggers (the key voices in the startup’s market space) and for that, we turn to a PR pro or PR agency. In the preparation phase of defining a startup’s position and message, it’s essential that we communicate the message consistently across all of the mediums and tools targeted for all constituencies, including the launch news release for the press. And nothing gets that process moving like the company’s initial press release.

Many think the launch news release should be written only when the inevitable internal debate over product (and even company) positioning is resolved. We’re not talking about debate over fundamental positioning of the product or solution (if fundamental positioning is still in play, you’re not ready for launch). We mean the inevitable internal debate that can span everything from word-smithing the description of product value to the prioritization of the product benefits to the balance that the team places on talking about here-today functionality versus evolution of the product. But that haggling and disagreement, however well-intentioned, can go on forever, unless there’s a compelling reason to end it. Enter the press release draft.

For that all-important news release, there are typically many iterations, nuances of language and emphasis, considerations for how to leverage quotes from key analysts and early-adopter customers, as well as the debate described above. In our experience, the sooner that news release is drafted, the better. There is something “real” for the team about seeing their value proposition and news captured in the format and language of a news release that can catalyze key decisions in a way that reviewing an outline of the news release or copy for the website or slides for the analyst deck never does. Our advice to startup teams is to write the news release as early as possible and to use it to help crystallize and clarify your message and build consensus among the founders.

Sin #2 to follow…

Now for the next step: Empathizing with the prospect him/herself and their position within that company or industry. This slide (or step in the Sales cycle) is affectionately known as,  ”It Sucks To Be You”.  If you’ve done your homework (or you’re just using your sales experience to aggregate what other prospects that share this title or job responsibilities are up against), then you’re in a position to get another subconscious nod. Which not only establishes empathy, it also generates a discussion—which is a lot better than a one-way sales call.

The goal with “It Sucks To Be You” is to get the prospect to speak up and say, “You don’t know the half of it…” And they’re off and running, taking your original few points about the pressures they face and expanding them into a list of issues, most of which, hopefully, your product or service can solve.

So, if done right, these first two phases in the empathy process achieve two things:

1) They establish you as someone in the know, which means you start the call not as a supplicant but as an equal; and

2) They create the basis of a conversation, which greatly enhances your prospects for closing the sale.

Tip #4B: Build on the Empathy 101 Process by Demonstrating Your Knowledge of The Client’s Specific Position in the Industry/Market.

Payload data– The FCC concluded an inquiry into Google’s data collection practices and reported that the company secretly collected the personal email addresses and web searches – so-called “payload data” – of hundreds of millions of private citizens as part of the Google Street View project.

Vampire electronics– many electronic devices consume power even when they’re not “on.”  Think that little blinking light on your monitor. Device manufacturers and environmentalists alike are advocating a different approach to stop the vampires.

Hotelling- Non-territorial offices, also known as “free address” workspaces, are the open, shared office spaces long used by consultants. The practice of providing these communal workspaces is called hotelling and it’s now in use by legions of mobile workers who may only work on site at the corporate office a few days a month.

Email snacking– The all-day-long habit of trying to keep up with the avalanche of email can also make you a perpetually distracted worker who will accomplish little during the day.

Visual note-taking– Employees are being encouraged by employers at startups like Zappos, and larger corporate employers like Time Warner, to use pictures, not words to communicate and take notes in meetings. Studies show doodlers retain more information than non-doodlers in boring settings like conference calls and it can be an effective means to communicate complex ideas. Even CEOs are trying it.

For Blog Posts:  In startup marketing, there are a lot of elements that go into making a blog post effective. Ideally, the checklist includes your keywords, voice, vivid language, provocative ideas to stimulate the reader, and a strong supporting visual (not necessarily in that order). Perhaps you’ve read the same studies (thank you, Hubspot) about which are the best days and times of the week to post your blog for maximum reach. But what our clients seem to worry the most about is the length of their blog posts – as if each post has to have a prescribed length to be valuable to the reader.

This concern reminds us of the comedy routine by the late George Carlin who famously reduced the Ten Commandments to just two. Or, there’s journalist, book author and celebrated food activist Michael Pollan who summed up his food advice to Americans:  “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Both of those examples are pithy, to-the-point, wonderfully memorable and brief. If only every blog post were similarly short and sweet.

When it comes to blog posts, we sometimes find that the value is in reverse relationship to the length. Our advice to startups is to think about distilling your commentary into a single key takeway—two, max. Focusing on that takeaway and how to best to support it will ensure a brief, tight, valuable post.

For Tweets:  How can size matter for a tweet that has a built-in limit of 140 characters? It can matter a lot if you follow a best practice we often hear about that dictates that you have to include “the three” in every tweet: a link, an @ mention and a #hashtag (and today’s hashtags seem to be getting longer and longer). In reality, including “the three” leaves you with very little room to communicate your own unique thought.

The point of tweeting is to be timely, current, and responsive – again, all in 140 characters.  Saddling your tweet with “the three” will weigh you and your followers down and significantly constrain the spontaneity of tweeting. As Twitter continues to evolve, we already see the length of a tweet becoming the length of the new elevator pitch. Twitter is already becoming the successor to traditional wire services like AP and Reuters for breaking news coverage. So, our advice is to let the size of your tweet support your message, and that means not trying to squeeze “the three” into every tweet.

When it comes to social media marketing, we have a simple approach that we push startup leaders to embrace from the get-go. We call it ‘The 3 C’s’–

Conversation.  Rather than thinking about social media as a channel to broadcast your product message, think of it as a conversation with your customers. That means you’ll have many opportunities to talk, but first you have to listen. And like any good conversationalist, you take turns. Gartner Group predicts that by 2020, 85 percent of customers will engage with Sales only after completing their initial research online. So if you’re not in conversation with your future customers in social media, you’re making your own sales process that much more difficult.

Content.  For success with social media, responsibility for it has to be woven into your marketing strategy (the best place for that is in your content marketing plan). Some of our clients, because of the launch workload, delegate initial social media responsibilities to their PR firm. But almost every successful startup outgrows that plan because you will eventually need to have someone embedded in the company’s product/technology team who speaks your customer’s language, and who can be on the front lines to provide timely, authoritative information to questions. Your content marketing plan will help you match subject matter to your customer target, and also help you devise an editorial plan that matches topics to the appropriate social media channel– whether that’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or another.

Commitment.  Like a lot of priorities in marketing (e.g. PR, lead nurturing), success depends upon a commitment of time and consistency. You can’t join the conversation that is social media and expect to see returns in two or three months. It takes a commitment of many, many months. At a minimum, think 6 months to really see meaningful engagement and connections happen in social media. And with success, social media will become less of a “to do” and more of a way to build relationships and develop customers. Because that’s where your customers are: already in conversation on social media channels.

Carol and I cut our teeth in companies that took the competition seriously. At Oracle, where I was the original Creative Director, I attended quarterly Sales meetings around the globe. Our approach to competitive analysis was twofold: 1) Both the Sales Engineers and the Product Marketing team seriously and honestly analyzed the competition (both strengths and weaknesses) and 2) Once the weakness was clear, we would go at it with an aggressive Sales campaign (called, humanely, ‘cut off the oxygen’) to underprice it and render it suspect in the long-term in the market.

Sun was no different. In the pre-Java days of Sun, every competitive desktop or server announcement was a “call-to-arms” for the Product teams to begin picking apart the pricing, performance specs and support options, and to dig for weaknesses to exploit at launch and beyond. The Product Management and Product Marketing teams dove into the bunker together to acquire, analyze and sift through advance information about a competitive product in order to arm the Global Sales teams with information to disarm and defuse every competitive claim. In those days, the trade press devoured what was then known as the “speeds and feeds” of every tech product announcement. It was the job of the Product team at headquarters to serve as the clearinghouse for competitive threats. And it was the job of the headquarters team to inform management, employees, and board members.

At the street level, every startup should have dedicated personnel (either a headcount or part of a headcount) dedicated to tracking the competition. There should be standalone PowerPoint presentations that either are there as attachments to the main Sales deck or can be used later in the sales cycle. Distinguishing your company and its technology from your three main competitors should be a mandatory part of Sales training. And at a higher level, every employee should know that he/she is a spokesperson and should be able to articulate how the company is different and better.

Social Media – Just delegate it. Yes, startup CEOs should—and do—tweet. The most successful companies have a point-of-view that is articulated and amplified directly by the founders. That’s the CEO and/or CTO. We believe that founders need to take ownership of their commentary to the press, bloggers and key voices that shape opinion in their market. That includes a blog and a Twitter handle. The best ones realize that a Twitter channel is a direct link to their key audiences. Why wouldn’t you reach out and talk to them? That’s what leaders do.

SEO – Just set and forget it. Building your rank on Google and the other search engines, Yahoo and Bing, requires a detailed strategic plan and an owner to work the plan. As the results of your SEO investments begin to bear fruit, it’s the most vigilant who will see the payoff. As your story evolves, and your product offerings expand, you’ll need to ensure that your SEO strategy evolves. SEO is not a transaction. It’s an on-going strategy as vital to your success as your content plan.

In the age of Youtube, user-generated content, and apparently rampant ADHD, video content is a great way to connect with your audience who simply have too many choices and distractions today. Video can keep audiences on your site longer and really boost your SEO. Video drives conversions. But here’s the catch:

It has to be good video.

To which you’ll add: “and it’s got to be cheap.” (Let’s address that in a moment.)

First– good video, like all good content, has to be valued, reputable and optimized for mobile, search, social and sharing. And the Holy Grail: it needs to have the capacity to go viral. But the most important thing for good video is that it tells a story.
A great story requires an experienced writer/storyteller. Our advice to startups who want to develop good video is to invest in an experienced producer whose process starts with nailing down the script. Your script needs to crystallize your key message/takeaway for your audience and the call-to-action that will drive conversions. Focusing on your script is where you begin.

Second– there is a lot of online chatter and there are a lot of lists out there about which low-cost tool is the best for creating video for startups. Is that Brainshark? Stupeflix?  What about one of the animation tools like Goanimate? In fact, here is an amazing list of 100 TV and Video Tools from Dailytekk.

Our take is that you want to focus your attention and budget on an experienced video producer/writer and let them drive the choice of video production tool.  Content first, tool second.  That’s the best approach to creating great video content that will help drive conversions and sales.

In other words, where are the startup CEOs who tweet?

We don’t have the data, but we’re convinced that CEOs who tweet build more successful companies. A critical component of a successful launch is having the leadership team of your startup deliberately switch from the inward-focused preparations before launch to the outward-focused execution of sharing your narrative at launch and beyond. In other words, at launch it’s time for the leadership team – with the CEO setting the example – to take the stage and grab the mic.

We recommend that the CEO sign up to participate directly with the chosen social media channels as well as the company blog. And by “participate,” we mean write. Those channels are typically aimed directly at target customers or developers. But, they are also widely read by your employees. It’s a wonderful teaching tool to help “script” your employees on how to tell the company story. Your employees are your word-of-mouth channel. As Malcolm Gladwell described in The Tipping Point, many of your own employees are “connectors” with sizeable social networks of friends who may well be future employees or customers. Don’t overlook the power of your company blog and Twitterfeed to not only connect you with your market, but to connect you with your own employees.