Joanne Lang, CEO of AboutOne shares her insights on both what to do and *not* to do when launching a product and marketing.

1. Bring Your Product to Market
Bootstrapped Style
…and keep it there
presented by
Joanne Lang – AboutOne Founder & CEO

3. About Me – Bootstrapped First
- Forbes Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs to Watch
- Raised $3M+ in Seed & Series A
- Dell Founders Club Entrepreneur & Microsoft One Company
- Selected as a START 2012 & 2013 company (top 100 in the world)
- Start Up Nation Winner, AWE Fellowship Winner
- Philly Founded Company
- Published: The Wall Street Journal & The Huffington Post

4.  Enters household records for you
 Provides intelligent reports, alerts, and
private sharing of video, photos and
paperwork
 Provides structure
 Educates and motivates
Award-Winning Family Organization App
Currently Managing > 1.8M records

5. ① Product
② Pricing
③ Place
④ Promotion
⑤ Physical Proof
⑥ Process
⑦ People
⑧ Post-Launch Customer Interaction
My 8 P’s of Product Marketing
TIP: TEAM
COMPOSITION

6.  Research…Research…Research
• Include question ‘why not?’
• Competitive analysis ($$$)
 Build iteratively (MVP - alpha & beta)
 Customer Advisory Boards
 Control rate of market release
 Measure…Measure…Measure
• Every iteration

7. Learn From My Mistakes
If you have developers you need a
product/program manager.
Do not let the dev team tell product
marketing they are wrong…user
experience is critical.
Estimate launch dates…x6(months!)

8.  Pricing model validation
• Pricing Page A/B Testing
• Surveys
 Cash is King
• Factor discounts into pricing
model to ensure profitability.

9. Learn From My Mistakes
Credit card processing experience is
critical.
FirstData, Authorize.net, Chargify
PayPal native
PCI Compliance
Check credit card processing FEES!

10.  Know your customers / channels
 A/B test messaging by buying persona
 Partner Strategy
 Customer Strategy
TIP: KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER

11. TIP: BE YOUR CUSTOMER

12. Learn From My Mistakes
Where do customers buy?
• Responsive website
• Mobile friendly emails

13.  Prioritize marketing plan
 PR
• Press email outreach & road trip
• eReleases & other discount services
• Present at events
• Blog & guest blogs
 Organic
• SEO
• Landing page tests to determine triggers
 Partners
TIP: KNOW WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE

14. Learn From My Mistakes
Responsive design
Marketing launch plan x6 & delay
Double opt-in from day 1
PR generates buzz, not signups
Comeback Moms instead of PR firm
No need to give things away
Your blog - be prepared
One Pager (see example)

17.  Support forum
• Voting for features
• Video demos
 Website Evidence
• Referrals – by channel
• Peer case studies
• A/B testing of messaging
TIP: PEER REFERENCES

18. Learn From My Mistakes
Set early adopters’ expectations
about how much time it will take /
competing priorities

19.  Customer support process
• 7 days/week
• Run by peers
 Customer support system
• Zendesk & Olark
 Point of contact for beta customers
 Partner Sales – consistent branding /
certification
• NAPO
TIP: GOOD SERVICE IS CRITICAL

20. Web to ‘Help’ in your application
Response times of your apps
Message, Live Chat, phone, emails
from the beginning
Timing of BETA customers, too early
leads to attrition
Learn From My Mistakes

21.  Closed loop feedback
 Proof that you listen
TIP: CONTINUAL VALIDATION

22. Set realistic release date expectations.
Learn From My Mistakes

23. ① Product
② Pricing
③ Place
④ Promotion
⑤ Physical Proof
⑥ Process
⑦ People
⑧ Post-Launch Customer Interaction
Summary of Tips

24. Joanne Lang
jlang@aboutone.com
@aboutoneceo