This document discusses various traction channels that can be used to grow a startup. It begins by explaining key startup stages from ideation to establishing. It then provides details on 20 different traction channels, including viral marketing, PR, search engine marketing, social ads, content marketing, and engineering as marketing. The document emphasizes measuring channel performance and learning through testing different options. It presents the Bullseye Framework for choosing channels - brainstorming all options, ranking them, prioritizing the top 3 highest potential channels to test initially, and then focusing on the most promising one found through testing.

1. CHANNELS &TRACTION
IED - COMMUNICATION DESIGN LABS

2. HELLO !

3. about.me
Psychologist, full-stack digital
marketer, data native, founder
and much more buzz words! connect about.me/andykaiser

4. STARTUP KEY STAGES
Minimum Viable
Product
Validate / Iterate
(or pivot)
Ideation
Entrepreneurial
ambition and/or
potential scalable
product or service idea
for a big enough target
market. Initial business
idea on why and how it
would create value.
One person or a vague
team; no confirmed
commitment or no right
balance of skills in the
team structure yet.
Concepting
Defining mission and
vision with initial strategy
and key milestones
defined for at least next 3
years on how to get there,
-> 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 months.
Two or three
entrepreneurial core co-
founders with
complementary skills and
balanced ownership plan.
Maybe have extended
team members for
additional roles &
ownership.
Commitment
Committed and balanced co-
founding team with shared
vision and attitude. Able to
develop the product or
service (Minimum Viable
Product) without dependency
of uncommitted external
resources, or already have
initial product or service in
place. Shareholder
agreement signed between
co-founders, including
milestones, committed time
and money use, for minimum
3 years with vesting terms.
Validation
Iterating, validating
assumptions until have
validated solution to
demonstrate initial user
growth and/or revenue. Key
Performance Indicators
(KPI’s) identified. Can start
to attract additional
investment based resources
(money or sweat equity) for
equity, revenue share or
future revenue.
Scaling
Focus on growth, showing
KPI’s based measurable,
growth in user, customer
revenue growth and/or
market traction in a big or
fast growing target market.
Can and want to grow fast.
May, will or have attracted
significant funding or would
be able to do so if wanted.
Hiring, improving in quality
and implementing
processes
Establishing
Achieved great growth, that
can be expected to
continue. Easily attracts
financial and people
resources. Depending on
vision, mission and
commitments, will continue
to grow and often tries to
culturally continue “like a
startup". Founders and/or
investors make exit(s) or
continue with the company.
Lean Startup
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Mission > Vision > Strategy Scale Up
Business Model / Market Fit
● Co-founder team formation
● What, to whom? & Why and how?
Grow / Expand
-2 -1 30 21
Product / Market FitVision / Founders FitProblem / Solution Fit
image by www.startupcommons.org
measure / learn

5. STARTUP PYRAMID
Product/Market-Fit-
Transi3on-to-Growth-
Growth-
–Paul Graham
“Make things people want”
measure/learn
Race to scale!
Instrument your product
Activate users
Increase exposure

6. GROWTH 🚀

7. 50% 50%
Product
Development
Product
Traction

8. • Leading companies have cross-functional grow
teams.
• Steeped in data and creativity, scientific thinking,
and are immersed in the product as much in
the promotion.

9. WHAT’S A CHANNEL? 📺
How will you get your product or service to
your customers, and their money back to you?

10. 19+TRACTION CHANNELS

11. 1.VIRAL MARKETING
Get your users to market for you

12. “Viral Marketing is like succeeding in Hollywood: every
actor wants to do it, only a few succeed.”

13. • Think about your viral loop (funnel)
• Calculate the viral coefficient
• Think about your referral programs

15. • Monitor the viral coefficient.The viral coefficient
(k) is invitation rate * acceptance rate
• The invitation rate is, as you touch upon, #invites /
#installs (users). It denotes the average number of
invites sent per user.
• The acceptance rate is #invitee signups / #invites. It
is a measure of the success of your invites.
• Your coefficient must be greater than 1 for viral
growth.

18. • Work backwards from the headline
• Keep it simple
• Be positive and evoke strong emotional
reaction
• Humour, Sex, Big Names/Celebrities,Topicality,
Practically Useful, Reality and/or Mystery Sells
• Don'tTryToo Hard

19. https://www.youtube.com/trendsdashboard https://www.google.com/trends/

20. 2. PUBLIC RELATIONS (PR)
Get your name out there via traditional media.

21. • Write good stories
• Don’t forget cold email
• Build real relationships with the reporters

22. 3. UNCONVENTIONAL PR
Do stunts and treat your customers outrageously well, and
word will spread.

23. • 2 types: Publicity stunt & customers
appreciation
• Newsjacking
• Success in this channel is unpredictable

25. 4. SEARCH ENGINE
MARKETING (SEM)
Reach hundreds of millons of people by
advertising on search engines.

26. • CTR vs CPC vs CPA
• Use the scripts in Google Developer
• Use Retargeting

28. 5. SOCIAL AND DISPLAY ADS
Advertise on social media and websites to reach millons of
potential customers.

29. • Link your ads to specific landing pages
• Display ads harvest demand that exist now
• Social ads helps to build awareness
• Optimise the “Call to Action”

31. 6. OFFLINE ADS
Reach customers offline viaTV, Radio and Print advertising.

32. • There are many types of offline ads
• Search for audiences that match your target
• Use codes or URL to track ad campaigns

33. 7. SEARCH ENGINE
OPTIMISATION (SEO)
Get to the top of search engines.

34. • Fat-head vs Long-tail
• Produce amazing content
• Get quality backlinks (through your content)

35. 8. CONTENT MARKETING
Use your blog to educate and reach customers.

36. • Content is King! Create a quality blog
• Create shareable contents (infographics,…)
• Reaching out to influential industry leaders

37. https://blog.kissmetrics.com

38. 9. EMAIL MARKETING
Reach and convert your prospects with targeted emails.

39. • It’s a personal traction channel
• Build an email list of potential customers
• Use it in every step of your customer lifecycle

41. 10. ENGINEERING AS
MARKETING
Use engineering resources to build tools that acquire
customers.

42. • Micro-sites or widgets
• Provide a free tool to help your customers
• Make them as a lean product

43. https://website.grader.com

44. 11.TARGETING BLOGS
Target popular blogs to reach new audiences.

45. • Find the right blogs for your target
• Create content partnerships with larger sites
• Exchange early access for spreading the word

46. 12. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Use partnerships to acquire millions of customers.

47. • JointVentures, Licensing, Standard partnership,…
• Pick the right partners
• Build a Business Development pipelines of deals

49. 13. SALES
Sell your product to enterprises and other customers.

50. • Sales work best for high-priced products
• Design a Sales Funnel (and measure it!)
• Use cold calling for your first customers

51. 14.AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Get affiliate to sell your product for you.

52. • How much you are willing to pay to get a
customer?
• Use an existing affiliate network
• Or create your own affiliate program

53. 15. EXISTING PLATFORMS
Tie your growth to a larger platform like Facebook, Pinterest or
the App Store.

54. • Figure out where your potential customers are
• Think about App stores: Ranking strategy
• Social Platforms vs Dark social

56. 16.TRADE SHOWS
Get customers and partners by participating in industry trade
shows.

57. • Which events to attend
• Have an inbound & outbound strategy.
• Great way to move the needle in a
matter of days

58. 17. OFFLINE EVENTS
Create an event to bring customers to you.

59. • Participate at conferences or create your own
• Meetups can be a scalable local tactic
• Be creative and use technology to take
advantage

60. 18. SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Give speeches to group of potential customers.

61. • Build your speaking reputation
• Most successful talks tell a story at stage
• What value can you offer to the participant?

62. 19. COMMUNITY BUILDING
Build a community around your company or product.

63. • Communicate with your audience
• Be transparent
• Cultivate & empower evangelist

65. 20. UNTAPPED CHANNELS
Test and use new channels

66. • 20 years ago there was no SEO or SEM
Channel!
• New channels in the right moment have great
traction
• Future Channels? Self-driving cars, Proximity
Ads,VR, Drones,…

68. HOWTO CHOOSE
THE RIGHT CHANNEL?

69. Build
Measure
Learn
Idea
CodeData
Audience
Campaign
Channel

70. AUDIENCE
• Define your target audience: age, gender, location,
demographics, interest, behaviours,…
• Understand your target audience: customer
journey & user persona.

71. CHANNELS
• Define your target channels.
• Test, measure and learn.

72. BULLSEYE FRAMEWORK 🎯

73. • Step 1: Brainstorm
• Step 2: Rank
• Step 3: Prioritise
• Step 4:Test
• Step 5: Focusing

74. STEP 1: BRAINSTORM
• Avoid channel biases. Do not dismiss any traction
channel.
• What marketing strategies have worked in your
industry?
• You may want to consider costs and timeframe.

75. STEP 2: RANK
Highest-Potential
Channels
Possibilities
Long-shots

76. STEP 2: RANK
Highest-Potential
Channels
Possibilities Long-shots

77. STEP 3: PRIORITISE
Highest-Potential
Channels
Possibilities Long-shots
max
3!

78. STEP 4:TEST
• Find out which of the traction channels in your
inner circle is worth focusing on.
• Make that decision based on results from series of
relatively cheap test.

79. STEP 4:TEST
• Roughly how much will it cost to acquire
customers through this channel?
• How many customers are available through this
channel?
• Are the customers that you’re acquiring through
this channel ones you want?

80. STEP 5: FOCUSING
• If one of the traction channels you tested in your
inner circle produced promising results, you should
start directing your traction efforts and resources
towards that most promising channel.
• At any startup stage one traction channel
dominates in terms of customer acquisition. Focus
on one at a time and optimise it.

81. DON’T PUT ALLYOUR EGGS
IN ONE BASKET! 🐣

82. THANKYOU! 😊