Presentation on customer acquisition given to the Boston enet meeting

1. Cracking the Customer
Acquisition Nut
Pascal Rettig
Webiva.com
@cykod / @webiva

2. Who am I?
• MIT CS/EE ’02
• Web Development past 15 years
• Lead Developer 5 startups (2 still alive)
• Equity Partner 3 current startups
• Co-founded Cykod in ’06
• 60+ Client projects at Cykod

3. The Transition

4. The Transition
Consulting at Cykod ’06-’09

5. The Transition
Consulting at Cykod ’06-’09
Startup Webiva ’10

6. The Transition
Consulting at Cykod ’06-’09
Startup Webiva ’10
Two-pronged Strategy:
SaaS Platform
Open-source release

7. Webiva
Inbound Marketing Platform

8. Webiva
Inbound Marketing Platform
Launched in August as a CMS

9. Webiva
Inbound Marketing Platform
Launched in August as a CMS
Relaunched beginning of October as a PiMP

10. Where are we?

11. “Customer Validation”

12. “Customer Validation”
On Step 2 of the Steve Blank
Customer Development Model

13. “Customer Validation”
On Step 2 of the Steve Blank
Customer Development Model

14. Acquiring Customers

15. Acquiring Customers
(Online)

16. Customers = Clients

17. Customers = Clients
Clients we can do, but clients are not
“Scalable and repeatable”

18. Customers = Clients - $

19. Customers = Clients - $
Need to focus on acquisition and retention cost,
as well as lifetime value. We need numbers!

20. AARRR! Startup Metrics
for Pirates
Acquisition, Activation,
Retention, Referral,
Revenue
- Dave McClure

21. “There is no secret to
startup success”
- David Cancel, Performable

22. “There is no secret to
startup success”
- David Cancel, Performable
There are plenty of metrics, but
you’ve have to find your own way.

23. Why no secret sauce?

24. Why no secret sauce?
The minute a technique shows up that can be
repeated without a lot of time, effort or
money, the noise floor rises until it's no longer
"free"

25. Why no secret sauce?
The minute a technique shows up that can be
repeated without a lot of time, effort or
money, the noise floor rises until it's no longer
"free"
Web - succumbed to Search Manipulation

26. Why no secret sauce?
The minute a technique shows up that can be
repeated without a lot of time, effort or
money, the noise floor rises until it's no longer
"free"
Web - succumbed to Search Manipulation
Email - overflowing with SPAM

27. Why no secret sauce?
The minute a technique shows up that can be
repeated without a lot of time, effort or
money, the noise floor rises until it's no longer
"free"
Web - succumbed to Search Manipulation
Email - overflowing with SPAM
Twitter - Automated tool, bots

28. You are unique

29. You are unique (Sorry)

30. You are unique (Sorry)
You've got to develop your own intuition in your own
market with your own skillset.

31. Hustler, Grinder, or
Quant?

32. Hustler, Grinder, or
Quant?
• Hustler: http://bajillionhits.biz/

33. Hustler, Grinder, or
Quant?
• Hustler: http://bajillionhits.biz/
• Grinder: Slow and steady blogger, Twitter
user with 10,000 tweets

34. Hustler, Grinder, or
Quant?
• Hustler: http://bajillionhits.biz/
• Grinder: Slow and steady blogger, Twitter
user with 10,000 tweets
• Quant: Automated landing pages related to
individual companies

35. Our Solution?

36. Our Solution?
Treat it like a hack!
(Yes, I’m a Quant)

37. What is a hack?

38. What is a hack?
“to cut or sever with repeated
irregular or unskillful blows"
- Miriam Webster

39. What is a hack?
“to cut or sever with repeated
irregular or unskillful blows"
- Miriam Webster
"an appropriate
application of ingenuity."
- Eric S. Raymond Jargon File

40. Plenty of Customer
Acquisition Hacks:

41. Test different ways of presenting,
pricing your Product.

42. Test different ways of presenting,
pricing your Product.
“I’d tell them a price over the
phone and wait to see if I
heard a gasp.”
- Rob May, Backupify (Paraphrased)

43. Make up words

44. Make up words
Visible measures asked potential customers if they
knew their videos “True Reach”
“True Reach” didn’t exist before Visible Measures
coined it.
(PiMP and WBS didn’t either)

45. Bit.ly as an interest
platform

46. Bit.ly as an interest
platform
In 2007 would anyone have let you send out tracking
links to measure interest in words and phrases?

47. SEM as Market
Research

48. SEM as Market
Research
A/B Testing is awesome, but you need volume.
Google has volume.

49. Blogging the long tail

50. Blogging the long tail
Everyone says “Make remarkable content”
Gee thanks, that helps...

51. Blogging the long tail
Everyone says “Make remarkable content”
Gee thanks, that helps...
Google’s Keyword tool can tell you where it’s
worthwhile to spend your time.

52. If you can measure it,
try it.

53. If you can measure it,
try it.
It’s ok if starting out it’s not statistically valid,
you’ve got to start somewhere

54. Our Particular Dilemma

55. Our Particular Dilemma
Webiva is targeted at two markets:
b2b - small and medium business
b2(b2b) - Web development shops
OPEN

56. New Website platform
= Risk
The web has become so important to business,
convincing people to move is hard.
With clients - we brought ourselves to the table,
online we need to make our online presence do the
same

57. Brand it!
PiMP
Yo Website
Performance Inbound Marketing Platform
Design, Build, Optimize. Repeat.
visit webiva.com for a free trial
info@webiva.com 857 363 0597
If someone remembers us, our job is much easier

58. Grease the wheels
Reduce the friction of transition.
Great example: CitiStorage Inc.
(Small Giants)
Us: We added tools to automate
importing existing websites and
blogs and added fixed-price, low-
cost transition plans

59. Social Proof
Who else uses it?
"I don’t know anyone who likes canned
laughter. ... The people I questioned hated
canned laughter. They called it stupid,
phony and obvious.
Why, then is canned laugher so popular
with television executives? ... They know
what the research says.”
- (Influence, Cialdini, 98)

60. Above all: Iterate!
Get out there early and often.

61. Above all: Iterate!
Get out there early and often.
(But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater)

62. Thanks!
Pascal Rettig
pascal@webiva.com
@webiva / @cykod