by Brant | Sep 3, 2011 | Brant's Rant, Marketing Help
Even since I began tweeting — as a non-early adopter in early 2009, btw — I’ve wanted to create a 10 steps blog post for something, because, well, because that’s what you’re supposed to when you blog, right? So when my Twitter dashboard became a (brief) topic of conversation at the San Diego Tech Coffee meetup last week , an opportunity arose: a 10 steps post on Twitter? Damn, that’s social media gold right there. And I’m after nothing, if not social media gold!
So I came up with 8 steps, which is 2 whole steps easier than 10!
But seriously, people. I love Twitter, use it daily, and there is simply no doubt that I have benefited from using it. Depending on your business, not only might you benefit, too, but it might be required practice for you to be successful.
by Brant | Sep 2, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Lean Startup, Marketing Help, Sales and Marketing Roadmap
Generally speaking:
Pre-Problem-Solution Fit, you concentrate on learning as much as you can about the problem, who are the real customers (user? buyer? boss?), and possible solutions.
Pre-Minimum Viable Product, you concentrate of learning, developing and testing the minimum features and functionality required o solve the problem to a degree the customer will buy.
Pre-Product-Market Fit, you concentrate on learning about funnels, testing messaging and positioning, and likely iterating on product and market segment in search of P-M fit.
by Brant | Jul 19, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Marketing Help
I’ve written about market segmentation before both on this blog and as an important concept to understand in The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development. I think it is vital to grasp because it’s fundamental to achieving Product-Market fit and building a scalable business. I’m writing about it again because it has come to my attention that I have perhaps not explained one of its primary precepts well enough.
As I wrote before, Geoffrey Moore in Crossing the Chasm defined a market segment as:
* a set of actual or potential customers
* for a given set of products or services
* who have a common set of needs or wants, and
* who reference each other when making a buying decision.
Most of this is pretty intuitive. In a nutshell, a market segment is comprised of like buyers who share the same pain. But there’s more to it. The reference part trips some people up. The key point to understand is that the customers and potential buyers must be willing AND able to reference each other.
by Brant | May 12, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Lean Startup, Marketing Help, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
I hope my PR friends won’t hate me after this post, but the point needs to be repeated: Startups should not hire PR agencies. It seems not a week goes by without hearing about young companies blowing huge wads of cash on “marketing” they’re not ready for. Some entrepreneurs get in this fix because they fail to distinguish between PR and other marketing tactics. They know intuitively or are told they ‘need marketing,’ but the first thing they think of is PR. As I’ve mentioned before, PR <> Advertising <> Word of Mouth <> Social Media, etc.
Before you hire a PR agency or even consider PR, the first thing you need to understand is what you are trying to accomplish, what is your objective. Second, you should consider whether that objective is right for the stage of your business. If you are an early startup, pre Product-Market fit, or even pre “Sales and Marketing Roadmap,” you should not hire a PR firm.
by Brant | Jan 9, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Marketing Help, Uncategorized
One of the more intriguing dynamics in startups and business in general, is customer communication. Customer Development is, of course, all about talking with customers to test fundamental business hypotheses, match product solution to customer problem, and in...
by Brant | Nov 18, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Marketing Help, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
I don’t know who is more exasperated, entrepreneurs flummoxed by marketers or me, upset that another entrepreneur has been flummoxed by marketers! People, language is for communication and marketing terms, abused as they are, fall somewhere within the scope of...
