Know Your Buyer

Giff Constable marketing, startups

Steve Blank just shared an interesting anecdote from his days in marketing, where he created what he thought was the ultimate data sheet, only to find his CEO and VP of sales literally setting it on fire. The VP of Sales had an insightful quote: “the only thing your datasheet will do is give a prospective customer a reason for …

Think goals, not functions

Giff Constable startups

I just piggybacked on a twitter conversation between Sean Ellis and April Dunford talking about product management versus product marketing (see April’s post). Sean tweeted this comment which I just wanted to highlight: “Functions” is part of the problem in early stage. IMO goals better: PM fit, then conv eff, then growth… [Ed note: PM fit = product-market fit; conv …

Enthusiasts vs Normals

Giff Constable marketing, social media

First Chris Dixon tweeted, “Does anyone really want to have a “conversation with brands”? I I want my relationship to Starbucks limited to buying coffee.” Roger Ehrenberg then responded with a great post on authenticity in brand conversations. I would argue that they are both right, they are just talking about two different people.  Just as Dixon once wrote about …

Are you all on the same page? A 20 minute Test.

Giff Constable management, startups

When you are in the weeds building, testing, and iterating, communication challenges can pop up. First, you want everyone on the same page as to how the “value proposition” has evolved, what needs to be validated next, and why. Second, when your business feels like a moving target, sometimes it can be awfully hard to explain to others in clear …

Targeting Matters!

Giff Constable marketing, startups

The other day, Cindy Alvarez (product manager at KISSmetrics and author of a great blog), wrote a post called “Anybody, As Long As It’s Not You” , saying: “Who should give you feedback on your early-stage product mockups/demo? Anybody, as long as it’s not you. OK, sure, there’s probably an “ideal” audience to show your product to.  But it probably …

Validating your startup idea and initial customer development

Giff Constable startups

A reader named Eric asked a question about customer validation / development on my “Bull doesn’t build” post, and I thought I would answer with a post.  Eric’s question was: “You talk about your ‘focus right now is on building a solid foundation of product-market fit.’ At what point do you spend more time focusing on product-market fit then on …

Learning is about the translation, not the source

Giff Constable management, marketing, startups

I was reading Fred Destin’s post on why entrepreneurs hate VCs, when a quote caught my eye: “Learning from mistakes is far less useful than emulating success.”  It’s a message that 37Signals likes to harp on as well.  I’d argue that you have an equal shot at learning from mistakes or successes, as long as you take the time to …

What is your customer acquisition strategy? (startup marketing tactics)

Giff Constable marketing, social games, social media, technology

“What is your growth strategy?” It is a classic question from VCs to early-stage consumer Internet companies, and one often difficult to answer at such an early point in a company’s life cycle because you have not yet seen which specific tactics work best.  There is usually no silver bullet answer, just a lot of hard work ahead. This post, …

Music Marketing; Amanda Palmer w Twitter

Giff Constable music

Modern Music Marketing “The most important thing that an artist can do is to tour, absolutely.  Touring provides the spark that all the other marketing segments need to work off of.” An interesting quote from Mike King, of the Berklee College of Music, in a video interview on modern music marketing. (via Hypebot) Amanda Palmer & Twitter There have also …