Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Actually engage in “search engine marketing” (SEM)spend $20 as a team to test customer acquisition cost. If you’re assuming virality of your product, you will need to show viral propagation of your product and the improvement of your viral coefficient over several experiments. What types of revenue streams are there?

Wiki 318

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

Gust

MARCH 9, 2014

When questioned, founders usually mention word-of-mouth, viral marketing, and a top quality product. Viral marketing costs real money these days, which usually means adding at least an extra zero to budget estimates. Use social media and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to start. Get exposure for your expertise.

Marketing 146

Marketing SEM Viral Social Media 146

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

Revenue is always my preferred measure, but you can use anything that is important to your business: retention, activation, viral invites, or even customer satisfaction in the form of something like net promoter score. If an optimization has an effect at the micro level that doesnt translate into the macro level - who cares?

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

When integrated properly, they maximize how we attract consumers, and turn visits into revenue. Also, Viral Marketing gives us the ability to leverage social networks by offering individuals an incentive to refer family and friends to our business. So, let’s go back to basics, shall we?

Channel 165

Channel PPC Marketing SEO 165

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Viral 268

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 268

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2013

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Viral 249

Viral Marketing Entrepreneur SEM 249

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2012

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Viral 238

Viral Cost Marketing SEM 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2011

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Viral 225

Viral Marketing SEM Startup 225

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

Search engine marketing (SEM). No SEM plan means you are missing a huge marketing opportunity. Viral marketing. Viral marketing costs real money, but is often worth it. Rates per click are very low, so don’t try to live on ad revenues until visit rates are very high. Do you have a business presence there?

Internet 239

Internet SEM Wiki Viral 239

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Viral 348

Viral Marketing SEM Campaign 348

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2010

Search engine marketing (SEM). No SEM plan means you are missing a huge marketing opportunity. Rates per click are very low, so don’t try to live on ad revenues until visit rates are very high. Viral marketing. Viral marketing costs real money, but is often worth it. Facebook alone has 500 million members.

Internet 224

Internet SEM Wiki Entrepreneur 224

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

For instance, if you have a simple goal of driving additional traffic to your site it is easy to measure the results (and cost) of the SEM campaign. To generate sales and revenue? 5 great viral marketing campaigns (and what small businesses can learn from them!). Is it to gain fans for your business’s FB page?

Advertising 103

Advertising Lean Marketing Campaign 103

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

is an elegant way to model any service-oriented business: Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue We used a very similar scheme at IMVU, although we werent lucky enough to have started with this framework, and so had to derive a lot of it ourselves via trial and error. But its not really viral growth, even when its exponential.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2017

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a long time ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. Develop viral content. Seed viral activity.

Campaign 167

Campaign Cost Viral Marketing 167

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

As I ask questions to understand the thinking, what usually comes out is something vague along the lines of web marketing, and/or viral growth with no numbers attached. A quick look around all the B2C startups shows that, although viral growth is often hoped for, in reality it is extremely rare.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Seeing Both Sides

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

The law of large numbers suggests it is easier to double in size when you are doing $1 million in revenue as compared to when you are doing $10 million, never mind $100 million. One of the themes I explore in the class is the tough reality that many metrics can actually get worse over time for a startup. Take growth rate as a simple one.

Metrics 20

Metrics Churn Rate Acquisition SEM 20

Cracking the Code

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Cloud accounting is all about matching revenue and costs to consumption…well, except for professional services! Your caution in Law 6 about over-estimating the impact of SEM and other lead-generation activity is particularly astute. Popular Media: the key to viral marketing. Support, support, support! Mind the GAAP!

Software Review 48

Software Review Cloud Technical Review Sales Cycle 48

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 10, 2008

Be prepared to cross the desert - SaaS requires R&D and sales expense up front for a multi-year stream of revenue, so it demands enough investment capital to fund 4+ years of runway. Farming is also often overlooked, but can help grow customer accounts and revenues from 30% upwards (if successful). Great list! Philippe Botteri.

Software Review 48

Software Review North America Europe Metrics 48