andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

traction

Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

“Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.”

“Traction is a sign that something is working. If you charge for your product, it means customers are buying. If your product is free, it’s a growing user base.” Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares draw from their own startup experience as well as interviews with some 40 other founders and marketing experts. The book starts with five foundation chapters followed by chapters explaining each of the 19 traction channels.

PayPay founder Peter Thiel says, “It is very likely that one channel is optimal. Most businesses actually get zero distribution channels to work. Poor distribution—not product—is the number one cause of failure.” Continue reading “Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher

content-marketing-rebecca-lieb

Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher—How to Use Content to Market Online and in Social Media

by Rebecca Lieb

“Instead of advertising, the shift is toward publishing… Companies are sharing: knowledge, expertise, and how-to. They know customers who might not have 30 seconds to spend on watching one of their ads might gladly surrender 30 minutes to dive into truly useful content.”

Continuing the ‘think like a publisher’ theme, an editorial calendar “ties that broader schedule together with specifics such as holidays, trade shows, company announcements, events (such as webinars), or new product launches… The editorial calendar also serves as an invaluable map for repurposing content.” Continue reading “Content Marketing: Think Like a Publisher” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Marketing

Always Be Testing

Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer

by Bryan Eisenberg and John Quarto -vonTivadar with Lisa T. Davis

Always Be Testing cuts straight to the chase. By the end of chapter two, you will understand how to set up a test.

The authors explain the difference between A/B tests (comparing the performance of two or more pages) and Multivariate tests  (comparing the performance of multiple components within a page). But be aware that as of August 1, 2012, Google Website Optimizer has been replaced by  Content Experiments and the multivariate functions are no longer available. More on that in a moment. Continue reading “Always Be Testing” →