Little Known Little Known

Marketing Tricks
for
Growing Your Early Growing Your Early
Thought by
Stage Startup

01
1. The analytics structure that we'll take
you miles ahead of most startups.
2. The single metric for knowing (not
guessing!) you truly reached Product
arket
!. "anna get li#e user feedback$ %ou
should! &ere are some critical
'uestions you should ask.
!.( The must ha#e tools in order to do
all the abo#e. %es) all of them are free.

02
1. This analytics structure that we'll
take you miles ahead of most startups.
Ignore it at your own risk.

The early stage
classic mistakes
startup analytics
to avoid...

05

*sing the basic +oogle ,nalytics setup -

only tracking #ague metrics like #isitors)
page#iews) time on site and ha#ing no
con#ersions and.or ecommerce data in
place.

These lea#es you pretty much clueless

on where con#ersions actually come
from) from which channels) keywords)
landing pages) etc.

+uesswork and differing opinions o#er

what each of the founders think (but don't
know for sure!) that works for marketing

06

/ot ha#ing users retention analytics

systems. Their structure is only tracking
traffic and sign ups.

So you got the visitors to sign up for a

(free or even paid) account. Now what?

How do you know if that user will be

engaged enough in order for the trial to
become a paid account? How will you
make your paying users renew their
subscription?

07
The optimal analytics structure:
the funnel approach
*sers
0ngaged
users
*ser
retention rate
1isitor to user
2on#ersion 3ate
1isitors
The funnel gi#es you
clarity and structure
in the whole startup
chaos en#ironment.

4t's a #ery simple)

yet insightful #isual
representation of
how good (or bad!)
you're doing at all
stages of your user
e5perience.

6tri#e to measure
,77 T&0 ",% from
entering the site to
signup to actual
product engagement

6ocial media) P3) 608) PP2)
0mail) 3eferrals) ,ffiliates

08
Build a funnel according to your
business model

6plit the funnel into

more steps if you ha#e
to eg. Visitor > Trial User
> Paying User >
Engaged Paying user
(uses your product
constantly)

Track con#ersion rates

at each step of the
funnel.

7et the funnel set your

priorities) for instance9
Load of isitors ! no
trials " focus on t#e
alue proposition !
website$
Loads of trials but #ardly
any paying users "
focus on t#e product
itself

*sers
0ngaged
users
*ser
retention rate
1isitor to user
2on#ersion 3ate
1isitors
6ocial media) P3) 608) PP2)
0mail) 3eferrals) ,ffiliates

09
To actually built those funnels...

:or (#ery) early stage we highly recommend

i5panel.com

hey got a free forever plan (to early stage startups

delight)

!orks on desktop " mobile apps# saas products# in

the front or back end $ overall tremendous
customi%ation possibilities.

&reat help center and actual technical support

humans to help you with setup

'uch better than &oogle ((niversal) )nalytics for

building multiple funnels# tracking users# retention#
measuring customer lifetime value in general.

Note* still# you should use it together with and not

instead of# &oogle )nalytics.

10
So to be better at marketing than most
startups you need to:

6etup an analytics system and make your

decisions based on that data. This way you'll
know (not guess!) what happens.

The best structure for analytics is the funnel

structure where you track ,77 the key stages
of your users e5perience

;on't settle for tracking <ust sign ups) track all

the way to users engagement - retention

The ultimate free tool for tracking those metrics

is i5panel.

11
2. The single most critical metric for knowing
you truly reached Product arket :it
&int9 its related to the funnel

Now, moving forward....
,s an early stage startup getting to
product market fit is (or at least should be)
your absolute no 1 priority.
%ut #ow do you know w#en you get t#ere&

13
The obvious signals

*sers <oin in really 'uickly and acti#ely

refer your product to their friends

oney starts coming much more

%ou start getting good unsolicited

media co#erage
=ut e#en these great signals can be
relati#e) according to your standards.

14
If only there was one single metric that
can reliably tell you if you've reached
product market fit that would be...
6ean 0llis has this awesome
metric9
=ut who is 6ean 0llis$
6tartup arketing +odfather)
was the first marketer for
;rop=o5) >obni) and
7oge4n) founder of
?ualaroo and
+rowth&ackers.com.

15
6o the metric is....
The @ of your users who will say that9
'$(our product is a )ust #ae for t#e)
(or t#at)
*$ T#ey'd be ery disappointed if t#ey could
no longer use your product

16
How does this work in detail:
+ou send people the following survey ,uestion*
a) 1ery disappointed A they see it as a must have
b) 6omewhat disappointed A they see it as nice to have
c) /ot disappointed (it really isnBt that useful) A they don't care
d) /., A 4 no longer use %our Product A they don't care either

17
Sean !llis's "olden rule of thumb:
Product arket :it (P:) is when you
ha#e at least CD@ of your sur#ey
responding users saying they'd be #ery
disappointed if they could no longer use
your product.
E CD@ is e#en better
2D F !D@ scaling is possible but way
more difficult
G 2D@ A trying to scale will kill you


18
So keep in mind that for #roduct $arket %it:

he - of users who will say they.d be very

disappointed if they could no longer use your
product is the most critical metric

+our target for this metric is /0-

+ou get there by really focusing on the product.

)s absolute numbers# you don.t need thousands

of respondents to validate this conclusion1 a few
do%ens will do.

he ,uestion will bring you priceless insight on

!H+ people in your funnel (don.t) go from users
to engaged users.

19
"oing back to the analytics structure that
will make you a better at marketing than
most startups:
The funnel(s) will tell you "&,T happens) li#e
user feedback will tell you "&% that happens
F at least e'ually important.
...and speaking of user feedback) let's mo#e on
to that.

20
"etting live user feedback: what and how to
ask users
&ere is a list of critical 'uestions you should
ha#e the users answer on their e5perience at
different stages of the funnel.

"here did you first hear
about us$

&ow could we impro#e this
product (or page or oerall site)$

"ere you able to find the
information you were looking for$
%es) 4 was looking for....
/o) 4 was looking for...

"hat con#inced you to pay
for our product$

"hat was the one thing (if any)
that almost made you abandon
sign up$

;id you e#aluate any of our
competitors before buying our
ser#ice$
%es (please tell us which one)
/o

27
6ur#ey monkey F the
one we use for
HclassicalI sur#eys
(also has a freemium)
4perceptions F great for
figuring out users intent
- how you deli#er on
that. (they ha#e a
freemium as well)
?ualaroo F agile onsite
sur#ey tool) great for
targeting users based
on their time on site)
page) traffic source)
etc. (/o freemium
#ersion a#ailable) but
they do ha#e a trial)
Survey tools you could use to ask this

Speaking of free tools
&ere's the basic list of tools we recommend
using as a startup and that also ha#e
freemiums (fore#er free plans)

29
+eneral traffic analytics
/ewsletters
Transactional emails
:unnels) retention)
cohort analysis

30
2age speed optimisation
7i#echat 6oftware
H2lassicalI 6ur#eys
*ser intent - task
completion rate
analysis

31
&appy 6tartup arketing)
arius Pop
:ounder - 208 ;irect 6park
y social contacts9