Traction

Increasing momentum in your StartUp success - growth in revenue or other key Metric (contribution margin)

2014 book ("a Start Up Guide to Product Distribution") by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares (GTM)

http://tractionbook.com/ ASIN:0976339609
related slide deck http://www.slideshare.net/jwmares/traction-trumps-everything
making you consider 19 different Sales Channels! (with their examples/interviews for each)
- Viral Marketing: e.g. Drop Box
- Public Relations (PR): e.g. American Apparel, Donors Choose
- Unconvention PR: Zappos, HipMunk, GrassHopper
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Gei Co, Archives Com, Lending Tree
- Social Media Advertising and WebAd-s (on destination sites, not search engines): New Relic, Dollar Shave Club
- Off-Line Advertising (TV, Newspaper, Direct Mail, etc.): SalesforceCom, Smirnoff
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Wikipedia, E-Surance, YelpCom
- Content Marketing: KissMetrics, Ok Cupid, UnBounce
- Email Marketing: WpEngine, GroupOn
- "Engineering as Marketing" (Product-Led Growth: apps, etc.): HubSpot, RedHat
- Targeting WebLogs: Mint.com, Buffer Com
- Business Development: Half.com, Kayak, Stripe.com
- Selling: BoxNet, RackSpace
- Affiliate Programs: Target, Amazon
- Existing Platform (FaceBook, PInterest, AppStore, etc.): Zynga, EverNote, AngryBirds
- Trade Shows: RjMetrics, SlidePad, JBoss
- Offline Events: MeetUp, EventBrite, Twilio
- Public Speaking: Clarity Fm, Moz
- Community Building: Wikipedia, Stack Overflow, Quibb

Off-line chapter

Offline ads can be easy to test. For as little as $300, you can put out a radio ad in a market you’re targeting and see how it performs

Demographics

ads in the classified section of a newspaper will appeal primarily to an older crowd that still buys newspapers

Cost

To run cheap tests you look for remnant advertising

If dealing with national magazines, consider using a print or ‘remnant ad’ buying agency such as Manhattan Media or Novus Media that specializes in negotiating discounted pricing of up to 90% off rate card

If you’re not sensitive to location or timing, you can get substantial discounts by committing to buy remnant inventory

Tracking

Jason Cohen, founder of code review company Smart Bear Software, was doing all kinds of offline advertising – magazines, trade shows, newspapers, and more – to sell his software.

Print Advertising

Newspapers

Direct Mail

Local Print Ads

Billboard Advertising

Transit Advertising

Radio Advertising

an ad running on a station for a week is often $500–1,500 in a local market, and up to $4,000–8,000 in a larger market like Chicago

In addition to purchasing ad time, consider the cost of creating your ad. A simple 30-second voice spot can run you $300–500, whereas a professionally recorded ad (sound studio, special effects, etc.) can cost 3–10x as much

TV Advertising

Infomercials

require more time to showcase what they have to offer

through 2 minute shorts, the Snuggie was able to sell millions of units.

Infomercials can cost anywhere between $50,000–500,000 to make. They can be 2 minute infomercial shorts or the more traditional 28 minute episodes

Conclusion

One thing I learned at Smart Bear is that I have zero ability to predict what’s going to work