Using traction channels from the book 'Traction'
Taking excerpts from the book Traction, it's important to narrow efforts to a few channels and then experiment to identify the best one in each stage of the company to focus all efforts. However, anyone can help with any one of these channels.
- Targeting blogs - Startups like Codeacademy, Mint, and reddit all got their start targeting blogs.
- Publicity - Publicity is the art of getting your name out there in traditional media like newspapers, magazines, & TV.
- Unconventional PR - doing some unusual like publicity stunts to draw media attention.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - ads to consumers searching on Google and other search engines
- Social and Display Ads - reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter
- Offline Ads - includes TV spots, radio commercials, billboards, infomercials, newspaper, magazine ads, flyers and other local ads.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - process of making sure the website shows up for key search results.
- Content Marketing - Using a company blog and generating good content. Also known as inbound marketing.
- Email marketing - growing an email list and sending content to share.
- Engineering as marketing - using engineering resources to acquire customers like building microsites, widgets, free tools that drive leads.
- Viral marketing - growing your customer base by encouraging customers to refer others.
- Business development - strategic relationships with other companies that market to the same target audience
- Sales - mainly processes to sell products and convert customers
- Affiliate programs - Companies like HostGator, GoDaddy have programs with partner sales networks
- Existing platforms - Focusing growth on a megaplatform like Facebook, Twitter, App Store
- Trade shows - show off technology and develop partnerships
- Offline events - sponsoring or running offline events from meetups to larger conferences.
- Speaking engagements - Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, used speaking engagements to hit the bestseller list within a week of his book launch
- Community building - Companies like Wikipedia & Stack Exchange have grown passionate communities around their products.
What do you think is the most important channel for STEEMit at this stage?
Where do you think you can contribute in general?