Traction : How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

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Most startups don’t fail because they can’t build a product. Most startups fail because they can’t get traction.

Preface: Traction Trumps Everything
- Traction is the best way to improve your chances of startup success. 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.
Chapter 1: Traction Channels
- Traction is a sign that your company is taking off.
- The pursuit of traction is what defines a startup.
- Startups get traction through nineteen different channels (Chapter 6 – 24).
  - Targeting Blogs
  - Publicity
  - Unconventional PR
  - Search Engine Marketing
  - Social and Display Ads
  - Offline Ads
  - Search Engine Optimization
  - Content Marketing
  - Email Marketing
  - Engineering as Marketing
  - Viral Marketing
  - Business Development
  - Sales
  - Affiliate Programs
  - Existing Platforms
  - Trade Shows
  - Offline Events
  - Speaking Engagements
  - Community Building
Chapter 2: Traction Thinking
- The 50 percent rule: spend 50 percent of your time on product and 50 percent on traction.
- You could build something people want, but…
  - for which you just can’t figure out a viable business model
  - there are just not enough customers to reach profitability
  - reaching them is cost prohibitive
  - a lot of other companies build it too
- Focusing on marketing activities that result in a measurable, significant impact on your traction goal.
- Targets:
  - Put half your efforts into getting traction.
  - Set your growth goals.
  - Learn what growth numbers potential investors respect.
  - Find your bright spots.
Chapter 3: Bullseye
- The outer ring: what’s possible
  - The first step in Bullseye is brainstorming every single traction channel.
  - Through brainstorming, identify the best channel strategy you can think of in each of the nineteen traction channels.
- The middle ring: what’s probable
  - The second step in Bullseye is running cheap traction tests in the channels that seem most promising.
  - For each traction channel in your middle ring, now construct a cheap traction test you can run to determine if the idea really is good or not.
  - When testing, you are not trying to get a lot of traction with a channel just yet.
- The inner ring: what’s working
  - The third and final step in Bullseye is to focus solely on the channel that will move the needle for your startup: your core channel.
- Pursuing both traction and product in parallel will increase your chances of success by both developing a product for which you can actually get traction and getting traction with that product much sooner.
- Targets:
  - Work through Bullseye.
  - Talk to founders a few steps ahead of you.
  - Hold on to your other channel ideas.
Chapter 4: Traction Testing
- A channel strategy is a particular way to acquire customers within a channel.
- Middle ring tests
  - You should not be getting too deep into tactics at this stage; stick to the strategy level.
- Inner ring tests
  - Inner rings are designed to do two things. First, to optimize your chosen channel strategy to make it the best it can be. Second, to uncover better channel strategies within this traction channel.
- Targets
  - Look for customers where others aren’t looking.
  - Constantly optimize.
  - Keep it numerical.
Chapter 5: Critical Path
- You should always have an explicit traction goal you’re working toward.
- The right goal is highly dependent on your business. It should be chosen carefully and align with your company strategy.
- The path to reaching your traction goal with the fewest number of steps is your Critical Path.
- You should literally enumerate the intermediate steps (milestones) to get to your traction goal. These milestones need not be traction related, but they should be absolutely necessary to reach your goal.
- The best way to make sure you’re not squandering your resources is to keep reevaluating whether what you’re doing is on your Critical Path.
- If it is not on the path, don’t do it!
- Targets
  - Lay out your milestones.
  - Stay on the Critical Path.
  - Actively work to overcome your traction channel biases.
Chapter 6: Targeting Blogs
- Run tests on a variety of smaller blogs
- Sponsor small blogs, especially personal blogs
- Offer something unique to your best targets
Chapter 7: Publicity
- Focus on the right smaller sites
- Build real relationships with the specific reporters covering your startup’s market
- Have newsworthy milestones to share
Chapter 8: Unconventional PR
- Do something big, cheap, fun, and original
- Be awesome to your customers and good things follow
- Prepare for failure
Chapter 9: Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Use search engine ads to test product positioning and messaging
- Measure conversions so you can test SEM variables against profitability
- User longer keywords
- Pay close attention to your ad quality scores
Chapter 10: Social and Display Ads
- Contact small sites directly for display ads
- Use social ads to build awareness of products and create demand
- Create compelling social content
Chapter 11: Offline Ads
- Run cheap tests by first targeting local markets
- Seek out remnant ad inventory for the highest discounts
- Use unique codes or Web addresses to track the effectiveness of different offline ad campaigns
Chapter 12: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Find search terms that have enough search volume to move the needle for your company
- Generate long-tail landing pages by using cheap freelancers
- Focus on how you will build links
- Avoid “black-hat” SEO tactics that violate search engine guidelines, especially buying links
Chapter 13: Content Marketing
- If you blog, dedicate at least six months to it
- Do things that don’t scale early on
- Produce in-depth posts you can’t find anywhere else
Chapter 14: Email Marketing
- Personalize your email marketing messages
- Build an email list of prospective customers whether you end up focusing on this traction channel or not
- Set up a series of automated emails
- Use online tools to test and optimize email campaigns
Chapter 15: Viral Marketing
- Build a viral loop into the product
- Shorten viral cycle time
- Look for viral pockets
- More than in any other channel, test, test, test
Chapter 16: Engineering as Marketing
- Create a stand-alone, low-friction site to engage potential customers
- Look internally for site and tool ideas
- Make them as simple as possible
Chapter 17: Business Development
- Pursue mutually beneficial partnerships
- Focus on meeting your startup’s core metrics
- Create a pipeline of deals you’re constantly working on
Chapter 18: Sales
- Don’t rule out cold calling
- Build a repeatable sales model
- Get the buyer to commit to time lines
- Keep the customer’s perspective in mind
Chapter 19: Affiliate Programs
- Test using an existing affiliate network
- Keep your payouts simple
- The next place you should look for more affiliates is your customers
Chapter 20: Existing Platforms
- Figure out where your potential customers are hanging out online
- Create a feature specifically to fill a gap for that platform’s users
- Focus on new an untapped platforms
Chapter 21: Trade Shows
- Schedule meetings and dinners ahead of time
- Investigate the efficacy of shows before committing
- Have an inbound and outbound strategy for your booth
Chapter 22: Offline Events
- Launch at a conference
- Test this channel first
- Throw a party
Chapter 23: Speaking Engagements
- Remember that you are doing organizers a favor by presenting
- Submit authoritative proposals far in advance
- Tell a story onstage
Chapter 24: Community Building
- Cultivate and empower evangelists
- Set high standards from the start
- Bootstrap off an existing audience