Customers don't want to be hacked - Growth Hacking Toronto - March 3, 2016

Today’s conversation about marketing is all about "hacks", implying that a single process or tactic can unlock explosive growth in your organization all on its own.

Read behind the headlines of giants like Facebook and AirBnB, and you’ll find that every great growth team uses a lesser known set of tools to motivate their savant-like insights.

But what are these tools, and how can you make them if they don’t exist in your organization? That’s the focus of this edition of Growth Hackers Toronto.

Topic Coverage:

• Designing value for real people though Buyer Personas for B2B and B2C companies

• Planning how you’ll deliver value through the Buyer Journey

• Synchronizing your messages with a Creative Brief

• Using existing models to facilitate your thinking, like the Business Model Canvas

...And for the die-hard hackers; planning your experiments into testing vs. optimization streams to set appropriate expectations with your team.

Leave with a clear set of instructions and resources to connect with your leads and customers - two group of people that never want to be "hacked".

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Marlon Rodrigues studied math at U of Waterloo before leading marketing at Polar, 500px and Tulip Retail. He revels in the intersection between right and left-brain thinking that great marketing explores.

Marlon is currently the head of marketing at Demac Media, the team behind 80+ eCommerce websites like Mackage, Umbra and Bench.

He invests in and advises early-stage startups who are working on ideas worth spreading.

1. Customers don’t want to be hacked
“Business has only two functions
- marketing and innovation”
- Peter Drucker
@marlonrodrigues March 3, 2016

2. @marlonrodrigues
We start on a little trip to Nashville
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3. @marlonrodrigues
Packing for a trip with only a suspected destination
•Customer Journey
•Persona Development
•For B2B businesses
•For B2C businesses
•Creative Brief
•Additional Resources
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4. @marlonrodrigues
A little context...
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5. “Essentially, all models are wrong,
but some are useful”
- George Box
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6. @marlonrodrigues
CREATIVE BRIEF (The ultimate referee)
1.Basic Facts (Founding, Company Name/ DBA, Location, Team Size)
2.Positioning Statements (Target market, Key differentiators, Descriptors)
3.Target Customers and Buyer Personas
4.Vision, Mission, Values
5.Style Guide, Personality, Tone
6.Key Team Members, Advisors, Investors, Supporters, Customers
7.Direct and Indirect Competition
8.Customer Quotes
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7. @marlonrodrigues
CUSTOMER JOURNEY (Sifting for milestones)
? !!!
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8. PERSONA
DEVELOPMENT
(a crash course)
Getting Started:
1)Get the right people in the
room
2)Give yourself ample time
3)“Wrong” responses are an
opportunity to clarify and
learn
4)Colour and iterate
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9. @marlonrodrigues
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT: B2C Pt 1
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10. @marlonrodrigues
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT: B2C Pt 1
Logical Emotional
Deliberate
Quick
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11. @marlonrodrigues
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT: B2B
InfluenceMotivations Buyer must see
Economic ●Is the person who releases the funds
●Budget authority/ Veto power
●Economics. Bottom-line impact
we can make on the organization
Technical ●Professional gatekeepers. Not just ‘IT’
●Can only say ‘NO’, not ‘YES’. Doesn’t
actually control the funds
●Measureable/ quantifiable
aspects of the product, how well it
meets a variety of specifications
User ●Operator of the end product
●Judge usability of product/ service on the
job to be done
●How the sale is going to influence
everyday operations in their area
or department
Coach ●Must be found and developed
●Wants success in the sale because it maps
to a known business gap or objective
●Credibility with other buying
influences
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Summarized from MHI Global

12. @marlonrodrigues
PERSONA DEVELOPMENT: Complete the profile
1) Name, age, education, day
in the life…
2) Goals, frustrations,
3) Sources of inspiration,
news, heroes…
4) Interests outside of work
5) More…
EXAMPLE
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13. “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently
that which should not be done at all”
- Peter Drucker
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14. @marlonrodrigues
RESOURCES: Business Model Generation
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15. @marlonrodrigues
RESOURCES: The cook and the chef
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16. @marlonrodrigues
BONUS: A Tale of Two Growth Experiment Streams
Optimizations Exploration
Colours, Text, Placement MVP Features, Interest
Media, Flow New Models
Optimizely Optimizely++
Hygiene Breakout Growth
5%++ 1000%++
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17. @marlonrodrigues
Final Words
1) Seek platforms of truth, not silver bullets
2) Find 1000 ways to ask yourself and stakeholders ‘Why?’
3) Share what works
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