Warning: Some language NSFW
Rand Fishkin gave this animated talk about how startups can leverage online marketing to cost effectively get the word out about their offering. The top challenge for startups, Fishkin says, is not technology but rather marketing. If no one knows about your life changing tool, then it won’t succeed even if it provides great value.
Some key takeaways from the talk:
-SEOMoz didn’t spend money on acquiring customers through advertising until 2010.
-SEO is like a hack for marketing.
-In search results, PPC gets about 18% of clicks, organic results get about 82% of clicks.
-Inbound marketing channels are underinvested and undervalued (about $5 billion of investment in 2012).
-The main idea of advertising is to interrupt people to sell things we don’t need.
-92% of people in US use search every day. About 6 use social networks every day. -PEW The death of search is a myth.
-Time, creativity, and energy are essential for good inbound marketing and startups often have a lot of these things.
-Social media functions like brand advertising to increase awareness before you have a need.
-Connect your creative advertising to your SEO.
-Talking to customers who went to landing pages to understand why they took action or didn’t.
I’m a big fan of SEOMoz’s blog, videos, and tools. Their link finder tool, Open Site Explorer, has been tremendously valuable in my online marketing efforts and their Pro Webinars are very good resources. You can get a free 30 day trial of SEOMoz Pro Membership by clicking on this affiliate link:
Photo credit: Thos Ballantyne