Why so many founders & early teams fail to profitably acquire customers at
scale, plus tactical tips to help solve these dilemmas.
7Ways Startups Fail at Marketing
Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO

Too Many Startups Die Because
They Can’t Get Customers

CB Insightscompiledan
analysisfrom startup post-
mortems.
These 5 are mostly “couldn’t
find enough customers” or
“couldn’t affordably find
customers”

To stay focused on marketing, I’m going to
assume your startup has* a:
A) product people want & will pay for
B) serviceable market
C) team that can execute, learn, & improve
*don’thavethese?Get‘emfirst,thencomebacktothemarketingprocess

#1
A Terrible Business
(or Product) Name

Problems:
No one could say our name until
they heard it
Ona .org, so folks assumed
we were nonprofit
Took ~$500K torebrand in
2013 (“Moz”)

Problems:
Lunar is already
associated w/ dozens of
other things (including
other watches)
Brand name directly
conflicts w/ product’s
UVP

Problems:
Hustle has negative
connotations outside SV
(hustlers, getting “hustled”,
“Hustler Magazine,” etc)
Name suggests product is
something it’s not (a case)

7
Easy to spell, say, hear, and remember
Has no existing associations that could confuse
Either suggests what the company does (AirBnB, Lyft), or has no
existing/problematic overlap (Google,Atlassian)
The .com site and major social accounts are owned by you
Has very few or no Google search results
Avoids trademark infringement
Biases to brandable > keyword rich/generic
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
Rules for a Marketing-Friendly Startup Name:

Some Startups Who Nailed It:

You Can Succeed, Even With a Criteria-
Breaking Name…. It’s Just Harder.

Pssttt….
So long as the name matches the criteria, you
don’t personally have to like it 

#2
Not Respecting the Long Journey
from Potential Customer to
Conversion

Startup Marketing Mythology
Step 1: Build a Great Product
Step 2: Launch on PH/HN (or RunAds)
Step 3: Customers! $$$! SeriesA!

This is a long process,
with many steps

Yay! You made it to the top of PH & received
15,000 visits + 500 email signups
But, only ~0.01% of people are looking for
email verification APIs that day 

Every day, a few dozen people search
for this (and don’t find you)

Loads of searches for your
service, but none of these
people can find you 

They visit lists like this
(but you’re not here)

They ask friends +
colleagues (who’ve
never heard of you)

They rely on existing
providers

They lean on social
proof from their
networks

Via Wordstream
New to a market? This
happens.
Known & loved?
Welcome to Profitville.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, &
display ads all work the same way
Via Resolution Media

How to Win at Digital Advertising
Step 1: Earn brand exposure w/ your target audience
Step 2: Get >1 organic visit (or social engagement)
Step 3:Advertise to those who already know + like you

If you only play here
(first exposure)
Or here
(decision time)
You’re gonna have a bad time 

Startup Marketing Reality
Step 1: Get known + trusted by your audience
Step 2: Grow a presence across the channels they use
to find solutions your product solves
Step 3: Be visible throughout their discovery,
consideration, and decision processes

#3 Chasing Growth Hacks

Hack-Chasing Usually Leads to Death
Before Success
Via ProStart
Hack Hack Hack Hack Crap.

You’re Fighting the “Law of Shitty Clickthrough Rates”
Via
Andrew Chen
A lot of exploitable, short-term
“growth hacks” start here
And end here

Great Marketers Focus on Flywheels
(systems that scale w/ decreasing friction)

Content
Marketing
Flywheel
KW Research +
Industry Intuition
Publish
Content
Promote via Social
Channels
Push to email +
RSS subscribers
Earn Links +
Amplification
Grow social, email,
RSS, & WoM channels
Grow Domain
Authority
Earn Search &
Referral Traffic
Rank for More
Competitive KWs

PR+Ads
Flywheel
ID Sources of
Customer Influence
Craft Stories to
Draw Coverage
Earn Press
Coverage
Pitch Media
Amplify +
Promote
Run Ads Targeting
Cookied Visitors
Expand Social
Following
Slowly Convert
Fans + Followers
Refine Ad+CRO
Processes

Events +
Sponsorship
Flywheel
ID Events w/
Customer Targets
Sponsor + Pitch to
Present
Capture
Visitor Info
Host Booths,
Dinners, Parties
Reach Out w/
Direct+Indirect
Emails Cookie Site Visitors &
Email Opens
Run Hyper-
Personalized Ads
Improve CRO +
Sales Process
Uncover Customer
Connections & Affinities

Hard at first, but
gets easier
(& more profitable)
with scale
Find
Find
Create
Create
Amplify
Amplify
Convert
Convert
Learn & Apply

Growth Hacks
Can Accelerate a Flywheel

Hacks aren’t necessarily evil,
spammy, or without value.
They can be useful when applied to
a sound marketing strategy.

Find a Balance Between Long-Term
Investments & Short-Term Hacks
High upfront costs Pay (in time/$$) as you go
Long-Term Investments
Slow to show ROI
Earn customers while you
sleep
Low Risk (PR/legal/etc)
Can Show Fast ROI
Effort In = Links Out
Often High Risk
Short-Term Hacks

The Formula for Marketing that Will Work
for Years to Come:
Strategic
Roadmap
Scalable
Flywheel
Long-Term
Investments
Hacks to
Remove
Friction
+ + +

#4
Saving Marketing Until Your
Product Launch

Via ASmartBear

The First Time Someone Hears About You…
You want my
credit card &
email???

Which One(s) Should You Do?
Create a blog?
Participate in forum discussions?
Build a community on your own site?
Become a guest contributor to other communities?
Participate in events & conferences?
Grow relationships/awareness via social media?
Invest in video on aYouTube channel?

Invest in 2-3 tactics long before you
launch a product.
So that when you do, there’s a pre-
existing community that wants to
support & amplify you.

Via ProductHunt

#5
Your CRO Process
Misses the Big Picture

Incremental testing of headlines,
colors, layout, pricing, etc.
Local Maxima
Uncovering why
most qualified
customers who
visit don’t buy &
addressing their
issues
Global Maxima

Early Stage:
Build a community &
recruit folks excited
about your product.

Later Stages:
Once you have real people
signing up for your product,
you can learn more about
them

A few dozen emails &
names give you a
treasure trove of info
about your customer
targets
Now we can find more
people like this!

Interview or
survey this
audience to ID
their clones.

Then we can identify traits that separate right
prospects (who’ll use & love our product) from
wrong (those who won’t).

Ideally You Want to:
A: Identify right customers
B: Find what/who influences them
C: Clone, expand, & repeat

My Favorite
Process:
From Conversion Rate Experts’ case study
Boom.
And Shakalaka.

Didn’t try the
product
Tried, but didn’t
love it
Tried & loved the
product
What do you think the
product does?
What made you try it? What made you try it?
What would make you
more likely to try it?
What are your biggest
objections to signup?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What caused you to stop
using the product?
What would have made you
stay a customer?
What objections did you
have and how did you
overcome them?
What’s been most
valuable to you?
If you’ve loved it, can we
share your story?

#6
Not Prioritizing an
Easy-to-Reach Audience

easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads

It’s Foolish to…

easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
1) Lack any strategy to increase the
size of these groups

easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
2) Not target these
people first

easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GGAds
3) Aim 100% of your tactics at
only these groups

But Rand…

Mark didn’t start Facebook with…
Oh dang… He totally did.

Brian & Joe didn’t start AirBnB with…
Oh dang… They totally did.

Jeremy didn’t start Yelp with…
Oh dang… He totally did.

Dharmesh & Brian Didn’t Start Hubspot with…
Oh dang… They totally did.

easier toreach
harder toreach
Know you personally (& would happily meet for coffee)
Know of you, like you, &follow your work closely
Are already connected to you via email
Already follow you on social media channels
Have visited your website at least once
Have heard of your company (and can recall it)
Are in your target audience and reachable via FB/GG ads
Pro Tip: Having a lot of target customers in
your personal network makes EVERYTHING
about starting up easier.

#7 Ignoring Brand

Brand is…
Apromise.
i.e. when you see “Brand X” it means “YAttributes”
Amemory trigger.
i.e. when you experience problem Z, you think of “Brand
X” as the potential solution

Brand Marketing is…
Acoded message.
Reminding you of the brand’s existence
Reinforcing the brand’s colors, shapes, sounds,
experiences, & feelings
Nudging you to use the brand at the right time

What do you think of when you
see this brand?

Brand marketing reinforces that:

What do you think of when you
see this brand?

Brand marketing reinforces that:

What do you think of when you
see this brand?

Brand marketing reinforces that:

Before you can brand, you need a
Brand Promise
We
provide…
We evoke
feelings…
We remind
you of…
We share the
values of…
product/
service that
solves a
problem you
have
that make our
customers most
anxious about
whether our
solution is right for
them
Memories that our
target
demographics &
psychographics will
have ++
associations with
People who are
statistically most
likely to be our best
customers

Everything Should (Subtly) Reinforce the Message
SEO Snippets
PPC Ads
Big
Content
CommentsTweets
Photos
Landing
Pages
UI & UX
Brand Name
Facebook
Posts
Emails
Product
Names
Videos
Visual
Branding
Outreach
Onboarding
Press & PR
The Brand
Promise

Brand
Cost of paid acquisition drops as people prefer to click on your ads
Retention, LTV, and marketing ROI all rise
You earn more free coverage, amplifying your reach, your SEO rankings, and
reinforcing your brand
It feels difficult, even impossible to reverse engineer your success
Switching costs feel higher (even if your competitors make it easy)
People want to take your calls, open your emails, and respond to you with a
“yes,” making all your bizdev activities easier
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#6
The Awesome Powers of

Rand Fishkin | Founder & CEO
Thank You!
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