Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don't have a good distribution strategy.
Mark Andreessen, venture capitalist
Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
Too often, startups building a product struggle with traction once they launch. This struggle has startups trying random tactics - some ads, a blog post or two - in an unstructured way that leads to failure. Traction shows readers how to systematically approach marketing, and covers how successful businesses have grown through each of the following 19 channels:
- Viral Marketing
- Public Relations (PR)
- Unconventional PR
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Social and Display Ads
- Offline Ads
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Engineering as Marketing
- Target Market Blogs
- Business Development (BD)
- Sales
- Affiliate Programs
- Existing Platforms
- Trade Shows
- Offline Events
- Speaking Engagements
- Community Building
The book is very easy to read and full of practical advice which should serve as a starting point and give you more ideas how to approach a particular distribution channel. It took me two days to read and I already had some ideas to test even before reading the whole of it. My next steps are to apply the principles to my current startup Obuvki 41 Plus and a future one I have in mind.
To anyone building a startup of any kind I would recommend the following selection of books:
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
- to learn how to make products (especially mobile apps) that customers keep using on their own without additional external marketing (review here)
- UX for Lean Startups
- lean product development (review here)
- Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers
Start reading right now (and also support this blog) by following the links below:
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