This is the next entry in our “Best of” series, in which we venture deep into the vault to replay blog opinion and insight that has withstood the test of time. Today’s post hails from April 2011. We welcome your feedback.
By Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
It’s fitting that we follow up last week’s post on the strategic value of marketing in its purest sense as a process for enabling customer validation and iterative product development with a definition of this thing called lean startup.
Strategic marketing is a fundamental aspect of the lean startup methodology, a methodology first defined by Eric Ries almost three years ago. And lean startup itself as a process for bringing technology to market warrants careful consideration by any entrepreneur in the socially enabled age of Web 2.0.
It’s fitting because just this month, Ries updated his definition of lean startup based on how the concept has evolved since it was first coined.
Ries defines lean “in the sense of low burn. Of course, many startups are capital efficient and generally frugal. But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste.”
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By Hailley Griffis
In this week’s roundup, we explore how PR agencies are in fact not dead, and why digital marketing is more than just social media (and other misconceptions.) In addition, we focus on startups, with reads that look at the top ways startups screw up and a few red flags when pitching to investors. This week’s articles come from Spin Sucks, Fourth Source, Wamda and Forbes.
Don’t die PR agencies, what the recent Google changes really mean
Gini Dietrich replies with a resounding “no” to the idea that Google has just killed PR agencies, or news releases, with its new update. If you consider PR to be purely news releases then you need to get back to the media relations that were actually supposed to be happening, where you build a relationship with journalists and reporters, call them and then pitch an idea after that.
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By Leo Valiquette
Your quality as a vendor is often demonstrated best by how you deal with prospects who have decided your product or service is not for them.
As Francis wrote in his last post on customer service, we have a particular preoccupation with this subject because of its timeless relevance to any technology company:
“Customer service is based on what I have come to call my first law of competitive differentiation, the proposition that, in an age when almost any technological or cost advantage will rapidly and inevitably be eroded, the only sustainable competitive differentiation for most companies is to treat their customers like the centre of the universe, which they are.”
My most recent experience should be of particular relevance to software vendors, especially software vendors that are targeting niche markets and are trying to keep a lot of balls in the air with a small team.
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By Anil Dilawri
Nobody ever said, “That was an okay presentation, I just wish it was longer.”
Yet day after day, in boardrooms around the world, presenters set up their laptops and present way too much information to their disinterested audiences. Even if the audiences were initially interested in the topic, the presenter quickly makes them disinterested or confused by going into too much detail. Most of this detail is unwanted and unnecessary.
A presenter tends to be a subject area expert — that’s why they were selected to present. Subject area experts want to tell audiences everything they know about a subject. The product marketing guy doesn’t simply want to tell you about the two key benefits and the price of the product. He wants to tell you how the product was developed, the nine key design features, the 12 main benefits, and the 27 ways it can be deployed. The problem is that the audience doesn’t want all that information. It’s too much. It’s not digestible.
So, how can a passionate and knowledgeable presenter entice their audience? Here are three quick tips:
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By Hailley Griffis 
Happy Friday everyone. This week, as usual, we have our favourite articles of the week lined up for you. Since we’ve been talking about startups and entrepreneurship in Ottawa in a few posts on the blog this week (look to Leo and Francis’ duelling posts), our first article talks about why startups should opt for digital marketing. Next we take a look at the latest change to Facebook and what that means for B2B marketers. Finally, the last two articles we’ve rounded up talk about how to combine your customer service and marketing efforts by making your marketing useful and avoiding silly mistakes on social media. We pulled this week’s content from Nashville Business Journal, Convince and Convert, Social Media B2B and Memeburn. Let us know what you think!
4 reasons startups should invest in digital marketing
Samantha Owns Pyle, Owner of Green Apple Strategy, looks into some excellent reasons why entrepreneurs should consider beginning their marketing efforts with digital marketing, as opposed to jumping into traditional mass marketing. Cost effectiveness is a big one for startups, as is setting up early-stage personal branding.
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