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ABOUT SCOTT
Scotts entrepreneurial experience stretches across a variety of companies and industries. He co-founded the largest college daily deal site, CampusDibs, grew FoundersCard, a Membership community for entrepreneurs, from its infancy to millions of dollars in annual revenues, and now leads growth at the largest recruiting and talent crowdsourcing company in the United States. He also invests and consults through his firm, The Pony Group, based between Austin, TX and New York, NY.
When not working, you can usually find him on the hockey rink, on the golf course, traveling or exploring the restaurants of New York.
INTRODUCTION
I didnt set out to write a marketing book, much like I didnt originally set out to be an entrepreneur. I went to college to become a ceramics major, then when the reality of making coffee mugs the rest of my life set in, I made my first pivot. While on a three-month expedition in Alaska, I decided I wanted to become a photojournalist and shifted all of my coursework after two years of college to Journalism.
The dreams of working for National Geographic were becoming more of a reality when I got a job fresh out of college leading photography programs across Southeast Asia in places like Burma, Cambodia, and India. My performance as a summer employee led to a full-time job that included building out our massive 300+ page glossy catalog published at the same printer that National Geographic used. I learned about marketing in this job, and as Facebook and Google advertising was in its infancy, I learned how to create ads, run campaigns, and make them convert. The CEO was originally opposed, but the initial $100 I had to run the campaign turned into thousands of dollars of new trip sales.
That was my second pivot, which would take me down the path of business and entrepreneurship. I eventually left my photojournalism and war photography dreams behind me, along with that role as a Director of a travel company. I took the leap and co-founded CampusDibs, which would grow to be the largest daily deal site in the country with a presence across over 300 colleges and universities.
My next endeavor as one of the companys first employees took that company from its infancy to nearly 25,000 members paying hundreds of dollars per year in dues.
There was a pattern, not only in my ability to build and grow companies generating millions of dollars in revenue, but also in my ability to make this happen in different industries. I took time away from working for a single company to act as a Fractional CMO to multiple early-stage startups and began investing in others. In the noisy world of marketing, which has seen more new tools, hacks, and secrets, I realized that most of the companies starting out were looking for their golden ticket and ignored the fundamentals of a cohesive marketing strategy.
I found myself being invited to give presentations about the foundations of marketing for small businesses, startups, and larger companies, which inspired blog post after blog post. My clients were paying me tens of thousands of dollars as a consultant to help them build their marketing strategy and implementation plan. As my client list continued to grow, I realized that the fundamentals remained consistent across various channels like paid ads, SEO, email marketing, and social media. There are obviously industry specific channels, or tweaks to make when it comes to selling to consumers or selling to businesses, but when you took away the noise, the foundations remained the same.
Houses and buildings are the same. When you strip things away, you have similar materials that get put together in different ways, but a house will need a foundation, floors, walls, windows and a roof, regardless of its size. As houses and buildings get bigger, there are more complexities, and more expensive materials that can be used, but a $100 faucets functionality remains the same as a $10,000 faucet, it just might have more features.
Building a business has many parallels and that is why I have laid out my guide to building a marketing strategy for startup founders and business owners. As you read through this book, it will guide you through the fundamentals of your marketing strategy, then the resources and tools to also build your marketing program, test it, and improve upon it. You can also find more resources at ThePonyGroup.com
Now, lets get started down the path of growing your business...
Chapter 1:
Building Your Marketing Strategy
Whether you are a startup or have been in business for many years, a marketing strategy is essential. Promotion is just as necessary for B2B (business to business) as it is for B2C (business to consumer) companies and a strategy needs to be used by companies of all sizes. If youre struggling to spread the word about your business or simply want to streamline your marketing operations, this guide will help you launch a new product, achieve your goals and layout, make sense of, or re-imagine your marketing strategy.
Competitive Analysis and Market Research
The first step in improving your marketing is analyzing your present market conditions with a Competitive Analysis which is where you identify your main competitors and their present situation in the market this will help you identify where you fit and how you can improve your business. An effective competitive analysis and market research plan helps you understand your business uniqueness. You may then use this information to attract, maintain and grow your target market. During this process, consider the following questions:
Is there a space in the market for our product/service?
Which businesses are realistic competitors, and which are reaching out to a different target market?
What is our present market share and is it possible to improve it?
Which strategies are your competitors presently using?
Which strategies have your competitors used in the past?
One of the simplest ways to conduct a competitive analysis is to draw out a grid. List your competitor products or services on the left and a list of main common features along the top. Put a checkmark against each unique product/service. Identifying key features of their and your products will help in driving your marketing campaign. Another common type of strategy planning grid is to use a SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. This allows you to brainstorm and outline the foundations your strategy will aim to protect or look out for. Using the four SWOT categories, you can plan not only by looking back and learning from your previous marketing efforts, but also by identifying future market changes that could threaten your plans.
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