THE CEO GROWTH PLAYBOOK

How To Be Your Own CMO

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

The story of Tradesy’s marketing-driven growth

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@tracydinunzio @tradesy

TRADESY GROWTH S INCE LAUNCH

The true story of Tradesy’s marketing-driven growth

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

THE METHOD

IDENTIFY TEST EXPLOIT AUTOMATE

Find channel opportunities off the beaten path

Use rigorous methodology paired with agile process

Make what’s working 25% more valuable

Productize and delegate channel, rinse + repeat

A simple + direct methodology for lean, early-stage marketing development

Go where no (wo)man has gone before Find paid, earned, and organic media + marketing opportunities

where the crowd isn’t looking

LIMITED UPSIDE

Mature Channels Already established and saturated; ad unit prices

reflect the LTVs of your biggest competitors.

!!• SEM

• Facebook Ads

• Google Display

• Retargeting

• Email Marketing

IDENTIFY: MATURE VS EMERGING CHANNELS

LIMITLESS UPSIDE

New + Emerging Channels Underpopulated channels set ad prices lower to

drive growth

!!• Podcast Ads

• Snapchat Content Marketing

• YouTube Ads

• TV Commercials

• Direct Mail Marketing

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Interest Over Time Source: Google Trends

!• Facebook Marketing

• YouTube Marketing

• Pinterest Marketing

• Podcast Marketing

• Snapchat Marketing !!

Increased demand makes your marketing channels expensive Popular channels with increasing demand result in higher advertising prices

Getting in before the curve peaks gives you the best chance for a home-run ROI

IDENTIFY: THE NOT-SO-BEATEN PATH

INFLECTION POINT

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Projecting and Prioritizing for Next Steps

IDENTIFY: PRIORIT IZ ING OPPORTUNITES

Measure level of ease/affordability of testing, and projected upside

on a 1-10 scale*, then prioritize your tests accordingly

*Warning: Dramatically simplified!

Example analysis - Ease/upside of

channels are unique to each businessSnapchat

Marketing

!

Podcast

Advertising

Television

Commercials

Direct Mail

Marketing

Level of Ease/Affordability Is it low-cost? Fast? Resource-light?

3 7 1 5

Potential Upside How big is the projected opportunity?

5 5 9 2

Average 4 6 5 3.5

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

TEST: 3 KPIS

Visitor CPC

!!!

Signup CPL

!!!

Buyer CPA

!!

Traffic

TEST 1 TEST 2

SPEND $10,000 $10,000

CPC

Cost per Click$1 $2

NEW UNIQUE VISITORS 10,000 5,000

CPL

Cost per Lead (a lead = a signup)$10 $20

NEW SIGNUPS 1,000 500

CPA

Cost per Acquisition (acq = a buyer) $100 $200

NEW BUYERS 100 50

Example Test Results Conversion-to-signup rate = 10%

Conversion-to-purchase rate = 10%

Keep Marketing KPIs Dead Simple: CPC - CPL - CPA

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

TEST: CALCULATE LTV

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Forget LTV and Focus on CAC Payback PeriodEarly stage startups often don’t have enough data to accurately

project lifetime value. Here’s a hack.

TEST: CALCULATE LTV

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Forget LTV and Focus on CAC Payback PeriodEarly stage startups often don’t have enough data to accurately

project lifetime value. Here’s a hack.

X

Apply ruthless rigor to your testing

TEST: AVOID COMMON PITFALLS

How you test matters as much (or more) as what channels you test

Testing outcomes are the “information” your team will base future decisions on.

DON’T LEAD YOUR TEAM ASTRAY!

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Iterate toward world-class creative

TEST: CREATIVE IS EVERYTHING

$160 CPA $32 CPA

$210 CPA

$37 CPA

Better creative = increased network effects (branding), and lower CPA

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

THE METHOD AT EARLY STAGES

IDENTIFY TEST EXPLOIT AUTOMATE

In 2011, Recycled Bride became profitable using this method

This is what my marketing stack looked like

• PR

• Blog

• FB Organic

• FB Ads

• Google SEM

• YouTube

Organic

• Influencer

Partnerships

• YouTube Ads

• Print Ads

• Affiliate

Marketing

!

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

!Now throw away channels that didn’t work,

and exploit the ones that did

EXPLOIT: GOING DEEPER

Make it 25% more valuable than during testing

+25%

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

Productize and Delegate What’s Working

AUTOMATE: PASS THE BATON

Move on to conquer new channels

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

THE METHOD AT MATURITY

IDENTIFY TEST EXPLOIT AUTOMATE

The Method Expands as Your Marketing Team Does

Find great people to start automation, then have them work backwards down the chain

• PR

• SEM

• Blog

• FB Organic

• FB Paid Mobile

• Google PLA

• Retargeting

!!!!

• FB Ads

• SEO

• Affiliate

Marketing

• Shopping feeds

• Polyvore Paid

• Pinterest

Organic

• Instagram

• Email mktg

!

• Influencer

Partnerships

• Print Ads

• Pinterest Paid

• TV Ads

• Tumblr

• Comparison

shopping eng.

• Pop-up shop

• Event mktg

!!

@tracydinunzio @tradesy

• YouTube Ads

• Billboards

• Tumblr Paid

• Outbrain

Content Mktg

• Radio

• In-air video

• Exit Intent Offer

• Forums + FB

groups

• xx

!

Any questions? :)

!