For an entrepreneur, launching a startup begins with the creation of something from nothing. This creation should take into account what an individual is passionate about and this can beRead More
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]]>For an entrepreneur, launching a startup begins with the creation of something from nothing. This creation should take into account what an individual is passionate about and this can be done by listing the items and prioritizing them to help an individual remain focused on their idea.
When launching a startup, an entrepreneur must make sure that he or she stands out from the crowd especially because of the large number of new businesses that are launched every year. This is the reason that a successful launch is necessary to help an individual have a strong social proof, build a user base rapidly and improve the chances of long-term growth.
The following are five popular ways entrepreneurs can launch a startup:
The target market chosen should be an industry that is growing fast, big and profitable. The selected market can then be won by differentiation where a business gives customers more of what they want and this boosts their willingness to pay or a business that serves as a low-cost producer and charges the lowest price in the industry. When customers buy the products, the entrepreneur should monitor the changing customer needs as well as new technologies and figure out other additional products to build as well as fresh markets to conquer.
The competition should be studied through the performance of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. A list of businesses that offer services and products similar to the one being launched should be done, a review of the marketing materials which includes brochures and ads should also be done.
The marketing tactics and strategy should also be chosen. This involves the sales as well as the marketing channels that can be used which include online, catalog or using dealers. Multichannel marketers usually achieve great success because customers like it when they can shop when and however they like.
Knowing the product’s life cycle is important because the campaign used during the introduction as well as education phase of the service or product needs to be updated as the service or product matures. An entrepreneur should monitor the marketing results carefully so as to notice any diminishing returns that indicate when to revise the service or product, alter the media message or phase out the particular offering.
This is important so that people can start signing up to receiving emails from an email list. This should be done before the official launch. Email is important because it can get people engaged as well as convert them into customers. For the email list to work an entrepreneur must get their contact list together, this can be done by downloading contacts from those on the email or from people spoken to. This data can be put in a customer relationship management system. Emailing people directly with the launch announcement is more effective than posting it on social media.
Having a large list of motivated and qualified email subscribers is important if the business is to grow. This list can be built by using list building strategies as follows:
> The list can be built with article marketing where the content is taken from the entrepreneur’s blog or website and is then submitted to article directories.
> Videos can be used to build the list because videos help to authentically connect with the people who visit the entrepreneur’s site and allows engagement in a compelling manner. Videos also allow an individual to interact with prospects better.
> Pay-Per-Click advertising can be used in list building and is one technique that can attract many ideal as well as highly qualified leads consistently.
This list dictates the number of clients and customers that sign on and this affects the income of the business.
For an individual to optimize their website, it is important that they give the right kind of information that will grab people’s attention as well as leave an element of mystery that will generate curiosity. The content on the website should be useful, link-worthy and entertaining as this increases the chance of the start-up being discovered. Assess the type of content the competition is creating and use gaps in the content as an opportunity to deliver something the competitors have missed or are lazy to perfect. Keywords should be worked into the posts and the blog optimized for the search engines.
Having a page that is a basic “Coming Soon” page, can be used to entice people to sign up. Offering a special bonus can be an effective way to get early subscribers. Make social sharing an important part of your website and lead generation plan as well.
The sign-ups should be monitored on a daily basis and this should be set up in a way that an email is received every time someone signs up. This can be used to send the person a follow-up thank-you note.
Attracting clients consistently requires that the entrepreneur’s marketing message be clear and stand out. When this message is clear, the marketing plan will be so much easier as well as less costly. To communicate regularly it is important to engage the audience immediately. This can be done by sending out emails regularly, as well as offering people something that will be useful to them with each message. This is one way to keep them signed up, and respond positively to the launch. Have email programs that will allow the set up of “autoresponder” sequences that enable the automatic sending to people a particular set of messages once they sign up.
The emails can offer sneak peeks concerning the progress of the business, industry news, fun quips and also how-to.
To launch a startup successfully, align it with relevant companies that have significant reach. With that being said, it is very important that an entrepreneur looks for opportunities in brands that will complement their product offering and provide unique value for the customers. Build relationships with people regarded as influential in the industry. This will open the business to powerful resources, endorsements as well as introductions to other key influencers in the industry.
The Startup Survival System by Kurt Won
New Business Next Steps by Ann Hawkins
Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months by Melinda Emerson
Startupland by Mikkel Svane
100 Days of Growth by Sujan Patel
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]]>A summary of things you should know about The Practitioner’s Guide to Product Management according to Jock Busuttil: Introduction In this episode Jock Busuttil takes a deep dive into hisRead More
The post A Preview of The Practitioner’s Guide to Product Management with Jock Busuttil appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
]]>In this episode Jock Busuttil takes a deep dive into his book, The Practitioner’s Guide to Product Management, where he provides a roadmap for mastering product management and avoiding product failure.
In his book Busuttil shares real-life stories and experiences of other companies who are successful at product management and know what it takes to meet customers’ needs. The goal of the book is to help you improve product management skills, understand what a product manager does, know the difference between good and bad products, and increase the success rate of a product.
This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who are new to the product management and looking for a step-by-step guide to creating, promoting, and selling a product that customers will love.
The main difference is that most product management books are telling you about the process and while there are values in those kinds of books I also felt the need to explain to the reader the realities of product management as well.
Each chapter is self-contained so if you want to read the five chapters in different orders you can.
First and foremost it has to be empathy, the ability to put yourself as a product manager into the shoes of your users, the customers, the people in your organization that help you create this fantastic product. And understand what their needs are over yours because ultimately you are not going to be the target market.
The purpose of chapter one is about understanding what exactly product management is and what it all involves. It’s thinking about this concept of bouncing what I call three rings which refers to a diagram that divides up the practices of product management into three main areas. The three areas are user’s experience, technology, and the business and in the center of it all is the product manager. Really what all that means is that you are balancing very different needs of the user experiences needs and problems with the needs of the business and then also bouncing that with the technology and the people who are building and creating that particular product. Product management is one of those things that a lot of people have heard about but not necessarily know exactly what that means.And then we talk a little bit more about how product management evolved over the last 60 or 70 years to where we are now. With that is understanding that people’s individual parts in product management aren’t necessarily direct. It comes down to product management is really about the fundamentals of understanding users and their problems and being able to solve them with a viable, sustainable, profitable product.
That takes us into checking to make sure you are on the right path. We talk about the problems and the questions that you need to ask about whether there is a market for that particular product. Product management is not so much about managing product but it’s actually about managing the people involved in your product. We go through a variety of different people you’ll be most likely working with such as developers and designers. And then we talk about marketing and sales and what tough jobs they have and understand that they each have their own interesting quirks. It’s important to understand that you are working with all different specialists and without them you’d never be able to achieve the product you have.
From there we go into thinking about success and failure. So even if you do the right things there is still always that chance that your product won’t succeed. There are a number of things to increase your chances of success but it doesn’t necessarily ensure success.
The last thing we cover in the book is time management which is one of these soft skills that is so important because you are juggling all these different things and you need to be able to organize yourself.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 04:05
“Good designers can take the complex and make it profoundly simple. Great designers will also stir your soul bewitch you with the beauty of their design.” – Jock Busuttil
I have been a product manager for over a decade and working in software for a few years longer. I have worked for a variety of different companies over the years ranging from small startups to huge multinational corporates and learned a great deal along the way. More recently I decided to branch out on my own and now running my own product management consultancy called Product People.
This was the book I wanted most myself when I was starting out in product management. Most of the books that were available told you about how to go about doing it but it didn’t tell you what it was really like. This book was a way for me to tell my story to others from someone who has actually been through the process personally.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
Buy The Practitioner’s Guide to Product Management by Jock Busuttil on Amazon today
Visit iManageProducts.uk to read more articles by Jock on his blog
Follow Jock Busuttil on LinkedIn and Twitter
Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud
Related books:
Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
The Maker Movement Manifesto by Mark Hatch
Disruption by Design by Paul Paetz
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The post A Preview of The Practitioner’s Guide to Product Management with Jock Busuttil appeared first on The Entrepreneurs Library.
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