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Community, Curation, Diversity, Human-to-Human (H2H), Inclusion, Marginalization, Women in Tech

Delightfully unconventional women-written newsletters in marketing & tech 💌

May 30, 2018 by

I’m subscribed to more than one-hundred newsletters – not kidding, I’m a curator. It’s my passion. There are so many newsletters out there for marketers right now. Nearly every startup and entrepreneur in the field has a newsletter to offer. Of course they do. We’re marketers. We know newsletters work as part of our long and glorious sales funnels.

These women-written newsletters are on my can’t-miss list. I try to read them every time. I look forward to reading them, because each one not only has immediately useful value to offer, each one is really fun to read. And, their perspectives are refreshingly unique and unconventional, because these women think deeply about their subjects and don’t shy away stating their opinions.

I love that.

Also, fair warning: I added my own newsletter at the end. It’s all about building communities around SaaS products, and if you’re into that, then hopefully it will make *your* can’t miss list.

Marketing

WordWeaver // Alaura Weaver
I’ve included some of the best copywriters in tech on this list, but what sets Alaura Weaver apart is her unique story-fueled content and copywriting, as well as her commitment to only work with businesses who are legitimately trying to make the world better in some way. Her newsletter is tightly packed with insights into how to use storytelling and powerful language to create human connection that helps businesses sell and grow.

Inkwell // Autumn Tompkins
Copywriter and editor Autumn Tompkins focuses on copy, content, and editing for artists and creatives – a notoriously difficult industry, both to work in and to write for. She brings the stories behind the art to vivid life, attracting clients and building relationships (that attract more clients). Her newsletter includes her best tips for writing creative and effective copy, and it’s so good, that a lot of other copywriters I know read it too.

Copy Hackers // Joanna Wiebe
Joanna Wiebe made a commitment early on to give away her very best information. It’s how CopyHackers began, and why it’s become the go-to resource for professional copywriters interested in honing their craft, or getting a quick refresher on what headline copy works best. Each newsletter she sends contains a mind-blowing insight that you can use right now – it’s how she ‘trains’ us all to open every one of her emails. They’re always so good. Also, notice her writing style. She keeps you hanging on…

Every…

word.

Forget The Funnel // Claire Suellentrop & Gia Laudi
Forget The Funnel is for marketers at product-first tech companies – it’s a weekly series of free, 30-minute workshops designed to help tech marketers “get out of the weeds, think strategically, and be a more effective SaaS marketer.” These 30-minute workshops are not fluff, and you can tell that by their impressive list of workshop leaders, like Talia Wolf, Joanna Wiebe, Ross Simmonds – and oh yeah, me. Really didn’t mean to plug myself, but you’ll see me on the list, and I didn’t want this to get awkward…

GetUplift // Talia Wolf
If we’ve spoken for more than 5 minutes, I’ve probably mentioned how much I LOVE Talia’s newsletters from GetUplift. That’s how much I talk about this conversion optimization newsletter! I’ve used these as inspiration for my own writing more than once, because her writing style is so personal, so fun, so interesting and always informative, pulling insights from her own experiences (which ensures the content is always fresh).

Katie Martell
Unapologetic marketing truth-teller Katie Martell will be the first to tell you – in a bright red banner across her home page – that this is “the world’s best newsletter about marketing, business, and life.” She’s got some stiff competition there, but I won’t argue. This curated newsletter is really good.

Yeah Write Club // Kaleigh Moore
Copywriter Kaleigh Moore’s first newsletter was A Cup of Copy, which included beautifully-written advice for new and seasoned copywriters on writing better copy, and on building a writing business you love. Her Yeah Write Club is completely different – it’s interviews with working writers at the tops of their fields, book recommendations and even writing opportunities. I love both, but those interviews are fabulous.

Strictly Tech

Sarah Doody
Sarah Doody is an entrepreneur, UX designer, consultant, writer and speaker. Her weekly UX newsletter is a compilation of her personal experiences in UX design, curated articles, UX tips and prompts to get UX teams talking.

Femgineer // Poornima Vijayashanker
Femgineer promotes inclusivity in the tech industry, which is already pretty great (and much needed). The newsletter is an outstanding source of inspiration, practical advice and free weekly lessons for people of all backgrounds learning tech.

MarketHer // Jes Kirkwood
MarketHer helps female tech marketers grow their careers, and the newsletter (hover over the pop-up chat on the bottom right to find the Subscribe button – it’s a little hard to find) shares real stories from women working at companies like Eventbrite, Glassdoor and HubSpot.

Product Talk // Teresa Torres
Product Talk is all about product development – from learning much-needed insights about your customers, to conducting experiments and measuring their impact. It’s not strictly a newsletter, but subscribing will ensure you get their latest posts in your inbox, and they’re all really good.

Women in Product
Founded by senior women product leaders in Silicon Valley, Women in Product is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion in product management. Not only can you subscribe for their news and updates, they also have a Facebook community with over 9,000 members (of which I’m one).

Women 2.0
Women2 is focused on closing gender gaps and increasing diversity and inclusion in tech. Their articles often focus on female-founded, early-stage companies, as well as “the future of tech and startups.” One glance at their home page lets you know what kind of content you can expect – topics like “speaking out about equal pay” and “an introvert’s guide to collaboration.”

Whackadoodles // Emma Siemasko
Written by a content marketing specialist, Whackadoodles isn’t strictly about content or marketing; it’s more about living a better business life. It’s a great read for writers, marketers and entrepreneurs.

Other

The Good Trade: The Daily Good
A 30 second read of good things to listen, follow, visit, browse and read—delivered to your inbox each morning. Curated by and for women.

And…mine:

Sunday Brunch by Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré

My newsletter is strictly about building online communities, in places like Facebook groups and Slack channels (to name but two), around your SaaS product and brand. Communities help promote higher lifetime value, lower churn, happier customers, and – my favorite – customer success. But it’s not enough to just invite people to join. Creating a genuine sense of community is a little more complicated – and that’s what my newsletter is about.

Subscribe below! Are you thinking of starting a newsletter? Let’s talk about what makes the BEST newsletters out there. Leave a comment and let’s chat.

Community, Content Marketing, Curation, Guest Posts, Tools

Six Underrated Ways For Startups To Curate Great Content by @TheCoolestCool

December 2, 2017 by

[bctt tweet=”One of the keys to great content marketing is the ability to curate great content.” username=”TheCoolestCool”]

There are myriad approaches to content curation, from leveraging Facebook and Twitter to using tools created specifically for content curation. Some strategies, like trolling your LinkedIn feed, are old hat; others are still relatively unknown and underrated.

Let’s fix that. I’ve taken the time to write up six underrated ways for your startup to curate great content that your competition is likely ignoring.

But first…

I want to ensure that you understand the role of content curation and what it means. In my ultimate guide to content curation I describe the process as follows:

“Content curation is the act of finding information and resources that your audience would find value in and sharing it through appropriate marketing channels.”

The important thing to note about curation is that it is not content creation. (I’ve also written an article that outlines the differences between curation and creation and why both play important roles in the content marketing mix.)

You see, content creation is like the role of an artist, while content curation is like the role of an art gallery—one creates the art, the other determines which pieces to display. This difference often leads startups to undervalue content curation when in reality it can play just as big a role in driving results.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… Let’s talk about some of those underrated content curation ideas that could give you an edge over the competition:

Finesse Your Facebook Searches

Facebook is a staple in content curation, with thousands of content marketers flocking to the site to find hot topics and trending articles in their industries. But you can optimize your curation process by making a tiny tweak to the way you search for content.

How so?

Instead of doing a Facebook search and browsing the first results that pop up, do your search and then click “Links” at the top:

It’s as simple as that. By finessing your search, you’ll get results from relevant, share-worthy sources instead of photos and memes. In the example above, I searched for Bitcoin-related content and sorted the results by Links rather than People, Posts, Videos or Pages. As a result, I got articles from top sites like Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal.

Some marketers undervalue Facebook search, but I’m a believer that it could eventually give Google and Bing a run for their money. But that’s a topic for another blog post. 😉

Search Hot Topics On Reddit

Reddit has always been the ugly duckling of the content curation world—and the marketing world as a whole. The site can be confusing at first, and there are a lot of incorrect assumptions flying around about its marketing potential.

But when used correctly, Reddit can give you the edge on your competition. You see, most people think Reddit is simply a place to upload a handful of memes, submit links to their website, run a few ads, and hope you’ll be successful. In reality, the world of Reddit marketing is a lot more complex.

For starters, Redditors hate marketing. As a Redditor myself, I can tell you that I’m 100% with the folks who hate marketing, because most marketers who use Reddit to promote their brands do so really, really badly.

Which is why I’m a huge advocate of two simple steps when it comes to curation:

  1. Understand the community’s interests
  2. Look for content that is on the rise or already popular

To start this process, visit a subreddit and sort the content by top posts, which will help you understand what your audience wants. For example, if you dive into the subreddit /r/Futurology and sort by top posts, you’ll see this:

Now, ignoring the ad at the top, those first three posts are quite interesting if you want to connect with people who are passionate about the future. To me, these results present three obvious opportunities: (1) share these exact articles, (2) visit their source websites (Vox, Inverse) to find more content worth sharing, and (3) look for articles on these topics and brands (clearly Google should be on your radar).

Another way to leverage Reddit as a curation source is to ask Redditors straight up: Where do you find your best content? What are the best newsletters for someone interested in XYZ to subscribe to? Podcasts? Blogs? You get the idea… You might be surprised how helpful communities are to people simply looking for resources.

Subscribe To Industry Newsletters

Just like a magazine subscription, an industry newsletter subscription delivers niche content straight to your inbox. Once you’ve subscribed to a number of newsletters that are relevant to you and your audience, you’ll be regularly receiving articles to share on your social networks.

The key to leveraging industry newsletters as a content curation tactic is finding a few that aren’t necessarily subscribed to by the masses. Look for industry newsletters with fewer than 1,000 subscribers so there’s less of a chance that your audience is already receiving their content.  

Use Existing Content Curation Tools

Content curation tools have recently blown up, and rightfully so. These tools make it 10 times easier to discover and distribute content that your audience would find interesting.

Tools like Crate allow you to find and share content within minutes. By uploading a handful of relevant keywords, you’ll get a feed filled with content to add to your Buffer queue or send out in a newsletter.

Scoop.it is another great curation tool that you can use to quickly and effectively curate your content. Scoop.it is a free site where users can gather information about any topic they want—think Pinterest, but for industry professionals.

Want more? Here’s a list of my favorite content curation tools for your curation toolkit.

Find Goodreads in Slack Communities

Slack communities are filled with passionate people discussing everything from the latest tech to last night’s football game. That means these communities are a great place to find interesting content on just about any topic.

In many Slack communities, there’s a channel dedicated solely to goodreads, making it easy for you to find content worth sharing on your own networks. To take it a step further, some communities even have channels where members are asked to share their content. While this isn’t a thing in all communities, if you can find one where people are encouraged to #ShamelessPlug, why not leverage this opportunity to find content for sharing—and to share your own content?

Dive Into Your Niche In Industry Forums & Communities

Yes, I know that forums and online bulletin boards are straight out of the ’90s, but I’m here to tell you that they are just as relevant today as they were back then. In fact, it’s possible that they’re even more relevant now—because they are more focused.

Passionate people talking about their passions with other passionate people. That’s the best and only way to describe the current landscape of online industry forums.

As such, they’re gold mines for new content—after all, they are filled with people sharing content assets that they believe others LIKE THEM will find interesting.

So if you’re targeting chefs, why not join a forum for chefs and see what they’re sharing with one another? If you’re targeting small business owners, it only makes sense to join a small business forum and see what type of content they’re sharing.

If you want concrete examples, take a close look at Inbound, Designer News, Hacker News and GrowthHackers—all communities that marketers and startups often rely on to find interesting content. Here’s the rundown of what each site is all about:

And trust me when I say this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to forums you can leverage for content curation.

Curation Isn’t Easy. But It Doesn’t Have To Be Draining.

Take this list of underrated content curation resources and go uncover some awesome content to share with your audience. Ideally, you’ll end up with a consistent stream of content that you can rely on month after month (and make your life easier!).

I know firsthand that content curation isn’t easy…that’s why I built Crate. I also know that content curation is one of those things you get better at the more you do it. So wherever you choose to troll for content, keep at it, and know that great content can come from anywhere.

On that note, I’d LOVE to hear your underrated sources for curating content! Did any of these help you, or do you know of a strategy that I might be overlooking?

Let me know in the comments or get in touch over Twitter.

Curation, Diversity

The Problem with Influencer Marketing by @NikkiElizDeMere

February 27, 2016 by

The-Problem-with-Influencer-Marketing-

Image created by Yasmine Sedky (@yazsedky).

Influencer marketing works. How? Influencers are people who are highly active on social media and blogs. They can be brand advocates and niche promoters. Most importantly though, they are people with loud online voices who other people listen to.

Influencer marketing leverages the loud-speaker like qualities of this group to, essentially, create word-of-mouth buzz about a business or product online. But it’s not all about buzz – as Jay Baer says: “True influence drives action, not just awareness.”

When you align with an influencer, you’re entering into a mutually beneficial relationship. You amplify their voice even more by promoting their blog or social media presence; they talk about your company or product. Consumers trust recommendations from them, more than from you, because they’re third parties. They have enough distance from your company to maintain objectivity, and they have enough cache with their audiences to where their recommendations are trusted.

You don’t have to adopt an official influencer spokesperson – the relationship is usually not that formal. Rather, influencer marketing often takes the simple form of trading guest posts, or even “you retweet me, I retweet you.”

It’s surprisingly effective.

But when you look at influencer marketing from a perspective of diversity, it’s not working so well.

Of the “50 Online Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2016,” published by Entrepreneur magazine, you’ll find that:

74% are male

86% are white

As far as non-race diversity factors go for this group, they’re anyone’s guess, but I would venture to say that even this remarkably diverse list (you should see some of the other ones), is lacking in a diversity of perspective.

So what happens when brands embrace the same group of influencers, whose voices are already loud and out there, who come from relatively privileged backgrounds?

We get a whole lot of the same.

In the influencer version of “the rich get richer,” the loud and privileged are even more amplified, to the point where they saturate the conversation and drown out voices from marginalized groups.

Pretty soon, everyone’s Twitter feed in the same niche looks identical, because they’re all re-tweeting the same influencers, over and over again. Is there an echo on here?

Screen Shot 2016-04-02 at 3.25.54 PM

A suggestion for a simple solution

Screen Shot 2016-04-02 at 3.27.40 PM

I would suggest that if you’re using influencer marketing, consider sharing content by marginalized people along with your regularly scheduled programming. Then, you’re not leaving them entirely out of the conversation. Stumped for where to begin? I’ve got you covered – try these:

@AlterConf – “An evening of critical culture discussions in tech and gaming. We’re moving the diversity conversation beyond 101. Coming to a city near you!”

@FundBetterTech – “Pledge $100/month to fund tech projects by and for marginalized people.”

@ModelViewMedia – “A magazine about tech + culture + diversity. We tweet articles and news.”

@TransH4CK – “Creating tech for the transgender community & visibility for trans technologists and entrepreneurs.”

Ensuring people who already have massive followings get their messages out there is fine, but it’s not going to add any new insights into the conversation. When you include the intelligent, savvy voices of people we don’t traditionally hear from, you allow the conversation to reach its full potential, creating a richer experience for everyone.

But honestly, just connect with people whose work you love. And if some happen to be influencers, and some don’t, that’s fine.

Curation as a power-tool

My style of Twitter using is curation. It’s what I do. It’s what I love. I’ve also found it to be a powerful tool for supporting, promoting, and amplifying marginalized influencers who deserve far more retweets than they get. For me, curation is a form of self-expression, which is why I share what I love – not what I think others will love.

Ultimately, diversity is so much more beautiful and interesting. Just check out some of the latest tweets by @Odyism, a fantasy illustrator who posted art for Black History Month on his feed.

Screen Shot 2016-04-02 at 3.31.54 PM

Screen Shot 2016-04-02 at 3.33.20 PM

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.

Curation, SaaS, Startups

40+ SaaS, Marketing, & Growth Newsletters

June 27, 2015 by

40saasmarketinggraphic

Your inbox is likely a study in quantity vs. quality – and if you’d like to shift the balance towards quality, I’ve got some recommendations for you straight from my most-trusted sources.

Note: most of these links go straight to the blog pages where you’ll usually see a pop-up asking you to sign up.

Content

  • Backlinko – Nothing but the best information on increasing traffic. (Twitter)
  • Copy Blogger -Writing copy that sells, measuring it, and managing it all happen on the CopyBlogger blog, highlights of which you can read comfortably in your inbox when you subscribe. (Twitter)
  • Copy Hackers – Want to know how the copy pros do a newsletter? It’s worth signing up just to check their subject lines. (Twitter)
  • Moz Top 10 – A semimonthly digest of the 10 most valuable articles about SEO and online marketing. (Twitter)
  • Yeah Write Club – Copywriter Kaleigh Moore’s first newsletter was A Cup of Copy, which included beautifully-written advice for new and seasoned copywriters on writing better copy, and on building a writing business you love. Her Yeah Write Club is completely different – it’s interviews with working writers at the tops of their fields, book recommendations and even writing opportunities. I love both, but those interviews are fabulous. (Twitter)
  • WordWeaver – Alaura’s newsletter is tightly packed with insights into how to use storytelling and powerful language to create human connection that helps businesses sell and grow. (Twitter)

CRO & UX 

  • Conversion XL – Master the essentials of conversion rate optimization. (Twitter)
  • GetUplift – If we’ve spoken for more than 5 minutes, I’ve probably mentioned how much I LOVE Talia’s newsletters from GetUplift. That’s how much I talk about this conversion optimization newsletter! I’ve used these as inspiration for my own writing more than once, because her writing style is so personal, so fun, so interesting and always informative, pulling insights from her own experiences. (Twitter)
  • Nielsen Norman Group – Weekly newsletter with article summaries on interface usability, web design and UX. (Twitter)
  • Sarah Doody – Sarah Doody is an entrepreneur, UX designer, consultant, writer and speaker. Her weekly UX newsletter is a compilation of her personal experiences in UX design, curated articles, UX tips and prompts to get UX teams talking. (Twitter)
  • User Onboarding – Samuel Hulick, user onboarding expert,  examines how the most successful companies handle onboarding new users in his “teardowns.” Sign up for those teardowns – they’re golden. (Twitter)

Specifically SaaS

  • Christoph Janz – Managing partner at Point Nine Capital, Internet entrepreneur and angel investor in some really successful startups (Zendesk), Christoph Janz, discusses the finer points of growth in SaaS. (Twitter)
  • Forget The Funnel – Forget The Funnel is for marketers at product-first tech companies – it’s a weekly series of free, 30-minute workshops designed to help tech marketers “get out of the weeds, think strategically, and be a more effective SaaS marketer.” These 30-minute workshops are not fluff, and you can tell that by their impressive list of workshop leaders, like Talia Wolf, Joanna Wiebe, Ross Simmonds – and oh yeah, me. Really didn’t mean to plug myself, but you’ll see me on the list, and I didn’t want this to get awkward… (Twitter)
  • Hiten Shah – Weekly e-mail chock full of links about SaaS. (Twitter)
  • SaaStr – Jason Lemkin shares what he knows about growth in SaaS and B2B markets. (Twitter)
  • Tomasz Tunguz –  Data-driven blog posts about key questions facing startups including how to fund raise, startup benchmarks, management best practices and team building. (Twitter)
  • Totango – Customer Success for SaaS is Totango’s Newsletter’s forte. (Twitter)
  • Wootric – Wootric scours the latest publications from innovators in CX, product, and Customer Success to bring “the best of” right to your inbox every other week. (Twitter)

Straight-Up Growth Hacking

Other Good Stuff

  • Double Your Freelancing – Brennan Dunn, freelancer, author, and entrepreneur sends weekly words of wisdom on building a better freelancing business. (Twitter)
  • Femgineer – Femgineer promotes inclusivity in the tech industry, which is already pretty great (and much needed). The newsletter is an outstanding source of inspiration, practical advice and free weekly lessons for people of all backgrounds learning tech. (Twitter)
  • Product Hunt-The best new products, every day. (Twitter)

Any newsletters that you’re following that aren’t listed here? Mention them in the comments! Also be sure to check out my own newsletter; you can subscribe to the right.

💗 Check out Nichole’s services for B2B SaaS startups 💗

Curation

15 Blogs I Love, Compiled by @NikkiElizDeMere

June 25, 2015 by

15-blogs-i-love

01. Annie Cushing / Annielytics

@AnnieCushing

Annie makes data sexy. She’s played just about every role one can play when it comes to creating and promoting content online. She’s written it, edited it, marketed it, optimized it, acquired links for it, e-mailed about it, pimped it on social media, you name it. And all those things are just fabulous. But she points out that if you don’t measure it, how will you know what you did right, what you could have done better, and what each of your audience segments wants more of? And if your data is ugly, you run the risk of not motivating others to take the actions you want them to take based on your data.

She will give you practical strategies to help you put your data in stilettos and make it work the pole. She’ll show you how to use tools like the ubiquitous Google Analytics, as well as various tools that help you analyze social media success and even competitive intelligence. (That’s when you’ll have to buckle your seat belt and return your tray to its upright position.) Her goal is to make my blog posts short and easy to digest.

02. Customer.io

@CustomerIO

Customer.io helps web and mobile apps send smarter e-mails. They blog about everything from sending and receiving data, setting up triggered and manual e-mails, segmenting, and integrating between e-mail clients. They also provide examples to get started.

03. Jim Gray

@grayj_

Jim is an engineer and data scientist, specializing in marketing automation, customer issues, and repeatable growth processes. His blog provides refreshingly direct coverage of product development, marketing strategy, and marketing trends, with a bit of a slant towards B2B SaaS since he’s currently bootstrapping a product in that domain.

He also publishes a newsletter on marketing strategy and technique, which I strongly recommend. Unlike many newsletters, it receives unique blog-length content, and is geared towards “use it today” advice about making your marketing both more effective and more conscious of its effect on customer experience and success.

04. Joanna Wiebe / Copyhackers

@copyhackers

Joanna promises to help you write more persuasive, believable and usable copy – sans pixie dust – so you can boost your website and e-mail conversion rates.

She says she fell into copywriting. Just totally tumbled in, head over feet. She didn’t like the word “copywriter” when she first started – so she went by “creative writer”. She feels that was a big mistake that set her back three years. Now she know that COPY is awesome, and that copywriters are the best-kept secret in the sales and marketing world.

05. Kiki Schirr / Tech Doodles

@KikiSchirr / @tech_doodles

Kiki Schirr has worked at Geek Squad, Apple Support, for a technology council and has helped found a startup, Fittr. She wakes up at night dreaming about gadgets and marketing tools, and is using her doodles to exorcise the funny, sometimes dark situations that crop up for a woman in tech. She hopes to make people laugh, and to show girls that it’s okay to be wrong once in a while.

Kiki’s other projects include blogging for {grow} and for The Craft. 

Kiki Schirr

06. Laura Klein / Users Know

@lauraklein

Laura fell in love with technology 20 years ago when she saw her first usability test. Since then, she’s been an engineer, designer, and product manager, helping companies of all sizes learn about their users so they can build better products. She’s the author of UX for Lean Startups and a second book coming out in 2016 called Build Better Products. Her blog and podcast at Users Know cover topics ranging from product management, design, startups, growth, and general tech ranting.

07. Lincoln Murphy / Sixteen Ventures

@lincolnmurphy

Since 2006, Lincoln Murphy has directly helped 300+ SaaS companies accelerate their growth by optimizing the Customer Lifecycle, from customer acquisition to retention. On his blog you can learn about everything from Customer Success, to Growth Marketing, and SaaS business models and revenue models.

08. Patrick McKenzie / Kalzemeus

@patio11

Patrick McKenzie was an engineer with an idea for some software. Programming came easy, marketing didn’t, but he appreciated the new challenge. At some point over the years, he graduated from being an engineer to running a software business. He’s been blogging regularly since 2006 — check out his greatest hits for a curated list of the best stuff he’s produced, or read this if you want the brief overview.

09. Peep Laja / ConversionXL

@peeplaja

Get actionable business advice, latest research and experiments on conversion optimization and getting better business results.

Whether it’s your website, your landing pages, products, pricing or marketing campaigns – the content here will help you improve your business.

Peep Laja is an entrepreneur and a conversion optimization junkie. He runs a unique conversion optimization marketing agency called Markitekt (they make existing sites better and build new conversion optimized websites) + several niche internet businesses like T1Q and others.

He delivers trainings and workshops on conversion optimization and internet marketing, consult businesses in need and plan the architecture of websites that sell.

10. Price Intelligently

@priceintel

Price Intelligently empowers companies to get the most out of SaaS.

Their mantras:

  • Data is essential, but simply translating it into graphs won’t solve the problem. Data requires critical thinking to become truly valuable.
  • Success isn’t about raising money, it’s about happy paying customers. Ten happy customers will pay more dividends than a hundred ready to churn at any moment.
  • Focusing on one industry helps us better understand and empower our customers.

11. Randal Olson

@randal_olson

Randy runs the popular data blog at RandalOlson.com/blog/, most recently known for creating the “Ultimate American Road Trip” and solving Where’s Waldo?.

He tweets daily about data analysis and visualization and and leads the largest online community dedicated to data visualization on Reddit, /r/DataIsBeautiful, which now serves over 2,000,000 unique monthly visitors.

Beside all that, he works as an AI researcher at the University of Pennsylvania trying to usher in the next era of Artificial Intelligence, and does his best to ensure that AI will end up friendly rather than a malevolent Skynet.

redditviz

12. Talia Wolf / Conversioner

@TaliaGw

“It’s not what you’re selling, it’s who you’re selling to.” — Talia Wolf, Founder and CEO of Conversioner

Conversioner’s blog is the textbook manual to all things emotional and psychological in conversion optimization. It provides actionable tips and guides on how to rock conversion optimization and grow your business.

Talia’s job is to build and execute her client’s conversion optimization strategies, using emotional targeting, consumer psychology and user behavior data to generate more revenues, leads, engagement and sales.

She’ll give you actionable tips on how to build better user journeys (from landing pages and registration forms to entire checkout flows and mobile sites), how to finally A/B test correctly and understand your test results and how to build marketing strategies and follow templates for higher conversion rates.

13. Tomasz Tunguz

@ttunguz

Tomasz is a partner at Redpoint where he writes daily, data-driven blog posts about key questions facing startups including how to fund raise, startup benchmarks, management best practices and team building.

14. Vero

@getvero

Vero offers a smart way to automate e-mails based on what your customers do. And that’s what you can learn about on their blog, which offers great beginner to advanced material about e-mail marketing campaigns.

15. Violeta Nedkova

@V4Violetta

Violeta is a multi-passionate, which means she’ll blog about anything from startups and growth to writing and inspiration, with some random mentions of dream interpretation and productivity hacks throw in for good measure.

She is a member of many startup communities, including Product Hunt, so she gets a lot of inspiration from there.

What I like the most is that Violeta always finds the quickest, easiest way to get the job done – if you’re looking for clients on twitter or trying to get more feedback for your app, she’s one step ahead of you. She even has this handy curation for those who wish to master startup marketing.

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.

Curation, SaaS

15 E-Books 📖 for SaaS Companies, Compiled by @NikkiElizDeMere

June 20, 2015 by

15ebooksforsaasco

Image created by Yasmine Sedky (@yazsedky).
Here are e-books for validating, growing, and scaling your SaaS company. Please post additional recommendations in the comments and I’ll consider adding them to the list.

There were 15 e-books but some of them are no longer offered so I removed them.

01. 59 Tips for Scaling Startup Sales (Free)

Upshift

“When some of our Upshift advisors suggested we develop an e-book to help encapsulate some of the great teachings that are part of our 12-week curriculum to help accelerate the growth of tech startups, I thought, ok, I’ll add it to our project sprint for that week.

Four months later, I couldn’t be prouder of the detailed, yet easy-to-read summary of 59 tips, directly from the mouths of some of our stellar team of advisors, that can help any startup hone in on the process necessary to scale successfully.

We all know “learning from mistakes” is part of the drill when it comes to startup growth, but who wants to make mistakes? Wouldn’t it be great if you could minimize some of the pain that comes with turning your passion into a profitable enterprise?

In this e-book, startup founders will come to understand some of the common pitfalls made by young companies in the early days so you can do your best to avoid them. For some, it will provide the structure and organization that your company currently lacks; for others, it will be a refresher on what you know to be true about building exceptional sales teams but are too caught up in the day-to-day tasks to act upon it.

The e-book is divided into six sections which closely mirror the stages of growth acceleration Upshift implements through its curriculum.”

02. 100 Days of Growth ($27)

Sujan Patel & Rob Wormley

“You could spend a lifetime trying to sift through and digest all the blog posts, podcasts, guides, and case studies that exist online about growth hacking—or you could start taking action today.

These 100 growth tactics were compiled based on strategies and techniques that Sujan Patel and Rob Wormley have used to help hundreds of clients move the needle and actually grow their businesses.”

03. Acquiring Customers is Hard (Free)

Receiptful

“Industry-wide benchmarks shows that it costs about 5x more to acquire a new customer versus just retaining an existing customer (and maximizing the amount of money they thus spend with you over their lifetime).

This book includes a whole bunch of best practices, tips, tricks and techniques to not only help you retain your customers, but also maximize your Customer Lifetime Value.”

04. Copywriting E-Books for Tech Startups and Marketers (Varies)

Joanna Wiebe

“You can write your own copy. You just need to know how to do it right – without taking some insanely long course or reading a 500-page tome meant for professional copywriters. Learn to sell on your site and landing pages with Copy Hackers bite-sized, uber-popular e-books. (Over 30,000 sold!)”

05. Fake It → Make It ($2.99)

Amir Khella

“Is it possible to create an interactive demo of your app idea without using a design tool, without knowing how to write code, and without hiring any designers or programmers to help you with it?

Many people spend weeks learning new design tools and programming languages, and thousands of dollars hiring designers and developers, to make an early version of their app that users may not even want.

This book introduces a simple, fast and cheap approach to prototyping web and mobile apps with no design or coding skills required. You will learn a proven process that is being used by more than 50,000 designers, entrepreneurs and product managers worldwide.”

06. Hooked ($12.99)

Nir Eyal

“Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?

Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful companies to subtly encourage customer behavior. Through consecutive “hook cycles,” these products reach their ultimate goal of bringing users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging.

Hooked is based on Eyal’s years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder—not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.”

07. How to Build Websites That Sell ($4.95)

Peep Laja

“This book will make you money. It will teach you how to build your website in such a way that it converts visitors into leads or buyers.

Building websites that sell is not an art; it’s a science. It’s not about gut feelings and personal preferences – nothing to do with bells and whistles. You will learn how to optimize your website for sales, based on all the best research and experiments.

You start by defining a business objective for your website. What follows is careful planning regarding how to design the website in such a way that it produces maximum results. Everything you need to boost sales you will learn from this book – filled with straight-to-the-point advice and lots of examples. Everything in this book is based on in-depth industry knowledge and scientific research.

Why should you care about conversion optimization (the science of turning more visitors into buyers) in the first place?

It is the cheapest, quickest way to increase sales online. Think about this: if you’re currently converting at 1% (1% of your visitors buy your stuff), but can increase that to a mere 2%, you’ve doubled your sales.

This book will help you do better, smarter marketing. It’s a must-read for anyone that wants to get more business from their website.”

08. Intercom on Product Management (Free)

Intercom

“Drawing from some of the best posts on our blog, Intercom on Product Management offers guidance on the tough decisions you need to make as a PM.”

09. SaaS Marketing Essentials ($49)

Ryan Battles

“Whether you’re kicking a SaaS idea around in your head or are looking to level-up your current recurring revenue, this book shows you how to attract and convert new users.”

10. SaaS Pricing Page Blueprint (Free)

Price Intelligently

“Learn from the best practices of over 270 top SaaS companies.”

11. The Ultimate Guide To Medium ($12)

Greg Muender

“When I published a story called “Uber vs. Lyft: An Insider’s Perspective,” it received 29,000 views on Medium. Since I included special links at the bottom of the story, I received between $50 – $300 for each driver that signed up. Ultimately, nearly 170 drivers did, netting me $10,000 cash for one single story.

This e-book is designed to teach you how to use Medium to write and promote stories that do whatever you need them to – make money, build a brand, acquire users, raise funds for a charity, obtain media exposure, or even land a book deal. The power of Medium is limitless, and I want to show you exactly how you can harness it.

So what format does the book come in? Why, you’ll be able to read it right on Medium, of course! You’ll get a link to the secret content.”

12. User Onboarding ($49)

Samuel Hulick

“User adoption is the lifeblood of every product company. Corporate, startup, bootstrapped or otherwise, if your company’s ‘user faucet’ was shut off, everything would wither up and die.

Of course, having just a trickle of all your signups becoming full-fledged users isn’t exactly a winning strategy, either. A lot of late nights and hard-earned dollars went into creating your product and sending people to it – how many of those people are surviving the journey?”

13. How to Align SaaS Content Marketing and Product Management (Free)

Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré

This one is by me! ☕💕

You’ve seen the studies – companies that retain customers grow bigger and faster than companies focused solely on customer acquisition. You can fill your funnel to the brim, but if your onboarding process acts like a leaky sieve, you’ll never have enough revenue to build and grow sustainably.

The good news? You have everything you need, right now, to create a sustainable system for acquiring and retaining your ideal customers.

It’s not a magic formula. It’s just two people: Your content marketer and your product manager. Working together.

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.

Curation, Social Media, Tools

Twitter Stack Used by @NikkiElizDeMere

June 13, 2015 by

twitter-stack

Image created by Yasmine Sedky (@yazsedky).

I have almost 60,000 followers on Twitter (as of February 2017), and while that might not be Lana Del Rey numbers (she’s in the millions), it’s enough for people to ask me which tools I use to manage my Twitter account. If you’re into Growth Marketing or Customer Success, and want to meet other people in your industry, find mentors, market your products and services, or just want in on the conversation, here’s how I do all that and more.

Grow with TribeBoost and FollowerWonk

TribeBoost helps you increase your Twitter followers by monitoring real-time hashtags and keywords that specifically relate to your niche. Then they go one step further by looking at biographical data, location and influence, and automatically follow the most promising leads. You know how it works – to gain followers, first you must follow. What I love about TribeBoost is that it doesn’t unfollow users who follow you back.

FollowerWonk lets me look at who my followers are, where they are, and what they’re talking about, which means I can find people with common interests that much faster. Hey, we might have even met that way.

Automate Twitter with Buffer and IFTTT (or Zapier)

I use Buffer to schedule my Tweets in advance, Start A FIRE to promote my brand and content, and IFTTT to, well… this takes some explaining. IFTTT is a semiacronym for “if this, then that.” You enter an if-then statement, like “If new Twitter follower, then send LinkedIn invitation.” It’s really amazing and can be used for everything from social media to getting alerts on your phone when the book you’ve been waiting for finally hits Kindle. Well worth your time to investigate its possibilities.

Chat with TweetChat and HashTracking

All the best conversations are happening in Twitter these days. It’s the best way to reach other people in your industry, like mentors, bloggers and thought-leaders. TweetChat makes it easy to chat by letting you just enter in a hashtag to follow a conversation. From there, you can save your favorite conversations on FavePages (sorted by date and hashtag) and even share FavePage Stories – all the Tweets in a conversation, curated by you (i.e. you can hide and re-order Tweets as needed).

HashTracking literally optimizes your conversation by telling you stats on the hashtag being used, lists of contributors and influencers, and giving you the ability to create shareable HashTracks™ infographics.

Make it Pretty with Canva and Pablo

I remember the days when 140-characters was all you got – now we’ve got a thousand words we have to come up with! In pictures, I mean. I use Canva and Pablo to create quick images that gain a little more attention for my Tweets.

Share Faster with Pullquote

Pullquote makes it easy for me to Tweet quotes or images from articles I find online. Just highlight the quote, select Tweet from the menu that pops up, enter your thought, tag it, and it’s Tweeted. A content curator’s dream.

Yes, I love my tools, but their sole purpose is this: To make it easier for me to share really interesting, useful content with you. That said, the one thing that I think you should never automate is engagement (I hate automated DMs), but everything else is fair game.

What are your favorite tools? Leave a comment and let me know.

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.

Curation, Growth Hacking

10 Inspirational Growth Marketers ft. @Everette, @grayj_, @MorganB, & More

June 6, 2015 by

inspirational-marketers

Image created by Yasmine Sedky (@yazsedky).
People who have helped shape how I think about Growth Marketing.

Not only are these Growth Marketers inspirational because of their contributions to online businesses, but also because of their contributions in a larger sense — they are just great people to know. I am continuously humbled by everything I’m learning from them, whether it’s about Growth Marketing or not.

1. Everette Taylor

Everette Taylor currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer for the popular e-commerce brand Sticker Mule, the maker of custom stickers for brands such as Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Google, Instagram, Apple, Walmart, ESPN, etc. He also recently helped launched the new brand Button Frog, the fastest and easiest way to order custom buttons/pins.

Other current projects include MilliSense, a marketing firm in which Everette founded that dedicates itself to growing companies and brands through data-driven digital marketing. Also, he partners with NFL Player Brandian Ross on the clothing Unity Over Self which raises money for children with autism.

Previously Everette was an integral member of the team that started GrowthHackers.com and served as Head of Growth. Other notable brands include United Way, Qualaroo, Hired, and celebrity author Neil Strauss.

Everette says he’s happier than ever, professionally and personally. His primary focus is continuing to push the growth of Sticker Mule and new brand Button Frog while maintaining a healthy work life balance. Diversity in the tech industry is something he’s passionate about and he plans to continue advocating on its behalf.

→ Follow Everette on Twitter.

 

 

2. Hiten Shah

Hiten is the co-founder of KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg.He helped coin the term “growth hacker” with Sean Ellis and Patrick Vlaskovits.

He loves starting and growing businesses and is eager to help others do the same.

→ Follow Hiten on Twitter.

 

 

3. Jim Gray

Jim is an engineer and data scientist, specializing in marketing automation. He provides consulting in technological marketing, the effects of UX on growth, email marketing, and integrated marketing strategies.

He writes about designing and marketing products using customer success thinking at grayj.co, although you’ll have to subscribe to his newsletter to see most of his content.

→ Follow Jim on Twitter.

 

 

4. Lincoln Murphy

Lincoln goes by many fun titles  —  but his current focus is on being a Customer Success Evangelist at Gainsight. Since 2006, he’s directly helped over 600 SaaS companies optimize their growth.

He’s contributed to, written for, or been featured in Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, Sandhill.com, GrowthHacker.tv, OpenView Labs, Read Write, SoftwareCEO, Venture Beat, Venture Hacks, and ZDNet.

He also keeps an up-to-date blog at Sixteen Ventures. In his free time you’ll find him enjoying yoga and bubble tea.

→ Follow Lincoln on Twitter.

 

 

5. Morgan Brown

A full-stack marketer focused on growth, Morgan has spent the last 14 years building audiences for startups and brands alike on the Web.

He’s part of the GrowthHackers.com and Qualaroo team, and leads growth efforts for Inman News.

You can follow him on Twitter, or learn more about what he does at FullStack.it.

When he’s not tied to his computer he loves spending time with his wife and two kids who he adores more than anything. In his rare spare time he loves reading and learning as much as he can.

→ Follow Morgan on Twitter.

 

 

6. Kiki Schirr

Kiki Schirr is the marketer for Fittr and in her spare time is a contributor at {grow} and for The Craft, which is a collaboration with Violeta Nedkova and Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré.

Recently she’s started a series of comics on Medium, but usually her creative efforts are focused on painting or writing.

She wrote the Product Hunt Manual and is working on a second edition, and on starting her blog (eventually).

She loves meeting new people through Twitter, and thinks she has the silliest professional bio of any tweep.

→ Follow Kiki on Twitter.

 

 

7. Ryan Hoover

Ryan got his first taste of entrepreneurship as a pre-teen managing gum-ball machines at his father’s video game store.

Then he grew up, worked at a failed gaming startup after college, moved to Silicon Valley to join a 10-person team that grew to 120, and experimented with his own startup ideas along the way, one of which seems to be working.

He’s the founder of Product Hunt, a daily leader board of the best new products, and an EIR at Tradecraft where his team trains smart people in sales/BD, UX, and growth.

He also writes about startups and product design with essays featured inTechCrunch, The Next Web, Forbes, and Fast Company.

→ Follow Ryan on Twitter.

 

 

8. Sean Ellis

Sean is the CEO and Founder of Qualaroo and GrowthHackers.com, and the first marketer at Dropbox, Lookout, LogMeIn (IPO), and Uproar (IPO).

He coined the term “growth hacker”, and devised the startup pyramid which is widely recognized and referred to as an industry standard.

→ Follow Sean on Twitter.

 

 

9. Shana Carp

Shana is a product marketer specializing in products that deal with data. She has a deep love for conversion optimization techniques, and using Python as an Excel replacement.

In her spare time she likes to cook and bake.

→ Follow Shana on Twitter.

 

 

10. Violeta Nedkova

Violeta Nedkova likes to say she’s always hacking things. Her focus is on social media, content marketing, and community, and her blog is a plethora of topics, such as marketing, startups, and psychology.

She was previously co-founder of Amazemeet, but currently enjoys consulting and curating The Craft with her best friends Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré and Kiki Schirr.

She can be found on twitter or her favorite communities: Product Hunt, Somewhere, and Inbound.

→ Follow Violeta on Twitter.

 

 

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.

Conversion Rate Optimization, Curation, Metrics, Tools

34 Tools for Conversion Rate Optimization ft. @MorganB

June 5, 2015 by

tools-for-cro

Image created by Yasmine Sedky (‏@yazsedky).

Qualitative, quantitative, testing, and workflow tools for conversion rate optimization.

Conversion Rate Optimization is one of the most powerful levers for driving online business growth.

The Conversion Rate Optimization process includes quantitative and qualitative data and testing with a scientific approach.

As Peep Laja mentions, “[CRO] tools aren’t as important as knowing what to do with them. Putting a scalpel in someone’s hand doesn’t make them a surgeon.” That said, building a CRO stack won’t make you an expert, but it’s a good place to start when familiarizing yourself with related methodologies.

The tools listed here were curated by Qualaroo and Segment.io during a webinar about how to build the perfect conversion stack. There isn’t an accompanying video for it, but if you have questions you can direct them here.

Quantitative Tools

The What

Google Analytics (@googleanalytics)
An ad click here, a page view there, a video watched on a tablet before bed… but which one clinched the sale? Google Analytics has the latest in full-credit measurement, so you see all the stops people take on the road to action. The result: a measurable way to improve campaigns and reach new audiences as they go through their days.

KISSMetrics (@KISSmetrics)
Google Analytics tells you what’s happening. KISSmetrics tell you who’s doing it.

Mixpanel (@mixpanel)
Mixpanel lets you measure what customers do in your app by reporting actions, not page views.

Woopra (@Woopra)
No more guessing what customers did on your site or app. Know how engaged each customer is, and exactly what actions they performed — all in real-time.

Omniture / Adobe Marketing Cloud (@AdobeMktgCloud)
Analytics, social, media optimization, targeting, web experience management — and now cross-channel campaign management with Adobe Campaign — Adobe Marketing Cloud does it all.

Clicky (@clicky)
Real-time analytics.

Adobe Analytics (@AdobeAnalytics)
Adobe Analytics helps you create a holistic view of your business by turning all customer interactions, including offline data, into actionable insights. The marketing reports and analytics, ad hoc analysis, and data workbench technologies give you access to easy-to-use, interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations. With the market-leading solution, you’ll better understand the whole customer journey.

Qualitative Tools

The Why

Qualaroo (@QualarooInc)
Analytics tell you what people are doing on your website. Qualaroo tells you why. Qualaroo insights lead to smarter tests and faster improvements in your website’s performance.

Survey.io (@QualarooInc)
Create an initial customer development survey.

Survey Monkey (@SurveyMonkey)
SurveyMonkey is the world’s most popular online survey software. We make it easier than ever to create polls and survey questionnaires for learning about anything from customer satisfaction to employee engagement. Sign up to access our library of sample survey questions and expert-certified templates. Customize your survey questions, distribute your questionnaire on the web, and start collecting responses in real time. Our Analyze tool helps you turn survey data into insights and create professional reports.

Olark (@olark)
Experience the easiest way to boost your sales, help solve issues and understand your customers with Olark live chat.

SessionCam (@SessionCam)
Session replay, heatmaps, and conversion funnels.

Inspectlet (@Inspectlet)
Analyze user behavior instantly with eye-tracking heat maps, screen capture (record and playback actual visitor sessions), and user-interaction analytics.

ClickTale (@ClickTale)
ClickTale takes the guess work out of website optimization, conversion analysis and usability research. Knowing how visitors use your website will enable you better target specific audiences, improve customer satisfaction and increase conversion. Use ClickTale to analyze the performance of your online forms, keep visitors engaged in page content, and lead them through the conversion process.

CrazyEgg (@CrazyEgg)
The original heatmapping technology.

UserTesting (@usertesting)
Get videos of real people speaking their thoughts as they use your website or mobile app.

FiveSecondTest (@fivesecondtest)
Fivesecondtest helps you fine tune your landing pages and calls
to action by analyzing the most prominent elements of your design.

Silverback 2.0 (@silverbackapp)
Guerrilla usability testing software for designers and developers.

Hot Jar (@HotjarApps)
All-in-one analytics and feedback.

Testing Tools

The How & When

Optimizely (@Optimizely)
Increase engagement, interactions, and conversions.

Unbounce (@unbounce)
Marketers: build, publish & A/B test your landing pages without I.T.

Ion (@ioninteractive)
Easily create and test app-like digital experiences that generate leads, enhance brands, and drive revenue.

Visual Website Optimizer (@wingify)
Create and test different versions of your website to continuously discover the best performing versions that increase your online sales.

AppsFlyer (@AppsFlyer)
Mobile apps installation referral and conversion tracking service.

Adobe Target (@AdobeTarget)
Most marketers want to test and target but don’t think they have the time, expertise, or tools. Adobe has simplified it to a click.

Yozio
Yozio makes it easy for organizations with mobile apps to develop a deep understanding of their users and drive acquisition, engagement, revenue and retention.

Workflow Tools

The Learning

workflow_tools

Google Drive (@googledrive)
Drive starts you with 15 GB of free Google storage, so you can keep pictures, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos — anything.

Panic (@panic)
We make Macintosh software: Coda, Diet Coda, Transmit, Unison, Prompt, and more.

PowerPoint
Build the story, present with presence and inspire your audience

Excel
Unlock insights and tell the story in your data.

Experiment Engine (@expengine)
Build your testing plan, source variations, run experiments, and gather results–all from one platform.

Python (@ThePSF)
Python is a programming language that lets you work quickly and integrate systems more effectively.

Geckoboard (@geckoboard)
Use data to make better decisions and motivate your team.

Confluence (@atlassian)
Give your team one place to share, find, and collaborate on information they need to get work done.

Company Stage Matters

Company stage matters when conducting CRO. Morgan Brown goes into detail about that here.

Let’s Get SaaSsy – I’m offering a limited number of SaaS consulting engagements.