Daniel Heck’s Post

Growth is a double-edged sword. Startups need to expand to sustain themselves. But if they grow too fast too quickly, they run the risk of delivering a poor customer experience. At Kard, we’re trying to strike a balance — and the way we’re doing that is by proactively streamlining our operations. In our most recent blog, Kard’s Ad Operations Manager, Dana Field shares how her team is: 🔹 Reinventing reporting 🔹 Accelerating campaign launches 🔹 Restructuring the onboarding process Read the full post here: https://lnkd.in/gSzk-snK

When Norwest Managing General Partner Jeff Crowe evaluates CEOs he looks for a number of qualities. ◻️ a deep understanding of the customer ◻️ sound business judgment ◻️ the ability to sell customers, employees, and investors ◻️ the ability to inspire people ◻️ a leader who can attract strong people and get them to work together ◻️ someone humble enough to listen but decisive enough to act Button Co-Founder and CEO Michael Jaconi checked ✅ all of those boxes. When Michael co-founded Button in 2014, his goal was to create a win-win-win solution for retailers, publishers, and creators alike through its deep-linking technology. If his company could deliver on those goals, Jaconi was confident he and his co-founders could build an enduring business. With some seed money and Series A funding, the company developed the Button platform and began to make their vision a reality. These factors — the innovative product and CEO — were key in Jeff’s decision to invest. In 2017, Norwest led Button’s Series B and since then we’ve partnered with the company in many ways to fuel its growth. Read more about our partnership with Button: https://lnkd.in/gB7RMdQj

🌟 Just stumbled upon a fascinating article about creating a successful go-to-market strategy! 🚀 🔍 Dive into the world of go-to-market strategies and discover why it's the cornerstone of startup success. Here are some key takeaways: 🎯 Understanding the Market: Explore how to choose the right market where you can establish yourself as a leader. 📣 Positioning Your Product: Learn the importance of product positioning and how it shapes your marketing strategy. 💼 Sales and Marketing Strategy: Get insights into creating a comprehensive strategy that includes cost analysis and promotional materials. 📊 Executing the Plan: Discover the importance of measuring results, making adjustments, and driving successful implementation. 💡 Why It Matters: Uncover the significance of a well-crafted go-to-market strategy in product development and market readiness. 🤔 What are your thoughts on this? Share your feelings and insights! Let's spark a conversation and exchange ideas. #GoToMarket #Strategy #StartupSuccess https://lnkd.in/g937_SN6

Pumped to partner with Rishabh Jain and Shreyas Kumar in this next phase of growth for Fermat. First-party data regulation has put many guardrails around customer data collection and Fermat is able to unlock this unprecedented data asset for teams to make data-driven decisions again. This is the future of web & ad experimentation and optimization. https://lnkd.in/gBAUiX6x

For the second time, I made the decision as a founder to make less money selling our product. If we were VC-backed, this might not go over very well. Some might call it silly or irresponsible leadership, but I've placed my bet on this decision in the long run. About three months ago, we made a major shift to better serve one of our core customer bases: marketing agencies. Agencies needed to create separate Squid accounts for each client site they managed. That meant if they managed 50 sites, they had to set up, manage, and pay for 50 accounts. From our perspective, it was great for revenue. But I don’t think that’s the right way to go. It didn't make sense and was inefficient for them. So, we doubled down on building a true multi-account model that lets agencies manage all their sites under one account. Now, instead of paying 50 times, they pay just once, and they can share credits across their accounts. It’s less revenue for us, but it’s the right thing for them. That's the advantage of being a bootstrapped company. It's a tough call, but I really believe that if we make it easier for our customers, we'll keep growing and catch back up.

In today’s digital age, scaling a brand requires more than just a great product. Analysis of 71 brands reveals key growth strategies for startups, scaleups, mature businesses, and offline brands. Learn how to build a solid foundation, accelerate conversions, expand horizons, and embrace digital channels effectively. Discover the optimal funnel strategy that successful brands use to drive sustained growth. 🌟 Read the full article at: https://lnkd.in/gXETFC4m #BrandGrowth #B2BMarketing #EcommerceSuccess #DigitalStrategy

This Year has been a Roller coaster for me. . . Started a company 3 years back and helped more than 4000 marketing professionals but something did not tick off & like they say I had to take a break from it. (Still finding ways to figure out how I can make it work) "An Entrepreneur can fail, but the passion doesn't die" - Building from scratch has always been fascinating for me and I am glad that I am part of the founding team for GTM here at Whatmore. This year, in Early June, I was introduced to the concept of Shoppable Videos, and fast forward to today, I am selling solutions to D2C brands about Shoppable videos. It's very remarkable to see how brands can leverage their content which would not see any ROI apart from lying there in their social media or Seeing ROI from their ads. From Product discovery to Conversions, Video Shopping has made a dent in the D2C Market space. We have seen the space grow from just a Could-have application moving to a Should-Have widget. I would love to interact with D2C Brand owners and Marketing agencies on their thoughts about Video Shopping PS: Follow this space for more such random rants 😅 PPS: I am trying to do 1 post at least a week 😄

The most overlooked “asset” for your productized service or agency is distribution. That's the most important thing in the business. Period. The dark side of productized services and agencies that not enough people talk about is: 1. High churn 2. Difficulty in customer/client acquisition Relying on only word of mouth and referrals isn’t controllable or scalable. This means you have to market and acquire customers, often in the form of advertising. Many agencies just don’t know how to acquire customers without it costing a fortune. Any high-growth, sustainable agency or service business knows how to generate traffic and leads from organic sources. What companies like HeyFriends have done, is partner with B2B creators to piggyback on the creator's distribution and authority. Winning at productized services is a combination of distribution, authority, and operational excellence. What do you think? 👇🏼

One of my clients has had a KILLER start to 2024. Their sales are up 44%, and their growth has nothing to do with an increase in ad spend. I want to share how we accomplished this (because every startup should use this playbook). 1. In October 2023, we implemented a strategic marketing calendar. This calendar helps us ensure that marketing goals are tied to business goals and allows us to consistently build upon quick wins in our business. 2. We've doubled down on our retention efforts. Specifically, we've focused on adding more emails to our flows, communicating with our customers, and using these channels to better communicate with those who have an existing relationship with the brand. 3. We've shifted our paid advertising creative from direct response focused to acquisition via brand. We found that pure DR messaging drove non-incremental repeat purchases. Now, our paid efforts are nearly focused on acquiring net new customers. 4. We're focused on capturing social proof - and implementing that across the business. Our flywheels are being used to help populate all of our marketing - with that social capital becoming a key pillar of our comms. 5. We've shifted our key performance indicators from ROAS to Marketing Efficiency, Cost Per Acquisition, and Contribution Margin. This allows us to focus on long-term metrics without over-optimizing towards short-term wins. We're heavily focused on acquiring profitable customers in their first transaction and deepening relationships with them to build their lifetime value. _____________ 👋 Hi there. I'm Dan Goldstein, a Fractional CMO/Head of Growth for seed & growth-stage health, wellness, fitness & sports startups. Since 2022, I've been fortunate to have worked with nearly 20 different companies - helping them solve their biggest marketing challenges. Want to learn more? I offer a free 30-minute strategy session to all founders, CEOs & CMOs. You can sign up for that free strategy session 👉 nextrep.co #growthmarketing #healthandwellness #digitalmarketing #marketing #fractionalCMO

I spent 20 hours dissecting how Dr. Squatch, a men's personal care brand, rocketed to a staggering $200 million a year in sales. Here is what you can expect from the breakdown: 🧼 Founding story, from personal irritation to global success 🧼 The agency behind the surge from $5 million to $100 million in sales within 24 months 🧼 How Message Market Fit & Jobs to Be Done unlocked insane growth 🧼 Creating a viral video, securing YouTube sponsorships, and launching Super Bowl ads 🧼 Irresistible offers, Drip campaigns, and Scroll-stopping Meta ads Here is a sneak peak 😉 It's 2013, and Jack Haldrup, fuelled by insights from "The Four Hour Workweek" and "The Lean Startup," is on a quest. He's not just looking to create a random product; he's looking to solve a problem rooted in his own experience battling with skin issues. This journey leads him to discover cold-processed soap at a farmer's market, a simple choice that marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey. Men's personal care at the time wasn’t fragmented (and still isn’t in the same way the women’s market is). Big names like Procter and Gamble have held the reins for too long. Jack saw an opportunity not just to carve out market share but to change the way men think about the products they use on their bodies every day. The early days were all about grassroots efforts—going door to door, for direct interaction with boutique shops. They bootstrapped. Jack was at a crossroads; he didn’t just want to continue with slow growth and run a lifestyle business. He either wanted to take on money and swing for the fences or shut down the business altogether. He chose to go big. This is where the story of scale starts. Link to read in the comments