by Nathan W. Burke on August 31, 2010
Just learned about these this week, and thought I’d share. (From the job posts on the two respective sites…not my own wording)
Nasuni is looking for a creative, energetic and enthusiastic candidate to join its marketing team. This is an excellent opportunity to join a dynamic and growing technology start-up and directly contributing to the growth and success of the company.
The marketing coordinator will help manage lead generation and advertising programs, create marketing collateral (including videos), update website pages, track and analyze progress, and more. This is an ideal position for someone with a few years of marketing experience, looking to make an impact while advancing a career in marketing. If you are a driven, creative and energetic individual with strong organizational skills, attention to detail and interest in marketing and technology, we want to talk to you!
Responsibilities include:
- Coordinate and manage marketing campaigns, from the beginning to the end, including vendor selection, negotiation, design and implementation across online mediums such as banner ads, email campaigns, social media ads, etc.
- Create and write marketing collaterals and ad copy, create and edit HTML emails, track and report metrics
- Work with salesforce.com and our marketing automation tools to manage and nurture leads
- Use analytics tools to track website and leads statistics and regularly report on progress of all marketing programs
- Create, maintain and update website pages on a continuous basis as needed
- Maintain a line of communication between Nasuni and potential customers by monitoring and responding to comments, updating Nasuni’s social media outlets, creating a relationship with bloggers, etc.
Requirements:
- A Bachelor’s degree, preferably in marketing
- Minimum 2 years of experience in marketing
- Experience with vendors and marketing lead generation programs is a plus
- Strong analytical and organizational skills; Extremely detail oriented and creative
- Proven ability to develop effective and high quality written marketing material
- Comfortable with online tools. A fast learner for a variety of tools.
- Experience with salesforce.com is a nice to have
- Basic knowledge of HTML
- Able to work independently with little direction
- Excellent spoken and written communication skills. Excellent listening skills
- Flexibility: able to perform a wide range of tasks and change focus quickly. Adapt to varying business needs
- Effectiveness: able to work fast and under pressure to deliver the projects on time.
Please send your resume and a sample of previous marketing material you created to jobs@nasuni.com.
neoSaej is the Burlington MA-based online product company with an innovative technology that opens new frontiers in online marketplaces. We are an exciting startup looking for a hands-on Online Marketing Manager to develop, implement and maintain our paid search and display advertising programs. This is position is for someone with excellent analytical skills and a demonstrated passion for internet marketing. The successful candidate will also have experience measurably increasing qualified traffic at a positive ROI. The candidate’s success will be measured by quantifiable improvements in traffic, visitor conversion and overall monetization.
Responsibilities:
- Responsible for the execution of online search marketing, and display advertising strategy which includes exploring and testing new online channels to generate qualified visitors while meeting cost-per-acquisition targets.
- Work with marketing, design, and engineering to deploy lead generation campaigns across multiple media channels.
- Manage, measure and optimize site conversion and monetization.
- Design and manage web analytics, A/B split testing, and multivariate testing.
- Maximize revenue per visitor from various channels including SEO, PPC, Affiliates/Partners.
Requirements:
- 2+ years of direct-to-consumer online marketing ideally with experience in the creation, implementation and measurement of customer acquisition campaigns across a variety of online channels, including organic and paid search, email, and social media.
- Deep understanding of CPA, CPL, CPM SEM, SEO, CPC and PPC.
- Proven track record with search marketing and/or display advertising.
- Passionate about maximizing website conversion and monetization.
- Experience with Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer is a plus.
- Bachelors degree in a related discipline such as Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science, Economics or Business. Masters degree or MBA is a plus.
The Online Marketing Manager (OMM) will play a leading role in crafting MoneyAise’s online & social media marketing strategy, manage its execution and track its effectiveness. A primary focus of the SMM role will be in the expanding the Company’s consumer outreach via organic search, PPC & Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, ect). You will have the opportunity to operate on both a strategic and tactical level while taking ownership for the Company’s consumer outreach. Expertise in creation of social media strategy is of particular interest for this role.
Please send your resume to careers@neosaej.com
by Nathan W. Burke on August 24, 2010
In the past 24 hours, I’ve received messages from 2 startups looking to expand their marketing team. Both were asking for references and ideas for candidates, and both were startups that weren’t exactly lightweights. We’re talking about startups that have been around for over a year, have paying customers, and have been considered by publications like the Boston Globe and BusinessWeek to be emerging startups to watch.
As of this second, here’s the breakdown of marketing jobs on popular startup job sites:
Now, I have to admit: I only have the current count of startup marketing jobs on the above sites, so I can’t say that the numbers are growing now.
If you’re someone looking for a startup marketing gig (especially in the Boston or New England area), feel free to join the
Boston-area Startup Marketing meetup group.
by Nathan W. Burke on August 23, 2010
My second monthly column for VentureFizz is now live. “First Look: Marginize” is a look at how VC Ziad Sultan took his pet project from a nights and weekend activity to a seed round.
by Nathan W. Burke on July 30, 2010
Today is International Systems Administrator Appreciation Day. But you probably already knew that, right? It’s not just a Hallmark holiday.
For the second year in a row, we wanted to do something to celebrate. But first, a little background for the uninitiated.
Our startup, Aprigo, is selling a SaaS suite of apps for IT pros to manage all their unstructured data (aka files). The product, Aprigo NINJA, focuses on both the access management side- who has access to which files, which files are accessible to whom- and the storage capacity side- showing how storage is being used, what kind of junk is taking up valuable space, etc.
Our audience consists of IT Managers, IT Directors, CIOs, and of course systems administrators. They’re the guys that- in many cases- are going to be the ones using our product on a day-to-day basis.
So we put together a small facebook campaign targeted at sysadmins in the United States only, offering a $10 iTunes gift card. Here’s what it looked like:
The goal was to get ~100 sysadmins to sign up. That only took a few hours.
Impressions: 443,209
Clicks: 393
Signups: 113
This was more of a goodwill campaign, as we weren’t trying to hard sell these guys. Instead, we sent out the cards via email- after I scratched off 100+ individual iTunes cards- and called to make sure they were received. I then just asked whether they had ever heard of us before and if they’d had a chance to check out the product. That was really all. Sysadmins are super busy, and rather than coming off as bribing them with $10 to listen to a sales pitch, I really wanted us to be perceived as a company that cares about sysadmins.
Was it a success? I’m not sure yet. On the surface, I think it was good at introducing us to a group of potential users in a positive light. On the other hand, it’s hard to tell how many will actually try out the product and turn into a sales ready lead.
by Nathan W. Burke on July 16, 2010
My first monthly column for VentureFizz, First Look: xtra xtra has just been published. Each month I’ll be writing a column featuring new startups in the Boston area.
If you have a startup you’d like to see reviewed in the First Look column, please let me know by sending an email to me at nathan dot burke at gmail dot com.
by Nathan W. Burke on June 11, 2010
Well this is kind of awesome. The first job post here on marketingstartups.com, and it’s for a marketing job at Aprigo. So if you (or someone you can recommend) are the person I’m describing in the following job description, get in touch with me at marketing@aprigo.com ASAP.
Here’s the listing:
We’re a Waltham-based Software As A Service startup looking to add a marketing superstar to our small, yet awesome team.
The ideal candidate was born to thrive in a startup environment and thinks that ridiculous deadlines, endless “to-do” lists, and huge challenges are the reasons to wake up in the morning. If you’re all for committees, task forces, long meetings, corporate buzzwords, strict job responsibilities and no pressure….well, this won’t be for you.
We’re building a marketing machine to bring in highly qualified leads for our product, which is aimed at IT Managers in mid-market companies, and we’re looking for just the right person to help us fuel it. Some of the requirements include:
- Energy- Yeah, we know. Every job listing asks for an “energetic self starter”, but we mean it.
- Writing- This is HUGE. This job requires mad writing skills.
- Motivation- The whole “not my job” thing doesn’t fly here, as we’re all trying to make our company take off.
- Organization- Program management and organizational skills are arguably the most important aspects of this job. You should be a master of the spreadsheet and help us stay disciplined with all our marketing activities.
- Tech Saavy- We’re a tech startup, so having a strong tech background certainly helps. We’re not necessarily looking for a subject matter expert that knows everything there is to know about storage tiering and data governance. We’re looking for someone that can understand the topics relevant to us and write about them intelligently.
Some of the responsibilities include:
- Product Mktg- Creating collateral to drive sales including whitepapers, data sheets and other product collateral
- Adwords- Creating ads for and managing our Google PPC efforts
- LGP- Managing lead guarantee programs
- Program Mgmt- Organizing integrated marketing programs, scheduling and planning events and owning the marketing calendar
- Outbound mktg- Owning the outbound side of our marketing campaigns including lists, email blasts, etc.
- Co-Marketing- Coming up with creative co-marketing opportunities with complimentary companies
- Email Newsletter- Producing our monthly email newsletter that does not yet exist
- Written Case studies- Writing case studies based on interviews with our customers
If this is you, we want to hear from you ASAP. Email us at marketing@aprigo.com with the following info:
- Who are you, and what have you done that makes you perfect for this role?
- Let’s pretend you’ve got the job. Briefly explain your plan of action based on the above responsibilities.
- What’s a good example of your writing style?
- Tell us about yourself. What do you like to do? What web sites do you visit on a daily basis? Just give us an idea about who you are (not just bullets on a resume)
by Nathan W. Burke on June 7, 2010
The Program
I got an email this morning from Paul Geffen, a member of our Boston Area Startup Marketing Group (which, by the way, isn’t dead….more on that very soon). He wanted to let the group know that the Founder Institute and Entrepreneurship Program is coming to Boston.
A little more info:
TheFunded Founder Institute, a four month program to help founders build the next generation of world-class technology companies, is launching a new semester in Boston from July, 2010, until October, 2010. The program is run by founders for founders, providing a structure for successful entrepreneurs to share their experiences and to provide guidance. If you have a new company or if they are thinking to start a company, we encourage you to apply to the program.
We’ve already lined up great Mentors for Boston, including;
- Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
- Craig Kanarick, Cofounder of Razorfish
- Dharmesh Shaw, Cofounder of Hubspot
- Dan Shapiro, CEO of Ontela
- Eric Melin, CEO of Philanthropist.org
- Stephen Hau, CEO of Sharable Ink and Patientkeeper
- Doug Brenhouse, Cofounder of Metacarta
- Ryan Alfred, Cofounder of Brightscope.com
- Roger Yee, Former CEO of ShadowLogic
- Matt Johnson, CEO of OmniStrat
- And more…
The deadline for applications for the Boston course is June 23rd. Please see
http://www.founderinstitute.com/apply/23/mu_php for more details and an application form.
What’s Interesting
I sent a message to all the members of the meetup group, and emailed a few questions back to Paul.
Me: How much does it cost?
Paul Geffen: The cost of the course is as follows (you can also find this info on the web site )
- First, Founders pay a $50 Application Fee to cover the costs of reviewing and testing the prospective entrepreneurs.
- Next, Founders accepted into the program contribute a $600 Course Fee to cover location fees, catering, mentor travel, and other expenses of running a 16 week program. The Course Fee is calculated by dividing costs by the expected number of accepted Founders.
- Third, if a Founder graduates from the program, they are asked to contribute warrants for 3.5% of their company priced at fair market value into a Bonus Pool that is shared between the other Founders, the Mentors, the local operators, and the Institute. 30% of the Bonus Pool returns goes right back to the Founders themselves, allowing each graduate to earn returns based on the success of their peers. Enrolled Founders can drop out at any time and avoid joining the Bonus Pool.
- Lastly, if a company is successful and receives financing from third parties, the Institute asks that the company pay a one time Tuition of $4,500, which supplies the operating capital for the Institute.
Me: How long has the Founder Institute and this course been around?
Paul Geffen: The history:
The Institute is funded by Adeo Ressi, a serial entrepreneur and Founding Member of TheFunded, Incorporated. The idea for the Institute began in January, 2009, as a way to help Founders avoid common mistakes that lead to the failure of a business. In February, Topicki was launched as an interactive curriculum builder for the sessions, and hundreds of CEOs contributed ideas on what Founders need to know. On March 3rd, the story was leaked to TechCrunch, forcing the Institute to move quickly on plans. The company was incorporated on April 16th, 2009, using the same documents offered to the public and to the participating Founders one day before accepting applications.
The Institute is currently running in ten cities. This is the first Boston course – we have already graduated founders in the other nine cities, including:
- SF Bay Area
- Denver
- San Diego
- Singapore
- Paris
- LA
- New York
- Washington, DC
Me: Any success stories to share?
Paul Geffen: Some of our graduates are listed here: http://www.founderinstitute.com/companies
Me: When is the entry deadline?
Paul Geffen: The application deadline for Boston is June 23rd.
I really like the idea, and the stable of startup CEOs and founders is pretty insane. I’d apply in a second, but since I’m not a co-founder and can’t commit a percentage of the company into a pool, I won’t be able to do this. But, I took a look at the application, and it’s really interesting.
Two things on the application:
- A LinkedIn profile is mandatory, and must be 85% complete with at least 1 recommendation and at least 10 connections
- There’s an optional field asking you to introduce yourself, your passion and your idea in a 120 second YouTube clip
Very cool.
by Nathan W. Burke on June 3, 2010
Last night we released the newest version of Aprigo NINJA, and I’m about to send out an email to our entire user base announcing what’s new. Since we’ve just started using Lyris and Salesforce.com together to both send and track the messages we send, I’m now sending two separate messages.
Which do you think will perform best?
Contender 1:
Subject: When they ask about access to sensitive data, just hand them this.
Reporting On Data Access? No Problem
One thing we’ve heard from our customers from the beginning is some form of: ”whenever someone asks me to show them who has access to our data, I cringe. It’s a huge hassle.”
Imagine being asked to produce:
- A detailed report of all the users and groups that have access to the “Finance” folder
- A report showing which folders are accessible to everyone
- A report that looks at specific users and groups and which data they can access
Until now, that would be an incredibly manual, time-consuming headache.
But yesterday’s release of Aprigo NINJA made reporting a breeze. Have a look at the reporting options in the new release on our blog.
Prove You’re A Data Security NINJA, Win An iPad
Think you’ve got your data on lockdown? Prove it, and you could in an iPad in the Aprigo Data Security Ninja Challenge.
Contender 2:
Subject: CFOs are the enemy of Role-Based Access Control
Or so I was told by an IT manager that works with us as a design partner. This is why we’re excited about the new Aprigo NINJA release from yesterday that adds the following capabilities:
If you have your CFO under control and you’re a data security NINJA – you may be eligible for a Free iPad
Well, which do you think will work best? I’ll post the results next week.
by Nathan W. Burke on April 20, 2010
Sometimes you get an email with a subject line that makes you open it immediately. For good or for bad, you take notice and take action.
There’s No Such Thing As Bad Attention
Okay, you’re right. That’s not the right wording of the famous saying (“There’s no such thing as bad press“), but is it true? In a world full of noise, is any attention good attention?
Let’s use a more concrete example that applies to the startup marketer.
Fact One: Very few people have heard of your company
Fact Two: You have a database of people that have signed up for your product or service, have indicated interest in what you have to say, etc.
Fact Three: With people inundated by emails, it is increasingly difficult to get someone’s attention with nothing but an email subject line
Given these three facts, you can see why spammers will do anything they can to get you to open an email. They really have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Just a few minutes ago I got an email from staples that looked like this:
The subject line: Thanks for your purchase! Open for more great products.
What? I didn’t just buy something from Staples! I’d better open this up and see what the hell is going on….
Ahhhh. I get it. I bought something in the store, not online. Clever.
Is Opening The Email The Ultimate Goal?
Like anything else in marketing, let’s ask the question: What is the goal of this campaign?
If the goal is simply to get someone to open the email, Staples did a great job here. If, however, the goal is to get them to click over to the site or to buy more pens, I’m going to guess this isn’t the campaign they’re looking for.
Or if the goal is simply to remind people that Staples exists without getting them to unsubscribe…..(and write blog posts about them)…….
Some Common Tricks You Can Try
Staples has an advantage in that they only send this email out to reward card users that have just purchased something, but there are a couple of common tricks you can try in your email subject lines:
- Re: Getting started with [Product Name]- This is an old one but a clever one. Makes you think someone is actually replying to what you wrote, giving it that personal feeling.
- Fwd: New Office Rules- Not quite as strong as the Re: email, but this makes you think that a close acquaintance sent this your way. The new office rules gives it a nice touch as well.
- Question For An Article: This one works every time, as it makes you think someone sees you as an expert and wants your opinion. Use this with caution, however, as opening this way and following up with a product plug makes you look like a dick.
- Are You Going On Thursday?: Coming from a personal address, this can confuse someone into thinking a friend or acquaintance is inviting you to something or seeing if you’ll be at an event.
by Nathan W. Burke on March 8, 2010
It’s been a while since my last post here, as I’ve been spending more time walking the walk than talking the talk. That, and I’ve been trying to figure out the line between revealing too much and not adding enough value. I think I’ve found that line (hopefully those aren’t famous last words!), and I’m back to blogging.
My Purpose In Life (At Work, At Least)
I’ll always remember my answer when asked “What’s the goal of marketing at a startup?” when interviewing for my current gig. The answer: “Drive sales.”
Before moving on from a declarative statement like that, I should add a small caveat. There are some startups that simply don’t have anything to sell. So let me change my answer to “Drive the pre-defined success event”. It really doesn’t have the same ring as “drive sales”, but you get the picture. If the goal is to get people to sign up, that’s the success event. Moving right along.
Using Facebook Ads To Generate Leads
Back in January, we released the first paid version of our software. Prior to that, we had a free version, and most of my lead generation activities for the free app were, well, free. I did a lot of outreach, listings, etc., but didn’t really spend much money. With the release of the paid product, I was able to do a little bit of PPC spending.
Sure, I’ve done a lot of AdWords campaigns, but they just don’t work. The price per click is very high, the conversion rate is low, and those that actually signed up for a free trial of our product were few and very far between.
Enter facebook.
My preconception: Since facebook is primarily a place where people update their friends and play games, it would NOT be a good lead generation avenue.
Looking Back: Boy, was I wrong.
I’m obviously not going to share the raw numbers with you, but I can tell you this: facebook is by orders of magnitude the best lead generation channel we have. Here’s what’s so great about facebook ads:
1. Targeting is awesome.
With facebook, the targeting is HUGE. You can target geographically, by age, by gender, and by “Likes” (called Keywords here). The keyword field lets you target interests, by scanning what users have indicated within their profile.
2. Ads are cheap- Right now I’m looking at around $0.70 per click, which is FAR less than AdWords and the leads are highly targeted.
3. Ads are fun- Since this is facebook and you’re trying to compete for a visitor’s attention, you really need to come up with some interesting, fun ads. Here are a few that have worked well for me.
4.Time To Campaign Is Fast- It literally takes minutes to get a campaign up and running. Where AdWords can take days to give you a single impression, facebook ads go up in minutes, and you start getting impressions immediately.
All right, that’s all for now.
In the coming posts, I’ll be talking about things like:
- Using one-day only facebook ads
- Micro-targeting using facebook ads
- The lifecycle of a single ad on facebook (hint, it’s short)
- Running a branding campaign using facebook (succeeding without ever getting a click)
