4 Important Startup Marketing Lessons From mesh marketing 13

mesh marketingLast week I was fortunate enough to attend mesh marketing 13 in Toronto.

Mesh is Canada’s premier digital marketing conference and explores how the web is evolving, the emergence of new and emerging trends, and what’s just over the digital horizon.

In case you missed the conference, here are a few of the most insightful marketing lessons that startups and small businesses can take away from the day’s best speakers.

1. Peep Laja – Even Startups and Small Businesses Can Practice Conversion Rate Optimization
mesh marketing

Peep Laja, the ‘datanist’ behind the popular blog ConversionXL, kicked off the day with a fantastic opening keynote on how conversion rate optimization is about doing better marketing, not just changing button colours.

For me, the biggest takeaway from Peep’s presentation came during the Q&A. While Peep’s presentation was full of fantastic and useful information, it was predominantly applicable to large websites with an abundance of time and resources (for example, running a conversion test to a confidence level of 95% could take years for a lot of startups and small businesses). So, I was thrilled when an audience member asked Peep about whether smaller businesses could still practice conversion optimization.

Ultimately, the key takeaway is that yes, startups and small businesses can still practice conversion optimization – it’s just harder, can take longer, and requires a bit more intuition on the part of the marketer. The key is making larger and more radical changes to your website and landing pages than you otherwise would as a larger organization. As Peep noted, if you’re on the right track you’ll notice the impact almost immediately in your bank account.

2. Danny Brown & Sam Fiorella It’s Not About The Influencer, It’s About The Customer

mesh marketingDanny and Sam are co-authors of the book Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage, and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing.

During their presentation, Danny and Sam touch on the need to shift the influence marketing focus from brand amplification towards the customer buying process. I was surprised to hear two authors of a book about influence marketing say “it’s not about the influencer”, but Sam and Danny made several compelling arguments for placing the customer, not the macroinfluencers, at the heart of influence marketing models.

They key takeaway for startups and small businesses? By taking the time to understand your customers’ purchasing habits and how they move from preference to purchase, you’ll be better able to identify the ‘micro-influencers’ you should be connecting with. In a world of social media, the opinions of the people closest to your customers matter the most.

3. Pam Clarkson, Laurie Dillon-Schalk, and Helen Androlia – Real-Time Marketing Happens Where Preparation Meets Opportunity  

mesh marketingBy now, you’ve undoubtedly seen or heard about OREO’s “you can still dunk in the dark” tweet, one of the best recent examples of great real-time marketing.

At mesh, we were lucky enough to hear from Pam Clarkson, Senior Brand Manager at Mondelez International, as well as Laurie Dillon-Schalk and Helen Androlia of marketing communications agency Draftfcb, on how OREO is capitalizing on its real-time successes. How did OREO become so good at acting quickly and thinking on their feet?

The answer (surprisingly) is through meticulous preparation. Contrary to what you might think, real-time marketing requires a lot of planning (the presenters mentioned that OREO typically plans content calendars 3-6 weeks in advance and classifies content into planned, spontaneous, and community-driven categories).

If your startup or small business is thinking about embracing real-time, consider following the ‘OREO Checklist’, a process that can help you decide when and where to engage. Ask yourself, (1) Is this relevant?, (2) Is it on-brand?, (3) Is it unique?, (4) Is it unique to my brand?, (5) Is it driven by your community?, (6) Is it appropriate?

4. Jay Baer – Smart Marketing is About Help, Not Hype

mesh marketingAs the closing keynote, Convince and Convert’s Jay Baer addressed the conference on why smart marketing is about help, not hype.

Jay believes that marketers should focus on creating Youtility, or marketing that is so valuable that people would be willing to pay for it. When you really think about it, the approach makes a lot of sense. If marketing is fundamentally about constructing relationships, what better way is there to do that than by helping people? As an entrepreneur, you’re undoubtedly passionate about what you do. In all likelihood, you have an ironclad grasp of your industry and of your prospects’ and customers’ challenges. After all, that’s why you do what you do. What Jay advocates is using this knowledge to help people, not hype your business. In the long-run, you’ll be more successful for your efforts.


A big thank you goes out to Mark Evans for his months of planning and dedication to the conference. It was a great and extremely educational day. If you’re interested in attending the next mesh conference in May, remember to check out the mesh website here closer to the event for more information.

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4 Important Startup Marketing Lessons From mesh marketing 13