Everette Taylor

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@justinckwong Funny I think creating GrowthHackers.com had the highest ROI. The reason for creating the site was to build a community around growth marketing that would also bring brand awareness to our Qualaroo product due to association and funnel more sales. It did exactly just that, our Head of Sales for Qualaroo at one point asked people who trialed with us how did they hear about our product and 1 out of 3 people said GrowthHackers. Also the fact that GH went from a hack into growing into its own brand/company is pretty kick ass too.

10 share tweet・a year ago

Patrick M. Hodgdon

@patrickh · Director of Marketing, Riptide Software

I've been learning a lot about the startup world in LA lately from guys like you, @mazzeo, @jacksondahl, @kaleazy, @erictwillis, and @kurtkumar. What brought you there originally from the East Coast? What do you think are the 1-2 biggest pros of being based there vs the Bay Area or anywhere else? Any major downsides?

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@patrickh @mazzeo @jacksondahl @kaleazy @erictwillis @kurtkumar SQUADDDDDDDD! I love my LA tech people. But running marketing for Sean Ellis was my original reason for moving out to SoCal and I just ended up sticking around. The major pros being in LA to me is not being surrounded by tech stuff all the time. My interests are vast outside of Tech, and I like meeting all different types of people from different types of backgrounds. LA just feels a lot more eclectic in that sense. The weather doesn't hurt either. Major downsides is that there aren't as many opportunities out here for work like there is in the Bay area and the Bay has more talent just due to the vast numbers of tech people there. Also for those looking to learn at a bigger tech company/later stage startup -the opportunities are limited.

Danny Lowney

@dannylowney · Growth ⛏@ Sup

Sup Everette! For us (www.supmenow.com), the network effect is super important. How do I go about encouraging the acquisition of groups of friends, rather than just individuals? Thanks so much, in advance :)

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@dannylowney Hey Danny, the key is forming a value proposition that encourages people to share the app either via word of mouth or easily giving giving people a way to add friends within. If people find value, they'll want to share it - simple as that. Haven't used the app but during the onboarding process I would encourage the adding of friends, I would also come up with clever push notifications that can serve as a retention + referral hack for people to reengage the app and add their friends. Also social sharing with creative copy via the app can be a strong engagement tool as well.

7 share tweet・a year ago

Alex Rodriguez

@headhanchoarod · Founder/CEO at WorkMand & Code2040 EIR

If you had $1,000 to use for marketing (in a month or quarter) as a budget for an early stage startup what strategies and hacks would you be doing to attract users to your startup?

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@headhanchoarod Save your money. The ROI you'll get on 1000 dollars in marketing spend isn't worth it. You're thinking inside a box with marketing budgets instead of out of the box - which can't be the mentality of a startup marketer. All the things you need to do early traction wise - creating valuable content, building an email list/creating lifecycle marketing campaigns, building social media audiences, speaking with your customers/studying data to develop the product and marketing strategies best suited for your target audience, optimizing your website, etc. All these things can be done with little to no marketing spend outside of paying for some software. And a lot of marketing software you can use at least for one month for free.

Seth Louey

@sethlouey · 🙌 2016 PH Maker of the Year Nominee

Hey Everette! Thanks for doing the AMA. What do you think that most startups are doing wrong when it comes to marketing/growth?

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@sethlouey Not focusing on enough on product development or really taking the time to get qualitative insights back from their target audience. Also making sure that your attribution is correct in your analytics dashboards.

7 share tweet・a year ago

Vishnu Vs

@vishnu_vs · Digital Services, Branding

Do a Marketing Degree Really matters to become a Marketing Strategist?

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@vishnu_vs It depends honestly. If you want to work early traction startups or do consulting - I think its more about your skillset and the value/experience that you bring. If you want to do marketing for say a larger top-tier company, I would say their thinking tends to be a little less.... evolved lol. They have strong biases not only for having a degree but where you received your degree. Its unfair because talent comes from everywhere and all different backgrounds. But at the end of the day, if you take your time to really learn and hone your craft, build experience, proof of great work and have strong references - I think you'll be fine.

12 share tweet・a year ago

Harry Stebbings

@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC

@Everette thanks so much for joining us today, my question would be for the marketing of podcasts and audio material what elements of habit forming and virality could be baked into the product itself? Would love to hear your thoughts.

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@harrystebbings Hey Harry - I've actually been meaning to listen to your podcast, seen a great episode just posted and will have to check it out. The most successful podcasts are consistent with the day and times they post, that creates habits in itself. When people know they can expect to get a podcast on a particular day it creates a rhythm. Another thing I've noticed is that some popular podcasts has names for their audience which also builds habits and creates a loyal sense of community. You can also get creative with transcriptions of episodes which you can post on your website to create more shareable content and add some SEO juice. Also important to build in strong social sharing for particular quotes that have high viral capability that you can post under the episode or have social sharing for certain quotes in the transcriptions. Short sound bites that are easily shareable on social media could work really well too. Also, put an emphasis on building your email lists and growing your social channels.

Harry Stebbings

@harrystebbings · Podcast Host @ The Twenty Minute VC

@everette would absolutely love to hear what you think of the show. Massive fan of yours and really good suggestion to do teaser content that is shareable on other platforms. Really like that. Watch this space and let me know what you think on the show. Hit me up on harry@thetwentyminutevc.com would be good to chat more.

upvote share tweet・a year ago

Alex Rodriguez

@headhanchoarod · Founder/CEO at WorkMand & Code2040 EIR

Hey Everette, big fan and thanks for doing this. Would love to hear you answer these questions: 1. You're an advocate for people building a personal brand. What do you believe is the most important thing to be doing to grow your personal brand? 2. How can one use their personal brand to their advantage (such as promoting) for their startup and vise versa? 3. What do you believe is the most important thing to focus on/be doing for making your city a strong tech community for entrepreneurs of color? 4. How are you able to manage doing and running so many things? Cheers! -Arod

@everette · VP of Marketing @ Skurt

@headhanchoarod 1. I wouldn't say that I'm an advocate, there's pros and cons to doing so. You have to make sure that before building a personal brand, that its right for you and your career. There's things I wish I knew in the beginning that I know now. With that being said, the most important thing to grow your personal brand is simple. Be great at what you do. I see a lot of people trying to build a person brand before they've made an impact or did enough learning. I've been super open about the fact that I feel like I still have a lot to learn. But if you're great at what you do and can provide insightful thought leadership through social media, blog/content, etc. You'll see progress. 2. Building your personal brand gives you an audience that you can tap into to find beta users, promote the launch of your product, new features, sales/deals, etc. You always have a loyal base of people that will listen to what you have to say. The larger and more dedicated that audience is, the more impactful your brand can be to promote your company. Whether its social media, a blog, email list or whatever - use content that you create as a way to promote your startup. 3. Being open to connecting with people and lending a helping hand. Change doesn't happen overnight but individuals take responsibility for their actions to help others and provide resources for each other that's the first step. It saddens me that there is still people of color who aren't willing to make time or help others minority entrepreneurs. 4. I GOT A REALLY BIG TEAM AND THEY NEED SOME REALLY BIG RINGS! lol - but all jokes aside I just have really great people around me and allows me the flexibility to do all that I do. Also I'm slightly a workaholic but I've optimized my schedule to get the most out of everyday. I don't waste time.

9 share tweet・a year ago

Akinolaoluwa Owoeye

@civicark10 · People Operations @ CL

@everette @headhanchoarod thumps up to 1;be great at what you do

upvote share tweet・a year ago

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Deandre Durr☀️

@dredurr · Growth Hacker

Hey Everette, 1. What did you have for breakfast? Very few people know how big giving back to the community is in your life. 2. You started a program to buy college kids school books. How do you plan on scaling (growth hacking) it? 3. Do you see your charitable contributions surpassing the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation in the future?

4 share tweet・a year ago