Sometimes there’s a tendency to be overcautious when you’re running a start-up. We’ve been overly cautious about embracing certain traditional forms of media that I think if we had embraced a little bit earlier on, we might have started to scale growth a little bit faster.
When you tend a start-up, it’s a different animal, I think, than running a mature corporation. You have to iterate, and quickly, as a start-up, and see what works, see what’s not working, and act accordingly. It’s the new way.
When we launched in the United States, we had enquiries all over the world, and I think the most number reached out from Australia, so we’ve been dying to get here.
The most valuable marketing we have done has been without question launching the video that communicates the core business proposition.
Social is a big part of our business and creating content that our users respond to is always going to be a big part of our strategy.
My background was crucial to writing the video, performing in the video, and framing the argument, framing the central business proposition in a clear, concise way, and building a brand that supports that mission.
Every day the key performance indicators that we look at are primarily cost per user acquisition, and lifetime value.
Our challenge is awareness, right now, especially in Australia, where very few people have heard of us. Even in the United States, where a lot of people have heard of us, there’s still a large number of people who have not. So finding efficient ways to raise awareness is our biggest challenge right now.
The tech industry, and folks that are providing products or services to a membership or to a clientele, need to embrace an ever-changing set of tools, and evaluate what can’t work for their business very quickly and implement those tools to be successful.
The way people buy, the way people acquire customers, the way people manage their social properties; those things change every week. There’s a new tool, there’s a new way of thinking about it and somebody has found a new strategy with a new tool.
Cara Waters is a former SmartCompany editor. Previously, Cara was a senior reporter for the Financial Times’ website and worked for The Sunday Times in London.
