Startup Messaging

22. Jul, 2010 43 Comments

democamp guelph square a 150x150 Startup MessagingI was lucky to be invited to speak at DemoCamp Guelph last night. There was an awesome crowd of smart startup people there and a great set of demos were shown.

I gave a talk on messaging for startups.  I picked that topic because I think messaging is pretty hard and a lot of folks don’t know where to start to create better messages.

The essence of my talk was that good messaging answers the following questions for potential customers:

  • What the heck is it? (meaning can you tell me in plain language what it is that you do)
  • Is it for me? (meaning does your messaging appeal to the segment that you are targeting)
  • Why buy it from you? (meaning what are the compelling reasons to choose your offering over a competing offering)

I also noted that these questions need to be answered for prospects in that order.  Trying to differentiate before people understand what you do is pointless.

Here are the slides:

Startup messaging

View more presentations from April Dunford.

I want to thank Brydon for inviting me to speak as well as everyone else that took the time to chat with me last night.  I spent years in Waterloo, both as a university student and later when I was working for Watcom/Powersoft/Sybase so it was fun to go back and see how well the startup scene is evolving there.  I need to figure out a way to spend more time out there.

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43 Responses to “Startup Messaging”

  1. April Dunford Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 1:01 pm

    Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  2. Tim Johnson Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    Just one question: What was the worst idea and complete $^%$ crap product? Enquiring minds want to know.

    • aprildunford Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 10:03 pm

      Ha! You had to be at the talk to get the story and it’s way too complicated to tell in ppt. The idea ultimately became a very large product line for IBM. The analysts at Gartner called it “the worst idea ever” when I pitched it to them the first time but that was largely because my story was bad. We acquired a bunch of companies to deliver on the idea and the CEO of one of them described our existing product set as “complete frikkin crap”. Crap is in the eye of the beholder however. We had managed to sell at lot of that “crap” and thanks to his products we were destined to sell a whole lot more.

  3. jpuopolo Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  4. Brydon Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  5. Dawn Wentzell Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  6. Alexandra Dao Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    Sad I couldn't be there! RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  7. Julie Hunt Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  8. Tim Johnson Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Startup Messaging http://bit.ly/ddlfBS Or as I say, "Who cares and why is that important to them?" More sage advice.

  9. Wanda Eby Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    RT @Brydon: RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  10. Holger Schulze Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    Messaging for Startups – http://bit.ly/ddlfBS /via @aprildunford

  11. Daniel DiRico Reply 22. Jul, 2010 at 8:27 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  12. Kiel Hume Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 12:29 am

    Great presentation on messaging for your #brand: http://bit.ly/a8TaWq

  13. April Dunford Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  14. StartupNorth Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 9:46 am

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  15. olivier cabanes Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 9:53 am

    RT @Mile_End_Media: RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  16. Terry Foster Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 10:03 am

    #mustread RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS (via @Igniter)

  17. Bryan Watson Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    Startup Messaging | Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E <– Great post @aprildunford!

  18. jidoctor Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    RT @theresepadilla: Great read. RT @aprildunford Blog – Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt [JD: totally agree, grt read!]

  19. Dan Martell Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E /by @aprildunford /via @bwat

  20. Cecilia Nuñez Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 12:45 pm

    RT @danmartell: Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E /by @aprildunford /via @bwat

  21. Vino Jeyapalan Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS slides and post on last night's #dcg

  22. Ben Yoskovitz Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    RT @danmartell: Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E /by @aprildunford /via @bwat

  23. Irina Menn Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    RT @theresepadilla: Great read. RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  24. Brent F. Barrett Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:39 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  25. David Crow Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:46 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  26. Aerin Guy Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    RT @startupnorth: RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  27. Tedd Huff Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  28. Michael Lewkowitz Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    #mustread RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  29. Hot On Startups Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 2:07 pm

    Startup Messaging | Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups http://shrten.com/3y3a

  30. bcadGroup Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  31. Rich Mironov Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt (avoid Paris Hilton messaging = beautiful but makes no sense)

  32. Therese Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Great read. RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #prodmgmt

  33. Jasmine Shields Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 4:50 pm

    RT @danmartell: Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E /by @aprildunford /via @bwat

  34. Hot On Startups Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    Startup Messaging | Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups http://tinyurl.com/22pzyek

  35. qkarmark Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    RT @danmartell: Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/d9UU2E /by @aprildunford /via @bwat

  36. Jeremy Butler Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 5:44 pm

    Startup Messaging / Product Marketing for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS #startups

  37. Rob Tyrie Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 7:52 pm

    RT @aprildunford: Startup Messaging http://bit.ly/ddlfBS | Read.. learn… and when you hear it… LISTEN!

  38. Jim England!! Reply 23. Jul, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    Startup Messaging http://bit.ly/a7Nxqm #marketing #startup cc @timgasper

  39. Kirti Deshpande Reply 24. Jul, 2010 at 4:33 am

    The questions are so simple, the answers so hard. RT @aprildunford: #Startup Messaging http://bit.ly/ddlfBS

  40. Giff Constable Reply 24. Jul, 2010 at 11:33 pm

    I liked this deck, good reminders always RT @aprildunford: Blog Post: Messaging for Startups http://bit.ly/ddlfBS

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