Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers

Gabriel Weinberg, Justin Mares

Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.

Founders and employees fail to spend time thinking about (and working on) traction in the same way they work on building a product. This shortsighted approach has startups trying random tactics – some ads, a blog post or two – in an unstructured way that’s guaranteed to fail.

This book changes that. Traction Book provides startup founders and employees with the framework successful companies have used to get traction. It allows you to think about which marketing channels make sense for you, given your industry and company stage.

This framework has been used by founders like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Paul English (Kayak.com), and Alex Pachikov (Evernote) to build some of the biggest companies and organizations in the world. We interviewed each of the above founders – along with 35+ others – and pulled out the repeatable tactics and strategies they used to get traction.

We then cover every possible marketing channel you can use to get traction, and show you which channels will be your key to growth. This book shows you how to grow at a time when getting traction is more important than ever.

Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers is a book by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares that teaches entrepreneurs how to get their first customers and grow their startup. The authors present a comprehensive framework of 19 marketing channels, including PR, search engine optimization, content marketing, and others, and provide a step-by-step guide for choosing the channels that are most effective for your startup.

1. Understand your target market: Start by researching and identifying your ideal customer and what motivates them to purchase your product or service.
2. Focus on traction channels: Choose the marketing channels that work best for your target market and focus on mastering them.
3. Experiment and measure results: Try out different marketing channels, track your progress and adjust your strategy based on the results.
4. Prioritize growth over profit: Early on, focus on acquiring customers and building a foundation for growth. Profits will follow later.
5. Create compelling content: Use blog posts, videos, and other content to engage with your target market and educate them about your product.
6. Use Referral marketing: Encourage your customers to refer their friends and family to your product.
7. Utilize social media: Utilize social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to reach potential customers and engage with your target market.
8. Collaborate with influencers: Partner with influencers in your niche to help spread the word about your product.
9. Measure and track your progress: Continuously track your progress and make data-driven decisions about your marketing strategies.
10. Stay focused: Stay focused on your growth strategy and continue to experiment and adjust your approach as you go.