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Form Fields, Differentiation Hack, and Startup Marketing Framework

Form Fields, Differentiation Hack, and Startup Marketing Framework

How to create intentional friction on forms, the differentiation hack, and a very simple framework for startup marketing.

September 20, 2022

First, I would like to welcome 200,001 new members to the Fresh Salmon community since the last edition, lol, just kidding :)

In this issue of Fresh Salmon, I discuss how to create intentional friction on forms, the differentiation hack, and a very simple framework for startup marketing.

1) How Many Form Fields are Too Many to Convert?

The number of fields that a prospect should be asked to fill out in a form is one of the most controversial topics.

Let me attempt to clear the air once and for all today.

One factor determines the number of fields on a form - the source of your traffic.

In essence, leads fall into two categories:

Low-Intent
High-Intent

As a rule of thumb, low-intent prospects are those whom you target via a variety of channels and try to gather their contact information in order to strategically nurture them into buyers.

For example: Running a LinkedIn ad targeting prospects to download an eBook.

As you engage the low-intent prospect, gradually collect firmographic information. Developing trust before receiving relevant information is essential.

A high-intent prospect, on the other hand, is proactively seeking your company out. A buyer has already done all the due diligence and has decided to reach out to you for a meaningful sales conversation, such as requesting a demo or setting up a call via the company website.

You can collect more relevant information if the prospect has a high level of intent. Such prospects will be more than willing to provide lots of information that will facilitate a meaningful sales conversation.

Creating intentional friction.

Of course, you should not lengthen the form unnecessarily. Don’t get greedy, avoid irrelevant details.

The following is an example of a demo form that we had on the homepage of one of my previous companies.

It always amazed me how long the average answer was for - What would you like help with? It was not uncommon for us to receive descriptions that exceeded 1000 words!!

The secret was that we never sent prospects with low intent to the homepage of our website.

It makes sense, doesn't it?

NOTE: I am not a fan of select fields for “How did you hear about us?”, this should certainly be a plain text field. If you give people an easy out, they will take an easy out, and select the first option in the dropdown. Plain text field. Always. It is an extremely important piece of attribution data, and it deserves a lot of respect.

2) Differentiation Hack

The majority of B2B marketing is boring. However, it does not have to be that way.

The easiest hack to stand out in the market is not only to do things differently, but to also make them unique.

How?

You cannot just call your webinar series webinar series. Give it a unique name.

Create episodic content and differentiate them with a unique name.

During early 2020, when I committed our startup marketing strategy to a media-first approach, I focused on:

Making episodic media content
Creating a unique name for every series of media content

Over the course of time, we ended up launching 4 Webinar Series and 2 Podcasts. We branded each of the media-content series with their own names.

Here is how we named IRL -

Hopefully you get my point. As a marketer, this is by far the easiest hack.

3) Startup Marketing Framework

I saw this post on LinkedIn a few days ago from my friend Anuj -

As a result of this post, I ended up creating what I call the “Startup Marketing Framework”.

The role of an early marketing leader can be lonely and challenging. Having been there multiple times, here are a few reasons why:

In your role as first marketing leader, you are expected to cover all aspects of marketing from growth to product marketing, content, and brand - even if your title does not reflect this. Plus, you have very little budget, and sometimes your company does not even have a Product-Market-Fit.

Building marketing from the ground up is a systematic process. This framework will help you navigate through the process -

The image also sets the right expectations for startup founders who are new to marketing. You won't uncover everything in the first month. Several other factors are also involved, such as the sales cycle. Be patient with your marketing efforts.

The bottom line is - as a startup marketing team, you start from the left (as shown in the above image), keep building, experimenting, and iterating.

Interesting Thing That I Read Last Week

Strategic narrative could be a game-changer for any company, especially a startup. It can unlock growth for your company in many different ways.

Strategic narrative is Andy Raskin's forte. As a strategic narrative consultant, he helps CEOs align their teams around a shared narrative - to drive sales, marketing, fundraising, product and recruitment success.

This golden nugget was shared on LinkedIn by Andy -