Customer Development is great but…

You have to FIND customers TO develop them.

An introduction to Helpful MarketingTM by Kevin Dewalt

Your Biggest Entrepreneur Challenge

• Great idea?

• Great product?

• Money?

• Co-founder?

• Getting to a different market?

Nope.

Getting Customers

Finding them & winning their trust.

Right now you need INSIGHT

You have to earn trust before you’ll get it.

Helpful Marketing

A strategy for winning customers by proving you help them solve problems.

(or in a game … satisfy needs)

About … Help

Help them through…

Blogging … Speaking … Newsletters … Face-to-Face … 1-on-1 over Skype or Hangout … Webinars … Hangouts on Air … Drip email … ebooks … courses … workshops … organizing meetups … hackathons … office hours

“Do you need help with your email?”

It is about THEM

not our ideas or products …

It is about THEM

not our ideas or products …

… which is fortunate because our ideas are mostly wrong …

It is about THEM

not our ideas or products …

… which is fortunate because our ideas are mostly wrong …

… and our products are crap.

Let’s Do Helpful Marketing!

Target Personas bring focus

A fictitious caricature of your customers.

My “Dave” Target Persona

Dave is a 35-year-old American who lives in Wichita, Kansas. He is married, college educated, and has a daughter. Dave’s life dream is become an entrepreneur and sell web and mobile products online. He has a full-time job and is willing to work very hard to make his dream a reality. He has some technical skills but unfortunately doesn’t live near a startup hub - and thus he has a hard time connecting with entrepreneurs to get advice when he needs it.

Step 1: Create Your Target Persona

• Based on a REAL person

• 1 Target – or at most 2

• Don’t sweat details.

Now write … speak … look for … HELP … your target

Can I help you?

• SoHelpful.me/kevindewalt > 30 mins Skype or Hangout

• kevindewalt.com

• @kevindewalt