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Stop Begging TechCrunch to Write About You.

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If you haven't heard of TechCrunch, then you may be living in a hole somewhere. Or you're just not obsessed with "all that is web" (my personal grounding rod,  my wife, tells me that there are a lot of you out there).

Nonetheless, TechCrunch -- according to Technorati -- is the 2nd most popular blog on the planet.

We've been "lucky" enough to be covered by TechCrunch four times


 

As you can see above, it sends a big burst of traffic. It's a great link to have from a search engine optimization perspective since the TechCrunch.com domain has a lot of authority in the eyes of Google and the other search engines. 

Guess how much of that traffic converted into clients, though? 

If you can't read the closed loop marketing graph below, it reads "2." Yes, two customers only.

 

Now, granted, you could say that there aren't many SMBs looking for a small business website marketing software or marketers looking for inbound internet marketing software at TechCrunch.

And that's the point. As much as us "geeks" get excited when we get "TechCrunched" (yes, it's a verb), it doesn't really match our target market all that well. 

So, the lesson is, choose your online PR targets wisely. For us, it makes a lot more sense to spend time and money on sites like MarketingProfs (see charts of unpaid traffic from marketing profs below).

 

To further drive the point home, you'll see that the conversion rates for TechCrunch traffic are horrible compared to the MarketingProfs traffic.  

 

For the rates, examine the table below:  


TechCrunchMarketingProfs
Visitor to Lead Conversation Rate 6% 31%
Lead to Opportunity Conversion Rate 12% 6%
Opportunity to Customer Conversion Rate  15% 55%

Further, you shouldn't always go for the big bang. Sometimes, a handful of links from some less well known bloggers are a lot easier to get and can produce similar results. And with bloggers who aren't as big and unreachable as TechCrunch's writers, you can usually develop a meaningful business-blogging relationship much more quickly (see here, here, here and here).

All that said, we still like the attention, Mr. Arrington. 

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Posted by Pete Caputa on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 @ 06:47 AM

COMMENTS

Great analysis, Pete. You've hit on a huge issue with PR campaigns. Many times the client wants the big, splashy hits in major dailies or magazines (or top blogs), only to see short-term spikes that don't generate leads. 
 
If your objective is to generate leads (which I assume is the case with most companies), focus on targeted PR and inbound marketing campaigns that reach specific buyers.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:04 AM by Paul Roetzer


"Stop Begging TechCrunch to Write About You."? - Nope, Dr Blockbuster is sure it wasn't me. I would have remebered anyway, I think! :roflmAo: Anyway, us Scots NEVER do any begging viz: Sir Sean Connery, Mr Wallace ... William Wallace! 
Seems like an important point you're making though, and I shall download the webinar and schhtudy hard. 
 
alla prossima  
 
@DrBlockbuster  
Networks & Forums

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:29 AM by Dr Blockbuster


Hooray! Thank you for making such an important point so clear with great data support. You have modeled two important concepts -- go where your market is and use data to make good decisions. Sounds so easy but many just do not understand this and prefer to dabble in fluff and BIGNESS versus what might be more effective.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:31 AM by Suzanne Dewey


This article got my full attention and i really liked the details to build the meaning of correct measurement versus what is current in the market. 
 
Tech Crunch is awesome, but its important to define your goals and your market, your clients and specially your measurement 
 
I say that when you feel that a site like tech crunch becomes that important to your CEO or others employees you have 2 choices: one is to make it work for you - not easy - and the other is to search the websphere, look for others techcrunches "wannabees" which may be the bet for the short future.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 8:58 AM by glauco tamega


Once again, it's preaching to the choir. I love reading Tech Crunch (and HubSpot), but that's not where the customers are. Customers aren't interested in tech for the sake of tech. They want to know what it will do for them and their business. 
 
Technology is a tool (and the more tools you have in your tool belt the better), but it's not the Holy Grail. Sure it's fun--but put yourself in your customer's shoes. They want to know how your tool is going to help them do their job better and succeed.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 9:04 AM by Michael Mallory


Nice piece on making informed decisions on marketing/PR efforts. Especially liked the graphical data you used to backup your position. I would assume that this information is something that your services at Hubspot can provide to regular joes? (like the buying question?) Thanks again.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 9:19 AM by Tyler LeCompte


Okay, so I totally understand your point, but think that overall the logic is flawed. I agree that your demographic is not on TechCrunch, but influencers for your product are. Many of the people that watch your weekly show, follow you on twitter, etc are influencers, and it's these people that will carry your message and ultimately deliver web leads to your front door via them, not from them. Also, you have to look at the effort and spend to obtain those two customers, because ultimately, those two customers may create enough ROI that it is still an important channel and better than others. Third, are you comparing apples to oranges? You need to compare the MarketingProfs customer’s lifetime value to you as a customer versus the TechCrunch customer. Do the 6 customers from MarkingProfs create the same revenue or margin as those from TechCrunch? If the TechCrunch customers are enterprise customers with multiyear commitments and the MarketingProfs ones are buying a basic package you may be better off with the TechCrunch ones.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 11:18 AM by Maria Pergolino


You're missing the point of TechCrunch coverage (or maybe you are pointing out that everyone else is, too!). 
 
Unless your target customer is early stage web geeks, it's not going to create customers. 
 
What it WILL create is backlinks galore. A link from TechCrunch is SEO gold and it generally creates a big pile of splash coverage from secondary blogs as well as splogs. 
 
Also, it can help with credibility if you are in the middle of fundraising or finding partners. 
 
Finally, if you've got a young company with a promising viral loop, it can provide a good "seed". If every user results in an average of 1.13 new users, the big burst of TC users really helps the long term compound-interest math that goes with viral loops.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:12 PM by Tony Wright


Good post. They're both interesting blogs, as is yours. But here's something your missing. 
 
One reason Techcrunch traffic isn't converting as much for you is that most of the Techcrunch readers are technically sophisticated, relatively speaking. Many could do most of the things your software package does by themselves by mixing and tweaking things on their own with different packages, and like the ability to customize things a lot more than most. 
 
Marketing Prof's audience may include some technically minded people, but much less so, and would probably be more willing to pay more money to have you solve their problems than spend a lot of time geeking around and doing it themselves. They are less likely to have the tech chops to do it solo, and even if they could, they may not enjoy playing with tech as much as the Techcrunch crowd.  
 
Some of us like to use web technology for functional and fun purposes, just the joy of learning and figuring things out. Some just the former. 
 
One benefit you might get from Techcrunch is that many of the people visit there are the linkerati. So if they like your content, they'll link to your site via blogs, delicious etc that will help boost your page rank, get you other traffic, both will help you get more visitors that might convert better down the road. 
 
You might want to track that. 
 
Similar to Techcrunch, some people say a Digg link doesn't covert that much and for most it probably doesn't. But when one of my posts on the advantage of ADHD in a high tech career got top of Digg, in addition to a lot of traffic and comments, I got a lot hundreds of links, some from very high PR sites. I'm still getting a fair bit of traffic and clients from that post and it was 3 years ago. 
 
That being said if you were to spend money advertising, you'd be better to put it on marketing Profs or maybe marketing experiments.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:12 PM by Pete Quily


wait, I thought that people tried to get TechCrunched so that they could get thousands of beta testers pounding their site all at the same time?

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:27 PM by todd g


Very true ... this speaks to traffic quality. I've been on TechCrunch once, not for AuthorityLabs, but another project, and received a funding offer from someone who read the story. There are benefits other than traffic and sales, but your point is solid. Personally, I was expected A LOT more traffic from a site with almost 2mm RSS subscribers.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12:33 PM by Chase Granberry


TechCrunch's coverage is usually inversely proportional to a company's business model-- I think that's sort of their schtick with their "deadpool" and "if it bleeds it leads" motto.  
 
That said, people who are begging techcrunch for a feature want American Idol fame rather then... well however it is that regular musicians get famous. Too late in the afternoon for interesting metaphors.

posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 7:11 PM by Andy Fox


C'mon guys...see Tony Wright's comment.  
 
Sure "begging" is a bit much - but HubSpot should be the FIRST company to point out the SEO benefits of having a site like TechCrunch link to you. 
 
2 customers: Whooptie-do. 
Improved Search Engine Positioning: Gold!

posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 2:33 AM by Chad


@Paul, Dr. Blockbuster, Glauco, Michael and Suzanne - Thanks for confirming my thinking.  
 
@Tyler. We use our own product, "HubSpot Marketer" version, to market our own business. It enables us to do closed loop marketing by connecting with our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The funnel graphs above are built using that. The traffic over time per referring source comes with both HubSpot Owner and HubSpot Marketer.  
 
@Maria. You must have been on the debate team. Very good points. Here's some background. Of course, every company is different. But, in our case, my thinking isn't flawed. In the spirit of brevity, I just didn't discuss the points you brought up. Thanks for bringing them up, though. They are important points.  
 
I agree that there are many "influencers" in someone's buying process. And influencers might  
hang out or read different sites than the buyers. In our process,  
some times a webmaster or IT resource or a clued-in tech internet marketer are heavy influencers. Sometimes, albeit rarely, they are the actual decision makers. These people are likely to read techcrunch.  
 
Your second point is extremely valid. We also track the lifetime value of a customer. I'd have to look at that data in salesforce.com to determine whether the 2 clients referred from TechCrunch are better/longer term clients than the 6 from MarketingProfs. It's probably too soon to tell - in any statistically sound manner -  
if we only look at those 8 customers. However, marketing analyzes this data on a monthly basis. I know that MarketingProfs (paid and unpaid traffic) brings us our best customers from a retention perspective as well.  
We don't currently have an enterprise version. And actually, I'm pretty sure I signed up both of the people referred from TechCrunch myself and they are both startups. Your point is well taken, though. Examining lifetime value would complete the picture and guide a marketer towards the most *profitable* marketing activities. Thanks again for  
the great discussion.  
 
@Tony. You are right. I did say that the links from TechCrunch are great from an SEO perspective. And you are right, that coverage from techcrunch *usually* causes coverage by a bunch of other blogs. That *really* helps with SEO. When you are seeking funding or looking for partners, TechCrunch coverage is great. I'd also recommend ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, VentureBeat and a slew of other blogs that can lead people to you, in this regard.  
 
Also, your point re: the fact that one user can bring another if viral or word of mouth or networking effects are  
built into your application/business. In our business, and most software as a service businesses, 
that affect isn't built in - YET! Great points, though. Leads and sales isn't the only reason to get "blog coverage".  
 
@Todd. Yes. Beta testers hang out at TechCrunch waiting for the next startup to beta test for free.  
 
@Chase. Thanks for sharing that. I imagine that there are a lot of companies that get funding offers after getting covered by TechCrunch.  
 
 
@Andy. Yes it was too late for metaphors. I don't think I quite understand yours. If I read between the lines,  
you're saying that TechCrunch covers you when you don't want to be covered. And that startup entrepreneurs are hoping that coverage by TechCrunch will bring fame like American Idol. I don't think that usually happens, though. Maybe the Crunchies can do that. But, not a simple blog post.  
 
@Chad. I did point out the SEO benefits of getting covered by TechCrunch. Tony certainly elaborated on the secondary  
link effects that happen. I didn't say that. That's why we have really smart commenters, though :-) It'd be interesting to know how often that happens. You're right, though, you'd think that a few M subscribers would lead to more than a few customers. 
 
@All. The 2 customers that signed up as a result from TechCrunch probably covered the amount of effort and expense we put into the early PR work. Now, it seems, that TechCrunch covers us whenever we launch something of note or have big news. Which is nice. We're not complaining.

posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 10:24 AM by Pete Caputa


Ditto the accolades, Pete. This analysis speaks to the critical importance of targeting your audience when it comes to your PR strategy. Eyeballs feel good, but conversions are what bring home the bacon. Some of the more specialized outlets enjoy small but informed and highly motivated audiences.

posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 10:25 AM by Tim Allik


Wow! enough said. And here I was thinking i might have something to add.

posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM by Isaac d Van Wesep


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posted on Thursday, April 09, 2009 at 11:59 AM by Katrin


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