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Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers Hardcover – August 25, 2014

by Gabriel Weinberg (Author), Justin Mares (Author)

293 customer reviews

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Most startups end in failure. Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don't have is traction -- real customer growth.

This book introduces startup founders and employees to the "Bullseye Framework," a five-step process successful companies use to get traction. This framework helps founders find the marketing channel that will be key to unlocking the next stage of growth.

Traction is a guide to getting customers, written for startup founders, marketers, and those interested in how today's startups grow and get traction. This book shows you how the founders of several of the biggest companies and organizations in the world like Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Paul English (Kayak.com) and Alex Pachikov (Evernote) have built and grown their startups. We interviewed over forty successful founders and researched countless more growth stories to pull out the repeatable tactics and strategies they used to get traction.

"Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don't have a good distribution strategy." -- Mark Andreessen, venture capitalist

Too often, startups spend months (or years) building a product only to struggle with traction once they launch. This struggle has startups trying random tactics - some ads, a blog post or two - in an unstructured way that leads to failure. Traction shows readers how to systematically approach marketing, and covers how successful businesses have grown through each of the following channels:

Viral Marketing
Public Relations (PR)
Unconventional PR
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Social and Display Ads
Offline Ads
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Engineering as Marketing
Target Market Blogs
Business Development (BD)
Sales
Affiliate Programs
Existing Platforms
Trade Shows
Offline Events
Speaking Engagements
Community Building

This book draws on interviews we conducted with the following individuals:
Jimmy Wales, Co-founder of Wikipedia
Alexis Ohanian, Co-founder of reddit
Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup
Sam Yagan, Co-founder of OkCupid and CEO of Match.com
Jason Cohen, Founder of WP Engine
Chris Fralic, Partner at First Round Capital
Rand Fishkin, Founder of SEOmoz
Noah Kagan, Founder of AppSumo
Jason Kincaid, Blogger at TechCrunch
Alex Pachikov, Co-founder of Evernote
Ryan Holiday, Exec at American Apparel
Andrew Warner, Founder of Mixergy
Garry Tan, Partner at Y Combinator
and many more.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a must-have, essential book if you want to be good at growth." - Aaron Ginn, Growth at StumbleUpon

"Traction is an absolute must. The Bullseye Framework Gabe and Justin layout is probably the greatest tool in my catalog over the past year. Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just getting started, Traction offers a framework that creates efficiency, clarity, and focus. With startups as crazy as they are, I strongly encourage you to take the time to make your life a little easier. Traction is equal to and should be read alongside The Lean Startup." - Adam Kearney, Founder & CEO, Saunter

"Traction is a critical guide for entrepreneurs looking to grow and scale their businesses." - Patrick Vlaskovits, bestselling author of The Lean Entrepreneur

"I've read quite a few books about startups over the years, and apparently this was the only one worth keeping." - Chris Stucchio, Data Scientist

"Traction belongs on every startup founder’s bookshelf. I’m buying copies for the CEOs of my current Angel Investments." - Kevin Dewalt, Angel Investor

"Anyone--founders, managers, and executives--trying to break through to new customers can use this smart, ambitious book." — Eric Ries, bestselling author of The Lean Startup

“Here is the inside scoop, the latest, most specific tactics from the red-hot center of the internet marketing universe. From someone who has done it. Twice.” — Seth Godin, bestselling author of Linchpin

“The entrepreneurs who walk out of our offices with term sheets walk into them with Traction. It's a pragmatic guide to solving the entrepreneur's number one challenge.” — Fred Wilson, cofounder of Union Square Ventures

“The question every founder asks after shipping is always: how do I get traction? This book actually answers it.” — Alexis Ohanian, cofounder & Executive Chairman of reddit

"A common question I get is: 'How do I know if my business is getting traction, or how do I get traction for my business, or how do I get users?' Traction answers all of these questions and more.” — James Altucher, bestselling author of Choose Yourself

About the Author

Gabriel Weinberg is the Founder & CEO of DuckDuckGo, the search engine that doesn't track you with over a billion searches in 2013. He is also an angel investor in early stage startups. Weinberg has been featured on CBS, FOX, the Guardian, the Washington Post and many more. Previously he was the Co-founder & CEO of Opobox, which was sold to United Online in 2006. Weinberg holds B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Technology and Policy from MIT. He is based on Valley Forge, PA with his wife and two boys.

Justin Mares is the former Director of Revenue at Exceptional, a software company that Rackspace acquired for 8 figures in 2013. He has previously founded two startups (one acquired, one bust) and runs a growth meetup in San Francisco. You can find his writing on marketing and personal-development on his blog, justinmares.com.

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Product details

Hardcover: 258 pages
Publisher: S-curves Publishing; First edition (August 25, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0976339609
ISBN-13: 978-0976339601
Package Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 293 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #317 in Books > Business & Money > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Marketing
- #629 in Books > Business & Money > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Web Marketing
- #1848 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Social Media

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Top customer reviews

Weinberg and Mares beat me to it!

ByThomas D. Kehoeon September 29, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I was outlining a book proposal when I found "Traction." My proposal first explained that product development gets easier, faster, and cheaper every year, so startups no longer fail because they can't build their product. Instead, startups fail when they hit the marketing wall.

According to The Economist (2014 Sep 13), "marketers say they have seen more change in the past two years than in the previous 50."

According to the Harvard Business Review (2014 July-August, p. 56) "In the past decade, what marketers do to engage customers has changed almost beyond recognition....we can't think of another discipline that has evolved so quickly."

It can seem like marketing is getting harder each year, but actually in some ways it's getting easier and cheaper, e.g., Facebook's targeted ads. What's needed is a guide to how marketing is changing.

Unlike the zillions of e-books about Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing, etc., my book would cover and compare all marketing channels. Unlike the e-books, my book would include case studies of real companies. Unlike the marketing textbooks, my book would focus on tech startups, not on dog treat bakeries and corner grocery stores. Unlike the books that say you'll get rich if you follow their formula, my book would say that marketing is changing rapidly now, and the marketing plan that worked even a few years ago won't work now. I proposed teaching entrepreneurs instead to make small-scale experiments, see what works and what doesn't, and continuously evolve their marketing.

I scrapped my book proposal because "Traction" is that book.

There are some things I would add (and perhaps Weinberg and Mares will in a second edition). My proposal included case studies of both success and failure. "Traction" only has successful case studies, leading to a sense that every marketing strategy leads to success. Including both successes and failures would lead to a framework for what channels work for what types of companies. E.g., viral social media likes may work for a microbrewery, but not for colonoscopies!

Points I like about "Traction":

- Entrepreneurs should spend 50% of their time on product development and 50% on marketing, but product development sucks up all your time. It's more satisfying to add a new feature to your product than to spend your limited capital on a marketing test that completely fails. We feel comfortable developing our products but feel clueless marketing them.

- Integration with Lean Startup. That was the book I proposed a few years ago, and Eric Reis beat me to it!

- How much traction (downloads, press coverage, sales) investors want to see before they invest increases every year, as marketing gets faster and cheaper to some startups.

- Every entrepreneur has to hand sell the first few customers.

- Building a viral marketing campaign will take one or two engineers three to six months! I.e., viral marketing doesn't magically happen just because your product is so cool.

Stuff that's missing:

- Celebrity endorsements is a 20th channel.

- A chapter about market research, e.g., why you should ask open-ended questions instead of closed-ended questions.

- The PR chapter needs a section on finding journalist contacts, se.g., whether to use the Meltwater or Cision databases.

- Tradeshows are about having outgoing, enthusiastic salespeople, not about having a flashy booth.

44 comments 91 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Excellent - required reading for anyone seeking growth/traction in the business

Byphilon September 27, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Excellent, practical book to help you identify sales/traction channels available to you, prioritise them, and test them. It's one of those books where, having finished, you just can't imagine not having read it ... if I was to design my own Entrepreneurial MBA, sales/traction channels would have its own module and this book would be THE required reading!

I thoroughly recommend you buy it, read it, read it again, then write/blog about it. Book also comes with support forums which helps with continuing learning and lets you share ideas with others.

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A Lesson on Types of Customer Acquisition Channels

ByBoniface N. Osonwanneon August 23, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Traction gives you an overview of multiple ways a start-up can grow its initial customer base. Starting with popular online channels like SEO, and search engine marketing (AdWords) to inbound marketing, to engineering as marketing (microsites, free tools) to offline events.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

If you seek traction, find truth here.

ByAn unhappy customer...on September 9, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a solid read, filled with seat-in-pants examples and techniques to challenge your accepted logic, ask questions you need the answers to and outline a process to either help find success or help you find what's in the way.

The bulls-eye logic pattern is exactly what we needed to crystalize our efforts and quickly ascertain what tactics we needed to test to understand how to ramp our business.

This is the closest thing you will get to an in-house growth expert, a must read from the CEO to the manager level across departments.

Stop reading other reviews and buy the book, your traction is waiting.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

A book full of actionable insights for how to promote your startup

ByMarius Vetricion November 20, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I enjoyed reading the book as it's full of practical and actionable insights. Got a lot of inspiration on how to promote my worry free WordPress update business and made a good bunch of notes and plans.

The book is excellent if you want a good framework on how to choose the best promotion channel for your company.

The book is very useful if you are looking to expand your horizon about new, untapped, channels of promotion.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Packed with actionable ideas

ByPaul Cotheneton August 27, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The best business book I've read since "4 steps to the Epiphany.

Unlike most books who rehash the same few concepts over hundred of pages, every chapter of this book is packed with actionable ideas and suggestions to explore.

It never pretends to offer a silver bullet. Instead you get out of there with a ton of small experiments that have worked at least once for others.

I'm at the early stage of my startup and I can't wait to test the ton of ideas I've generated while reading this book.

Kudos to Gabriel and Justin for a fantastic book.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

This book is all about helping a startup build its ...

ByLeonardo Grinsteinon January 20, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is all about helping a startup build its marketing mix. It gives you a bird eye view of the channels you should consider and shares a suggested framework to test these channels. I would say that the most important lesson is that you might find traction in unexpected channels. So, it’s important to be creative and test every idea. I consider this book a must read for tech entrepreneurs.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

This is a must read for anyone with a startup

Bytjgrooveon November 20, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I try to read 3 - 4 business books per month and this book is one of my favourites for online marketing. They have done an excellent job of giving practical advice and showing real world examples of how to put their advice into use. With so many business books being published now, it is difficult to find even a decent read. Many business books seem to regurgitate the same information and many authors seem to babble on about themselves and their opinion. This is not one of those books. Excellent job guys!