Traction: Summary Review
This is a summary review of Traction containing key details about the book.
What is Traction About?
Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares is a book that provides practical advice and a comprehensive framework for startups to achieve traction, or sustainable growth and customer acquisition, by identifying and experimenting with different marketing channels and strategies, and optimizing them to maximize results. The book provides case studies, tools, and actionable insights to help startups find the right traction channels for their business. Overall, "Traction" is a useful guide for startup founders and marketers who want to develop a comprehensive traction strategy and achieve sustainable growth.
Traction will teach you the nineteen channels you can use to build a customer base, and how to pick the right ones for your business. The authors know that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution; every startup faces unique challenges and will benefit from a blend of these nineteen traction channels. They offer a three-step framework (called Bullseye) to figure out which ones will work best for your business. But no matter how you apply them, the lessons and examples in Traction will help you create and sustain the growth your business desperately needs.
Summary Points & Takeaways from Traction
Some key summary points and takeaways from the book include:
* Traction is the most important factor for startup success. It's the rate at which a company is able to acquire new customers.
* There are 19 different traction channels, such as viral marketing, public relations, search engine optimization, and direct sales.
* It's important to experiment with different traction channels and find the ones that work best for your company.
* A startup's traction strategy should be based on its specific business model, target audience, and industry.
* The Bullseye Framework is a three-step process for finding the right traction channel: brainstorm, prioritize, and test.
* Startups should focus on one traction channel at a time until they achieve significant traction, and then add additional channels as necessary.
* To effectively measure traction, startups should define and track metrics that are specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
* Startups should use the traction channel that generates the most traction as the basis for their long-term growth strategy.
* Traction is a continuous process, and startups should constantly be experimenting with new channels and optimizing existing ones.
* The book provides case studies and examples of successful startups that have used various traction channels to achieve growth, such as Dropbox, Airbnb, and Mint.
Who is the author of Traction?
Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO & Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs. Since 2008, Weinberg has grown DuckDuckGo from a self-funded operation out of his dusty basement into a business with over $25 million in revenue and 50 employees across multiple continents.
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.
What are good quotes from Traction?
“Almost every failed startup has a product. What failed startups don’t have are enough customers.”
“Poor distribution - not product - is the number one cause of failure.”
“Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don’t have a good distribution strategy.”
“The faster you run high quality experiments, the more likely you’ll find scalable, effective growth tactics. Determining the success of a customer acquisition idea is dependent on an effective tracking and reporting system, so don’t start testing until your tracking/reporting system has been implemented.”
“This is what we call the 50% rule: spend 50% of your time on product and 50% on traction.”
“Good customer support is so rare that, if you simply try to make your customers happy, they are likely to spread the news of your awesome product on that basis alone.”
“The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth.”
“we had not started blogging at the beginning the way we did, Unbounce”
"Your tests should be designed to answer these questions: How much does it cost to acquire each customer through this channel strategy? How many customers are available through this channel strategy? Are the customers you are getting through this channel the ones you want right now?”
Book details
- Print length: 288 Pages
- Genre: Business, Entrepreneurship, Nonfiction
What are the chapters in Traction?
Chapter 1: Traction Channels
Chapter 2: Traction Thinking
Chapter 3: Bullseye
Chapter 4: Traction Testing
Chapter 5: Critical Path
Chapter 6: Targeting Blogs
Chapter 7: Publicity
Chapter 8: Unconventional PR
Chapter 9: Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Chapter 10: Social and Display Ads
Chapter 11: Offline Ads
Chapter 12: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Chapter 13: Content Marketing
Chapter 14: Email Marketing
Chapter 15: Viral Marketing
Chapter 16: Engineering as Marketing
Chapter 17: Business Development (BD)
Chapter 18: Sales
Chapter 19: Affiliate Programs
Chapter 20: Existing Platforms
Chapter 21: Trade Shows
Chapter 22: Offline Events
Chapter 23: Speaking Engagements
Chapter 24: Community Building
What do critics say?
Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: "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, author of Choose Yourself
* The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways. If you're interested in enhancing your personal growth, I suggest checking out my list of favorite self-development books. These books have been instrumental in my own personal development and I'm confident they can help you too.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
