The Startup Owner's Manual

Appendix B

Glossary

A/B Testing

compares one version of a web page with another and sees which produces the best results.

Acquisition

is the first step in the web/mobile “get/keep/grow” sales funnel. It gets people to visit your website, where you can then activate them by getting them to engage, purchase, or at least register for future sales efforts. Specific customer acquisition categories include earned and paid media, and tactics include search (SEM/SEO), e-mail, PR/blogs, viral, social nets.

Activation

is the second step in the web/mobile “get/keep/grow” sales funnel. After you acquire customers you get them to register, participate or purchase on the website. Specific customer activation tactics include free trials, home/landing page.

Agile Development

is the engineering method used to develop products (hardware, software or services) iteratively and incrementally with flexibility to react to customer feedback. It recognizes that customer needs and the final product spec cannot be fully defined a priori. Agile is the antithesis of Waterfall Development.

ARPU,

or Average Revenue Per User, is a measurement of revenue typically applied by subscription services like cellphone or data plans to measure average long-term spending.

Awareness.

In the physical channel, it is the first step in the “get customers” sales funnel. Tactics include earned media (pr, blogs, brochures, reviews), paid media (ads, promotions), online tools

Business Model

is the description of how an organization ...