Nathan Labenz
The team behind Stik enjoys talking about how its software platform is so new they are pioneering it. That’s easy to talk about. Getting customers to come around to it and garnering market acceptance? That’s not nearly as easy.
The downtown Detroit-based startup (it moved to Michigan from Silicon Valley a few years ago) makes a social media marketing platform that enables businesses to best leverage their positive reviews. Those success stories range from online reviews to customer testimonials.
Nathan Labenz, CEO of
Stik, likes to call this branding as "customer success marketing." Stik's initial platform has recently been accompanied by SocialProof, a more robust version of the customer success marketing platform designed for big business. Labenz and his team are working to become known as the pioneers behind this new way of reaching potential customers.
"It isn't just our company touting how good we are," Labenz says. "It's people using it."
That sounds good but getting customers to see the value in it to the point they are willing to pay for it can be challenging. Often Labenz and his team are battling against big organizations that are resistant to change.
"It's basically just inertia," Labenz says. "We're in a good spot. When we explain what we do to businesses they say that's cool. I don't have to do a lot of explaining."
The simplicity of the idea works in Stik's favor. However, proving its viability in the marketplace is still a necessity for Labenz and his team.
"We have to prove this makes sense and prove it client by client," Labenz says.
The good news is that as more people adapt to this new way of advertising the easier it becomes to sell it to new customers. Labenze and his team think they are well on their way to that point, especially as the economy improves and advertising budgets swell.
"They're giving more freedom to their advertisers," Labenz says.
- Written by Jon Zemke