What is the essential advice for a startup?
During a call with a prospective client starting a new business, they asked me for the four critical pieces of advice that I help clients learn and understand. If she works with me, this owner wanted to know my marketing consultancy’s core beliefs. She told me she wanted to brush up on her marketing for her initial fundraising round.
I thought I’d share them with you.
- Know your target audience. What are your target audience’s needs and wants? What are their pain points? Once you know your target audience, you can tailor your marketing message to appeal to them. These are the people you serve and who your brand/business build products or services for from day one.
- Be consistent with your branding. Your brand should be consistent across all channels, from your website to social media and marketing materials. Consistency will help customers to remember your brand and what you stand for. Inconsistency is confusing.
- Be creative with your marketing. Be different from the category. There are many ways to market your brand, so don’t hesitate to get creative. Try other things and see what works best for your business. Creative means disruptive and not the same as what everyone else does in the category. Boring dies sitting on the shelf.
- Measure your results. It’s essential to track the results of your marketing efforts to see what’s working and what’s not. Measuring results will help you to optimize your marketing strategy and get the most out of your budget. You can’t win if you don’t keep score. And what you measure matters, so ensure you gauge leading success indicators.
These are four themes that are critical to success, and I repeat over and over.
I often advise startups that you’ll likely fail if they aren’t finding a narrow audience to serve with something made just for them. Being too broad, comprehensive, and general never breaks through the clutter.
A brilliantly marketed brand finds someone who says, “They made it for me.”
If you want to brush up on your startup brand, schedule a chat here.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash
