Startups make the world go round. While they fail however many times out of 100, there are still a ton of them being built and being developed day after day. One thing we’ve noticed through digging is that many startups fail due to a lack of marketing. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have any marketing, no. It just means that they didn’t effectively market the product, offer, or service. Today, we’ll dive into a few marketing notes any startup founder should jot down.
Content is King
If you’re a reader of these Be Uniic blogs, then you might’ve already heard this… However, if you haven’t realized content creation will be and needs to be a huge part of your marketing plan then you’re already behind. Not only does content allow you to build a reputation in your niche, but it’s also cheap to make (which is the best for startups) and there is no negative downside to it – all there is is up! Thinking about it, founders may avoid content since they’ll ponder the question, “What content should I make?” and while it’s a fair question to ask, the answer is simple: Your content is valuable to your target market, so that means any piece of content you produce, it should be done with the goal of serving your market with education or entertainment-based resources.
The biggest mistake we’ve seen founders make is they want to pitch their product right out of the box. We’re talking about the first 3 blogs out of 5. We know “look at me” content is just a facade in terms of effectiveness. In building “look at me” content, you’ll be clumped up with the rest of the competition in your space who are pitching their product ruthlessly to your audience. Want to stand out? Provide value. Teach your audience new things or a new trend that relates to their business which all ties into the next section…
Build a Base of Raving Fans
In 2024, a ton of founders believe that Word of Mouth is dead. The data says otherwise as Word of Mouth will most likely be one of your best friends as an early-stage startup. Your idea, your brand, your product, your service, etc. can spread like wildfire at an extremely low cost, and getting the ball rolling isn’t too hard. This section kind of ties back to the previous section, but to get the ball rolling, start building content that provides value to your audience. In this content, don’t yab about your product or service. If you keep top of mind your ideal customer and scale from there, your content machine will be a go-to resource for these ideal customers.
A few clients will come through the door just because they liked your team or your founder as people. They don’t care if the product is only at 1.0. These people will be the ones that need to be engaged with and served extremely well because they are the ones that kick start the raving fan base. Since they bought into you, your brand, your mission, values, etc. and not your product, they will be advocates until the river runs dry.
Put a Face to Your Content
Some founders hate being in front of the camera. Some of them don’t believe they need to be in front of the camera. The fact of the matter is that your founder(s) need to be the face of your content. People buy from people and as founders, you know the product, you know the need, and you know the space better than any employee you end up hiring. You’ll be able to better connect with your target audience if you’re the one on the actual content. Read the book Founder Brand by Dave Gerhardt – it goes into detail on this idea of the founder being the brand.
Don’t Shy Away from Paid Ads
Long-term growth comes from building a community around your brand. Some people will take that, and run with it until the end and avoid things such as paid ads. However, paid ads can be beneficial to this specific effort. The only issue is that most startups don’t have the capital to just burn through wads of cash. At Be Uniic, we’ve worked more with B2B, and brand is important in both B2B and B2C. However, in B2C, there’s this area in which you can play off of impulse and paid ads can be a better tool for quick wins. B2B sales cycles aren’t always as quick…
Don’t Go Too Thin Too Early
Growing up you may have heard the phrase “you’ll spread yourself too thin,” and when getting started with the marketing side of things, it rings true – especially when you’re a small team of one to five people. Your goal at this stage is to do two things:
- Find a channel for your community. One they spend time on, one they enjoy, and one that is easy to manage and communicate with them
- Create content and engage with that specific channel
Example: If LinkedIn is a good space for your channel then post on LinkedIn and YouTube. You can easily post the video on YouTube first and just share on your LinkedIn page(s).
We recommend against trying to get content running on things like Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and whatever social media channels there are all at once. Find a space for your audience and lean into it. Expand later.
Time… It’ll Take Some Time
Growth takes time, that’s an inevitable fact that a ton of founders struggle with. Unless you’re some unicorn startup with millions of dollars to back your every move, don’t set expectations too high. You’re going to begin with building content and engaging an audience. It’s a slow building process, but down the road it’ll all add up. It just needs time. You need to spend all of your time learning more about your space because whatever you're doing they don't care about.
Takeaways
Building a startup is hard. It’s something not a lot of people want to do due to the stress, mental headache, and so much more. However, when you take the step in building out your future, it’s always good to have some sort of stepping stone such as these “top X tips,” or “startups for dummies,” type articles…
Looking to scale your startup in 2024? Then Be Uniic is the place to be. Be Uniic offers startups full-stack marketing focusing on SEO, PPC, Paid Social, Email Marketing, and Analytics. We keep a tight ship, but we also have additional incentives such as free ad spend, newsletter features, and more. Visit our site to learn more.
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