Marketing is about creating real (measurable) value to the company.
In my view, marketing is CRITICAL in driving success for technology startups.
Here is a quick and incomplete list of DO’s for your marketing efforts.
1. First and foremost – Appoint the right person to LEAD this job!
2. Strategize
Ask yourself several questions: What is my market? Who are my customers, partners, competitors? What is my goal as a company? Short term and Long term. What is the goal of my marketing? Answering these questions, among others, will allow to better define and execute the right marketing program for you company at that stage.
3. Plan – define goals, budget, resources, timetables, and measurable KPIs
4. Talk to Industry Analysts
a. They influence the industry including your potential customers, partner and competitors
b. They expect you to educate them about your company and the industry, not to sell them
c. They have vast knowledge and can sometimes direct you and your company
d. Keep personal relationship with them
5. Communicate with the Press
a. Pitch exclusively to the leading magazine in your market ahead of the press release. An article is always better than a canned press release.
b. Follow leading journalists and communicate with them
6. Email Marketing
a. Excellent platform for near-personal communication with your audience
b. List of all players in the space (not only decision makers)
c. Prepare a list of messages you want to convey to your audience (product enhancements, customer wins, partnering, industry news, etc.)
d. Execute a campaign
e. Analyze, Improve, Repeat
f. Leverage web tools that allow you to do that properly
7. Build and Maintain your Website
a. Build a clear, professional website with value to your customers,
b. SEO – “own” your terms with the goal to appear on the first 5 results
c. SEM – Consider paying for your terms you want to own
8. Be Active in Social Media
a. Linkedin – major platform for B2B marketing! Your profile, Your updates, Your connections are are all marketing assets.
b. Facebook – if you mix personal with business, consider leveraging it as well.
c. Twitter –
9. Do Webinars
a. Webinars are a great way to engage and create leads
b. Do a webinar with an industry expert – analyst, veteran, someone that can add value on top of your pitch
c. Promote it via all channels (website, email, twitter, linkedin, facebook, pr, etc.)
10. Write and Distribute White Papers
a. Excellent way to provide a detailed review of our offering and its value
b. Excellent way to collect leads via your website
11. Go to Industry Events
Many say that events are not relevant anymore. I tend to disagree. Meeting people is priceless, and events are a great hub for meeting people. You can leverage it for the serendipity of finding lucky opportunities, or use it to coordinate meeting known players (customers and partners) in one place. As for the cost, an alternative to the industry expensive events, can be the more cost effective one like meetups, un-conferences, round-tables and speaking engagements that can sometimes reach the same impact.
*** Remember, this is an incomplete list, and every company has is special needs.
But the bottom line is simple. Go Marketing!
Startup Dreamer 