Startup Branding 101
Hi everyone, my name is Balind. I believe in building a social-driven brand through usable and useful content.
What is the number one challenge most startups have? Attracting customers.
Have a look at this video where I walk you through the basic formula for branding your startup to attract more customers. 👊 Or, read on for the cliff-notes.
Most startups are challenged when it comes to attracting customers and the solution is to use a proven formula for wining and dining them. 🍷
It’s not that simple though, or everyone would be crushing it. The variable is the art, copy, and storytelling. In a word, the ‘creative’.
Before I dive in let me first say that I’m learning as I go, just like the rest of us. By no means do I consider myself an authority, but, I’ve picked up a few things along the way.
The Challenge
It’s an over-saturated market and having a great idea for your digital product or service is not enough. In order to stand out from the crowd, your startup needs to build a reputation that customers know, like, and trust.
The Solution
It’s super tempting to go in for the hard sell but that doesn’t work in 2017’s social-driven world. Instead of asking the girl to go home with you right away, maybe take her out to dinner first.
The Formula
The wine and dine formula is a 3-legged stool. Create social-driven content, distribute it in a way that incentivizes participation, and send prospects to a destination that converts.
Let’s take a deeper-dive into this formula, starting with content…
Content
We all know that content is important but what’s changed in the last few years is the nature of it. Content in 2017 needs to put visuals first. Your brand should be expressed visually, preferably through live-action video. Motion creates emotion, don’t forget that.
Additionally, you need to share your story through micro-content. See if you can break your big over-arching brand story up into small stories that can be shared an image at a time.
Distribution
It’s a pay-to-play world to finding your community in 2017. Go to the store and buy customers. That store is Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, etc.
Do not miss the opportunity that partnering with influencers can bring your brand. Having someone from your target audience who has an engaged community, trial your product is straight up branding gold. It’s the most authentic way to get your product out there.
Conversion
The Godfather had it right, “make them an offer they can’t refuse”. This is why you need a landing page — it’s the place where you can make offers.
If you try making offers on social media you’ll become white noise — instead use social media to drive users to your landing page where you make an offer.
Retarget
Remember when we talked about wining and dining? Well retargeting is a huge part of that. Just because someone lands on your website and reads your offer doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy. Bring them into your world through an email list so that you can stay top of mind when they are ready.
The Variable
The above formula works, guaranteed. The variable is the creative. Not every startup can afford to have an advertising agency create amazing art and copy. Using the formula alone won’t allow you to crush it, you’ve got to nail the storytelling.
Here’s what we learned:
- The challenge most startups have is attracting customers
- The solution is to wine and dine them, you have a formula for that now
- The variable is art, copy, and storytelling. Not every brand nails this
On Tuesday of next week (03.14.17) I’m going to post a follow up article that takes a deep-dive into solving for the variable: creative.
I encourage you to start trying out these techniques — if you need the deck, download it here: Download PDF
If you enjoyed this content, let me know by liking and commenting.
Sincerely, Balind
