Marketing Principles for Start-ups (& other small businesses)

Honestly, I feel weird even writing the title for this post, because I know there are at least a million articles on this subject. (Well, I stand corrected, a Google search turned up “about 55,700,000 results” for “marketing for startups.”)

That said, every week we have conversations about the basic principles of what to do, who to target, how to do it, and which social media outlets to use with clients, so I thought I would back up and put down some high-level principles about how to spend your limited time and money on marketing efforts for your business. Generally, these will apply no matter what kind of business you’re starting—a high-tech startup, a lifestyle service business, or side hustle.

FIRST PRINCIPLE:

This is sometimes the hardest thing to remember when executing on marketing, especially for startups who are really excited about their product or service. IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. Your marketing should be ALL about your customer.

How many times have you seen this (or something similar) on a website:

At Company XYZ, we specialize in maximizing returns for our customers through high-level interactions in technological communications

Does that make you want to do business with them? Do you even know what they do?? Probably not. Don’t be that company.

In this awesome article, this principle is really made clear through some great examples, like: “They don’t want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes.”

SECOND PRINCIPLE

What I mean here is that, as a small business owner, you are NOT going to have time to keep up with 8 different social media outlets, trust me. So what are you supposed to do?

Pick 2 that cater to your target audience and stick with them.

Does your product appeal to younger people? Check out Instagram or Snapchat, where you can feature great photos of people using your product.

Have a service that’s aimed at moms? Facebook is your new best friend. Then do some research to find out if your particular group of moms are chatting on Twitter or sharing baby photos on Instagram.

Have a great B2B app? Go to LinkedIn and find the people in the target companies who would benefit most, write some great helpful articles on your website and make sure they’re linked on Google+ and/or Twitter.

Those are just a couple examples, and they could change depending on the specifics of the particular audience you’re trying to capture. (You did do that customer research already, right?)

THIRD PRINCIPLE

One of the reasons I tell everyone to just pick 2 outlets is because you want to make a strong showing and get to be known on your chosen platforms.

Consistency is a big factor in that. But what if you don’t think you’ll be able to come up with interesting stuff to say every day?

Then welcome to part two of this principle, where you go back and review #1: It’s not about you, it’s about your customer. What I mean here is that you don’t want to just talk about yourself (company) all the time, but sharing other posts and information that are relevant to your customers’ lives is a great way to show them that you know what you’re talking about and that you understand their needs.

By becoming a trusted source of (non-self-serving) information, you encourage followers to become customers by demonstrating your expertise and knowledge.

And that, after all, is the whole point of marketing: getting customers.