Stand Out or Fail
-Three Pillars of Student Startup Success
Let’s be honest: if there were a formula for startup success, we wouldn’t be writing about it for free. The world’s most complex game has a way of frustrating our most carefully-laid plans and our most timeless wisdom — lest one forgets, the game is played by other people, who are free to change their strategies in response to yours.
That said, most successful startups are made from a few common ingredients, and the experts are all but unanimous that those include aggressive marketing, a robust web presence, and a readiness to invest in tools that help you save time on the tedious stuff (hint: your website). Here we listen to what some of the leading voices in entrepreneurship have to say about when to stop prioritizing your website (second hint: never).
On Marketing
Having a great startup idea is like having your high school class say you’re “most likely to be famous.” It’s a good sign, but the odds are still against you, unless you work tirelessly to fulfill that early promise (and get lucky once or twice). The “invisible hand” of the free market may select the best products, but with fingers that big, it can’t even find a business that’s still tiny on the advertising scene. According to Alyssa Gregory, small business expert, it’s always a mistake to assume that business will “just come to you.”
The brand that you cultivate can also turn inward, giving your business a sense of mission and a larger narrative within the industry. Or so says Michael Dunlop, RetireAt21.com founder. With all the false starts, frustrations, and setbacks that a young business is likely to encounter, “clear identity” can separate a team that pulls through from a team that throws in the towel.
On Web Presence
That’s all great in principle, but what does it mean in practice? Web presence, mostly. In the information age, your greatest marketing asset is a site that prospective customers can easily find, and that holds their attention when they’ve found it. According to ‘30 Under 30’ entrepreneur Ilya Pozin, a strong online marketing effort has become a must for companies of every size and industry. Serial entrepreneur Jeremy Fischer puts it more bluntly: “A lot of new founders think, ‘If I build it, they will come.’ I have news for you: They’re not coming and you’re not going to ‘go viral.’….Spend some serious time thinking about how and why people are going to discover and share what you’re building.”
In other words, take the consumer’s perspective. In a global bazaar of staggering dimensions and inexhaustible variety, what would make you pause and think “I wonder what these people are about.” As with all marketing, crafting a website can also help you answer this question in the first person. Don’t just ask how you can make your business stand out, but why it deserves to. A well-executed website can help you clarify your corporate identity and orient your services around a defining goal.
On Expertise
This brings us to the question that student entrepreneurs everywhere have been asking: Where does web presence come from? For many entrepreneurs, it comes from borrowing all the expertise in web design, search engine optimization, and analytics that goes into an existing web design app. “Borrowing” sounds like an admission of defeat for many do-it-yourself entrepreneurs, but it shouldn’t be, especially where your website is concerned.
When it comes to technical know-how, startups are especially well-advised to get outside help. Using field-tested DIY apps from countless top-notch programmers saves you from having to gamble on new tech employees whose skills are hard to vet, and (if you have the know-how) from having to build everything from scratch.
The Bottom Line
Anyone hoping to make his product known in a physical marketplace needs “stage presence.” Anyone hoping to do that in the digital marketplace needs web presence. Here’s the problem: those who need it the most have the hardest time generating it on their own. Student startups can rarely offer competitive salaries to experienced web designers, web experts, and analysts. Neither can an entrepreneur easily learn those roles while juggling other responsibilities. And even the most knowledgeable and tech savvy entrepreneurs may find that micro-managing an online marketing campaign means a time commitment they can’t afford.
That’s where (warning: shameless plug) Strikingly comes in. The simple, mobile optimized website builder is helping more and more student entrepreneurs find their competitive edge, and get their products and ideas the attention they deserve. Once you take to heart that the market favors the loud and the proud, that your website is the linchpin of your marketing effort, and that the tools you need are already out there, your “big idea” will have a shot at standing out.
