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7 Tips for Startup Marketing

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Posted on Tue, May 31, 2011, by Akira Morita

Last week, I got to talk with some of the bright minds hard at work at the Durham Startup Stampede. The Stampede is a startup incubator with a downtown rejuvenation thrown in for a twist. Two months of rent-free space right downtown. Opportunities to meet investors, experts and advisors. Inspire each other in a friendly, coworking environment.

Durham Chamber, in partnership with Downtown Durham, Inc., chose 11 startups from about 80 applications back in March, and the participants have been working hard at launching their products/services.

I was selected as one of the “panelists” on marketing strategy; basically, I showed up, had a quick 20-minute chat with each company signed up for my “clinic” time slots. Everyone I talked to was super-smart, cognizant of the unique challenges they face as a startup in marketing themselves, and eager to learn. We jammed about each of their business marketing ideas, and I learned a lot in the process, too. An ideal conversation partner for this marketing geek, to be sure! Thanks Anil, Jeff, Ed & Sandy, Cory, and Amanda!

The Stampede concludes today. But many will stay in downtown to continue their ventures. As a ‘good luck’ present to all the participants and other startups everywhere striving for their success, here’s a quick 7-point tips/things I learned and observed that I think applies to the unique challenge of marketing a startup.

1. Put some sweat equity in marketing, please.

There’s a lot of mixed messages out there about this, so I’ll try to be straight up. Marketing is not dispensable. It’s not only essential, but part of your value proposition. Even if someone says “worry about marketing after you figured out your product,” don’t listen to him. He means “don’t spend a lot of money up front.” In fact, it’s very important you think (really hard!) about how you’d be talking about your business way up front. Who are you? What does the business do, for whom? and Why should anyone bother to know more? These are questions you should ask first when you have the idea for a business, not two hours before a presentation.

Related: do you need a logo? business card? My take on this, especially for a startup, is yes, but don’t sweat the details (see below) or pay someone an exorbitant amount of money to do it for you. Better to consult with some trustworthy visually-oriented people and cobble up something together for the time-being. Of course, that means you will need to know a lot more about yourself…

2. Do the homework

Ask yourself: why? Why do you do what you do? Why do you care about this particular idea? Why should someone else? Why? Journalists say “ask why five times before you publish,” and that’s just for getting someone to read something. For free. So if you are hoping people will do more (say create an account with you, pay you some money for a product or services), you see how important it is that you ask these questions constantly, and know some (not all; you will be learning a LOT more later, hopefully soon but never all) of the answers.

Cultivate a visual vocabulary for your brand. Know what kind of personality you are aiming for. Who’re its friends? Enemies? If your brand were a person, what would she show up wearing to a networking event? A wedding? A night out with friends? Collect pictures that resonate with you and your brand. Think about the words that you want associated with it. This is the foundation of your “brand guide” or “stylebook.” You may decide to go with a $99 logo from a web site for now, but at least you will have:
1. a better “brief” to give your aspiring designers than most of their customers; and
2. some ideas for your brand’s concept, and if you have a solid concept, it will be easy enough to evolve your brand identity later on.

3. Listen

Pay attention to what people are saying around you. Can they be your customers? What are their main concerns? How can you help? When in front of an audience (be it in a networking setting with just one person in front of you, on social media, or in a crowd), try not to talk about yourself or worry about what elevator pitch you can give. Instead, try to engage with them as much as you can; listen to their stories and challenges, ask good questions that show you are in fact listening. Offer suggestions. Over time, this will open the channel for further conversations.

4. Don’t worry about the competition

No, it’s not necessarily bad to pay attention to what others are doing around you. You can gain some insights by observing other businesses to be sure. But if you are taking cues from your direct competition, be it marketing strategy (“Who are they going after?” “What’s their ‘thing?’”), pricing (“What are they charging?”) or operation (“Are they in a big office? Should we be?”), chances are you will be lured into mediocrity by imitation. You are a startup. Take some risks, form your own opinions and views, and “draw a line in the sand” as Jason Fried says. Don’t fret what people will say.

5. Don’t fret the details

Again, if you can’t afford a professionally-designed logo, don’t worry about it. If your social media strategy isn’t perfect, who cares? It’s better to be in the trenches trying out stuff than perfecting your “marketing plan.” Do some hard, top-level thinking, then pull the trigger and see what happens. Then later, you can perfect the details, or adjust the course. In a startup, it’s often the case you will end up somewhere you never thought you’d be when you started.

If Google can start with this logo (scroll down to the middle of this interesting article), you can.

6. Aim for your customers, not investors or board members (or you and your spouse)

Nothing you do, especially in marketing, should ever aim to impress your investors, board members, family members, or yourself. Many times in my career I caught myself thinking, “That would be cool to do (because I’d look good doing it).” I’ve wasted time and money on these vanity projects on occasion, and learned the hard way not to repeat it.

Now, I am not saying that creating memorable PR stunts or throwing a big party for the brand is always bad. It just needs to be done _for_ your constituents, serve your business goals, and/or underline your positioning. And you always have to have your customers needs first in your mind. 

7. Have a story to tell

Good storytelling trumps just about anything else. What’s your motivation? What makes your product awesome (in the eyes of your soon-to-be loyal customers)? There could be a really good story buried within these (and many other) questions. Good photographers, videographers, or other marketing consultants, know this; in fact, that’s a big part of what sets them apart from the rest. If you know how to find a good story in your ideas, it will be hard to fail.

Speaking of good videographers, here’s a good story from a Durham institution:
Reality Ministries: A story in five acts

These are rather off-the-cuff, off-the-top-of-my-head points that I thought up this morning, and no doubt there’s more out there.

Here’s one that Dipika Kohli, my partner at Design Kompany, wrote a while back (I guess we like the number seven):
7 tips for marketing with class

Here’s more about the “Why do you need a logo?” question:
What I really Think About When I Think About Logos

More out there no doubt, but this is one that I just read last week: