Being a startup is not easy in a media saturated world. So how do you succeed with branding and marketing your startup?
Lets start with how to get your message through to your audience.
1) Distill: Boil down who your company is. Generate a central thesis and personality. Set colors, taglines, tone of voice, logo, and all things to identify who you are. This is your brand - stick to it at all times and across all formats.
2) Decide: Map out a plan and a strategy. If you just put your marketing efforts out into the ether without reason, companies who have specifically targeted that audience and are providing a more relevant message will overshadow you.
Figure out who wants your product. Who already consumes your product (or a similar competing product)? Who may have a need for your product but doesn't know it?
Figure out the best way to reach them. Are they on social media a lot? Do they read magazines? Are they professionals that go to certain tradeshows? Think about where your target group would be most likely to run into your message.
3) Disseminate: Always remember strategy before sending. Write press releases and send them to relevant magazines, bloggers, media contacts and post them on your website and social media.
Write interesting content for blogs, social media, magazines, etc. Try to get mentioned by relevant magazines, try to get product reviews- free press is great! Buy ads if it's in your budget. Maximize your SEO, this is very important.
Follow your strategy to single out where your consumer is going to get their media and then just start going to town. Don't spam (do I really have to say that?) but DO be politely pushy- get it done! If you don't or you haven't hired someone to do it on your behalf, it won't happen.
OK, moving on to juggling all of these marketing and branding tasks. It’s a lot!
Marketing budgets are often sparse when starting out, let me show you some options, hints and suggestions:
Least appealing, but often the only option, is that YOU will run the company and do the marketing. You will be one busy stressed person. May I suggest Propecia or Rogaine to accompany your new business?
Try listening to marketing how-to books on CD in the car, it's a chunk of time that is often under utilized. If you are struggling with anything software related try Lynda.com, I love that site.
When you have a bigger budget, you don't have to do this all on your own anymore (hallelujah!).
Many people opt to hire an in-house marketing director. While this is certainly better than you doing everything, it's still not the best option. Let me tell you why. Marketing and branding is SO complex these days that even if it's a full time position, it's very hard for one person to cover every aspect of it.
In order to run in-house marketing and branding effectively and have all of the specialty areas covered, you either need to have a lot of employees or completely overwhelm the marketing director.
Ideally, hiring a marketing and branding agency is the best bet. While many agencies can be expensive, it depends on the agency you're talking to and your needs.
BrandDNA is an LA based marketing and branding agency that has a select team of experts who cover all of the areas of marketing and branding including but not limited to: website design, SEO, social media, video, print, logo design, PR and advertising. We are a boutique agency and are available as much or as little as needed, making excellent branding and marketing affordable.
We are happy to offer you a free brand audit if you are interested in learning more about the BrandDNA process and what we can do for you. Feel free to contact me anytime at:
https://twitter.com/KamalFaridi
Whatever method of branding and marketing you feel is right for you, stick to the basics:
1. Distill
2. Decide
3. Disseminate
And in that specific order!
2. Decide
3. Disseminate
And in that specific order!
I would be happy to discuss your company’s specific needs further with you.
Best of luck entrepreneurs! I hope that you found this helpful.
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