5 things to learn as a startup founder with zero marketing background!

[omaheart]

5 things to learn as a startup founder with zero marketing background

1. Think in the perspective of your customer.
   This is #1 for a reason; it’s the most important one.
   Nearly every sentence on your landing page should answer the question, “So what?” Communicate in terms of what value your service provides, not what it provides. A new customer does not care about what your product does… all they want to know is what is in it for them. It seems that too many startups think they’re supposed to describe what their product/service is. Too often I see website taglines say things like, “The AirBnB for Pets” or “The Best Digital Marketing Agency For Your Brand”. Who the hell cares? The truth is that nobody knows who you are so, honestly, nobody cares. Instead, tell them why they should care.

Let’s imagine a website for a product that manages the room temperature throughout your home & use that as an example.
BAD: “Automated temperature monitoring for your home”
BETTER: “Lower your monthly bills & worry less with the perfect temperature in every room”

Automated temperature monitoring for your home (so what?) means absolutely nothing to a potential customer. In other words, there is no clear value as to what value the product offers. However, the 2nd line clearly states the benefits of the product to the consumer.

Use this method of thinking for your marketing emails, social media marketing, copywriting, videos, & almost everything you could think of related to selling your product. When you think you’re done, give it to someone else, & ask them: would you buy this?

1. Go to where your customers are

Whether your startup is B2B or B2C, your job as the salesman for your product/service is to present solutions to people that may actually experience the problem you’re looking to solve. Your job is also to find where this community of people are & go straight to them.

For example, Bob is selling a product in the agriculture industry. Instead of going farm to farm (which can be very time consuming), Bob discovered that every morning at 8 am all the farmers in a certain town visited a local coffee shop to get their morning cup of joe. Well, guess where Bob was every morning at 8 am?

While your customers may not all be in a coffee shop like Bob’s was, they may be on an online forum, a subreddit, an online chatroom, a live conference or trade show, a local market, or even the unemployment line at your local welfare office.

When you find them, make sure to follow point number 3 (below).

1. People don’t want to be sold to.

As soon as I hear something along the lines of, “Do you wish your bed was more comfortable?”, I cringe. Be human. Be authentic. When reaching to customers/businesses just use natural language. People want to feel important. If you speak to customers in cheap-car-salesman lingo, you’re not making them a priority. You might as well be a robot.

1. When sending cold e-mails make it personal & straight to the point.

Again, follow point number 3 especially when looking for cold leads via e-mail.

If your startup is B2B, make your e-mails to potential clients personal. Don’t make your e-mail seem like a canned response or template. Nobody likes that & most people will not read it. Remember, people want to feel important. Instead, tell them exactly why you know they will specifically benefit from your product/service.

Also, make the e-mail short & sweet. Don’t get into details about your product/service or attempt to sign them up immediately. Right now all you need to do is get them interested & set up a follow up call to talk more. Try to make your e-mail super short. It shouldn’t look like a letter & it shouldn’t be more than 2–3 paragraphs of more than 2–3 short sentences each.

Get them interested. Talk details later.

1. A 5-year old should be able to understand what you do.
   Without scrolling or clicking anything, your customer should at least have a clear idea of what your product/service is about within 15–20 seconds of visiting your website.

The attention span of a new customer can be very low so you should communicate your message in the simplest words possible. Your landing page should be able to explain what you do to a 5 year old. I use this concept all the time when making landing pages. Here’s why:

Nobody has time to decipher your message. Give it to me straight.

Make it super simple. Here is how:

Keep your message short.

Use words that flow well together in a sentence (match syllable counts when possible)

Use words that even a non-native speaker of your language can understand.

Do not use English phrasal verbs. Here is a list of a few. Not everyone understands what these may mean & a 5 year old probably won’t either.

BAD WORD CHOICE: establish

BETTER WORD CHOICE: prepare, create/make, build, deliver, give

BAD WORD CHOICE: come upon, identify

BETTER WORD CHOICE: find, explore, discover
Use a theasarus if not sure how to change a word.

 

[angel_sword]

@omaheart Thank you for sharing !!