Intro
You have a great idea for a product or service
It's a winner.
You just FEEL it in your gut.
The great temptation is to dive in and start building prototypes, beta versions or wireframe models without getting the cold hard proof that there is real demand for what you have to sell.
By doing, this these founders are investing an inordinate amount of time, energy and money based on an assumption that they have a winner.
It's a big mistake (and not very business like, either)
The number one reason startups fail is that there is no market need for their ground-breaking new idea.
So wouldn't it be a smart idea to validate that market need, first?
That's where digital marketing comes in.
Executed in the right way, you'll not only validate your idea but also have the metrics to prove it to sceptical investors too.
What is digital marketing
“Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.” quote Wikipedia
Unlike with old analogue methods (think billboard, printed flyer, direct mail, TV Ad, print media Ad or analogue public relations), you can adjust, refine and optimise your marketing 'on-the-fly' to ensure that you are getting the best ROI.
There are many different levers that you could integrate into your digital marketing including Content marketing, Social Media marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Email marketing, Video marketing, advertising (Google, Facebook, Bing etc) not to mention your website.
It is crucial that you put these marketing methods (tactics) to work for you in an integrated way.
For this, you will need a proven strategy
What is the role of a digital marketing strategy?
"Your strategy determines the direction and scope of your digital marketing over a predefined period, including how resources should be configured to meet the immediate needs of the organisation and its stakeholders"
It also has to define and communicate an organization's unique unfair advantage and its chain of beliefs to the ideal customer avatar.
There are 2 parts
"The most expensive thing you will ever acquire is a new customer"
The second most common reason startups fail is that they simply run out of cash so it is vital that your initial marketing strategy delivers cashflow.
Startup digital marketing strategy follows a repeating three step cycle
Each time you repeat the cycle, your product becomes more substantial but just as importantly your customer base grows allowing the founder to maximise LTV by adding higher value products or services.
The importance of your digital marketing KPIs
"if you cannot measure it, you cannot can not manage it"
Key Performance Indicators are not a lagging indicator. You predict optimum KPIs in advance and then work to match or exceed them. Each optimisation focuses on the point of maximum leverage.
Here are some KPIs to establish:
Click Through Rate (CTR):
The percentage of visitors who click through from your landing page
Cost Per Lead (CPL):
How much does it cost to acquire a new lead through a particular channel
Conversion Rate:
The percentage of leads who become customers
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA):
How much does it costs you to acquire a customer through a particular channel
Lifetime Value (LTV):
The Lifetime value of a customer over the time they remain a client. The higher the value the more you can afford to spend to acquire that customer.
The 5 essential elements of your digital marketing strategy
Your marketing starts long before you build your MVP.
Leading with your marketing ensures you are a results focused company driven by your customers biggest challenges.
#1. Position yourself for success
Take a deep dive into the market you intend to enter. Learn everything you can about the competition, their offers, their prices and their business models. Perform a S.W.O.T. analysis and position yourself to allow maximum market penetration. Spending time and money here positions your MVP and your messaging for success.
#2. Understand your ideal client avatar
Take a second deep dive into your ideal client avatar. We're not just talking demographics here. This is about getting to know your ideal client as well as you know your siblings or best friend. This is probably the most important research you will ever do. What you discover will guide your thinking, your messaging, your product/service offer and much more.
#3. Figure out your Unique Unfair Advantage
Your education, experience and expertise is unique. No one else has the exact same 9 elements that make up your unique unfair advantage. Your UFA may not be visible to your market (Google's Algorithm) unlike your USP. Your UFA should rack the shotgun so you are only dealing with the 20% of the market who want to do business with you.
#4. Define your company values
Defining your personal values as they apply to your business allows you to express your WHY. This is the beating heart of your company. People will do business with you because they buy into your WHY. Your product or service is a symbol of the value of that belief system.
#5 Create your irresistible offer
The logical conclusion to the process is to create an irresistible offer which includes the features, advantage and benefits inherent in your product/service but a whole lot more besides such as how using it will impact the life of your customers in a positive way
Executing your digital marketing strategy
Now you have a powerful digital marketing strategy, it's time to implement it. Here are the essential elements:
Tell a powerful story:
As I said before, each startup is different and needs its own strategy; saying it, these are my most favourite marketing tools that proved many times they work.
Marketing is initially a cost but ultimately a profit centre
Marketing is the process by which a startup profitably translates customer needs into revenue.
Leave them in the comments below. I'd love to hear what you have to say…
You have a great idea for a product or service
It's a winner.
You just FEEL it in your gut.
The great temptation is to dive in and start building prototypes, beta versions or wireframe models without getting the cold hard proof that there is real demand for what you have to sell.
By doing, this these founders are investing an inordinate amount of time, energy and money based on an assumption that they have a winner.
It's a big mistake (and not very business like, either)
The number one reason startups fail is that there is no market need for their ground-breaking new idea.
So wouldn't it be a smart idea to validate that market need, first?
That's where digital marketing comes in.
Executed in the right way, you'll not only validate your idea but also have the metrics to prove it to sceptical investors too.
What is digital marketing
“Digital marketing is the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.” quote Wikipedia
Unlike with old analogue methods (think billboard, printed flyer, direct mail, TV Ad, print media Ad or analogue public relations), you can adjust, refine and optimise your marketing 'on-the-fly' to ensure that you are getting the best ROI.
There are many different levers that you could integrate into your digital marketing including Content marketing, Social Media marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Email marketing, Video marketing, advertising (Google, Facebook, Bing etc) not to mention your website.
It is crucial that you put these marketing methods (tactics) to work for you in an integrated way.
For this, you will need a proven strategy
What is the role of a digital marketing strategy?
"Your strategy determines the direction and scope of your digital marketing over a predefined period, including how resources should be configured to meet the immediate needs of the organisation and its stakeholders"
It also has to define and communicate an organization's unique unfair advantage and its chain of beliefs to the ideal customer avatar.
There are 2 parts
- External Marketing:
Positioning your product or service
Understanding where your ideal customer is on their journey
Putting your finger on their most urgent problem
Creating a powerful message to market match
Bringing them into your sphere of influence
Converting them into paying customers - Internal Marketing:
Not making the right hires is the third most common reason a startup will fail. To attract the right team members you need a strong and balanced company culture. Everyone on-board has to buy in to your vision and values and live by them.
"The most expensive thing you will ever acquire is a new customer"
The second most common reason startups fail is that they simply run out of cash so it is vital that your initial marketing strategy delivers cashflow.
Startup digital marketing strategy follows a repeating three step cycle
- Listen:
The initial listening exercise helps you identify your ideal customers' major pain point. The solution to which is fundamental to product success - Launch:
The first 'Quick Launch' is designed to take your idea to market and test commercial intent as well as optimise your message to market match and obtain baseline metrics. - Optimise:
Each time you repeat the cycle, your product becomes more substantial but just as importantly your customer base grows allowing the founder to maximise LTV by adding higher value products or services.
The importance of your digital marketing KPIs
"if you cannot measure it, you cannot can not manage it"
Key Performance Indicators are not a lagging indicator. You predict optimum KPIs in advance and then work to match or exceed them. Each optimisation focuses on the point of maximum leverage.
Here are some KPIs to establish:
Click Through Rate (CTR):
The percentage of visitors who click through from your landing page
Cost Per Lead (CPL):
How much does it cost to acquire a new lead through a particular channel
Conversion Rate:
The percentage of leads who become customers
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA):
How much does it costs you to acquire a customer through a particular channel
Lifetime Value (LTV):
The Lifetime value of a customer over the time they remain a client. The higher the value the more you can afford to spend to acquire that customer.
The 5 essential elements of your digital marketing strategy
Your marketing starts long before you build your MVP.
Leading with your marketing ensures you are a results focused company driven by your customers biggest challenges.
#1. Position yourself for success
Take a deep dive into the market you intend to enter. Learn everything you can about the competition, their offers, their prices and their business models. Perform a S.W.O.T. analysis and position yourself to allow maximum market penetration. Spending time and money here positions your MVP and your messaging for success.
#2. Understand your ideal client avatar
Take a second deep dive into your ideal client avatar. We're not just talking demographics here. This is about getting to know your ideal client as well as you know your siblings or best friend. This is probably the most important research you will ever do. What you discover will guide your thinking, your messaging, your product/service offer and much more.
#3. Figure out your Unique Unfair Advantage
Your education, experience and expertise is unique. No one else has the exact same 9 elements that make up your unique unfair advantage. Your UFA may not be visible to your market (Google's Algorithm) unlike your USP. Your UFA should rack the shotgun so you are only dealing with the 20% of the market who want to do business with you.
#4. Define your company values
Defining your personal values as they apply to your business allows you to express your WHY. This is the beating heart of your company. People will do business with you because they buy into your WHY. Your product or service is a symbol of the value of that belief system.
#5 Create your irresistible offer
The logical conclusion to the process is to create an irresistible offer which includes the features, advantage and benefits inherent in your product/service but a whole lot more besides such as how using it will impact the life of your customers in a positive way
Executing your digital marketing strategy
Now you have a powerful digital marketing strategy, it's time to implement it. Here are the essential elements:
Tell a powerful story:
- It's not about you or your product. It's about the story going on inside your ideal customer's head. Show them that you care
- Meet them where they are now and guide them towards the better life they want to lead.
- Build trust and authority by delivering small wins for your prospects before you even speak of your product/service.
- Focus on building awareness then lead flow
- Work with influencers and early adopters in your market
- Test, test and test again to maximise engagement
- A high quality audience is one that has the disposable income and the wish to buy your product or service. It may take time to laser focus on this.
- A funnel is an automated digital marketing system that guides your prospect through a series of steps and delivers them to a place where they are ready and willing to buy your MVP. They can become cumbersome over a time. Start by building a minimum viable funnel.
- Building a virtual tribe who recognise you as their leader is a key element in the growth of your business. There are two types. Prospects and Customers. Your goal is to take them from the virtual to the real world.
- Google Ads, Bing Ads, Youtube Ads and Facebook/Instagram Ads are the most common.
- Test to find out which channel delivers the best CPA
- Email works and should be used in combination with other organic communication channels.
- Your brand is what people say about you when you are not there. Your branding is what you do to transform your business from the best kept secret to the biggest name in your niche.
- Branding is the most important piece in your paid advertising mix and costs dimes on the dollar.
- Branding done right maximises your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
- Content marketing is the foundation of your branding campaign.
As I said before, each startup is different and needs its own strategy; saying it, these are my most favourite marketing tools that proved many times they work.
- Polarise your market: Don't be afraid to polarise your market. Nike did this with the Colin Kaepernick campaign and had people burning their Nikes on video as a result. It added $6billion to their bottom line.
- We live in a multi channel world: Your customers have a preferred method of communication for each part of their lives. Discover which one works best but do not abandon the others.
- Focus on delivery: Make sure you deliver the best customer experience you can. Results mean referrals.
- Referrals: Word of mouth is the best marketing you cannot buy. Incentivise your custsomers to refer a friend by building a system into your MVP.
- Blogging: It's not about quantity. It's about quality. Make sure your articles are the best in class. Promote each one through multiple channels.
- Repurpose content: Focus on repurposing content across the channels your customers use in different formats including video, text (short & long), tweets, images and quotes etc...
- Consistency counts: when you have identified your marketing channels, be consistent about what you post and when.
- Build Relationships: People buy from people so make your business has a face that your avatar relates to. Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs spring to mind as good examples of business leaders who have been successful in doing this.
- A founder must always be the master of their own digital marketing strategy, be the chief creative officer as well as drive the messaging.
- The process can delegated to either an in-house team; outsourced to a specialist agency or a bit of both (hybrid).
- In every case, those involved should have a deep understanding of your strategy and your product/service.
- I recommend that you outsource specialist projects, like Ad Campaign Management, for instance, but never outsource content creation which a founder should be responsible for.
Marketing is initially a cost but ultimately a profit centre
- As a founder, you will have expertise and experience in a particular technology or service which is probably not marketing, it would therefore be wise to work with a digital marketing consultant or coach to help you develop your strategy and execution model.
- Be careful when outsourcing to ensure that the agency is hired on a performance basis.
- Testing is a cost that cannot be avoided
- It is possible to lower your initial CPA by as much as 10–20 times.
Marketing is the process by which a startup profitably translates customer needs into revenue.
- Invest in high-level marketing strategy from day one.
- Marketing strategy is driven by your ideal customer avatar.
- Marketing covers all aspects of your business without exception.
- The most valuable thing that a prospect can give you is their attention.
- It is a constant feedback loop by which your market informs your product development.
- Marketing is about giving your attention to your prospects. Sales is about them giving you their attention.
- Listen, Learn then optimise both your product and your messaging
- You cannot manage what you do not measure. Use your KPIs to leverage performance
- Your brand is what people say about you when you're not there
- Your branding is a method of optimising your ROAS
- Successful marketing looks for incremental improvement not giant leaps forward.
- The quality of your product/service and your ability to deliver it consistently well is an integral part of your marketing and your branding.
- Never outsource your marketing strategy. Outsource the process on a performance basis.
- Marketing is initially a cost but ultimately a profit centre.
Leave them in the comments below. I'd love to hear what you have to say…