Where should startup businesses focus their marketing strategy?

In more than 11 years of running LikeMind, I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of businesses of various shapes and sizes, including numerous startup businesses at the beginning of their journey. In this article, I share some of the lessons I’ve learned to help you, if you’re at the start of your company journey.

Where to start – don’t jump the gun

Perhaps the best place to begin is right at the ideas phase. You’ve come up with something genius and you’re convinced it’s the next big thing. The excitement and enthusiasm are infectious, possibly consuming your entire being. It’s great to capture the momentum of this time, yet it’s important not to get carried away.

Many companies don’t want to talk about a new product or service before it’s ready to be launched, for fear of it being copied. I get that, and I agree that something uniquely yours, innovative and potentially changing the market, shouldn’t be talked about until you are ready for people to know that it exists. Indeed, I’m no legal expert, but my lawyer certainly tells me how crucial it is to get the best protection possible on any intellectual property before going to market.

It’s tempting to get talking. However, the biggest mistake I see startups making is launching a product before it’s fully ready. When you tell people something they need now exists, especially if there is genuine demand, people will be impatient for it. I’ve seen startup marketing fail most when supply cannot meet demand. Put simply, the business went too early.

Similarly, even though a product or service may be available, if it contains errors, faults or perhaps doesn’t perform as expected, the startup ends up spending a lot of time fixing the issues, while still gathering further orders. It can end up in an operational mess, creating bad publicity and losing trust with customers.

Document the journey

So, what to do? Today, we see a lot of ‘founder creators’ – people who are founding a new venture and documenting their journey along the way. Usually, this involves a social media account, YouTube channel or, increasingly, things like Substack/email newsletters as well as the Kickstarter type update. The founder places themselves and their personality at the centre of the content so the target audience buys into them, their passion and what they’re hoping to bring to market.

The key benefits I see of founder-led content for startups are:

• It takes the pressure off from a fixed launch date, with the audience connecting with the founder, not the product
• It builds trust in the founder and, therefore, the product
• Audiences can get excited along with the founder for the product
• Audiences can see the development and stay up to date with how things are going without having to check back for updates

You can market without a product

A founder does not need to have any product or service at the point they set up their content. They are effectively at the very start of the customer journey, along with the market.

Of course, getting the right personality and tone will be crucial. If people don’t vibe with the founder, they’re not going to stick around to see the product or service come to fruition. Some people are naturally charismatic and can carry the audience with them. Even if you are worried that you’re less so, the good news is that slick, overly-produced content is yesterday’s news. You can simply be yourself and, if being on camera isn’t your thing, just don’t do that, and stick to written channels such as email and websites.

I’m a firm believer in the phase ‘build it and they won’t necessarily come’. You heard that right: they may not come. One of the big misconceptions about content marketing is that just putting out content will inevitably result in sales. There are all sorts of reasons why that may not happen:

• It may be too technical or be a mismatch to the audience’s knowledge
• It’s poorly produced
• It’s too broad and algorithms don’t know who to send it to
• It’s just not good enough

That last one is harsh. At a time when there is so much AI slop about, please don’t be tempted to shortcut the creative process by asking AI to generate the content to promote your startup or new product/service. It’s a false economy. By definition, you’re doing something innovative and that is a big contrast to AI, which can only create based on things that already exist. The chances are AI will do your innovation a disservice – so avoid it and use your voice and your passion.

Whether you have the budget to outsource content creation, or just want some advice, this is exactly the sort of consultancy we specialise in at LikeMind. We’ve worked with many startups to help them devise a content marketing strategy that will result in new leads and sales.

Outreach is your friend

If they won’t come, the best way to promote your startup is by taking the innovation to them directly. Some people don’t like the idea of outreach, but when you have a story to tell, you have to tell it to anyone who will listen. And I don’t mean spending money on ads.

When you have something you can show – a service definition, a landing page, a physical product – now is the time to get active.

I’m sure you’ve seen The Apprentice. At least once in the series, there’s a challenge to sell the most of whatever nonsense the team has come up with. It’s the same each year: the team that is the most successful is the one that works out who is the biggest retailer and can buy the most units, and who they can convince to believe in their product.

Outreach is possibly the best way to market your startup. What specifically are we talking about?

• Finding potential customers on LinkedIn and being ballsy about sending them the DM
• Finding email addresses of the people who need it and sending a prospective email
• Finding the phone numbers of the businesses to whom you can sell and picking up the phone

I know the last one seems incredibly dated and possibly frightening. It is. Sales and marketing are two sides of the same coin. To be a successful business, you must be decent at selling. Selling as a startup is risky – but that’s why you’re doing it.

So take the risk and put yourself out there. You can also network – attend the big events before you’re ready to have a stand and build connections. You can appear on podcasts. You can get some PR.

But you have to make the ask.

Even though there is lots to be said for content creation as part of a startup marketing strategy, the sooner you can see outreach and asking people directly for support in your new venture, the sooner you will start to see the fruits of your labour.

Ready to work with us and lose the guesswork?

There’s so much to think about when launching a startup. Make one aspect easier for yourself and take out the guesswork by working with a team who knows what they’re doing.

We’ve helped hundreds of businesses with their marketing strategy – we can help with your startup.

If you have a product or service that is available to customers, and have the budget to invest, we’d love to work with you.

Check out our case studies or use the contact form to book a discovery call.

Article posted by Paul Ince

Paul, aka BizPaul (to everyone), is the little big cheese (Director) at LikeMind Media. He can often be found talking to others about all things about conversations, whether that’s through social media, writing or even audio. With over 20 years’ experience in bringing businesses and customers together, Paul has worked with a vast range of clients including a working cow farm, a smart factory software company and a pregnancy pilates business. He’s the host of MarketEd.Live, our flagship marketing education event in Nottingham and the associated podcast.