Marketing for startups

Imagine finding yourself in an elevator with one of the top investors in the world. You have seen his face so many times in Forbes and now he says: “Oh, you have said that you do a startup. What is it going to be?”. You have ten floors to go. Already nine… Spent two floors being confused by the fact that you got into the elevator with such a person and can not even recall your name. The time is left for literally two sentences by which you are able to “sell” your startup or fail. That’s all about the Elevator Pitch.

Believe it or not, the whole marketing departments with top specialists are aimed at these two sentences that will catch investor’s attention and, most significantly, the end customer’s attention. 

The words 'qualitative’, ‘comfortable’ ‘stylish’ and even ‘we have honestly the best one’ do not work nowadays, because they have become common concepts. Moreover no one trusts them.   

Each successful startup must have a CLEAR ADVANTAGE FOR TARGET AUDIENCE, preferably several of them.

Let us take a step-by-step look at what should be done in order to sell a startup.

• Identify the target audience that should buy it and create a portrait of it - figure out what it does, where it goes, what it buys, what is its solvency. The more clearly the target audience is determined, the better understanding of the way of addressing it you will have in order for these sentences to catch its attention.
• Try to find out why your startup is needed for the target audience. In all likelihood, it can live quite well without it.
• Figure out the benefits provided to the target audience by your startup and the way how it can improve or simplify life. It can possibly be a luxury item that has no useful value, but can increase the user’s status. Here you need to be careful and do not rely only on your own, your relatives’ or close acquaintances' point of view.
• Analyse the existence of an analogue and competitors and determine what makes you and your startup much better.
• Pay attention to whether your advantages are enough for the target audience to choose you instead of your competitor, which, by the way, is already on the market while you are not.
• Create a brand image in order to determine the position, from which your startup will address the target audience. This can be either a teacher’ position or a friend's position. You can even ask the user for advice, why not? Archetypes will considerably help in the creation of the brand person. This is a secret tool used by many marketers, which simplifies their work.

How to create a good short speech? Answer these questions:

“Who?”, “What exactly?”, “For whom?”, “Why?”, “What do you want?’

Who? There should be brief information about the company or a person, who creates the startup. Only the most essential facts, which can impress should be included. It is crucial for these facts to be related to the field of your startup or to confirm your expertise in order for you to be taken seriously and to be trusted.

What exactly? That is what is created and what its main function is.

For whom? The information about the target audience that will use your startup. Only the basic, generalised facts that best characterise the target audience should be included.

Why? Here we have come to the benefits. They should be prioritised. Try not to make the use of general sentences without the specific information. If your competitor has the same thing - it is not your benefit.

What do you want? Call to action. That is, what would you like to get from an imaginary investor from the elevator or a site’s reader or any other person who came across this information.

The fact is that you may never meet an investor in an elevator, moreover, you do not use them, because you want to train your legs using the stairs. In addition, the above-mentioned speech will not definitely fit in those eight floors if you count the per second duration of what is said. Still, only when all this information is collected, systematised and clearly formed will you be able to make a slogan as well as a presentation and a post on social networks. The most crucial is that you will see clearly whether your idea is relevant, worth investment and whether it will be profitable.

Some things seem to be quite obvious, understandable and not worth writing down. Also it often seems that now is not the time and these things are always put on hold. Here are some statistics for 2021.

36% of startups do not currently have websites, and 35% of small businesses without a website believe that they are not secure enough to have one. At the same time, 75% of customers assert that they usually rate the business on the quality of its website.
The main truth:

The better the product is, the less money you have to invest in marketing. ;)