Product validation is the crucial foundation for building a successful startup, a process that cannot be taken lightly. Many applications have been built and have consumed many hours and dollars only to discover that potential customers don’t really see enough value to whip out their credit cards.
In the past few weeks I’ve been writing about getting to know your audience and finding their pain points to form the foundation of your marketing efforts. This week I’ll describe assembling that data into an avatar, or creating a character with a story, with needs and desires.
We all know that our companies need to have a brand identity, this is Marketing 101. What about personal brands of the folks behind the company? Do the founders need a personal brand? Those are actually trick questions, because everyone already has a personal brand, whether they are strategic about it or not. What I have found is that a strong personal brand can actually be a huge asset to your...
Product positioning is a technique used in marketing that seeks to bring a specific idea to mind when presented to an audience. For example, when I think of Apple laptops, I think “high-end laptop geared towards creatives.” When I think of HP laptops, I think of “affordable laptops geared towards the masses.” These are product positions, and they are re-iterated by the marketing, the pricing, and...
It’s no fun to write a blog post only to have low engagement once you hit Publish. You’ve spent time researching a topic, written down the words in the most creative way you know how, spell-checked, and even had a friend proof-read the article. All of this, and the post doesn’t take off the way you thought it would.
Startups spend a great deal of time and money getting people to visit their marketing site (aka, their website). A startup’s marketing site typically exists to establish brand awareness, promote a sense of reliability, generate leads, and sell products or services.
Analytics helps your business determine what is working well, and what needs to be improved. We can always go off of a hunch, but the real power comes when we know the hard data behind our marketing efforts, and can make informed decisions that improve our business over and over.
Honing your skills as a writer is of course essential for blogging. However, when it comes to our marketing websites, doesn’t the product speak for itself? Isn’t copywriting just fussing over the details? Why spend all that time and energy to eek out a tiny percentage increase in signups?
Why do 3 out of 4 venture-backed startups fail? I mean, these aren’t stupid ideas. Someone has to come up with an idea, validate it’s market demand, create a plan for execution, and articulate this via presentation to venture capitalists, who reject approximately 99% of the ideas they agree to sit down and listen to. The few that make it through this process must have a pretty good chance of...
Nothing does a better job promoting your brand than fanatical customers. We’re more likely to buy from someone that we know or trust who enjoys a product than just believing the company themselves behind the product. Customers who make a purchase must first be satisfied with their purchase, then they become loyal customers, and hopefully turn into brand advocates.
HI, I'M RYAN. I believe the best way to learn and remember is by writing things down and sharing them with others. This blog exists to help me synthesize and process my journey towards self-improvement.