A startup’s success is frequently determined by its marketing strategy. Unfortunately, the vast majority of startup founders have little to no marketing or budget management experience. How do you handle this perilous contradiction?
Well, it’s in the works! By using this product launch framework, you can ensure that your marketing strategy is on track.
There are a million articles on brand development, launch marketing, public relations, viral videos, and other topics. Reading them all would be a good place to start – or you can check out our tried-and-true method below!
The framework described below is typically implemented in 18-month increments. We hope it is useful.
‘Branding is everything in this world of intangibles and endless competition.’
A strategic positioning exercise, including an early adopter target market simulation, is the first step in a successful brand/product launch programmer. At the start of an assault, proper positioning is just as important as aiming your guns in the right direction.
Begin by defining the ‘category’ in which your product/service operates, and then map it to its key product benefits, core value proposition, and competitor benchmarking – all the way down to core messages and launch strategies, plans, and objectives – at least for the first 12-24 months.
Continue to ask yourself, “Who exactly is my customer, and why exactly should they buy from me?”
Branding is everything in this world of intangibles and never-ending competition. Your company’s name, logo, and URL must stand out from the crowd and truly “mean something.”
You should run a high-quality, fast-paced programmer to create the best-fit brand name, iconography, and/or logo – and start with available URLs. Be inventive. Don’t put it off any longer. You’ll only come to regret it later.
Strap lines must also be created where necessary. If you already have the right name and URLs, give it the right look and feel – design an eye-catching logo that will entice employees, customers, and partners from the start.
Your web presence is more important and more complicated than ever in the age of social media and digital marketing. It is no longer enough to have a functional website; you must also have a sophisticated website that serves multiple functions. Consider your website to be a customer ‘application’ rather than just a source of information.
At the very least, you’ll need a rich blog site, a dynamic Facebook Fan page, and the appropriate Twitter page. Some people require Web apps, Facebook apps, iPhone apps, and other services.
Get your web presence in order before you launch! The design is everything, but content and structure are crucial – embedded with the most relevant keywords, SEO tags, and visual elements. Of course, with the onslaught of mobile internet access and eCommerce continuing, You must ensure that your website is fully responsive to all devices used by users, whether they are desktop, laptop, mobile, or tablet.
A successful blog is essential for any business. From 2009 to 2012, the percentage of respondents with a company blog increased from 48% to 62% – don’t fall behind. It is the foundation of a modern, ‘social’ marketing and communication strategy.
‘A digital PR and partnering programmer must be launched to support and drive the company’s web presence and social media marketing activities.
It should strengthen the company’s strategic positioning, promote its product/service category, define credentials, messages, and benefits, and power successful thought leadership and ‘challenger’ framework.
Your blog is your marketing front foot; make it work for you. Blog sites should be properly set up, professionally designed, and tightly managed. Editorial strategies must be developed, writers must be appointed, guest programmers must be implemented, and content must be carefully planned and produced.
A digital PR and partnering programmer must be launched to support and drive the company’s web presence and social media marketing activities, not only to drive communications, traffic, networking, and partnering, but also to monitor conversations, word of mouth (WOM), and online reputation.
Twitter is your primary tool, but an effective digital PR and partnering programmer should be tightly linked to your key, measurable business goals in order to drive revenues and clients/users.
To improve day-to-day digital PR and partnering mechanisms, advanced digital PR techniques such as viral, crowdsourcing, community, and word-of-mouth (WOM) should be mastered. In the digital realm, public relations should include customer and business development communications, in addition to the standard blogger and media outreach.
When done correctly, viral video and guerrilla marketing programmers (both for B2B and B2C environments) can help amplify and spike awareness and WOM. They should be carefully produced and executed because if done incorrectly or too quickly, they can backfire.
It’s all about great, original ideas, content, and production in viral videos/games and guerrilla activities. Some of the most popular viral videos were created for next to nothing. Simply be inventive – and keep in mind that genuine humors almost always works.
Semantic SEO initiatives, as well as algorithmic SEO initiatives, must be implemented to ensure that your Web presence, blog, digital PR, and social media marketing activities have a solid technical foundation and are effectively amplified by the network dynamics that the Internet can provide.
A link-spreading and link-baiting strategy should be closely coordinated with a digital PR and social media marketing campaign. Keywords are essential; research them, develop them, extend them, and let them drive your content.
Phases 1 and 2 established a solid and cost-effective launch strategy based on basic viral ingredients. Once implemented and operational, it should be expanded and improved. This is what Phase 3 is all about, starting with an online advertising programmer.
You are in a better position to develop an effective advertising programmer now that you know a lot more about your brand, product/service, market, prospects, users, clients, and partners after the launch.
A Google AdWords programmer is the best place to start because it is low-cost, flexible, results-oriented, and highly scalable. Following this, Yahoo/Bing ads and banner campaigns on Facebook can be considered and developed.
Today, digital PR activities are the bread and butter of public relations. It requires a few garnishes to really stand out.
Once your brand and product/service are established, you can develop PR initiatives to strategically drive events or research-driven, high-profile awareness campaigns with big media and high-impact events. This way, you’re more likely to elicit the necessary response and recognition.
This is a rifle shot to a large audience, relevant media, critical conferences, and, later, radio and television. Aiming squarely at ‘big impact’ events.
Crowdsourced campaigns have emerged as yet another important arrow in the Social marketing quiver. Large brands and small and medium-sized businesses are harnessing the power of the crowd for contest-based campaign ideas, as well as viral content development and marketing.
Crowdsourcing can also be used for low-cost business development, market research, opinion polling, customer service support, and other purposes.
Once your reputation and awareness have been established, you should develop a highly targeted speaking and analyst/media briefing programmer to ensure that your brand remains top-of-mind and relevant.
You should be creating content and initiatives that will propel your thought leadership position in the market by now. It’s time to take the initiative and hit the road.
When launching a marketing programmer for your startup, following this plan will help ensure you have the best possible chance of success.
Check out Innovates, the world’s leading online startup programmer used by thousands of creatives, entrepreneurs, and innovation experts worldwide, for more tips and information on how to launch a startup.
It’s all part of the bigger picture of embracing progress and making the most of your opportunities. Adapting to a changing world and leveraging technology to propel innovation Bettering business.
