Early-Stage Startup Marketing: Where to Start
This is the order that worked at a stage with a small budget, while growing to 40,000 members and running advertising for some 300 businesses.
Your first 100 customers do not come through channels
Early on there is no data to calculate ad efficiency from. In this stage, going out to meet people and collecting which words they react to leaves you with more than ad spend does.
Message → Channel → Budget, in that order
- Message: rewrite the problem in the words customers use. The terms we invent don’t get searched
- Channel: pick the one place where customers already gather. Run several at once and you cannot tell where anyone came from
- Budget: increase it only after the acquisition cost is calculated
Branding is not making a logo. It is repeating the same message until it is remembered. If the message keeps changing, the budget you spend never accumulates.
Content is kept as an asset
Ads disappear the moment you stop spending, but content keeps bringing people in through search. That is the same reason I have published 220 startup lecture videos.
If you need a lecture or workshop on this topic
The format is matched to your institution’s goals and audience, from a 90-minute lecture to a 2-day intensive program. I usually reply within one day.
