Marketing and start ups

Strategic Business & IT Services – [email protected] Page 1

What is an appropriate integrated Marketing approach for start-up?

I frequently meet with start-up entrepreneurs and, in discussion or review of business plans often

find that their focus on marketing is at either end of the spectrum, and only rarely calibrated to the

maturity of the business. At one end “Marketing is not important for now and/or a very expensive

activity with limited return” or “Marketing is so important we have 50% of our budget dedicated to a

whole range of activities” and rarely is the Marketing Plan correctly supporting the business goals,

aligned with the business maturity and integrated in a cost effective manner with the operational

plan for the next period.

Firstly it’s important not to mix up market research with marketing. Market Research is a set of

activities that entrepreneurs should complete before committing to a business and on a regular

basis to make sure the plan and business remains relevant to the goals of the organisation.

Marketing on the other hand, may have many purposes but I think there are two that start-ups

should focus on;

Starting or building a brand

Generation of appropriate sales leads

I believe that marketing is the early stage in a process of creating a relationship with a client and

feeding an input into a system and process that ends up with a happy client for the product and/or

service the business offers and money in the bank.

1. Brand: - In its simplest form it’s what do you want the market and individuals to think when

they hear your name, your company name and/or product name: - Usually it’s one or more

value judgments that are perceived as why you are different and why I should seriously

consider buying from you.

2. Leads: - A lead is any interaction from a prospective customer either proactively or in

response to any intervention you may make in the market place that has the potential to

convert to a profitable sale.

a. A Marketing Lead is an input perhaps as a response to a marketing intervention that

marketing checks out to see if it’s a real sales lead, if it is it gets promoted to the

sales process for qualification , if not it gets returned to the marketing list.

b. A Sales lead can come from many sources, its an indication there may be a prospect

in or moving into buying mode. It needs to be qualified as an opportunity, ie Is the

customer buying? Have they budget ? Is the timeline in the horizon? Have we a

competitive offer? Once qualified the core sales cycle starts with a view to closing a

sale.

When should new business start marketing?

If we consider the two primary goals of marketing above, then firstly we must have clarity on the

problem we will solve for the client or the value of the opportunity we can bring to the client. We

also must be able to supply the product or service in sufficient volume to meet the market demands

that we might create. This does not mean we have to supply all features, functions or services we

are planning to bring to market, however we need to be able to supply a defined limited set of these

that address why the client has become a lead. For example if our business proposition is some form


of social media Software as a Service underpinned by certain free features and upgraded to

additional pay as you use features, then we must have available the basic software platform that as

a minimum users see value in and will engage with and perhaps one or two of the planned pay for

features. In time and with learning we may add all sorts of additional pay for features and revenue

streams.

We also need to have a clear understanding of our core competence, core offering and how it is

unique and different from the competition. What are the unique selling points that provide

advantage over the competition and are different?

Beware of the following:-

It’s a new market, we have first mover advantage, and there is no competition. There is

always competition and failure to have this mind set regularly leads to failure. It may be

something very new and creating some new market segment, but the customer can always

do nothing and not buy, also though there may be significant innovation and early

advantage it will not be long before there are competitors if it’s a real market opportunity.

Beware of a long list of USP’s, it can dilute the message and brand. A good way to convey the

message is a matrix comparing your product/service USP’s with those of your competitors,

show what is common and show what is different.

Focus on your core defined, customer, offering and competence and identify the one major

uniqueness that is your prime differentiator and will become part of your brand “The fastest,

the highest Quality, The cheapest (beware of this one)..etc.

There are 2 major components of marketing:-

Content:- This is the core data and information required to support a marketing plan and

program, it is the fundamental stuff , the messages, the details of your company,

product/service, how you delivery, the value and propositions etc. There is equally as much

investment and effort required here as there is in the actual marketing activities. The source

of this information is largely you the promoter and, your team who are the subject matter

experts.

Activities:- These are all the other activities, deliverables and plans that require a degree of

professional experience and expertise and for start-ups usually require some level of 3rd

party support.

What start-ups need to be good at is extracting the core content in a cost effective manner, to be

provided to the marketing professional who converts it into meaningful and useful content, and

activities that support achieving the marketing goals.

So in summary it’s important to have a marketing strategy and plan at the point you are going to

market and ready to sell, and that the content is available for the marketing interventions.

Marketing is a process

Just as with any other process it’s important to make sure the various components and activities of

the marketing process are aligned and integrated. I will use a few terms here, so for clarity I will

explain:-


Marketing Plan:- 12 month operational plan designed to support the business goals. State what we

expect marketing investment to deliver each quarter, have metrics weekly and quarterly. Project

plan for the interventions.

Marketing Campaign:- Is a mini marketing plan that is more focused on shorter term objectives

perhaps to launch a product, or target a specific segment, or to secure a reference in geography as

examples.

CRM:- Customer Relationship Management is the process whereby we record and manage details of

our relationship and engagement with our potential customers and customers.

Marketing Lead:- Details of any Target customer and related future opportunity if any in whom we

have identified and we want to create a relationship. Marketing Leads come together as part of our

core marketing lists we use for campaigns and interventions. They are extremely important because

regardless of how many sales calls we make or promotions to the market only a small number of

potential clients will be in buying mode (i.e. in or about to enter a buying cycle), those that we

identify as in buying mode go straight into our sales process as a lead. The majority will not be in

buying mode and what we want to achieve is to regularly communicate and keep our value

proposition in their consciousness so that when they do go into buying mode they will contact our

company.

Marketing Lists:- These are specific target customer and customer details that may be categorised

for specific campaigns and interventions relevant to their specific segment.

Marketing Intervention:- These are the specific actions or activities we have identified as having the

maximum impact on achieving our marketing or campaign goals. They are like a menu of ingredients

we can bring together to achieve specific marketing goals.

Events (Seminars, Conferences, Breakfast sessions)

Forums (Customer focus groups, advisory panels, etc.)

Web platforms and sites

Advertising

Sponsorship

Trade Association engagement

PR

Collateral – Brochures, White Papers, Case Studies, References

On-Line engagement, emails, blogs, wikis, social media, webinars

There are many different types of marketing interventions and you must select those interventions

that are relevant to your business. Beware of stand-alone interventions. I have seen so many

company seminars, where the whole focus is on the event itself, planning the session, getting the

invites and confirmations, running the event and looking at what contacts were made on the day.

This is an approach that fails to maximise ROI on the investment in that event. A more effective

approach is as follows:-

The event itself must have goals and fit with the annual marketing plan.

The event itself requires a marketing plan


The process of managing attendees is part of relationship development, maximising the

value they get from attendance. Have a plan for engagement with each attendee.

Seek as much feedback and engagement in the topic and the event

Immediately on completion of the event have a round table with all participants so that all

leads, opportunities, suggestions can be considered and actions followed up.

Announce the next related event or intervention at the event

Update web site, social media sites within 24 hours

Feed everything into the core processes, sales, marketing, delivery etc.

The Sales & Marketing Pipe line and integrated process to be managed

A Sample Marketing Model

This is a model I have used in the past, it’s primarily designed for an ICT professional services

company, however it’s a way to try visualise how you can make things fit together. The core of this

model was to have a content rich Web site at the focal point and to use as many interventions as

possible to drive traffic to the web site. The website is key for capturing potential customer

information, for inclusion as a Marketing Lead, Sales Lead or Sales opportunity. In addition the

details can now be included on the organisations marketing list to start building the relationship

(with the potential customer’s permission).


Managing Marketing in a start up

The key is plan performance and measure performance and do this in a way that is integrated with

your standard operational management processes. As you would review Sales, Delivery,

Development, Finances weekly, monthly and quarterly make sure you do the same with marketing.

Keep track of interventions and response to interventions:-


Marketing can also track the marketing and sales pipeline drawing the raw data from CRM or

whatever spread sheet it is being tracked on:-

Tips for controlling start-up marketing costs

When preparing content prepare it in a way that can have multiple uses.

Re use content, for example a case study or white paper, can be a paper for a speaking

engagement, can be a piece in an e-zine, can be collateral on the web site, can be a

proposition for social media engagement.

Engage with key trade and state organisations , they provide opportunity to communicate

and network with target markets.

Sponsor and participate in the events of others can be more cost effective than organising

your own event.

Leverage open source and also freemium IT/web applications, you can build your own web

site for free, social media groups are free to join and contribute.

Engage a really experience Marketing professional to advise and oversee the program, 1 or 2

days per week/month can deliver much higher value than hiring a graduate.

Measure impact of interventions and quickly stop doing those that do not deliver a return.

Don’t start with big brand suppliers of related services, they are good but expensive. There

are many one man bands and small companies that would deliver appropriate expertise and

services at lower costs.