Marketing basics for launch of first startup

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Entrepreneurs struggle with identifying when to start spending money on marketing - do it too soon and it is wasted, do it too late and you might have no money left (since that is spend on R&D already). As well when your marketing is too late you have missed a valuable opportunity to interact with the customer and get their feedback at the beta stage. Taking a product straight to market (even with a huge marketing budget) will likely result in failure since you have not tested the user experience, functionality etc. 

In the case of a web application, start with the small user base.

The initial user base could be 

• Friends & Family
• Create a beta splash page, and sign up beta subscribers
• list on betali.st and other similar sites
• If you have a specific target market, skip friends & family and focus on building a beta user base from the target market.

Have the initial user base use the product, eliminate any bugs/errors, improve the user experience based on the feedback. 

Leverage the initial feedback to generate buzz on social media - seeing folks provide feedback and interact with founders of an application intrigues other folks to try the application/website. Ifttt has done a wonderful job of this (check their twitter feed history to see how they have interacted with users on twitter).

The initial feedback from user base can also be used to generate case studies or get quotes that can be leveraged for marketing.

Once the feedback turns from technical issues (things that are not working or need to be improved) to new features you know you are ready to move from beta to product launch. 

It is at this point you need to consider how you want to launch the product, ideally this is done in conjunction with marketing experts (freelancer or marketing guru). The product launch typically includes

• Have key bloggers in this application domain review/comment on your application
• Continue interacting with users over social media (which you would have started in beta)
• Press release (more important to get into interviews)
• Print literature in key target markets

For specifics on social media marketing, read this article on Brand Building via Social Media http://blog.blueknee.com/2011/06/brand-building-with-social-media-as.html


About the Author: Along with a well published blogger (regularly featured on Alltop, Entrepreneur Community Online etc) Pooja specializes in developing marketing strategies for startups. You can follow me on Twitter and you can email questions at pooja {at} blueknee {dot} com. You can also join the Linkedin group "Marketing for Startups" at http://linkd.in/ihNJmR.