online marketing compared
i'm with a startup looking to intensify online marketing.
we want to sell a physical product over the web and are trying to figure out how to invest our time and money in online marketing.
we've tried participating in social media for a while but feel that this doesn't deliver results fast enough.
there is a billion options: do seo, write content, make videos, social media, banners, ads, print press, ... hard to figure out where to invest first and why.
is there some kind of practical startup marketing 101 guide that is written by someone who has actually done marketing at startups?
3 Answers
The problem is every business is so different there is no single set of steps to take. Some businesses sell access to electronic systems, some sell services, and some sell products like yours. In this product world, some sell cheap products in high numbers, some sell expensive luxury products, and everywhere in between.
The trick is to do some base research, try a lot of ideas, evaluate success, modify plans, and try again. Some markets will find huge success through Twitter while others will find nothing.
If you have some competitors, take a chance to review everything they are doing. This is not to say copy everything they do, but understand what they do well and what they do poorly. Hopefully this process will show you what doors are open to exploit.
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thanks - i am trying to get a general idea of what to use which marketing tool for. for example, do you use banners for lead gen or for remind people to buy ? what do you use for the education cycle of a product and what for triggering conversions? so for me it's more about understanding the various tools and their current role and effectiveness in an online marketing plan. i've looked at mint's marketing plan from 2007 but unfortunately it doesn't have too much detail beyond "these are the sites we are going to put some articles on" – B20000 13 years ago
Some resources for you:
- Open forum
- Shoemoney
- thelaunchcoach.com
I think the most important thing in online marketing, is the actual content itself. The product, or the service that you sell, or deliver, should be fine. This results in people do marketing for you. For example, if I like a CD player, then I'll introduce that to the next friend trying to find one. Do you have plans on creating acceptable content?
