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Ask HN: Which were some of your biggest marketing challenges as a startup?

• ConuntlCooled 7y ago
  Customer acquisition strategy - not knowing anything about social media ads
  • Gustomaximus 7y ago
    Social requires honesty first an foremost. E.g. Don't decide 'we're going to be a cool/fun brand' unless you are. Good marketing needs to come from a position of truth and find a way to celebrate that. In social this is more important than other channels. A great example is Guiness dancing man where they celebrate that their beer takes longer to pour. Interest, amuse or shock with your ads. You can go for brand recognition with boring ads but IMO thats better for traditional display buying. Be upfront with what you want people to do from your ad. It's not an absolute rule but generally the best format is to 1) Make a claim, 2) Give a reason to believe said claim 3) Call to action. Then test and track. Marketing should be an investment not a cost. A dollar should return a dollar+, if not try something else or don't do ads because you feel you should. Obviously more to it but I feel that's the fast 3 core points.
• crmd 7y ago
  The transition from 100% product marketing (how does it work, how is it better than competitive technology), to a blend of Customer storytelling (what are customers doing with the technology, how is it transforming their businesses and helping them delight their customers), Corporate branding (who we are, our vision for the future of our industry), and straight product marketing, with coherent messaging across PR, social, industry analysts, financial analysts, etc. It was a brutal transition, because as a company run by engineers, there was a belief that anything beyond data sheet speeds-and-feeds was harmful bullshit. But as we figured this out, revenue growth exploded and we started to be recognized as a new “leader” in the industry, so the skeptics calmed down. From what I see, all engineer-led startups without marketing people seem to start with product marketing, then evolve into more balanced strategies as they mature. In retrospect, we call this period of our company “marketing puberty”.
  • Vagantem 7y ago
    Interesting! When would you say this puberty hits startups in general? A round? We might be early with it
• unlinked_dll 7y ago
  I think the first lesson everyone learns is that marketing is less about knowing your product than knowing your customer. You have to understand what their problems are to come up with your value prop for them. It’s also why I think a lot of people’s bootstrapped plays fall flat. If you don’t have some support already to help guide your tech to a market, you’re never going to get anywhere. The successes I’ve seen come from people who transition from being a customer with a problem that isn’t being solved to a salesperson with the solution. Also if you do B2B, marketing to people without purchasing approval is a great way to light money on fire.
  • Vagantem 7y ago
    Could you expand on "come from people who transition from being a customer with a problem that isn’t being solved to a salesperson with the solution."?
• cm2012 7y ago
  Forget about building a brand. An early stage startup is going to change a lot. Just work on getting customers. At first, do things that don't scale to hustle and grow: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html http://paulgraham.com/ds.html When you have some funding and have found product market fit, then you can use scalable channels like Facebook ads. Here's my guide on that (for B2B, but it's broadly applicable): https://medium.com/rightpercent/guide-to-scaling-a-b2b-company-with-facebook-ads-bd95dbb9c504 https://medium.com/rightpercent/guide-to-scaling-a-b2b-compa... Investors care a lot more about how many customers/users you have than about how slick your pitch is.