Kick-starting a business is not an easy task. Before you even begin earning revenue, you need to set out your business plan, get funding and build your product, along with many other essential tasks.

In order to increase your projected revenue, you’ll also need an excellent marketing plan that will give you access to the right audience. Implementing SEO in your website design will help you to gain a higher level of visibility and you should also see a spike in traffic thanks to it.

But what’s the best way to do this for a startup? Your SEO techniques should be as white hat as possible, rather than dipping into the murky underworld of black hat tricks that produce instant yet damaging results.

If you’re in the process of implementing an SEO plan for your startup business, make use of these five white hat techniques.

1. Make On-Page SEO the Backbone of Your Strategy

A lot of startups head straight for content creation and social media in the first stages of a new site, but that could be a big mistake. Without a solid basis of technical (i.e. on-page) SEO, all of this will be meaningless.

Make sure your website can be crawled by search engines by giving it good architecture that’s easy to navigate. The next step in your technical SEO process is to ensure your pages are being indexed by Google. The aim of these two steps is to get your pages to rank, so you can nudge higher up the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and beat your competitors.

With a backbone of technical SEO, you can grow the other aspects of your strategy around it.

2. Use Social Media to Build Awareness

Social media is ridiculously powerful, but its main aim won’t be to generate revenue. Instead, you can use it to encourage online conversation, which will increase your brand awareness and follow through with the natural creation of links. This is because as people share your content they’ll also link back to your website.

Create a good social media strategy before your site goes live and implement it from day one. A viral ad wouldn’t go amiss either, as the hype it could create would ensure your brand’s name was on everyone’s lips.

For instance, The Santa Monica-based subscription company Dollar Shave Club rocketed onto the market in 2012 with a hilarious video that quickly went viral. The video, which used quirky humour to sell the company’s service, was shared across social media sites almost instantly and racked up over 4.75m views in just three months.

This translated to 12,000 people signing up to Dollar Shave Club in just 48 hours, but that wasn’t the main aim of the ad. It was designed to go viral, ensuring everyone knew the brand, and aiding the company by counting on the fact that a number of people would link back to the Dollar Shave Club’s website when sharing the video.

3. Implement a Strong Content Marketing Plan

Content marketing is one of the oldest tricks in the SEO book, but it’s not the same as it used to be. Google’s rules regarding content have changed a lot since the old days, so you’ll need to focus on creating useful, informative content. Create content that people will find interesting, and which is more likely to be shared over social media.

Your content marketing plan doesn’t only have to include written content either. You could also create infographics and videos that will pique the interest of more than a few bloggers you approach.

4. Give Your Site Good Content

Make sure that every single page on your site has meaningful content on it. Each page should contain the relevant keywords you’re aiming to target, along with a user-friendly layout.

People spend less than a minute on a site before clicking off, which means your content needs to be top notch. There’s no time for waffle and filler, you need to get straight to the point. What does your business offer, why should people use your product or service, and how can they find out more?

5. Set Up a Consistent Guest Blogging Program

Submitting guest posts to high quality blogs can become an invaluable part of your link building scheme, and it’s often one of the most important aspects of it.

By becoming a regular guest blogger, you can build up a relationship with the blog owner and anyone that replies to your post. By forging a relationship you can network effectively, so you’ve a better chance of writing for guest blogs in the same network later on.

If you set up your own blog you can then target long tail keywords that will help to build your visibility and increase your audience. This is because these keywords can be much more specific and they’re often much less competitive.

Conclusion

Any SEO strategy for a startup needs to focus on white hat techniques that will help to grow your business online. By mapping out your strategy as early on as possible, you can get the jump on other startups that only get to grips with SEO once they’ve been around for a few months.

Do you know of any other white hat techniques that could work for startups?

This article was written by Aurora Johnson on behalf of Custard, a digital marketing agency in the North West offering search, social media, design, PR and marketing services. You can visit custard.co.uk now to find out more about the agency.

From Mike: This is the first time we have a guest post here at Marketing Before Funding. I’d love to hear your feedback! And if you want to write for us, go here.

A couple of weeks ago, I went out to get a few beers with a friend of mine. He’s working for a big corporation, but over the last year has become really interested in startups.

In his spare time, he’s reading TechCrunch, watching This Week in Startups, and day dreaming about starting a business of his own.

But the thing is, he isn’t quite ready to make the big leap yet.

For now, he just wants to meet new people, learn about their experiences… and yet he’s not really doing this…

Does this sound like someone you know? What about yourself?

I’ve heard this story so many times before, and I’m tired of explaining how easy it is to participate. I had to write this post.

Why? Because here’s a CRAZY THOUGHT!

What if all these passive observers stop surfing the Web and actually get involved in their local startup communities? Wouldn’t that be awesome?

I believe that the world would become a much better place.

So if it’s you who needs this — read on!
And if it’s someone you know — send them here!

Because here are the five easy-as-hell ways to get started.

1. Join Conversations Online

Reading blogs and watching videos is great. Now it’s time to start talking, engaging and building relationships.

Without a doubt, Twitter is the best place to start.

Twitter is the most open social network, and it feels a lot like a cocktail party. You’re welcome, even expected, to interact with people you don’t know.

Follow your heroes, follow anyone they talk to, follow bigger and smaller names in your city and start talking to ALL of them.

What to talk about? Anything! Ask questions, reply to their thoughts, comment on the links they’re sharing… Just don’t be mute.

Trust me that nobody’s gonna judge you unless you’re being an ass. On the contrary, soon enough you’ll make a few genuine connections within your local (and global) startup scene.

“…Wait Mike, didn’t you just say that surfing the Web is bad?”

Being a passive observer is bad. Being a participant isn’t.

Getting active on Twitter is a fantastic first step because when you meet people in real life, you won’t need to break the ice.

2. Go to a Meetup

Meetups are community-organized events in your city. They are mostly interest-based, free (or cheap) to attend, and open to anyone. This means no barriers of entry for newcomers.

Meetup.com is the main site for hosting and discovering such events. If you’ve never heard of it before, you’re in for a treat!

In my opinion, Meetup.com is one of the greatest things that have happened on the Internet since the beginning of the Internet.

It’s as cool as Twitter because it’s all about making connections and learning new things. But it’s better than any social network because you’re pushed to interact with real people in real life.

Here’s some homework for you. For the next month, instead of watching TV after work, browsing the web, or whatever else you’re doing to murder your braincells, go to a meetup about startups.

3. Sign up for a Startup Weekend

Having fun talking to people online and going to meetups? Time to take it up a notch!

Startup Weekend is a global initiative that brings together aspiring entrepreneurs — developers, designers and marketers — and challenges them to execute on their ideas.

The experience is intense but also incredibly rewarding. In 54 hours you learn what it’s like to ideate, build, strategize, and pitch a startup company.

After the weekend is over, some find themselves working on cool projects full of potential. Others walk away with new knowledge, connections, and a spark of entrepreneurship in their eyes.

I’m sure you will find it rewarding as well.

4. Ask Someone out for Coffee

This point will probably seem the scariest of all, but here it goes.

Ask someone you don’t know to have a coffee with you.

I’ll tell you a big secret (not really) that most people in corporate jobs don’t know. People in the startup community are some of the friendliest, most open and approachable human beings I’ve ever encountered.

They don’t wear crowns. They don’t feel like they are better than everyone else. They understand the value of sharing experience and learning from others.

Basically, they aren’t full of shit.

And sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but almost anyone will be happy to connect and chat with you as long as they have the time to do it and as long as you have good intentions.

So just send someone in your city an email or a tweet and ask them out for coffee. Tell them your story and that you want to learn more about what it’s like to start a company.

It helps if you have met them online or offline beforehand. It helps if you can get an introduction. And it really helps if you’re still in school.

But don’t be afraid to reach out to those you don’t know. Just be honest, straightforward and people will understand.

(if you’re in Vancouver, you can start with me.)

5. Volunteer

Volunteering is a great way to get involved. There is a massive shortage of smart people in any city and everyone needs help with something.

Here are a few ways you can get a volunteering gig:

• Talk to meetup hosts. How can you help?
• Connect with your local Startup Weekend organizers. How can you help?
• Reach out to accelerators / incubators. How can you help?
• Talk to startups too. How can you help?

See the pattern here? The key questions is “How can you help?”

Which brings us to the next point…

Next Step: Contribute to the Community

Once you get comfortable being a participant, it’s time to become a contributor.

Online, this means curating and creating content. Share good reads and, maybe, start a blog.

Offline, this means offering your advice and expertise to the people you meet, volunteering and, if you’re feeling adventurous, organizing something yourself.

Final Step: The Switch

I’ve given you five ways to get involved in the startup scene. All of them are painless and straightforward.

But at the end of the day, nothing beats actually founding or joining a startup company.

It’s like learning to swim by being pushed into the deepest end of the pool. It’s scary, dangerous even. But if it works out, it will make for a good story.

So yes, get off TechCrunch and get off your ass.

Dare to dream. Dare to build. Dare to give up the roadmap.

And if you ever succeed, please, find time to respond to tweets, go to events, and share cups of coffee with those who are just starting out.

Good luck!

Why do some marketing campaigns succeed and others fail?

One of the most important factors, I believe, is the ability of marketers to put themselves into the shoes of the audience.

Only if you can think like, feel like, and behave like your audience, will you be able to communicate with them effectively.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons you’re often told to work on solving your own problems. It’s just easier to build and market a product when you know exactly how your target market will react.

But what if you’re not solving your own problem? And even if you are, how can you make sure you’re always on target with your marketing?

Book authors and screenwriters have figured this out a long time ago. When working on a new character, they often think through every possible detail of that character’s life, background and thought process.

Then, as the plot develops, the author can make decisions and evaluate situation through the character’s eyes. The questions turn from, for instance,”What would I, Quentin Tarantino, do?” to “What would Django do?”

Got it? Now let’s bring this analogy back home!

In marketing, we can also build characters that are highly detailed representations of our audience. We call these characters “customer (or buyer) personas.”

Customer personas help us make better business decisions and communicate both efficiently and effectively.

So today we’re gonna learn how to develop a customer persona for your startup, and how to use it.

Collecting Information: Where to Start?

When creating a customer persona, you want to be as detailed as possible, which may be a bit difficult to do at first.

So start by getting together with whoever’s doing business development, sales, marketing, and customer support at your startup. (it’s all you? not a problem!)

The key is that people who work directly with customers already have some insight into who those customers are.

And if you don’t have any customers yet, don’t worry! Fill in the gaps with assumptions, educated guesses, and research. I’ll show you how in a minute.

8 Components of Your Customer Persona

In total, there are about eight different questions you need to address when creating your character. Most are pretty straightforward, but let’s go through the list one by one.

Also, at the end of the post, there’s a downloadable worksheet that you can use with your team.

Side note: this template is something we’ve been using at Mobify and the credit goes to James & Monique Sherrett.

1. Name and title.

Start by giving your buyer persona a name and a title. This will make the character more real and will allow you to easily reference him or her.

Example: Ted Mosby, architect. (he’s a How I Met Your Mother character)

2. Basics.

Now move on to the basic background information, including demographics and psychographics — age, gender, location, family life, likes and dislikes, and location on the adoption curve.

Example: Ted is 30 years old single male living in New York. He likes old buildings and is an early adopter for [your product].

3. Professional and personal background.

Consider information such as job history, role, leisure activities, hobbies, etc.

Example: Ted graduated from NYU, tried architecture for a few years, but ended up teaching a course about architecture history instead. In his spare time, Ted goes to a pub with a group of friends, actively dates women and is looking to settle down. He’s a bit of a showoff.

4. Quote.

A quote is just a couple of sentences that encapsulate the persona’s attitude towards your product or service.

Example: Ted knows about [your product] but he isn’t sure if it has all the right features. He’s hesitant to sign up.

5. Technical background.

How comfortable is your character online and what activities do they perform on the web? What devices do they use? This is important for determining how the audience will interact with the brand online.

Example: Ted grew up without social media. He’s on Facebook like everyone else but he doesn’t use it much. He only reads a few blogs to which he subscribes via email. He likes to download information rather than read it online.

6. Favourite websites (1-3).

Do you really need an explanation for this one?

Example:

1. www.archdaily.com
2. www.gmail.com
3. www.ted.com

7. Goals.

What are this person’s goals when looking for a product? Do they want to find a vendor they can work with quickly? Do they shop by price? Do they need a partner for long-term engagement?

Example: Money isn’t a big concern for Ted as long as the solution is worth it.

8. I need / I want statements.

What does this person need and or want in order to reach the above goals? Remember to keep in mind all of the characteristics you described above.

Example: Ted wants a product that will not only do the job but make him look smart in front of his peers.

That’s it! We’re done writing!

Using Your Buyer Persona

Now we have Ted to help us make better business and marketing decisions. Here are a few questions that he may help us answer.

1. Should we write more blog posts or ebooks?
   E-books, because Ted likes PDF’s. (#5)
2. Where should we be buying banner ads?
   Easy, www.archdaily.com and www.ted.com. (#6)
3. Is it a good idea to drop the price of our product?
   Not really, Ted cares about the features more than the price. (#4, #7)

See how powerful this can be? Any question can now be answered with a specific character in mind.

Goodbye intuition. Hello customer intelligence!

Common Mistakes to Avoid when Creating a Customer Persona

Before I sign off, here are a couple of common mistakes that I’ve seen being made when creating a character like that:

1. Basing your customer persona on one real customer. Your buyer persona should be a representative composite description of all current and potential customers. Frankly, no single person can fully represent your target market.
2. Making your persona flawless. If you think that your buyer may be a douchebag or a shy wallflower, write it down. Don’t make your character perfect — no human being is.
3. Being inconsistent. If your customer works at Microsoft, they probably aren’t an Apple fanboy, right? So make sure that everything fits together nicely.

You can find more information about these and other mistakes in this great post by Adele Revella.

Downloadable Buyer Persona Worksheet

As promised, here’s your .pdf worksheet. No sign up required.

I encourage you to try creating your own customer persona as soon as possible and then using it in real business situations.

Let me know how it goes!

2012 was a great year for startups, and there were plenty of cool articles, videos, blog posts and other resources created by marketing experts to help entrepreneurs grow their companies.

So I decided to showcase the best of those resources and share them with you. They come from all over the web and are in different formats, but all of them are awesome!

I then also took the liberty of adding a separate list of the Top 5 posts published on Marketing Before Funding this year.

And if you think I’m missing something, don’t hesitate to leave a comment and add your own favourites.

Now, let’s begin the countdown!

10. Sixteen Tips for Picking the Perfect Startup Name

Selecting a good name for your company can be very difficult and time-consuming. This post on Mashable does a good job at simplifying and explaining the whole process. Learn more >>

9. Six Skills that Will Get You a Startup Marketing Job

This great post by April Dunford outlines the key skills that startups are looking for in a marketing professional, as well as the ways to develop and showcase those skills. If you’re looking to hire or to get hired as a startup marketer, read on >>

8. The Beginner’s Guide to Mobile App Marketing

Neil Patel of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg is a great marketer, no doubt about it. In this particular article, he dissects mobile app marketing and outlines the key principles and tactics to consider. Learn more >>

7. Social Media Marketing Strategy for Startups [Infographic]

Udemy has had some great successes lately, specifically with raising a significant amount ($12MM) in funding to democratize online education and enable experts in any industry to connect with the right audience.

On top of that, Udemy also gets a spot on our Best of 2012 list because of its “Social Media Marketing Strategy for Startups” infographic. It’s so good I suggest you print it out and hang it on a wall. See for yourself >>

6. Why You Should Market Your Startup Earlier than You Think

I’ve been a fan of Leo Widrich’s work for a while now. Leo is a co-founder of Buffer and is know for, among other things, being a guest blogging superstar. This post, however, is more about strategy than tactics. Read on >>

5. Why Growth Hackers are Taking Over Startup Marketing

In this article, Sean Johnson of Digital Intent talks about the phenomenon of growth hacking. So if you’re still wondering what this new movement is all about or how you can become a growth hacker yourself, read this >>

4. Startup Marketing: How to Earn Customers Without Paying for Them

Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a remarkable shift from pushy outbound marketing to friendly inbound marketing. SEOmoz is one of the few companies that not only do inbound well but also empower others to succeed. In this presentation, Rand Fishkin shares some great ideas on how startups can use inbound marketing to grow. Watch it >>

3. How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup: A Complete Guide

OnStartups is one of the top online communities for entrepreneurs (which you probably already know). There are plenty of great things there to read, but the post I wanted to highlight comes from Leo Widrich (again!). Check it out >>

2. Seth Godin’s Startup School

Seth Godin is a best selling author and the founder of Squidoo. In 2012, he taught a small group of entrepreneurs how to tackle some of the most important startup marketing challenges. 

From getting over the Dip and setting correct expectations, to identifying your perfect customers and calculating the cost of their acquisition, this series of audio recordings covers it all. See for yourself >>

1. The Ultimate Guide to Startup Marketing

KISSmetrics runs one of my favourite marketing blogs focusing on startups. And one thing they do particularly well is finding guest bloggers with kickass content. This time, Renée Warren of Onboardly shared one of the biggest and best guides to startup marketing I’ve ever seen.

In my mind, this article is a clear winner as the best startup marketing resource of 2012. Enjoy >>

Best of Marketing Before Funding

As promised, here’s a list of the best posts on Marketing Before Funding this year. Note that we’ve only been live since August, so there was less content to choose from.

5. “Corporate Identity Essentials for Startups” ebook

This small free ebook has potential to help your startup rock a sweet corporate identity without spending a fortune. Get a copy >>

4. How to Start Marketing Your Startup While in Stealth Mode

What I expected to be a very controversial post (I argued that there are situations when going stealth is a smart decision), ended up being positively received by readers and media alike. Learn more >>

3. Five Storytelling Mistakes to Avoid when Marketing Your Startup

This article covers what storytelling is, why it is a powerful marketing tool and how avoid some of the most common mistakes associated with it. Read on >>

2. Sixteen Ways to Write Kickass Copy for Your Startup

With this post, I tried to compile most of my knowledge about copywriting into one practical guide. There are tips, tricks, “big picture” ideas and everything in-between. Check it out >>

1. Fourteen Renowned Experts Share Insanely Useful Startup Marketing Advice

Without a doubt, this is the biggest post on MBF this year as it has resonated with lots and lots of entrepreneurs around the world. In this massive article, Tony Hsieh, Brad Feld, Ryan Holmes and others shared their thoughts and insights about impactful startup marketing. So if you haven’t read it already, you’re really missing out! Catch up and read it >>

Your turn

That’s all I’ve got, but you probably know a whole lot more great resources that I missed. So feel free to share links to the best content of 2012 in the comments!

Plus, I wanted to talk to you about the future of this blog and the plans for 2013.

I’ll also ask you for a quick favour at the very end of the post. No, it won’t cost you money. I just need a couple of minutes of your time.

New Chapter: Mobify

As of last week, I am now a full-time marketing coordinator at Mobify, one of the top Vancouver startup companies.

Mobify’s platform-as-a-service (PaaS) software allows large brands, such as Starbucks, Beyond the Rack and Wired to easily and quickly adapt their desktop websites for any mobile or tablet device.

My role within the company is yet to be narrowed down, but for now I will be tackling a wide range of inbound marketing challenges.

Honestly, I couldn’t be more excited.

Marketing Before Funding in 2013

It’s been abound 5 months since we’ve launched this small community of entrepreneurs and startup marketers. And the response from all over the world has been truly overwhelming.

For instance, here’s an official US embassy shirt I received as a gift from a reader in Baghdad.

Cool, eh?

What I’m trying to say is that I can’t understate how grateful I am for your support and involvement!

But you may be wondering if I’m going to quit MBF now that I am no longer riding solo (i.e. consulting / freelancing). The answer is “HELL NO!”

I’ve always envisioned Marketing Before Funding as a long-term project with a simple goal: help as many entrepreneurs as possible build remarkable businesses. (I said “simple,” not “easy.”)

This blog isn’t about me. It’s about you.

And I’ll keep doing my best to provide you with great content in 2013 and beyond.

Here’s a quick list of things I’m planning for the next year:

• Practical “how-to” interviews with top startup marketers.
• Guest posts from amazing growth hackers. And by the way, you can write for MBF too.
• Articles tackling PR, content marketing, SEO, getting interns, and other topics we haven’t discussed yet.
• In-depth courses (free and/or paid) on social media for tech startups.

Trust me that there’s lots of cool stuff in the works!

Help Me Help You

With so many ideas and plans for 2013, I want to make sure that you’re getting what you need out of this blog. So I’ve set up a quick survey that shouldn’t take up much of your time.

There’s a number of questions to help me write the best possible articles for you and help me reach other people like you, so that they too can build kickass businesses.

Please, help me help you and fill out the survey by clicking on the big red link below.

BIG RED LINK

 
Thank you so much,
Mike Abasov
Founder of Marketing Before Funding

What are startups notoriously bad at when it comes to marketing? Why do they fail? How can they get better?

I asked some of the top female startup founders to help me uncover the major problems that many early-stage companies struggle with.

Here’s the question I wanted to hear an answer to:

From your experience, what is the #1 marketing mistake startups make and why?

Of course, I got a whole range of answers, but it seems like there are 3 main themes behind them:

1. Not thinking about marketing enough (or early enough).
2. Putting all eggs in one basket (e.g. launch campaign).
3. Measuring things that don’t matter, and not tracking the ones that do.

I couldn’t agree more!

Now… Once you’re done reading, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. What mistakes have the experts missed? Which ones did you make yourself and what did you learn?

Jump quickly to one of the founders (or scroll to read all the answers):
Julia Hartz, Kathryn Minshew, Amielle Lake, Kellee Khalil, Andrea Cutright, Michelle Zatlyn, Lisa Sugar, Amanda MacNaughton, Heather Anne Carson, Danae Ringelmann, Desiree Vargas Wrigley.

There’s also a Twitter list of everyone who’s ever been featured on Marketing Before Funding.

JULIA HARTZ, CO-FOUNDER OF EVENTBRITE

“Many companies try to dive into driving awareness for their product or service before they figure out who they are, what they stand for, and what they are driving for. At Eventbrite, we set out 6 years ago to democratize the ticketing industry through innovative products and top notch support. The great news is that through all the growth we’ve had – in customers and in company size – these are still our primary areas of focus.”

Click here to say thanks to Julia on Twitter (@juliahartz). Check out Eventbrite.

KATHRYN MINSHEW, FOUNDER OF THE DAILY MUSE

“The #1 marketing mistake I see startups make is relying on a silver bullet. You think: if we could just get a partnership with Forbes. If L’Oreal would just say yes. We’d be on the path to explosive growth. But there’s almost never just ONE silver bullet; rather, most companies succeed by a combination of many small efforts and unpredictable wins. I keep a lot of irons in the fire so if one partnership doesn’t go through, or one deal turns out to have much less impact than I’d hoped, I still have plenty of other things in the works!”

Click here to say thanks to Kathryn on Twitter (@kmin). Check out The Daily Muse.

AMIELLE LAKE, FOUNDER OF TAGGA

“Given that funds are limited – I think most mistakes are made based on spending money in the wrong places – e.g. sponsoring and event before making sure your messaging and creative assets are solid. Specifically one classic mistake is thinking of your company launch as a single event and thus spending the bulk of your budget on exactly that. A launch is an event that marks the beginning of an opportunity to BUILD momentum. You need to make sure you have a strategy and plan that aligns with a prolonged period of time.”

Click here to say thanks to Amielle on Twitter (@amiellel). Take a look at Tagga.

KELLEE KHALIL, FOUNDER OF LOVER.LY

“Tapping “traditional” advertising sources to get the word out about your startup. Advertising, even to the most relevant of audiences, is incredibly costly, and unless you have a cushy marketing budget, you’ll find yourself burning through your funds going the traditional advertising routes. As a startup, we’ve dabbled a TINY bit in traditional online advertising routes, only to find that putting in the human effort to simply engage in our community brings us a much more valuable ROI.

New user acquisition, especially for bootstrapped startups require quite a bit more creativity to drive your user acquisition costs down. Don’t underestimate the power of becoming an active, valuable voice (and listening ear) in your niche—activate all (especially free) social channels available to you and don’t just turn them on ENGAGE on them. It’s painful at first…speaking to an audience of 0, then 10, then eventually thousands, is often a slow climb, but one that you earn, and with the right voice and engagement in your target community, one that gives back to you, tenfold. Identify the tastemakers in your industry. Get to know them. Engage. Collaborate. Share information, ideas, resources.”

Click here to say thanks to Kellee on Twitter (@kellee). Go to Lover.ly.

ANDREA CUTRIGHT, FOUNDER OF FOODILY

“Successful start-ups build a product for a specific user that’s unlike anything else out there. Focus on what makes your company different from the beginning and make that the most visible, tangible thing customers see.”

Connect with Foodily on Twitter @FOODILY. Check out Foodily.com.

MICHELLE ZATLYN, CO-FOUNDER OF CLOUDFLARE

“The list of mistakes can be long. It is hard to pick the ‘#1.’ Here is one that is currently top of mind:

Trying to get a ton of media coverage before the product or company is ready. Patience is important. Media coverage is easier and more effective once you have a killer product. If you’re trying to create buzz too early, you’re doing it wrong.

In terms of a great tip that companies don’t do enough:

Create content early. Build an audience by writing interesting content, even if it isn’t about your company or product. If you establish yourself as an expert on a specific industry, programming language or topic, then you’ll have an easier time hiring and building a reputation for your product once you’re ready to scale.”

Click here to say thanks to Michelle on Twitter (@zatlyn). Visit CloudFlare.

LISA SUGAR, CO-FOUNDER OF POPSUGAR

“Early on companies need to concentrate on building the absolute best product. If you build it (right), they will come. Don’t spend money on marketing early on. Grow your audience organically and then know the right time to market to them to keep your audience coming back, engaged, and loyal. Marketing then becomes crucial so you can continue to learn how to grow the brand as the company plans for long-term success.”

Check out POPSUGAR.

AMANDA MACNAUGHTON, CO-FOUNDER OF PROMOJAM

“One of the biggest marketing mistakes startups make is staying in “startup stealth mode” too long. Startups are often afraid to start marketing until their product launches, but that can dramatically hurt you in the long run. Building a customer and fan base takes time, and you should start marketing your company well before your product launches. Build a website, create a Facebook and Twitter page, and start creating your brand image online at least 3-4 months before you bring your product to market. You want to build a base of fans who are excited about your new company, so that when you launch it people will pay attention and care.”

Click here to say thanks to Julia on Twitter (@AmandaMalia). Go to PromoJam.

HEATHER ANNE CARSON, CO-FOUNDER OF ONBOARDLY

“I think the #1 marketing mistake startups make is relying on guesswork over fact. Making assumptions of any kind. Relying on vanity metrics (But, we have 8400 Twitter followers!) in lieu of actual performance. On day one, ensure all marketing efforts are tied to a tangible goal, whether it’s downloads or signups, account creations or subscribers. Only when you begin measuring what works versus what doesn’t can you objectively make decisions on what types of messages are most effective, the most receptive audiences for your product, and what channels to spend your marketing dollars on.”

Click here to say thanks to Heather on Twitter (@heatheranne). Visit Onboardly.

DANAE RINGELMANN, CO-FOUNDER OF INDIEGOGO

“#1 Marketing Mistake of Tech Startups – Telling the What instead of Selling the Why.
Crowdfunding is not only a powerful alternative source of funds for a tech start-up, it’s also the beginning of a start-up’s marketing efforts. Finding funders – people who believe in your idea so much that they will vote with their wallet to help you bring your idea to life – is thus the same process as finding customers – i.e. marketing. A key mistake we see tech start-ups make in crowdfunding (and thus marketing) is telling “the what,” rather than selling “the why.” We see start-ups jump to the features and functionality before tackling an idea’s impact on the world. We see them answer the question: how it works, before answering: what problem their idea is solving. According to science and summarized by Simon Senek, people don’t buy what we do, they buy why we do it. Same holds true for crowdfunding: people don’t fund what we do, they fund why we do it. So we recommend the opposite approach from what start-ups typically do. We recommend they Sell the Why first; then Tell the What.”

Click here to say thanks to Danae on Twitter (@GogoDanae). Check out Indiegogo.

DESIREE VARGAS WRIGLEY, CO-FOUNDER OF GIVEFORWARD

“I think the number one marketing mistake that startups make is spending money to advertise before they really know who their target market is. As entrepreneurs, we have huge visions and an array of personas for our ideal customers. The reality, however, is that in the early days of a start-up you only have one or two perfect customer profiles. Figure out how to get in front of those people first. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll be reaching the people who love and need you the most. They’re your superstars, your word of mouth drivers, your evangelists.”

Click here to say thanks to Desiree on Twitter (@desireegf). Stop by GiveForward.

Over to you! I’d love to hear your point of view in the comments.

And while you’re at it, I would eternally appreciate if you share this post with someone who can benefit from it. Thanks!

As entrepreneurs, we often have to hustle hard to reach influential people in our industry.

Whether they are journalists, venture capitalists, or top level executives of big corporations, we know that a relationship with them could be beneficial for everyone, but first we have to get in touch with them.

So what do we do?

Sometimes, we get an introduction from a friend or an acquaintance. Other times, we catch our targets at a conference and elevator pitch the hell out of them.

Often, however, there is no other way but to send a cold email.

But you know what influential people all have in common? They rarely disclose their contact information.

For example, to write my “14 Renowned Experts […]” post, I had to reach out to about 60 influential founders and startup marketers in North America.

Of course, I didn’t know most of them, so cold emailing was the way to go. But once I started researching my targets, I realized that I’ll have to get creative to get their contact information.

And today I want to show you my method that will allow you to get any influencer’s email address with a 99% success rate.

Ready? Let’s do this!

The Basics of Email Guessing

First, let’s discuss some basic assumptions.

We’re talking about influencers here, so they probably don’t have email addresses such as pinkbunny1955@yahoo.com.

They most likely have an email address under their companies’ domain names, and those companies are likely to have guidelines for creating emails.

So, the email address will usually a) end with @company.com, and b) begin with something descriptive, such as a person’s name or position.

Here are some of the most common corporate email structures:

• Firstname@company.com – most founders use this format
• Lastname@company.com
• FistnameLastname@company.com + variations with “.” and “_”
• FLastname@company.com + variations with “.” and “_”
• FirstnameL@company.com + variations with “.” and “_”
• Position@company.com –  for example, “CEO”
• Department@company.com –  for example, “media” or “community”

And that’s about it. Companies rarely get creative with this, which makes your and my jobs much easier.

Using Rapportive to Go from Guessing to Knowing

Now that you have a clear understanding of how companies come up with their emails, you can use one simple yet powerful technique (and tool) to turn your educated guesses into bulletproof knowledge.

Rapportive is a small Gmail plugin which presents you with insights into people you’re talking to. It is usually used to learn more about the person you’re corresponding with, but it has other cool features as well.

Go install it, I’ll wait…

Now, if you click on someone’s email in your Compose window or Inbox, a little widget on the right side of the page will appear and show you different social media profiles that are using that email address.

So if you enter your target’s contact information, for example Firstname@company.com, Rapportive will try to find any connections between that email and the social web.

See where I’m going with this?

If the email address you’re entering is real, it is highly likely that there are social media accounts associated with it. If your guess it wrong, however, Rapportive won’t show anything.

Here’s an example, using my contacts…

Now, all you need to do is test out every email address on your list and see which one is in use. It’s that easy.

For example, when I was looking for the contact information of the 60 founders I’ve mention in the beginning, it literally took me under 10 minutes to find most of them as they all used Firstname@company.com or Firstname.Lastname@company.com.

Go try it out for yourself…

When Rapportive Fails

Of course, Rapportive is no panacea.

Sometimes, the address you’re looking for isn’t connected to any social media. This often happens when a person is a new addition to the company.

But, fortunately, I have a few backup plans for you…

Backup plan #1: Research your target.

As you may have noticed, we haven’t even started researching your target yet.

So go open a new tab and google something like “Name email address” or “Name contact info.” You may find your answers on forums, blogs and even Quora.

If that doesn’t work, check out the company’s website, your target’s personal blog and social media. Hopefully, you’ll find what you’re looking for.

Backup plan #2: Try all of them.

Still no luck?

Here’s another idea. This one comes from Brian Wong of Kiip, and he has used it successfully to secure meetings with top influencers in the sturtup space.

Remember the list of all possible emails we’ve outlined above? Well, we’re gonna contact ALL OF THEM!

Just compose your message and then type in all of those variations into the “Bcc” field. Then, take the address with the most potential to be real and type it into the “To” field.

This way, when you send your email, there’s a high probability that at least one of the addresses will work, and you’ll reach your target.

At the same time, since the full list of emails is hidden, the person won’t feel like you’re spamming them.

Backup Plan #3: If all else fails, go social.

If you’re reading this, it means that none of the above options worked, and your inbox is full of “Delivery Failed” messages.

Here’s when we go back to social media. And the most straightforward way would be sending the person a quick tweet and asking for their contacts.

But if you want to avoid such premature outreach, you can try a couple of other paths as well.

First, you can add your marks on LinkedIn. If they approve your request, you’ll get access to all of her contact information. But if they don’t, you’re facing a penalty from this social network.

So before you click “Connect,” make sure that the person has 500+ contacts, which usually means that they aren’t particularly selective about who makes her acquaintance.

Of course, you can also pay LinkedIn to get its premium InMail feature, but what I’ve found is that lots of influential people don’t check their messages often enough to justify the expense.

But let me know if you have more success with this.

An alternative to LinkedIn would, of course, be Facebook.

If you can find the person’s profile, check if they have a short vanity URL. Mine, for instance, is facebook.com/abasov.

Now, every user who has such a nice looking link, gets a similar email address as well, such as abasov [at] facebook.com.

The messages you send to such addresses will land into the person’s “Other” inbox. And truth be told, they often go unnoticed. So I would only use this tactic as the last resort.

Again, if you had tried everything and nothing worked (which is a ridiculously rare case), just ask the person directly on Twitter. I’m yet to hear one “no” when doing this.

Let’s Hear Your Ideas!

Have you faced a situation when you needed to get in touch with an influencer, over email or otherwise? How did you go about it? What was the result?

Let me know in the comments!

Social media can be extremely powerful for business. Everyone knows that by now. But…

…it can also be a HUGE TIME SUCK.

The main reason is that, in order to be successful, you probably need to manage accounts across multiple networks, maintain a consistent flow of updates, discover new content, engage with your audience, and so on and so forth…

And all of that needs to be done every. single. day.

Let’s stop this madness!

On November 5, 2012, I gave a presentation at the Internet Masterminds meetup in Vancouver, Canada.

I talked about various secrets to saving time through efficiency and how to do it using HootSuite, a popular social media management dashboard. And all of that got filmed on camera (hence, this post).

In this recording, you will learn how to use HootSuite to simplify, automate and supercharge your presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Google Plus.

This presentation is particularly valuable to startups because the scarcity of both time and money makes efficiency critical for success.

If you have never used HootSuite, you can try it out for free (affiliate link).

Here are the key takeaways from the presentaion:

1. 20% of your social media efforts drive 80% of the ROI. — Tweet this.
2. You need to optimize your listening, engaging, publishing and measuring. Otherwise, you’re wasting time.
3. Using HootSuite the right way will allow you to save 25% – 50% of the time you spend of social media marketing.

Without further ado, here it is…

Watch this video on YouTube.

(click here if you can’t see the video)

I apologize for the quality of the video and audio. Next time will be better, I promise.

On the bright side, here’s the slide deck to help you follow along.

——-
Disclosure: Mike Abasov worked at HootSuite during the period from Sep. 2010 through Sep. 2011. He is currently not employed by HootSuite but still uses the product in his daily work. Basically, his opinions are biased. Deal with it. 

HootSuite, KISSmetrics, HubSpot and other trademarks and content excerpts belong to their rightful owners and are used for educational purposes under the fair use agreements.

How good is your big idea? How good are your small ones? Your new features? Is your startup solving a real problem? Who are your most loyal customers?…

So many questions. And we all have them when building our startups and marketing our businesses. But where do we look for answers?

Ourselves? Friends and family? Big name entrepreneurs we kinda know? The problem is that all of these people are most likely not the ones who will actually be using your product.

And even if they are, the biases of your relationships will make it hard for you to get any objective feedback.

So who can we ask for realistic, unbiased and actionable feedback? Well, how about our users and customers?

The pros are obvious:

1. Your consumers’ opinions actually matter. They are the ones you serve and the ones who pay you.
2. They interact with your product more than anyone else.
3. They are not afraid of hurting your feelings.

Hooray! It seems like we found our optimal source of feedback, insights, and new ideas. Now all we need is to start collecting and analyzing them.

And this is exactly what today’s article is about.

Way #1. Let the Data Speak for Itself

In “The Lean Startup,” Eric Reis talks about the importance of measuring as a part of your product development cycle. Seeing how your users react to and interact with new features and ideas should influence your decisions about those features and ideas.

Every customer you have leaves a trail of data behind her. And those data probably have more insights into how people feel about your product than you can imagine.

All you need to do is start listening (…or looking …or whatever else you do with data). Luckily, there are plenty of tools to help you.

Your choice of those tools should be driven by the questions you’re asking as well as the platform you’re using. For example, Google Analytics is great for monitoring your general website performance, but KISSmetrics is a more powerful tool when it comes to optimizing the performance of your sales funnel.

Here are some questions you may want to be asking and possible answers you can find in data:

1. Q. Are there any confusing points in our product?
   A. People spend more time on our transaction page than they should. Let’s simplify the interface.
2. Q. Does this new copy perform better than the old one?
   A. An A/B test shows higher conversion rates with the new copy. Great!
3. Q. Are these new social features making our product more engaging?
   A. The number of Daily Active Users (DAU) went down for this cohort. Oh, shit!

And so on, and so forth…

Of course, every startup has its own questions and its own answers so think about yours before you commit to a hundred analytical tools.

But also remember that too much data is usually better than not enough data. This is why, for example, companies such as Mint start investing heavily into data collection and analysis early on. You should too.

Sidenote: I’ll definitely come back to this topic in the future articles on Marketing Before Funding, so consider subscribing if you don’t wanna miss out.

Way #2. Conduct a Survey

Surveys are a really easy and inexpensive way to collect feedback from users. You ask a bunch of questions; you get the answers; you look for insights. Easy, right?

The problem is that a lot of startups suck at conducting them. They ask the wrong people the wrong questions.

Let’s take a step back and make sure you’re not making any silly mistakes.
Start by asking yourself the following five questions.

1. What am I trying to find out?

If you want to know why a user quit your service, ask her about that. Don’t ask her if she is a cat or a dog person, because it probably won’t be helpful. Don’t ask for any information, unless you expect to see a relationship between that information and what you’re researching.

2. When is the survey taking place?

You need to make sure that you’re talking to the right people at the right time. Otherwise, you’re not gonna get many responses or the quality of those responses isn’t going to be great.

Here are some options to consider:

1. Right after signup.
2. A few days after signup.
3. When an account is deleted.
4. After a person subscribes for your email list.
5. At a random time (just ’cause you need it).

There are many other choices, and the decision depends on your answer to the first “why” question. Using the same example as before, if you want to know why users quit, conduct a survey right after they cancel their accounts.

3. Are my questions any good?

It’s not only what you ask, it’s also how you ask it. If a question is worded badly, you’ll get bad data.

The common problems include:

• Double-barreled questions. The ones that ask about multiple things instead of just one. For instance, “Are you satisfied with our price and features?” (split into two)
• Leading / biased questions. The ones that suggest the “right” answer to the respondent. For example, “How would you rate this great new feature we’ve added?”
• Also, complicated wording leads to your respondent not understanding the question. For example, “Did you enjoy consuming the text-based piece of content that was published on Marketing Before Funding today?” is bad. “Did you like today’s post?” is good (though a bit ambiguous).

4. What are my respondents getting?

Responding to your survey is an effort that a person has to make. And they will wonder if it’s worth their time.

So first, make sure that your surveys are as short as possible (long enough to be useful, though). Then, consider adding an incentive such as a gift card or a bonus feature, or a discount on your product.

You don’t need to spend much (or even any) money but incentives can make a huge difference when it comes to response rates.

5. What tools should I use?

Google Forms, Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, Wufoo… the list is endless. It all depends on how complex your survey is and how much money you feel like investing.

My faves are Google Forms for simple surveys and Qualtrics for the more advanced ones.

Now let’s look at an example. Recently, I had to cancel my subscription to DailyBurn. It’s a great service, but I couldn’t justify paying for it, so I decided to quit.

Right before canceling, a little form popped out asking why I was leaving. It’s a simple one-question survey, but I’m sure it helps DailyBurn’s team improve its product.

Some of the possible reasons for quitting were technical. Others suggest a possible substitute or a flaw in the product. But overall, this answer is all that the company needs to know. Not more. Not less.

Let’s recap: why are you conducting the survey? when/where will you place it? what questions will you ask and how will you ask them? what tools will you use?

Way #3. Interview a Customer. Or a Few

A great way of collecting insightful qualitative feedback from your customers is to interview a couple of them.

Being able to talk in-person and ask open-ended question with lots of followups lets you dig deep into people’s heads and see the underlying concerns and needs they may have.

(This approach is also great for validating your idea even before you have a product as it may provide you with insights into what people’s real pain is.)

The shortcomings of interviews are, of course, the time and effort commitment required from both parties.

But most of the time interviewing your customers is one of the best ways to collect feedback from them and is totally worth it.

Here are some variables to consider when planning interviews with your customers:

1. Medium. In-person and Skype interviews beat phone calls and email every time.
2. Questions. Just like with surveys, be careful with what questions you ask and why you ask them. As a rule of thumb, go for open-ended questions and keep asking follow up questions.
3. Sampling. Different groups of users can offer different kinds of feedback, and may be more or less willing to participate. You may want to talk to random customers or to the most engaged ones, or someone else. Your call.
4. Recording method. Think about how you will record the responses you get. Will you take notes on a paper form prepared in advance? Do you want to have a voice/video recording of the interview? In each case, you must inform your interviewee about the process and the purpose before the interview.

Consider this example. When writing a business plan for a enterprise gamification startup, my team needed to learn what HR people thought of the idea.

We conducted one-on-one in-person interviews with top level executives in companies that were most likely to be our core customers. We asked 20 minutes worth of questions on topics ranging from pain exploration to idea feedback. We took notes.

In the end, the research helped us identify a number of gaps in the product and make adjustments to the pricing strategy. Not to mention that we now had a few extra connections with potential customers.

Way #4. Use the Power of the Social Web

Social networks, forums and blogs often make for a great debate panel when it comes to talking about products and services.

And if your company has been around for at least a little while, you would expect a conversation or two to be happening online (maybe right now).

So use the power of the social web to your advantage. Here’s how.

Start by listening.

Monitor blogs, comments and social networks for relevant keywords and study all conversations and reviews that are being posted. Check out my tutorial on how to build an Ultimate Listening Dashboard for your business and start.

Go onto engaging.

Respond to posts and comments where appropriate. When they are positive, thank the person and ask if they have more ideas to share.

When it comes to the negatives, don’t argue with the haters but do address all the relevant issues and fix problems if needed.

Way #5. Make It Easy for Users to Leave Feedback

Many users will be happy to share their ideas and suggestions with you as long as you give them an easy way of doing so. You can start by adding a contact form to your site or just posting your email, but I suggest you take it a step further.

Tools such as UserVoice and GetSatisfaction allow users to leave their ideas, questions and suggestions and vote on the ones posted by others.

The tools work well even with mobile apps and allow you to see which features your customers really want and what issues they are experiencing. You can crowdsource ideas for your project and troubleshoot problems at the same time.

HootSuite is known for using UserVoice to find the most demanded features for their products. They later implement those features if possible, which makes customers not only feel happy but also feel a sense of ownership of the product.

For instance, when I was driving the bus on the HootSuite Translation Project back in 2011, we asked our international users to suggest which languages should the product be localized into. The most popular ones would be then added into the system.

Way #6. Telepathy

Telepathy is by far the number one bullet-proof method for collecting actionable feedback from your users. Too bad it’s not available to the majority of entrepreneurs, either for the reasons of sanity or budget constraints.

So, I guess we’ll have to make the most out of the first five methods. In good hands, they work just fine.

Your Turn

How do you collect feedback from users? Share your examples, experiences and tools in the comments!

Well, start here! After months of writing, I’m happy to share with you our first ever ebook. As you can guess, it’s called “7 Basic Components of Your Startup’s 
Corporate Identity,” and it’s exactly what you need if your company requires more design and branding love.

What’s Inside

This ebook contains over 4,000 words on 33 pages. It’s filled with tips, frameworks and ideas to help your startup explode. It’s made to help you:

• Master the art of first impressions.
• Improve conversion rates and speed up growth.
• And achieve greater impact through consistent branding.

We’ll be talking about naming, color theory, logo design, stationary and merchandise, social media, and even you as a founder.

And Now the Best Part

The ebook it totally, completely, relentlessly free! All you need to do is fill out the form below, and you’ll get it delivered right into your lovely inbox. No up-selling, no pitching, just an awesome subscription to our content and a free ebook.

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(click here if you’re reading via RSS and can’t see the form)

P.S. If you’re already subscribed to Marketing Before Funding, check your inbox. The ebook should already be there. Also, you’re amazing!

P.P.S. Huge thanks goes out to Kelsey I. for her phenomenal editing skills.