1. Optimize Your Product To Market Itself
“Great products don’t need marketing.” This is an age-old statement that has become an ideology for some, but is it true? To some extent, it is. Say the cure for cancer or AIDS is suddenly available, we can be sure it won’t need any marketing at all and simply explode. While you can plan countless tactics and strategies in your tech startup marketing plan, the first and main mindset you should have is that your product or service should be able to market itself. Dropbox, Eventbrite, and Snapchat are just a few examples of tech startups that achieved success without any advertising at the beginning, simply by making their products so well they went viral. The basic idea here is simple: if your product (or service) is so good, each of your users will recommend it to another user(s), and so you achieve growth. We call this the viral coefficient . A viral coefficient of 1 means each user will generate one new user, where you achieve a linear growth. Our aim is to get at least 1.1 viral coefficient and above, where we achieve exponential growth with just our product or service. So how can we do this? Every tech startup is a unique entity with a unique product, and so there can be countless tactics and strategies.Yet, there are two main principles to help achieve this:- Develop A Product Worth Recommending
- Understand Your Ideal Customers
2. Target Your Early Adopters
Before we begin discussing this phase, we should get familiar with the Diffusion of Innovation theory. http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/99A2/theories.htm One of the most common mistakes of many startups is targeting the majority too soon. While the majority (early and late) consists of 68% of the total market share according to the theory (see graph above), the majority of people are always resistant to change. This is why it is important to first target the early adopters and innovators, since they will be the ones that recommend your product to the majority. Innovators are risk-takers, a small number of people that will try a new product before anyone else does. They are generally wealthy, and are familiar with the scientific discipline connected to the product. Early adopters are social leaders, commonly with high social status and education level, and can influence their followers. So, first identify the innovators and early adopters in your industry, and position your brand in a strategic manner to appeal to them. Many tech startups fail to succeed simply because they can’t get enough attention from the innovators and early adopters. Avoid this mistake at all costs. This guide by Etienne Garbugli at Medium might help you.3. Building Online Presence
In this maturing digital age, relying on just your website to build an online presence is simply no longer enough. Here are the key areas you should focus on:- Website
- Content
- Social Media
- SEO
- Online Advertising
4. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
There’s SEO, and there’s CRO. Conversion Rate Optimization is in essence, optimizing the chance in turning your website visitors and into real customers, especially by understanding their behaviors, the actions they take, and what’s stopping them from converting. There are three keys to CRO success: knowing your target audience (who), what to optimize on your site, and which part on your site you should optimize (where). So, it’s all about gathering data. There are two main ways to do this:- Quantitative Data Analysis
- Which part of your site they visit first
- What devices and browsers they use
- Your customers’ demographics
- What brought them in (advertising, social media post, etc.)
- What did they do on your site
- Where they abandon the conversion process (during which activity they leave your site)
- Social Engineering Method
- A/B Testing