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Startups – how to get your digital marketing approach right?

Startups typically have two major challenges to overcome – Time and money. Though time is money by the old age saying, here we are considering the importance of both separately.

  • In a short period of time, startups have to create the impact, grow their business as it is a question of survival. Either grow or perish seems to be the order of the day.
  • At the same time, most startups do have limited resources (money and people) to create that impact in that short period of time. So the question unfolds as to how this can be effectively achieved in today’s world?

Doing things right Vs doing right things

You cannot do everything right. We are not in a perfect world, so you need to take right steps; doing right things are more important.

  1. Do you really know who your customer is and their need?
    Focus on your customer and their need. Rather than creating a product or service, trying to spend your resources and energy into selling it (I am not referring to blue ocean strategy here) do understand your prospective customer’s pain and/or gain. If you are not solving a big problem (like Uber, booking a taxi with a click of a button rather than waiting on the streets), or not able to demonstrate a big gain (like Apple iPhone, that created a bigger impact through rich user experience) then you may have to seriously relook at your offerings. Else create a ‘differentiator’ that stands apart. Bear in mind, you don’t need to be miles ahead to win a race, but just nose ahead!
  2. Create and expand your brand identity digitally
    It is a no brainer that startups need to create their brand identity, and not think that the brand building initiative is only for established or large enterprises. It is all about creating differentiation, building trust; and digital will be an easy and cost-effective way to build your brand. The first step is to create a website that resounds well with your business. With good dot-com names virtually not available, this might need a lot of searches to arrive at the right name that can strike a chord with your customers as well.
  3. Cheap digital marketing Vs cost-effective digital marketing
    I do keep receiving mailers that say that they can get website page rank in top search results; and that too at very cheap rates. I do wonder how this may even cover the cost of such resources if it has to be done in the right way it is supposed to be. To top it all I get zapped when they list out strategies that were used a few years ago, that’s not going to work in today’s scenario. Of course, how many do really know Google’s new algorithm released this year? Many startups have come back to us after experiencing these cheaper options, as they realized it is just a drain of money and time. Here the important aspect to note is that, time loss is a precious loss; and you have already burnt sufficient amount of your limited resources (funds) hoping that digital is going to create that impact. If it didn’t work, don’t blame digital; just that you didn’t do it right! So go for cost-effective digital marketing that has a well thought out strategy and execution planned, with clear timelines.
  4. Pick the right strategy
    You all very well know that no one size fits all. Digital is beautiful in that way, because custom strategy can be carved for every one of you – be it a boutique, services firm, product startup, retail outlet, etc. I have stressed the need of SEO many a times in my earlier articles; a balanced approach to SEO, SEM, and SMM is important for you to succeed in this business. There are strategies (pre-launch, during launch, post-launch) that you need to pick depending upon the stage of your startup.
  5. Do not put all eggs on one basket (Rephrased: Do not spend all your money on just one strategy)
    It is always advisable to go for A/B testing. Create two or more sets of messages (needless to mention across social channels, Adwords, etc.) to see which one works best. Fine tune and try to see if improvement in performance is seen. Result is always a moving target and so constant fine tuning is essential to get the overall momentum and impact right. I do notice, many make the mistake of spending their precious funds on a particular message, and come to a conclusion that digital hasn’t worked. I was not surprised because the messages were not right, or the audience was not chosen right, or probably wrong timing. Be it LinkedIn, or Twitter, or PPC, you need to take a balanced call as to which combination can maximize your visibility and achieve your set objectives and goals.

It is easy to say ‘go digital’. But digital is not just a technique; it is a tactic (strategy). Digital certainly can be done in a cost effective way, and more importantly measurable. You will be able to see where your dollars go, with reference to your spends on various buckets. So, starting this New Year 2016, are you ready to go digital more effectively?

Startup Xperts is a business accelerator supporting startups, small medium enterprises, boutique firms, by driving their go-to-market strategies, digital marketing, smart sales initiatives, to accelerate their revenue growth.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violation, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

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7 ways to build your small business as successful brand | Startup Xperts

How to make your company, a brand?

by Shyam Sekar S

From about a century ago where we called it the ‘age of manufacturing’, to a decade back we termed it as the age of information, today we are at the ‘age of the customer’.

In some of my conferences, as a speaker, I have highlighted this – many entrepreneurs feel that branding is only for large companies; branding is a big budget exercise; branding involves huge time and effort and we cannot afford both.

But ‘why branding’ has become a no-brainer today. Why? Branding is essential to position you and your company in the right space/right perspective; branding helps to win clients; branding helps to beat your competition; and simply put, if you aren’t creating a ‘brand’ you are losing opportunities.

Well, most consider branding as ‘marketing activities’ that big brands pursue today – be it Coca Cola, Merc, Amazon, Flipkart, Nestle, to just name a few. But the key point that I would like to suggest you is that you don’t do what they are doing today. Do what they did when they were a startup like you; replicate or improvise what they did when they were a small business like yours.

With this important take, let’s move swiftly to how and where we can start. Branding can be done in a traditional and/or digital way. Today, in a connected world, branding can be done at a far higher pace and reach, and can shake established/traditional enterprises. Look at Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Google, or Uber, or Flipkart. All these brands moved into the billion dollar club in quick time. Unlike traditional industries that took decades to reach that mark. So leverage the power of digital to build your brand.

Branding is a continuous journey. It doesn’t happen by one activity, or one action, or one time. You have to build your company, your brand, through all of the available resources, both internal and external.

It all starts with a focus – focus on customer and customer’s need. All your actions, your mission, need to be centered on this. I understand that when Amazon tries to launch a product, or enhancement, the managers need to come up with a convincing answer to a basic question – how does this benefit or positively impact our customers? If not convincing, the idea gets dropped.

Get to work with a smart digital marketing company/consultant, if you do not have a specialist in your firm. Getting to identify them is tough, but worth your pain, as we are talking long term here.

• Build a robust digital marketing strategy.

• Balance your inbound and outbound strategies, depending on how and what your business is (B2B or B2C or both).

• Use analytics to power your business decisions.

• Email marketing can be used effectively (note, I am not referring to sales mailers here) to build reputation, position yourself as a thought leader, and more importantly helps to build ‘trust’ (an essential ingredient to build your company, your brand).

• SEO, SEM, SMM to be executed in perfect sync, as you do not want to throw your money, your precious resource, in a bottomless pit.

• Brand awareness leads to engagement; engagement leads to trust; trust helps you win customers and grow your businesses.

• Finally, build the right DNA across all stakeholders – your employees, customers, vendors, partners, investors, etc. Build your brand brick by brick through all of these stakeholders; understand that this is a long drawn, continuous and consistent, effort. Your aspiration and passion has to be communicated to all stakeholders and there can be no deviation between what you believe and what you do.

Happy branding!

Happy branding!

About the author:

Shyam Sekar S, is the Founder, Chief Mentor and Strategist at Startup Xperts Business Consulting Pvt. Ltd. , a business growth consulting firm. Shyam is a serial entrepreneur and helps many entrepreneurs in building up their enterprises, thereby building our entrepreneurship ecosystem. He passionately involves by giving shape to an idea and idea to execution; helps build startup and small medium enterprises by accelerating their revenue growth. Supports them through developing and most importantly, implementing smart business strategies, digital marketing, smart sales, brand building, mentoring, coaching, and leadership development. He can be reached at shyam@startupxperts.com

or his mobile +91 99401 36667.

Startup Xperts is a management consulting firm with an objective to transform companies into the next level of growth. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their growth. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, HR, Operations and leadership training.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violation, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

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Email marketing, a powerful way to expand your business | Startup Xperts

This article appeared as a column in the ‘Small Enterprise’ Entrepreneur Business Magazine in Oct 2014 issue.

Marketing is all about creating great customer experiences, consistently. It has transformed itself significantly over the last few years, thanks to digital marketing. Today, marketing is not just meant for large corporate (which were the case decades ago) but for every startup, SME can boast to benefit from.

A study by MIT Sloan Management Review and Capgemini Consulting on ‘Embracing Digital Technology’ finds that, according to 78% of respondents, achieving digital transformation will become critical to their organizations within the next two years. This was the study on traditional large corporations. This underlines the importance of digital technology that needs to be embraced in order to achieve success. In other words, without this you do not dream of taking your organization on a success path!

Digital technology is changing the industry and competitive landscape. Though many CEOs acknowledge the importance of digital marketing, it is the question of time and consistency with which these are being managed and executed. Though digital marketing can be encapsulated into inbound and outbound marketing, the strategic pieces still can lie with the CEO themselves.

Out of the many outbound marketing techniques that include display ad like Google Adwords, Webinars, Virtual conference, email marketing stands tall. Being an advocate of email marketing myself, I cannot resist saying that it is one of the most potent weapons that a company can use; more importantly even for a small enterprise, or a startup venture.

According to a McKinsey report, reaching people through e-mail is 40 times more effective than Twitter and Facebook combined. Yes, it is a mind boggling 40 TIMES! These stunning numbers prove that you as an enterprise cannot afford to miss out on this great marketing tool.

Why is it so powerful? Everyone (certainly most) of us checks email at least once a day, and probably the first thing in the morning. Besides, almost 3/4th of customers prefer to receive marketing messages through an email. Having now understood its importance let us see how best you can put to use this strategy.

The first step is to build an email list. You can buy the list, and/or you can start collating this over a period of time. It is kind of an ‘always-on’ activity. Beware of anti-spam challenges.

A tip – you can pick your connections from social media (relevant ones), other contacts, and prepare a list to start with.

The next importance element is the ‘messaging’. Your message should build trust and be relevant.

Customers do not want to see just ‘sales mails’. At some point in time it will be treated as spam and junked. So share information that are worthy, informative, a note as to how you can possibly solve their issues or challenges or save money, general insights, reports, etc. This will help you position as a thought leader in this space.

I have recommended and helped my clients build their brand and reach through smart email marketing techniques. For one of my consulting clients, we had shared an interesting article to a senior level vendor management person with a billion dollar enterprise in the US. Reaching out this contact over email or phone, might be next to impossible as they would be flooded by sales calls/mailers every other day. But with a non-sales, informative mailer that was shared, my client received a response from this billion dollar prospect requesting them to fill up an RFP that they sent along with their mail. Bang! What a smart and powerful way this email marketing can be? And this is without any sales effort, without thousands of dollars spent in sales follow ups (and still doesn’t guarantee an RFP though).

Create an interesting subject line. Most often, mails get read based on the excitement / interest that the subject line provides. There is no one standard thumb rule to say how exactly the subject line should be. Some may argue to short ones, while some for a lengthy one. But fundamentally make it look interesting, and that addresses ‘what’s in it for me’?

Personalize as much as possible, your email contents. Rather than just sending one mass mailer you can address the person by his/her name in the starting place; or you can even have their name addressed in the subject line itself. Human touch is essential in creating engaging content and that will be a key.

Engage a good content writer and keep churning out articles of interest, blogs that can position you as a thought leader in that space. Though developing content in-house is best, I have noticed most often that in companies the priorities would be different at different times and good articles do not come through as planned. In such cases, best is to engage content writers to ensure that messaging is happening with consistency; your strategy should define the frequency of such posts, timing, etc.

Include Social Media links in your posts / email. This way, it will help share these articles through popular social media sites directly. It can turn viral and your brand / offering can reach through extended connections that you would not have dreamt of.

Most use mobiles to open emails, so it is imperative that your content gets displayed across all devices fine. Care should be taken so that rendering is checked across devices before your email campaign is triggered.

Now, how do you send this? Though outlook? A strict no-no! Use CRM solutions and the beauty of that is ‘analytics’. You could slice and dice your data, contacts, and send targeted messages, and campaigns.

Here is an important point; I am not suggesting you to drop other modes of digital marketing and advocate only email marketing. Email marketing can be used, along with other digital marketing techniques like retargeting, etc. the right combination when used can be very powerful. When your digital strategy is encompassing a few areas synchronized well, you can take your enterprise to a significantly higher level in building up your brand and business.

Startup Xperts is a management consulting firm with an objective to transform companies into the next level of growth. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their growth. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, HR, Operations and leadership training.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violation, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

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Effective business plan for startups | Startup Xperts

In many of my conferences, when I ask the audience as to how many prepare business plan for their company, or even how many do set business goals, I do see only a few hands going up. I don’t even need my second hand to count them. Well, you are not new to this; but then let’s understand as to why this does not happen.

First it’s the uncertainty about their business outcome, market dynamics, that clouds their mind; and more often it might look scarier to prepare one.

Second, most may not know exactly how this has to be done.

Let me give some quick pointers as to how anyone of you can create an effective business plan.

  • Start with your company’s introduction
  • Problem definition
    • Highlight the challenges, shortcomings, problems that you wish to address. This could explain the reason for your entity’s existence.
  • Your solution
    • What are the solutions, services you plan to offer/have been offering
    • Products/solutions that will help solve these issues/challenges
    • How will your solution make life easier/better for your customers
  • Who will be your target customersSegment them by
    • region/geography
    • demographics
    • age groups
    • others
  • About your competition
    • Who are your competitors?
    • What are their offerings?
    • What’s their positioning?
    • SWOT analysis of your competitors

This is not a one-time activity; rather your list will keep getting modified as your business grows/progresses.

  • Revenue model
    Most often revenue model seems to draw a blank; like with many online players hinging their revenue models only on advertisements which are a risky proposition.
    • State how you wish to generate revenues?
    • What is the timeframe to achieve those numbers, and from which segment(s)?
      Your revenue forecast is a critical element in your business plan, because your cash flow depends on it. It is better to project 3 different situations;
    • Conservative estimate (sure-shot numbers)
    • Realistic estimate (reasonable visibility/probability, say 80%)
    • Optimistic estimate (aggressive plan, outreach, with riders)
  • Cost structure
    • What’s your cost structure?
    • Your fixed and variable assets
    • Operational expenses
    • Costs that are projected in line with your revenue projections (conservative, realistic, optimistic/aggressive)As highlighted before, this element is important so that you don’t run out of gas in the middle of your journey. It is better to see how long you plan to run your business as per the forecasted revenues, and look for avenues to raise money in advance to run your show. I have seen companies who do not plan their finances effectively and give up at a time when the momentum is picking up well.
  • Timelines and goals
    • Create action plans that is required to meet goals
    • o Need to have timeframe in place as anything that does not get measured, does not get done!

Risk mitigation 

Your plans can look rock solid, and you might have done a good enough groundwork. But still there may be uncertainties when the rubber hits the road. All battle plans may not follow the standard instructions just a few minutes into the battlefield. The marketplace is so dynamic that you will have to keep spotting the business risks, financial risks, operational risks, people risks, etc. and take effective steps to mitigate those risks, counter them from time to time.

The above points are just a bird’s eye view ones, and it will help you to start putting your thoughts into paper (or MS Word/Excel) right away.

This article has not covered the marketing, sales, business development angle as each one is an ocean by itself! Expect to read those in future editions…

Startup Xperts is a management consulting firm with an objective to transform companies into the next level of growth. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their growth. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, HR, Operations and leadership training.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violation, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

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Use Analytics in Digital Marketing | Startup Xperts

From an IT age, it is the age of the customer today. Digital marketing is getting unified. It is no longer inbound Vs outbound; or SEO Vs email campaigns, etc. How well one is able to deliver all of these channels into a common stream, establishes the winner Vs loser, in today’s digital world.

According to eConsultancy, 2014 Real Time Marketing Survey Report, “Customers increasingly expect us to know where they are and what they are doing to deliver a more relevant experience.”

Digital Marketing follows a simple rule;

Plan -> Attract -> Engage -> Win / Retain

Success in marketing depends on how well you are able to create value for your customer’s business. Majority of the CMOs today, do not use quantitative measures. They use qualitative measures that cannot be used for measuring the success of those initiatives. The 2014 CMO Survey states that just 36% of CMOs have quantitatively proven the short-term impact of marketing spending, and for demonstrating long-term impact, that figure drops to 29%. So there is a certain need to look at the numbers in a more objective manner.

As entrepreneurs, CMOs, you will need to justify spend across various ‘buckets’ (or initiatives). Unless and until you are clear as to which bucket is giving you the returns, you may never be able to invest in the ‘right bucket’. So here’s the need that arises for using Analytics in your Digital Marketing activities.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) had declared that data scientist is the sexiest job of the century.

I do come across numerous instances where the CMOs feel proud to have brought large number of hits to their website. Well, increasing traffic to your website is certainly nice. But does that meet your objective? Is getting hits to your website the goal that you wanted to accomplish? Certainly not, as even one page can produce a dozen hits, depending upon how you have designed it.

The initiative has to lead to conversions. Whether you are a product company or services entity, the parameters to measure are going to be different, and you can set goals as to what you wish to achieve as per your business needs. It could be as simple as measuring ‘likes’, to request for information, or download an app or whitepaper, etc.

Web Analytics is all about collecting, measuring, and analyzing data that we obtain from the internet. Every website can start to use Google Analytics and/or any third party tools. If you have not used analytics before, better to try using the free version of Google analytics. You can use Google analytics behavior report that will help you understand the below-

  • Performance of your content
  • What works well and what does not
  • Actions that your visitors take in your website
  • What all pages are most likely to convert your visitors, to leads?
  • Leads to conversions
  • How your keywords perform vis-à-vis your competitors
  • Your visitors demographics, profile, etc.
  • Ability to track specific information from your site like clicking of external links, video or whitepaper downloads
  • Understand what your visitors are interested in, etc.

In all, Google analytics will provide you a lot of data, information that helps you to understand as to how your visitors get engaged with your website.

Analytics helps you to measure and measurement builds the system for accountability. Besides, effective use of digital marketing will also help you earn revenues through your website, through your visitors. There are many companies that use this to drive revenues through their website. You can use Google AdSense, and generate revenues when your visitor clicks the ads that get published through Google AdWords in your website.

Once you understand what your visitors expect from your website, it will be easy for you to chalk out an action plan to engage them more effectively. You will need to communicate your personality through your digital means. This can be done effectively if you know your ‘right audience’. Gone are the days, where you communicate in a manner ‘one-size-fits-all’. Customized communication, personalized messaging is more apt if you have to succeed through digital marketing.

Analytics has far more strategic importance to your business. Once you pick the right data, use analytics to pick the right information, you can derive meaningful insight that can lead to a business decision. These business decisions will play a critical role in taking your digital initiatives forward.

Digital Marketing has the power to shake established businesses. It can break boundaries and barriers. It has the capacity to make traditional businesses obsolete. All this can happen when you are able to relate your objective in the business, with what the market wants. The beauty of digital marketing is that you can, customize, set accountability, execute in a cost effective way, launch and create immense impact in a short period of time.

Analytics is slowly gaining momentum and the challenge that we face today is dearth of good professionals, who knows what data to pick, what information makes sense for your business, and more importantly, one who can think of short and long term strategies in building your business. But till then it will be wise to hire or engage specialists who can use the digital medium effectively, for your business.

So the next time when you discuss with your digital marketing team, speak about goals; discuss about leads and conversions; build strategies for short and long term, and one that delivers results for your business!

Startup Xperts is a management consulting firm with an objective to transform companies into the next level of growth. Our mission is to help companies to steeply accelerate their growth. Be it family run business, small or medium enterprise or a boutique firm, Startup Xperts have all the right answers to step up their growth. Startup Xperts help clients in a range of service areas including business consulting, strategic consulting, sales and marketing consulting, digital marketing, HR, Operations and leadership training.

To know more about Startup Xperts, visit us at www.startupxperts.com or write to us at info@startupxperts.com

The views expressed in this article are that of the author’s and Startup Xperts is not responsible for this content. In case of any objection in content, IP violation, incorrect or inappropriate information, please inform us at ceo@startupxperts.com. We will do our best to act on it at the earliest.

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