By Jacob Bourret,
We search, read, and study everything on marketing our products to only find out that it is, if at all, barely working. Unless we pay thousands of dollars on advertising we’re most likely not benefiting from our current marketing strategy. However, every start-up wants to grow up to be a big business, but struggles to grow because we can’t afford the big business lifestyle. So how do we get to big business revenue and growth as a start-up?
Most of us have blog, social media, word-of-mouth, etc. strategies that we spend hours and hours on daily, but they work to no avail. Firstly, I’d suggest using trial by fire, although if you don’t have the time or don’t want to spend the time doing this then there are plenty of others whom have already done this kind of trial and error work for you. So instead, let’s take a look at their advice. So back to our original question: how do we get to big business revenue and growth as a start-up? Our new “Marketing Strategy” will be called “Building Customers Strategy”. A lot of people think that marketing your product through mediums will grow your business, in a way, this is true, and in a way, this is false. As a start-up, this is semi-false.
Let me tell you what’s worked for me, Tim Ferris, Kauffman’s Marion Laboratory’s Jim McGraw, Bob Rogers, and Michie Slaughter, Paul Weber and many more. Our Building Customers Strategy requires just as much, if not more, time and dedication as our previous strategies, but will pay off thousands of times more. This strategy also requires something you may be quite uncomfortable with – opening up. To build strong, loyal customers that will in turn do the marketing of your products for you requires opening up to them and becoming something very important to them. We can do this by, treating them as we would like to be treated, being their friend, not just their provider of services/products, and like any friendly relationship we listen to their inputs. Loyal customers buy from whom they know and whom they trust. So if we build our business by the values we hold true to our lives and we demonstrate those values on a daily basis to our customers, then we can build strong, lifelong bonds with our customers. We can build a business that sells itself through our personality traits and values rather than the products or services we offer. Though products and services are very important to the business, they aren’t our selling point at first. Our selling point now as a start-up is us and our values. With “100 true fans” (though the linked article says 1000 true fans, I believe a business only truly needs 100 true fans) built on strong relationships we are able to accumulate exponential growth and the marketing and advertising create itself. A book in which I suggest for follow up information and just a great story is – Prescription for Success: The Life and Values of Ewing Marion Kauffman
