AdSilly

By this point most everyone seems to be repeating the same general concept, that “content is key”.  While that’s totally true, it doesn’t do much good if the content isn’t being aggregated beyond your current circle of influence.

Every company & startup I’ve worked with created content – video, blogs, whitepapers, social networks, etc.  But in my experience, marketing a startup with little to no budget is entirely dependent on good old fashioned networking-

1. See who’s already socially influential on related topics (I know you said you don’t know bloggers – try tools like Kred or Klout to see who’s influential on social networks instead! But nothing beats personal research).
2. Find out which of them has an engaged audience that responds when they speak.
3. Then, reach out. Share their relevant social content, participate on their blogs, etc.  In other words, get the big players to know who you are (even if you don’t know them yet), then give them something worth sharing and talk to them about it. Letting themspread the word is a lot more cost-effective than trying to promote your own content to a large number of (probably less engaged) viewers.
4. Specific Blogs/places to reach out:

• http://www.killerstartups.com/st…
• Twitter curators like @startuped
• More importantly, though, industry specific sites – in your case you’d be looking for more niche sites that try & find new and unique web pages.  Posting an unofficial press release on some LinkedIn groups has proven successful for me.
• Go manual – you’re obviously already here on Quora, but check out related forums too, it’s a quick way to meet bloggers.  Throw in a few Squidoo lenses, too,  about…eh, say, ‘learning from mistakes’ or the like, that link to your site as well as have useful info.
• Kickstarter or IndieGoGo:  You may have already considered this, but with a good campaign these sites can actually work really well for startups – with the added benefit of raising capital.

Getting Facebook fans to your website (and then hopefully onto your email list) is even more critical with Facebook’s recent announcement of decreased organic reach. Here are some strategies I’ve apply to increase 31% traffic to my website last month. Hope that help!

#1 – Use a Short Quote From Your Blog – Give your Fans a taste of your blog post. Include an intriguing quote from your article. Quotes in general are some of the some of the most shared content on Faceboo. If a Fan shares your update, they’re more likely to have clicked through to your site, too. Find a quote in your article that’s concise and gives a flavour of its contents. You can even make it more personalized, by including a photo of the person or writer making the quote.

#2 – Share Lifestyle or How-To Blog Articles – Generally speaking, your Fans on Facebook don’t just want your product or service. They want you to enhance their life, and their sense of community on Facebook. Let’s face it, Facebook is a place where people go to catch up with their friends. As a business, you need to be posting tips to enrich the lives of your market too. When you write a lifestyle or how-to blog article, share it on your Facebook Page.

#3 – Host Contests on Your Blog – Generate traffic to your blog by publishing interactive content, like contests. Then promote your contest by posting it on your Facebook Page. Your Fans want to engage with you, and many businesses cater to this by hosting Facebook contests. I personally like the Woobox contest application. It’s easy to use and has awesome metrics. In addition to hosting contests and sweepstakes on your Facebook page, make sure you host contests on your blog, too. Also remember to make your contests more shareable to posting about it on Facebook. Selfie contest have been a huge success recently. It’s no secret that social media users love selfies (those are photos you take of yourself for all you old-school, Don Draper-types). It’s something that users are doing everyday whether or not you’re using it to your business’s advantage. So, why not expand your page’s reach and engagement while also creating some free advertising for your brand?

# 4- Make a ‘Weekly Wrap Up’: – Every Friday, make a blog post compiling your best articles of the week. Share it on Facebook. This gives your Fans a chance to see your blog articles at a glance. It’s also a great way to get more click throughs, as you’re offering your Fans article options. When you post a “Weekly Wrap Up”, make a lookbook of your article images. This creates a very pretty and enticing update to your Facebook Fans.

#5 – Embed Short Blog Video – Get creative with your blog images. Make a Instagram video to show your readers the essence of your blog article. Then embed the video on your Facebook Page. By embedding the video, your Fans can get a taste of what your article is about without leaving the site. If your video is enticing enough, your Fans will engage with your post, and click through to your blog article.

“There are only two things in a business that make money – innovation and marketing, everything else is cost.”

—Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker was many things. Fool, not.

Part I

Marketing is not optional

Marketing is an essential tool for the success of all business and nonprofit activity. What matters is not what you do; what matters is that you communicate what you do so that others will take interest in it, buy it, support it, join it, and tell friends about it. In some nonprofit quarters, marketing was once thought of as a dirty word, associated with used car salesmen and sleazy tactics; However, you are being remiss in your duties to your cause if you do not market it.

What you should NOT be doing is NOT doing marketing.

Your mission is only as successful as far as it can spread and have an impact. If you are indeed working to make the world better, you need to be actively marketing what you do. If you don’t know where to begin with this, then you should probably reach out to AdSilly, and we can help guide you through this process. If you have spent a lot of marketing money in the past to insufficient effect, ditto.

What you should NOT be doing is NOT doing it.

There are many strategies for marketing, and there are many means to execute a marketing campaign. It can be expensive or not, effective or not. And price and effectiveness are not necessarily inextricably connected.

The point is that you have no excuse not to be doing marketing well.

None.
Nope.
None.
Now get to it.

Part II

Effective marketing and the alternative

Let’s go back to management thinker Peter Drucker for a second. He wrote an important little book that posits an organizational self-evaluation consisting of 5 questions: The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization. Here they are in case you don’t have time to read it:

1. What is our mission?
2. Who is our customer?
3. What does the customer value?
4. What are our results?
5. What is our plan?

The answers to all of these, but critically #2 and #3, are crucial to devising an effective marketing program for your products and services. They are also at the heart of what our Discovery Process is designed to help you clarify. Without them, your marketing dollars will likely be spent on tactical experimentation. Tactical experiments can work, but they are not the smartest use of a limited pool of marketing money. They are, in fact, much better when conducted in the context of a strong strategic hypothesis about who your core consumer really is and what he or she REALLY values, and exactly how your offer meets them there.

Find out who your core consumer really is and what he or she REALLY values, and exactly how your offer meets them there.

You owe it to the future of your business, your nonprofit, your museum, your zoo, yourself to take the time to honestly answer Drucker’s questions. If you want help so that you can use your precious marketing money more effectively, and if you don’t want to spend forever sorting this out, then I will take the liberty of repeating myself—maybe it’s time you to reach out to AdSilly, so we can help you with your tactical marketing.

1. Don’t Talk While She Drives.

   

2. Jeep.

   

3. It’s Sugar Free.

   

4. Hot Ketchup.

   

5. Every leaf traps CO2.

   

6. We transform the energy.

   

7. Save water. Save life.

   

8. love free Wi-Fi.

   

9. Turn on your adventure.

   

10. Words kill wars.

    

11. Precision parking.

    

12. Don’t drink and Drive.

    

13. More pull.

    

14. Before it’s too late.

    

15. Watch for cars, when wearing headphones.

    

16. Sensodyne Protects.

    

17. Toyo – Gripping performance.

    

18. Nivea – Night

    

19. Band-aid

    

20. Think about what you could save when you save water.