Andreas Bruckschlögl, Co-Founder of Onpage.org and Bits & Pretzels, tells us the best marketing tips for founders and startups.
#1 Know your target audience
Advertisers like Facebook or LinkedIn are known to allow for very detailed targeting. Therefore, carefully consider who you really want to reach with paid ads (and who you don't want to reach) to avoid wasted coverage. Even if the target audience seems very small and you don't achieve huge reach, it can still be quite lucrative.
#2 Use your existing fans
Keyword retargeting: Even if the target audience seems rather small, especially at the beginning, connecting with existing fans, customers, etc. is usually significantly more cost-effective and successful in the end. Possible formats: Users who have visited your website but haven't yet purchased. Keep email contacts up-to-date with "friendly reminders" and ideally lead to conversion.
#3 Don't follow every trend
Instagram, Periscope, Snapchat, and ideally an app? Just because something's trending doesn't mean you have to jump on it. Time and staff are notoriously scarce at startups, so it's better to carefully consider which channels make sense for your company's purpose and utilize them optimally.
#4 You don't always need a huge budget
A combination of the above points. With a clearly defined target group and manageable channels, you can achieve a lot even with a small marketing budget. It doesn't have to be a $100,000 branding video from the hottest agency to reach a million people right from the start. It's also very helpful to think about good storytelling and implement it consistently.
#5 Track, analyze and optimize
Don't be afraid of numbers and make every marketing campaign as measurable as possible. Otherwise, you always run the risk of wasting a lot of money pointlessly. Simple URL tracking with Google Analytics, for example, is quick and easy to do, and the basics are easy to learn. Social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter offer a good system for measuring the success or failure of a campaign anyway.
Be sure to dig deeper than just looking at clicks or sales. For example, what devices do my customers use? Is Android cheaper than iOS? Are my customers more likely to be from the city or the countryside? What time of day are they most active? And so on.
#6 Test, test, test
If your first campaign with the first ad is a hit and you're smashing sales—congratulations! Normally, however, this isn't realistic. It takes some patience and creativity to test multiple shades of text, images, videos, or designs to find out what works for your company and what doesn't.
About the author
Andreas Bruckschlögl, co-founder of Onpage.org and Bits & Pretzels, discovered his entrepreneurial ambition at a very early age. At just 12 years old, he was selling products from his parents' company on eBay. He holds an online marketing degree from the BAW (Federal University of Applied Sciences) and shares with Munich Startup the best marketing tips he can offer founders based on his own many years of experience.
More topics that startup founders should definitely know can be found again this year at Bits & Pretzels.
