By now you’ve heard us use the term MVP (Minimally Viable Product) many times. A few weeks ago, we did a talk about avoiding startup failure with SCORE, the small business mentoring group of retired executives. One question we were asked at the end – “Would you agree that it’s better to just have a Facebook page than a bad website?” We gave a most emphatic – “No!” So let’s talk about what is the Minimally Viable Marketing you need.
A big challenge for startups is finding legitimacy. When you are a new or young company, potential customers worry that you won’t be around later when they might need you. So you have to show them that you are a credible entity. How do you establish credibility? By having a website and not just a Facebook page. Even if your revenue model is 100% sales on Facebook, you still want a website because some people will check to see if you have one.
Today, it’s pretty easy to have a basic, well-designed website. There are at least four services that offer relatively turnkey websites – they have templates and you can add your own words and images: Squarespace, Shopify, Wix and Go Daddy. Anyone of these platforms will host your website securely for $200 to $300 per year. There are other free alternatives as well. But then you have to find a website hosting service.
And you don’t need to have a whole bunch of pages. You need a homepage with your brand’s story and contact information to get started. But many startups also want to start with inbound marketing. Inbound marketing seeks to attract people who are already looking online for your product solution through blogs, search engines, and social media. They find your online content interesting and come to your website. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, relies on traditional media advertisements to help potential customers recognize that they have the problem that your solution addresses. The logic for starting with inbound marketing is strong. It’s typically less expensive in terms of actual dollars because the focus is on getting in front of people who are already online searching for a product. Then a startup can offer a variety of content mostly through the website to attract, engage, and close sales. This approach takes time and effort more than budget, but it requires a few basics to be successful.
Once you have a website, it is the hub of your other inbound marketing activities. In order to be effective at inbound marketing, you are also going to need a blog, some type of subscriber form on the website, and some social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are good at the start. You can add other social media channels after you figure out where your target audience gets their information. All of these activities are free – their cost is your time. And, you can start slow and build up your activity over time. Write one blog post per week and then promote it on your social media channels. As you get your inbound marketing going, you can add customer testimonials and other content that you think will help showcase your brand’s value proposition. Not sure what to write about in your first blogpost? Google “Ideas for blogposts” and you will find at least a dozen other blogposts that have a bunch of ideas for you.
And that’s your Minimally Viable Marketing. Now stop reading this blog and go write your own blogpost!