Shekhar thought he was dreaming.
He was sitting among the front rows of the business award giving ceremony of CNBC. Or was it ET Now? He expected to get the award in the ‘Most Promising Start-up’ category. His company got a nomination.
Now sitting among other well dressed, charged and happy businesspersons, he was thinking to rake it all. Well he deserved it, didn’t he? After all, his business concept is outstanding, he has a great product which aims at disrupting the market.
The announcements began. Category after category, winners were being called to the stage to receive their awards. Shekhar was waiting…his hand to his mouth.
The evening came to an end. Nobody called Shekhar to receive an award.
Was he dreaming after all?
Shekhar graduated with an engineering degree and worked for 2 years at an automobile factory in Chennai. Then he left and decided to begin a start-up company.
Shekhar formed a great team and quickly put together all the blocks in place to create an internet based business. His team consisted of web and app developers, UX and UI specialists, content creators and subject matter experts.
Six months into it, and he already created the prototype of his product. He told me, among other friends of his, to try it and give an opinion.
This was an application for schoolchildren’s parents who would find great value and be able to eliminate the pain out of parenting to a great extent. The feedback he received was excellent.
Thus encouraged, Shekhar proceeded to complete the project, launch the website, launch the app.
He also advertised in social media and sent emails to a lot of schools. Naturally, he was expecting a good response.
But surprisingly, nothing happened!
He had a subscription model to earn revenue. Hardly got any subscriber!
He placed some more advertisements and sent more emails, reminders too.
Still, no result.
He was at his wit’s end. He could not understand why such an awesome idea was not being appreciated, let alone get subscribers!
Confused and frustrated, Shekhar told me to look at his marketing and suggest ways.
When I looked deeper into his business, I found out that he never thought about marketing his product at all. He just thought that an awesome business idea would automatically be an instant hit!
Well, he was definitely in love with his product!
Now, this is a problem with many such start-ups. In the hustle and the excitement of creating and implementing a business idea, the aspect of marketing the idea is often overlooked.
They just assume that an awesome idea will automatically create buzz, get customers, fans and revenue.
Sadly, it does not work out that way. Even if you come up with something revolutionary as an iPod or iPhone, you still got to market it.
So where do you start marketing?
At the beginning, for sure.
Your story, your product’s message, the idea behind it, the value it offers, the emotional connect with the viewer.
Decide on your story. Your story should be your story and not a copy paste job.
Then you start creating a brand around your story, the message. Streamline the message for a consistent, uniform communication package for different media.
It is important to start with a deep insight of data, and then work with the creatives and the media.
If you have got it right, you have done a great job!
Now, look at the media mix through which you will communicate your message. Newspapers, magazines, TV, and the web (website and social media). Start to build a complete eco-system. Take a holistic approach.
By the way, if you need any help along the way, just contact me here.