Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2013

It’s not uncommon for me to see a startup business plan “mission” to be the “premier brand” for their product, yet their marketing budget in the financials is trivial. This combination will almost certainly get your plan tossed by potential investors, who understand all too well the need and cost for marketing in today’s environment.

Marketing 106

Marketing Startup Social Media SEM 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 11, 2013

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before.

Marketing 99

Marketing Entrepreneur Startup SEM 99

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2015

Any reader of this blog for a period of time will know that I’ve been long YouTube for years. The point isn’t to “build a business on YouTube” but rather to use YouTube as a marketing platform to build a video business that works across many platforms. But you don’t need to spend money on SEM.

SEM 150

SEM Content Platform Acquisition 150

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Probably every one of you who has a business and a website have been approached through email or personal contact, and asked to spend money on Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Search engine marketing is simply buying advertising for your business from Google or another search engine company. Popular keywords have higher costs.

SEM 90

SEM Marketing Startup Search Engine Optimization 90

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 13, 2012

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a few years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before.

Marketing 95

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 95

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2015

Social media is now one of the key marketing tools, but not the only one, so the challenge is to manage the resource tradeoffs effectively by constantly assessing payback versus cost. Add a blog to give yourself a voice, show your expertise, but skip the sales pitch. Manage your expectations, and analyze every marketing channel.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Startup Tips 108

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2010

It’s not uncommon for me to see a startup business plan “mission” to be the “premier brand” for their product, yet their marketing budget in the financials is trivial. This combination will almost certainly get your plan tossed by potential investors, who understand all too well the need and cost for marketing in today’s environment.

Marketing 94

Marketing Startup Social Media SEM 94

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2011

Every time I challenge a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth.

Marketing 90

Marketing Startup SEM Blogging 90

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2010

Every time I see a business plan with little or no budget for marketing, I get the answer that they will be using “viral” marketing, which costs nothing. First of all, Seth Godin pointed out a couple of years ago that viral marketing does not equal word-of-mouth. People are more demanding and have more choices than ever before.

Marketing 56

Marketing SEM Blogging Design 56

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 4, 2011

How many through SEM? per click on an SEM basis this is NOT your cost to acquire a customer – you need to add conversion rate. How many social networks, picture sharing sites, new aggregators or blogs can we really spend time on? If you can break this down by channel that you’ve acquired them from this is obviously better.

Metrics 346

Metrics Startup SEO Customer 346

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2013

There are many additional variables that the inexperienced marketer may not even think to consider: competition and positioning strategies, budgeting, match types, search and content syndication, and ad copy testing, as well developing the best ad wording and layouts. Campaign setup and ad copy writing.

Paid Search 90

Paid Search PPC Organization SEO 90