Category Archives: Marketing

Selecting the Niche Market for Your Startup

Selecting the niche market for your startup is key. One aspect of this was addressed in John Gale’s post Target Market for Your Startup

This post describes a complementary process.  So let’s assume that you have chosen your niche market. Here are several additional factors to consider:

  • Perform a detailed analysis of your product. A key component of this analysis is defining the vertical markets that the product will appeal to.
    • Do some research here. There are government databases you can use for the United States and for the EU. Unfortunately other countries outside the British Commonwealth have less complete data.
    • For which functional areas in which vertical markets will use of your product be Mission Critical to their business? Be as precise/specific as possible
  • Make a list of appropriate keywords
  • Use Google to determine how many sites you find when you search for a keyword. By the way, you really need to use the search engine that you care about, presumably Google. Searching with DuckDuckGoGo  will likely yield different results. And most people use Google.
  • Use a site such as Word Tracker or Overture (now owned by Yahoo) to determine how many users are looking for each keyword; thus estimating the interest and competition. The Google Adwords keyword tool is another tool for this task. Wordstream.com, serps.com, semrush.com, keyworddiscovery.com, keywordeye.com and keywordspy.com are somewhat similar tools.
  • So this may be a good niche market for you.
  • Consider using the name of the niche market in a domain name or Website tagline.

A different approach is to look only at your competitive websites’ Develop your Website with strong differentiation and positioning

The traditional advice is to find a niche with numerous customers and few competitors selling to it. With careful positioning and differentiation and intellectual property this is very doable.

 

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Learn the Benefits of Self-Publishing

Some business models for startups create an opportunity for the startup to choose between traditional publishing of various products and to learn the benefits of self-publishing. Self-publishing requires learning new skills and entails some risks; but provides several interesting benefits.  Naturally these vary with the type of published product. Learn the benefits of self-publishing Management…Continue Reading

How to Avoid Self-Publishing Mistakes

Your startup can save money by self-publishing. Mistakes will make you look less professional. So learn how to avoid self-publishing mistakes. How to avoid self-publishing mistakes Learn how You need to learn self-publishing carefully. Develop a plan. It will include up-front expenses. You need to determine if your target market sector will accept self-published products.…Continue Reading

Target Market for Your Startup

The Target Market for your startup is one or more market segments. Your startup markets an offering or product(s) to it. Your target market or target audience for a Website may be a specialized subset of your Target Market for your product. For B2C it is usually defined by social-economic groups age and gender. For…Continue Reading

Pricing for hitech startups

One of the most difficult problems is pricing for hitech startups. Your initial business plan should address pricing. There are “rules of thumb” for pricing for early stage startups. But, do not count on them providing a great solution. After all, you are doing something different. Your success in developing a good pricing strategy will…Continue Reading

Blog strategy for your startup

Know your blog strategy for your startup. You need to know why you are blogging before you start writing Blog Posts. Consider these points in developing your Strategy. Blog Strategy for your startup: Who is your target market? What needs and market pains are relevant to you? What will the blog accomplish? How will you…Continue Reading

How Blogging Helps Startups Grow

You as a startup CEO need to understand how blogging helps startups grow.Blogs have evolved to be a way to engage prospects and customers and help startups to grow their business. Here are the ways how blogging helps startups grow: Describe a new product concept or way of doing business. This can include acquiring customer…Continue Reading

Reasons to send business Christmas cards

Here are compelling reasons to send business Christmas cards (Hanukkah cards, Holiday Cards, New Years Cards). Christmas Cards (Hanukkah cards, Holiday Cards, New Years Cards) are a unique opportunity to reach out to customers and prospects and leave a smile on their face. From a marketing and branding perspective you might want to do this…Continue Reading

No Cost Website Promotion

No cost website promotion can increase your traffic. There are several ways to do this. These include: Reciprocal Links Request reciprocal links from synergistic sites. Small websites are more typically responsive. Be careful as you do this. Avoid scams. Google grades you on who you link to and who links to you. Forums Research in…Continue Reading

Blogging is Free Internet Marketing

Blogging is free Internet marketing.  It is also one of the best Internet marketing methods.  Blog is a term that refers to a web log. Essentially, a blog is a journal hosted on the Internet. A blog can be created at very low cost and then used for business purposes.  Costs for a text blog…Continue Reading

Blog Content Brainstorming

Let’s assume that you have established say three core content focus topics for your blog. Within each focus topic you have several subtopics. So – how to keep your content fresh? You need to brainstorm this periodically. You need to select fresh topics. Know what others are blogging about Look at Blogs with the same…Continue Reading

Be Comfortable With Public Speaking

Public speaking is an important part of being a startup CEO. So you need practice so that you will approach each presentation with confidence. Be Comfortable With Public Speaking You need to get started as a speaker. Just do it!! Toastmasters International is one place to develop knowledge practice and confidence. Go to http://www.toastmasters.org/ and…Continue Reading

Find Joint Venture Partners for Startups

To find joint venture partners for startups is to strongly leverage and accelerate your revenue growth. Joint venture partners can leverage the dealflow and credibility of established corporations and get your offering in front of new markets. Here are a number of groups of places to look for joint venture partners for startups: Established corporations…Continue Reading

How to Choose Strong Color for a Website

Why is strong color for a website important? Many organizations leave this decision in the hands of the web designers. They show you some samples and you will have to pick one from them. But this concept doesn’t work now. Your website is going to be visited by people all over the world. It will…Continue Reading

How to choose the correct uniform for Employees

How to choose the correct uniform for Employees, when your business needs uniformed employees, can be a complex decision. You have to take into account a range of factors. Also, changing the selected uniform will be costly, inconvenient and may confuse your branding. So, you would prefer to select the correct uniform the first time.…Continue Reading

Focus Group Research Issues

There are Focus Group Research Issues. Focus Groups are a tool used in the past, present and likely, the future by the market research industry. They are basically organized by marketing companies in order to research what kind of an effect a certain product has on the market, how people react to it, whether they…Continue Reading

Intent-Rich Moments Are Critical

Appropriate informed actions during (prospect) intent-rich moments are critical to achieving a close.  This is important during online desktop; online mobile and offline sales activities for both B2B and B2C prospects. Richard Saling calls these “Want-to-know moments. Want-to-go moments. Want-to-do moments. Want-to-buy moments.”  in an article at tipsandtricks-hq.com. To explore this from a mobile B2C…Continue Reading

Competitive Differentiation

“Real” competitive differentiation is very important to prevent other companies from taking over your market and also to attract investors.  Intellectual property is usually the best and longest lasting type of differentiation.   Strong patents are excellent.  But, some types of patents are less powerful. Types of Competitive Differentiation Other types of competitive differentiation can be: Business Relationships…Continue Reading

Investor Presentation Development – Competition

  Investor Presentation Development – Competition This section/slide of your investor presentation should address: Who are the competitors? There is ALWAYS competition in the eyes of a prospect. Even if the potential customer is doing nothing, the Company must overcome the customer’s inertia and current allocation of money to unrelated products and services. What do…Continue Reading

Investor Presentation – Market Pain and Solution

For an Investor Presentation – Market Pain and Solution are must-have key success factors.  Without believing in them the potential investor will not believe in the startup. Investor Presentation – Market Pain and Solution This section/slide should address: What market pain (problem) is addressed? Why is a solution needed? To what sector(s); and to which…Continue Reading

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