Start-ups today rely on ‘maybe’ and ‘I-feel-so’ factors rather on validated data. If you have a ‘great’ product your greatest proof is number of sales. This presentation's objective is to ensure tha you are building your marketing plan in the right direction with the right elements. Would be glad to hear your thoughts out!

1. How start-ups can succeed in their marketing
Part - 1

2. In a survey of 3200 start-up's by
Startup Genome among the startups
that failed
70%
30%
70 % failed
because of
premature
scaling

3. What does that mean?

4. Start-ups scaled earlier than their
market! None of the failed start-ups
crossed 1,00,000 user mark

5. How can your start-up avoid this self-
destruction?

6. The answer lies in having a relevant
and realistic marketing plan!
Plan strong

7. Top 3 mistakes start-ups
make with marketing plans
Assumption Vs Analytics
Copy Vs orginal
Product/service centric Vs
Customer centric

8. Start-ups today rely on ‘maybe’ and ‘I-feel-
so’ factors rather on validated data. If you
have a ‘great’ product your greatest proof is
number of sales.
Assumption Vs. Analytics

9. Optimum features naturally attract the
prospect to try and buy, this is iterative by
people telling people

10. Start-ups are building products/services
that no-one’s going to buy… Sad! But yes
this can change.
Epic
failure

11. Involve the customer in the building
process, here the simple process, get-
up and get-out to where they are!
.
Ask – Survey – Listen, listen, listen

13. Allow people to test, get real
users/consumers not test-groups, track,
analyse and ask them, list down learning

14. Great! Now its time for final build: in short
beta-version launches*
*It also applies to non-product companies

15. Release Beta 1.0
Track user engagement both online
and offline

16. Now its time to think about a
marketing plan…

17. What makes it the optimum time?
1.You really know your customer segments
2.You really know that what you have does click
3.You really know that people are sharing
You have numbers and data to make
plans!!!

18. Next…

19. Get back to basics, by now you know that
customers are buying, its now time for
you to unravel the mystery of
What do our customers really like?

20. That’s pretty important and it gives you
clue to the most important question:
What do customers really value?

21. That question is the starting point of
creating a pricing structure, it’s a question
of “How much do my customers value
this product/service?”

22. Hey I gotcha: You are thinking – “Our
competition has already set the pricing” . The
answer lies in value, customers seek, love and
obsesses brands that offer value, Apple is a
great example.

23. You set the rules of the game!

24. Your product/service = Monetary cost
what customer values (speed, satisfaction,
security, simplicity, scalability, strong, ……)

25. Customer pays for :
Reverse it..
Tangible (Product/service)
Intangible (Happiness, satisfaction/
feeling top-of-the-world,
enthusiasm, joy, delight, security

27. Well you’ve got the whole idea that pricing
is proportional to value, now its time to
ensure that you start to relate your
product to that intangible value and
ensure your customer focuses there…

29. Here’s your value proposition:
Hello customer you pay not only for the
product/service but also for that amazing,
incredible, awesome intangible value that we
offer! We bet you won’t get it anywhere else.

30. Features,
features,
features….
Enough of
feature talk,
show emotional
benefit

31. Great! You know your customer segments,
the value you are offering, the next big
thing is to ensure more people get to know
your awesome story.
Its time to amplify this awesomeness

32. Your customers are at different places, but
do remember they are social, its time to
relate to them. People do smell
manipulative relationships, so its time to get
real and share your story

33. Great stories click
when its heroic,
in our case your
product/service is the
hero, and the problems
that people are facing
are the villains…
Demonstrate how this
hero of yours smacks
the bad-guys and wins
the day for the
customers.

34. Choose right mediums or channels to
reach many others for it to become a large
scale epic

35. There’s no one way to do it!

36. Make it personal!

37. Let experiences of the victors speak for
themselves, feature jubilant victors
remember : true emotions connect!

38. Use Hubs: Websites, landing pages,
sales collateral, social media to share
these stories… Reach out!

39. Campaign for there are many more who
need this product/service saviour of yours!

40. Allow victors to communicate, give
them a voice!

41. Build right channels!!! And yes amidst all
the hula-bulla and chants, don’t ever lose
track of analysing “if it’s the best
channel?”, else someone's bagel might
attract your customers.

42. Build strong links, your product/service is
not perfect, its also vulnerable, its got its
own Achilles heel to deal with, know what
those moments are and be ready to
ensure support and care.

43. Let people know that you love them,
share how they can win better through
constant webinars, seminars and all
possible sweet spots you can think of.

44. People’s greatest need are people, its
great to know we are wired this way, so
build great relationship structures, let them
know you are there for them in their hard
moments (Product failure, bad response…)

45. Live up to your story…

46. All external branding elements – Logo’s, tag-
lines, color-schemes… are pointers to the
real value, they can NEVER substitute what
you can offer to them.
Awesome, now its time for you to start
engaging and building your brand.

47. Fake stories have graves marked.. You
can’t sell false stories, people will HATE
you and will spread the HATE around.

48. BUT great stories are etched in eternity,
generations love these tales,
theyexperience it for themselves and
create that eternal bond that’ll be
passed on and on

49. Here’s a quick recap:
1. Don’t fall for any of the myths
2. Involve the customer in the building process
3. Build – learn – rebuild
4. Know your customer segments well and validate
5. Discover and build on your value proposition
6. Share your story
7. Live up to your story
8. And eventually it’ll become an eternal story

50. Long live your brand!!!!

51. Next in the series | Part - 2
Metrics that matter for your startup marketing & sales
Startups sometimes traverse in the wrong direction its
because they measure the wrong aspects and build on
things that really don’t count in the long run. This can
change with the right aspects measured. What’s gets
rightly measured gets eventually done!
Updates to follow on @kjosephabraham

52. 1. Lean startup
- Eric Ries
2. The four steps to the Epiphany
- Steve Blank
3. Business model generation
- Alexander Osterwalder
4. Running lean
- Ash Maurya
Having seen challenges running and marketing at my
previous start-ups, I sought for wisdom in various
quarters, I stumbled upon these four amazing books
and I highly recommend them:
Inspiration and gratitude:

53. Let’s stay connected
hello@kjosephabraham.in
@kjosephabraham
www.kjosephabraham.in
Image credits : pixabay.com