Who has launched a startup often has the problem that outside of the circle of friends of the founder only two institutions know at all, that one exists: so how do you sprinkle the first known sed, if you have not more than a few seed capital euros and good ideas? We show it – strictly focused on the lowest budget.
Google My Business
If you are looking for something that might be in your environment today, you will do so using Google, more specifically Google Maps. And if someone in the vicinity of the startup location is looking for something from their portfolio, their own company has to plop up immediately. This does not require expensive ads on the search engine, but Google has a free feature called My Business. Create account, enter company, first step done.
Social media
It goes without saying that a good founder should already have privately maintained accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkeIn, Xing and Co. But the fact is too, nothing gives a charge or fees as low as social media. Ergo: The company needs a separate page on the platforms. And then you invite every single person you know privately to like the site! And you post a welcome message with photo, presentation and the company key data.
Give it away
Why does every local branch of a party still hand in coolies, lighters, balloons and Co. before elections to the population? Quite simply, because they know exactly that small useful gifts bring a party, a candidate (or even a company) on the pleasant tour in memory. Especially for a startup, this is vital, because there are no other experiences of the target group with the company – neither positive nor negative. This means getting a load of meaningful, fancy gadgets, printing company data and distributing them. Whether in the shopping arcade or the pedestrian zone is the same. The important thing is that many strangers, who are eligible as customers, get something useful for free.
Trade fair
There is no category of companies where no startups could be found. This is true not only in the digital domain, but everywhere. And especially if you also want to or especially in the B2B area, the participation in fairs is mandatory. Because they are available for every imaginable sector. Renting a small stand space, short-circuiting with a booth builder and then presenting yourself there and making contacts – also helps to put your own competition under the microscope.
Guerilla marketing
This point works best if you have focused firmly on the B2C area and it is particularly worthwhile if you also have a store. And it’s even cheaper than the gadget thing. Guerrilla stickers. Say, pave business card-sized stickers with company logo and website address in the vicinity of everything that is supposedly seen. But there are a few rules:
Do not take weather-resistant stickers, but those that self-dissolve after a short time
No labels on private property, otherwise you get into trouble quickly
Only stick alone and do not include others (incitement and such …)
No traffic signs or similar important things over-stick
Because: Strictly speaking, stickers are located somewhere between absolute impunity and a small fine depending on the city and “crime”. An administrative offense. Into the waters of property damage (“Likewise is punished, who unauthorized the appearance of a strange thing not only insignificant and not only temporarily changed”) one comes only if one does not stick with brains and / or takes really big stickers.
Unique content
How Google ranks is one of the planet’s best kept secrets. But it is well-known that the search engine rewards those who regularly expand their website with meaningful content. What that is, is left to the orientation of the startup. It can be a blog where the reader gets useful (not promotional!) Info.
Maybe also YouTube videos, how-tos. The important thing is that all has hands and feet. The keyword orgies of previous years, when you had to put the same word in the text a hundred times, are over and punished. And if something new is posted on the site, a link to the company’s social profiles is of course mandatory.
Press release
The press has a hard time, the regional press the hardest. Applies both on and offline. And the more rural the region, the worse the situation, because there is rarely anything worth reporting. Very good, because even before you start your business really, you report to said local newspaper with a press release – the writing is not rocket science and you can almost be sure to make it so for free in the notoriously message-poor newspaper, where an ad right Money costs.
The only sticking point: The press text is if it is written to advertise, probably edited – but this is indeed only about the first announcement. Tip: Well-teased draw the thing so that there is a regular thing out of it. For example, a guide column dealing with topics from the company’s own portfolio.