I’m calling it.
You can call me out on this if i’m wrong.
But you know it’s true.
It’s because you’re too busy chasing that sweet sweet VC money and not spending enough time promoting your startup and the problems it aims to fix.
I know you’re working on the product. You’re actively building on the daily. And knocking off items from the to-do list.
You’re also investing in perks. Foosball tables, staff massages and soft drinks on tap.
But you know what you’re not doing? SEO. Email Marketing. PPC. Social Media Marketing.
You’re interested in pitch contests and attending hackathons and going to conferences to learn about the next big thing and rub shoulders with potential investors.
But again, there’s no digital marketing of any sort.
And this is why your startup is already dead.
You didn’t invest in building awareness, creating interest and actually lining up strong potential customers.
But ask yourself…
Did you setup a responsive landing page that wasn’t just a glorified ‘coming soon’ page?
Did you give visitors a chance to sign up for email announcements on progress, beta access and potential early adopter discounts?
Did you setup a content area (like a blog) to publish news and information about the many great features of your product and how you plan to change the world?
Did you setup social media profiles and start getting in on existing conversations to better understand the market?
NO.
You’ve done none of the above.
And yet you’re focused on getting more beanbags, breakout spaces and wondering when the next company paintball session will be.
You may be many months away from launch. But setting up a website with an email sign up form along with lots of content around what you will be bringing to the table, is the easiest way to grow and launch your startup into oblivion, on the cheap.
Why wait for VC money? Why not line up paying customers from day 0? Why delay becoming profitable?
Want to live the bootstrap life? This is as bootstrap as it gets. Less than $100 gets you a domain, hosting, wordpress theme, email, social media profiles and even a little budget for PPC. In less than 1 hour.
If that isn’t worth your time and financial investment, it may be time to reassess your priorities.
Otherwise, you’ve just signed your startups death certificate.
ps. building a poor quality product/service is just as detrimental as building something without adequate promotion. You know it makes sense.
pps. I specialise in SEO for Startups so I know how to build yourself an audience, get top rankings in Google and set yourself to make money a whole lot sooner.
