Startup Marketing and What It Can Do For Your Small Business

Startup companies, more likely than not, launch without being “known”.  Nobody knows who you are, what your new company does, what problem you tend to solve and who your company will cater toward.  The only way that the masses can answer any of these questions is through effective startup marketing.  But many new companies are not utilizing startup marketing strategies to their advantage.  We have laid out the top 5 ways that startups can market their products or services effectively so that clients and customers will come to them and leave happy:

1.      Establish your credibility

First and foremost, an effective startup marketing strategy needs to incorporate the brand’s overall credibility.  When clients and customers view your business as a resource rather than just another startup, they will value your product or service on an even higher level.  The best way to establish credibility through marketing is by sharing content that displays your knowledge, sharpening your copywriting skills, sending out newsletters, sending out tips on social networks and sharing testimonials on your website. 

2.     Create your own unique messaging

Before marketing your startup company, it is important to find the brand’s voice.  Are you going to portray yourself as an edgy, high-tech company?  Are you going to stick to a professional, corporate voice?  Are you going to utilize a laid-back voice with slang and abbreviations?  It is important that startup companies give off their own unique messaging so that the company can develop a personality.  Find your brand’s personality through the voice that you think best fits the company’s image, product and target market.   

3.     Develop a cost-conscious strategy

Most startups don’t have a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to marketing budgets.  In this situation, social media marketing becomes a highly-effective resource.  Social media marketing through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Foursquare, Flickr, YouTube (and more!) provides startup companies with the ability to market their brand online absolutely free. 

Bonus: Check out The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko and find out how Think Big Kansas City effectively marketed its one-day conference with an awesome Twitter strategy.

4.     Mix it up

Some startups can get away with relying solely on social media for their first few months of marketing.  But it is more healthy and beneficial for a startup to mix their marketing avenues so that they hit all potential customers.  Use marketing avenues that will reach your target market—take out a newspaper ad, create a television commercial, broadcast on the radio, get in a magazine, even post up flyers around town.  By creating a healthy balance of social media and traditional marketing strategies, your brand will get noticed by the right people in the right way.

5.     Tell people who you are and what you do

When most established businesses can market their companies without defining who they are or what they do, startup companies must advertise and give the masses information about the business.  When you are marketing a startup company, be sure to broadcast who you are, what you do and why you’re doing it.  Potential clients and customers need to know exactly what you do in order for them to realize that your product or service is exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Startup marketing can be a complicated and tedious process.  But if you incorporate the right effective marketing strategy for your new company, customers and clients will be able to find you easily.

Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig   

The 25-Hour Day: InQuest Marketing Makes it Possible

"Who doesn't want an extra hour in their day?" asks Jody Hanson of InQuest Marketing.

An extra hour can be spent working on a big project, spending time with family, taking a longer lunch or traveling to a different side of the country.  Everybody could use an extra hour in the day, but the people who need 25 hours the most seem to be entrepreneurs.

Which is why InQuest Marketing has decided to host The 25th Hour Entrepreneur Challenge -- a competition in which entrepreneurs throughout Kansas City can submit their ideas with the hopes of winning 25 straight hours of marketing services from InQuest.  InQuest is geared up to provide deliverables such as research marketing, creative design help, business plan development, media strategy, and other marketing aspects to one lucky entrepreneurial winner for 25 hours straight in order to benchmark the company's 25th anniversary. 

"Our core passion has always been helping innovators, entrepreneurs, business owners and true visionaries accomplish their goals," says Jody, PR account executive at InQuest.  "The 25th Hour Entrepreneur Challenge fits right in with that passion and allows us to give back to Kansas City."

The 25th Hour Entrepreneur Challenge is looking for the next big idea -- it could be a product or service that's currently not on the market, an invention that needs tinkering, or a business idea that's always been in the back of your mind.  After submitting the big idea, InQuest will hold a 25-hour work session, at no cost, to one standout winner. 

"We are looking for a well-thought out idea and someone who believes in it," says Jody.  "We want to promote entrepreneurship and help people bring their ideas to life."

To apply for The 25th Hour Entrepreneur Challenge, visit InQuest Marketing online and fill out the application.  Who knows?  Maybe you will get the chance to have a 25-hour work day.

Written by Allison Way
@AllisonThinkBig

The Evolution of the Entrepreneur

What does an entrepreneur endure while starting a business?  Entrepreneurs progress and advance through many different steps and stages when aspiring to open a new venture. Every entrepreneur is different, as are each of their new businesses.  Therefore, everything moves at a slightly different pace. Some companies will take years before the official launch, while others, like technology companies, will take a matter of weeks. With this being said, there are stages that every entrepreneur will undergo. 

It all starts with an idea.  Anybody can have an idea.  An entrepreneur is someone who does something about it.  Oftentimes, entrepreneurs gain inspiration from something that they are passionate about. Other times, ideas seem to materialize when the entrepreneur is not necessarily looking for one. The foundation of a business is started by an idea, no matter how it is attained.  At this stage, the entrepreneur is ecstatic and cannot wait to get their idea into motion. The next steps show the evolution of the entrepreneur as they form their business. 

After brainstorming an idea, an entrepreneur next must evaluate the idea. Is there really a market for this idea? Is this idea worthy and viable? Will this business work? An entrepreneur must identify the opportunity that comes with this innovative thought. He or she must also recognize the future goal and life plan of this business idea. It is helpful to also decide the business model the entrepreneur wants to build on.

Next, the entrepreneur should develop a business plan. The entrepreneur must define what product and/or service they want to offer and how they are going to do so. From simple steps like determining a name for the new business to deciding the location of the company, the entrepreneur should map it all out. Although a complete 80-page business plan is not always necessary, written direction is essential. This can seem tedious and unnecessary to the entrepreneur, but it will be helpful in the long run.

With an idea and plan in mind, an entrepreneur must find resources to pioneer the business. And the most important resource to find is money.  No matter the size of the business, an entrepreneur is going to need capital to start it. Personal savings, family, friends, angel investors, the SBA and venture capitalists are all some options for funding depending on the type of venture and the amount needed. This can be a stressful time for the entrepreneur for many reasons.  Capital can be hard to find and paying it back can be even harder. The entrepreneur also must obtain assets such as building, land, machinery and equipment for whatever the business may be.

The entrepreneur then will use the resources obtained to implement the business plan. There is a lot of work to be done at this point. Marketing the upcoming business is key and social media is the way to go this day and age. Facebook, Twitter and an email account are critical for the soon-to-be business. Whatever the product or service that will be offered from the business must be tested over and over again to make sure there are no flaws. Employees must be hired and trained if necessary.

Once everything is in place, the business is ready to be launched!   Although it is the most exciting phase in an entrepreneur’s life, this time period will be filled with limited hours of sleep. There will be glitches and the entrepreneur will have to quickly respond effectively. If the entrepreneur is working hard, has planned well, and the market is thriving, their new business is likely to succeed.   

In the end, the entrepreneur will have an exit strategy. Defined in the original business plan, the entrepreneur will know when they want to move on to something else. Some choose to make their venture a family business to be passed down for generations, while others want to build it up and sell as fast as they can. At this time, we hope that the entrepreneur is content with their success and the hard work they put into it. 

Written by Genevieve Alander

@GennaThinkBIG. 

How Rush Hour Can Increase Traffic...to Your Site

Admobile’s Technique of Catching You by Surprise at Green, Yellow and Red Lights

We’ve all been there: stuck at that same annoying traffic light that always seems to flash red just before you approach it.  So you wait, look down at your watch, change the radio station, and sigh.  Why do you always hit this red light?  And why does it always take so long to turn green?

But have you ever noticed what you look at when you’re stopped at these red lights?  Do you look at the joggers passing by?  The trees swaying in the distance?  The person idling next to you who (always) ends up looking at you the exact same time that you look at them?

Today, there’s something a bit more exciting to look at when you’re stopped at these red lights:  Admobile trucks.

AdmobileKC, Kansas City’s premier mobile advertising company, operates a growing fleet of dedicated mobile advertising trucks city-wide, delivering powerful exposure for any company’s message.  With clients such as Worlds of Fun, Fox 4 News, Midwest Airlines and Dunkin’ Donuts, Admobile has become the advertising avenue of the new age.



Admobile trucks are seen by over 50,000 people each day!

“What else are you going to do when you’re sitting at a stoplight?” asks Branden Connolly, Vice President of Sales and Operations for AdmobileKC.  “You can’t help but take a look at these moving billboards!”

Apart from running his own Kansas City-based event and sponsorship company, Evenergy, Connolly has been making sales for Admobile for two years, and believes it to be one of the best ways that a company can market themselves.

“The trucks are clean, we drive in high-traffic areas, and the look of the truck stands out next to any other vehicle out on the road,” he says.

Connolly points out that most commuters drive to and from the suburbs, where there is a lack of outdoor advertising (i.e. billboards).  “We’re not trying to replace billboards, we are trying to support advertising,” Connolly says.  “We only use 10-20% of a client’s outdoor budget, so it supports a comprehensive advertising plan.”

The Admobile truck’s twelve revolving ads can be seen in many different Kansas City locations where high-traffic is to be expected.  Keep your eye out for the AdmobileKC truck, especially at hotspots like Corporate Woods, First Fridays locations, Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums, and the KC suburbs.

But it’s not just your local Kansas City businesses that are advertising with Admobile.  Recently, Admobile has been catering to internet-based companies that may be interested in “driving” more traffic to their sites.  This concept has made Admobile the perfect avenue for internet startup advertising.

One thing is for sure, Admobile is no ordinary advertising strategy.  And the fact that Admobile is unique is what drives companies to its services.

“It’s important for new companies and entrepreneurs to Think Big like Admobile,” says Connolly.  “As long as you can deliver and Think Big, you can really push the envelope.”

So the next time you’re on your way home from work, cruising downtown Kansas City, or tailgating with friends at a Chiefs game, pay close attention to your mobile surroundings: you never know when the AdmobileKC truck will grab your attention!

Allison Way is a writer for Think Big Partners, Kansas City’s mentorship-based business incubator and startup accelerator.  To read more of Allison’s work, check out the Kansas City Entrepreneurship Examiner as well as her articles on Helium, Newsvine, BrooWaha and eZine.

The Importance of Exercise on the Entrepreneur's Mind

Written by Allison Way, writer and videographer for Think Big Partners and bizperc, two of Kansas City's newest entrepreneurial resources. 

In a recent study conducted last month, researchers recruited schoolchildren (age nine to ten) to conduct a series of physical and psychological exercises. The children ran on a treadmill to test their fitness and were then asked to complete a series of cognitive challenges which involved watching directional arrows on a computer screen and pushing certain keys in order to test how well the children filtered out unnecessary information. The results? The children who were more fit scored better on the tests.


Dog-n-Jog, which took place last week in KC,
is a great way to keep in shape to encourage
a more creative mind. 



After scanning each of the children’s brains using magnetic resonance imaging technology, the researchers found that the fittest children had a larger basal ganglia (a part of the brain that helps maintain attention and coordinate actions) as well as an enlarged hippocampus (which helps one to focus on complex memory). Together, these two parts of the brain allow some of the most intricate thinking. The researchers concluded that being fit in young people may “enhance neurocognition.”

As a matter of fact, it may not only be young people whose brains are affected by fitness. In a study done in Sweden a year ago, researchers found that 18-year olds who had better fitness also had higher I.Q.’s. The fittest of the fit were then more likely to excel in more lucrative careers. Georg Kuhn, professor at the University of Gothenburg, says that although there is no direct evidence that exercise leads to a higher I.Q., researchers believe that aerobic fitness produces specific growth factors and proteins that stimulate the brain.

So what does this mean to the everyday entrepreneur? This means that exercise can actually improve small business. The more aerobic exercise that a small business owner or entrepreneur may indulge in (especially during childhood), the better off they are setting up their own future. Exercise can stimulate creativity. So whether it’s that next business marketing strategy you’re looking to enhance, or a new logo that you want to tackle, aerobic exercise and physical fitness can actually improve the results of your brainstorming!

For Kansas City business owners, there are tons of ways to stay aerobically fit while still upholding a career in entrepreneurship or becoming an entrepreneur. Even a twenty-minute walk on a lunch break can improve an entrepreneur’s brain functionality. So get out there: take the dog for a late night jog around the Plaza, go swimming at Ocean’s of Fun on the weekend, or commute to work via bike. There are many ways to enhance your physical fitness without sacrificing your work time.