Note from Cody: This is a guest article from my colleague - WPcurve co-founder Dan Norris. After watching Dan quickly validate several different business ideas in recent years, with varying success or failure, he and his cofounder made their latest venture hugely profitable in a short 23 days. This post discusses some of the marketing takeaways he learned along the way, which he shares in his new book The 7 Day Startup.
With that, here’s Dan:
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There are literally thousands of ways to market a business. I’ve tried a good percentage of them and all but one has failed for me. Lucky for me, the one that didn’t, worked extremely well.
Other entrepreneurs I talk to have similar stories. They have tried a bunch of options but they have managed to find one that, for whatever reason, is the right fit for their product, their audience, and their unique style.
In my case with my WordPress support business WP Curve, it was using transparent content marketing, building a community, and gathering momentum through word of mouth. It took us from scratch to $300,000 in annual recurring revenue in 12 months.
As you will see in the examples I run through in this post, it’s different for everyone. But the commonality is that the entrepreneur was able to land on something that worked for them. And it worked exceedingly well.
In this post I’ll run through 10 proven ways to market a business with examples. It’s my hope that you can get some ideas to test on your own business and find your own sweet spot.
This content is taken from my free book, The 7 Day Startup.
1. Create content on your site
Most of our early customers came as a result of our content marketing efforts. This was no overnight success for me but there are cases where people have found a good fit with content, very quickly.
Liam from Trak.io is one such example, who was able to use a savvy content marketing strategy to sign up 217 paid customers in the first few months of launching.
Liam researched some rising trends, and realised that at the time, “Growth Hacking” was a popular term. He looked at what was out there and saw that most of the content was discussing what the job role meant. There wasn’t a whole lot of actionable posts that startup founders and marketers could lift from the page and into their business.
Liam jumped on this opportunity and published a few very detailed blog posts on the topic. He gained around 2,500 free signups through this tactic after a few posts did particularly well.
Liam’s business is now growing organically but this was just the boost he needed. It enabled him to get enough early customers to start building a great product with direct customer feedback.
My story wasn’t quite as exciting. I wrote 300 blog posts over about 5 years before I had a single piece of content with more than 10 tweets! However when I finally ‘got it’, it brought immesurable value to our business.
I love content marketing because it’s cheap (in the short term), it’s fun, and it helps other people. That’s a lot of good reasons to consider using content in your business.
Here are a few quick notes from my own experience. The number 1 reason content marketing or blogging fails is because it’s shit content. Once you really understand how to make great content, it will start falling into place.
Create in-depth content based around customer problems that your business solves.
Don’t be afraid to go broader than just your topic area for your business. If it’s interesting to your audience and the people they hang out with then you are good to go.
Make content as actionable and useful to your target audience as possible.
It can’t be the same boring shit that everyone else is writing about. It’s simply not worth hitting publish on a post if it’s not adding something legitimate to the conversation.
Optimize your site for email opt-in so you can get people back to your site by sending emails.
Don’t worry about SEO other than the basic on-page stuff, and instead focus on creating great content.
Try a bunch of content mediums and look for where you get traction (on-site written content, infographics, videos, podcasts, ebooks, or whitepapers etc).
When you get traction, analyze what worked and do more of it. Check out BuzzSumo.com if you are really stuck for ideas.
2. Start sending emails
Your audience or your email list will become one of the most valuable assets in your business. A list of people who trust you, that you can contact exclusively whenever you like, is a gold mine. It can take time to build up a decent list, but the best thing you can do is start as early as possible.
Our email list is up to around 10,000 people. Here are the top ways we have gone about building the list:
Adding people I knew early on. Well known tech blogger Andrew Chen did the same thing. He started writing emails to his friends at first. This got him in the habit of sending the emails and before long he had a decent list to talk to.
Set up landing pages that you can point people to. If you are planning on launching anything new, use a landing page to capture emails. If you do anything off site (like on slideshare or similar), point it back to a landing page on your site to capture emails.
Make sure you are sending out a lot of high quality, relevant information on your emails. Don’t oversell.
Give away something relevant and valuable to people to get them onto the list. We have had good results with free software, plugins, templates, ebooks, and training courses.
Create great content on your site and provide giveaways (lead magnets) that are related to that content. For example we give away a conversion review template on any of our content that talks about conversions. If the opt-in bribe is more relevant to the content, the conversions will skyrocket.
Keep all of your emails personal and encourage people to reply to the emails. This can be a great way to learn what customers want and gain lightning fast feedback on your business ideas. I can’t tell you how many people are active word-of-mouth referrers for WP Curve but aren’t customers. They just want to support us!
The easiest way to get started with email marketing is signing up for a free account on MailChimp.com. I used MailChimp for years before migrating to Infusionsoft.com for some more advanced features.
3. Podcast networking
When I sold my last agency, I went on a mission to create as much content as I could. One of the best things I did was start a podcast. Not so much for the immediate lead generation, but more for the ongoing networking opportunities.
My podcast, Startup Chat is only moderately popular. But it has been the easiest way I can imagine to network with some amazing entrepreneurs.
We’ve built real relationships with influencers in our space including Neil Patel, Sean Ellis, Noah Kagan, and Dan Andrews.
Everyone I know who has started a podcast lists the networking as the number 1 benefit. If you are like me and you don’t love the idea of calling an influencer just to talk, then a podcast interview is an awesome alternative. You are helping them by creating a bunch of free content for them and spreading their message, so you don’t feel bad asking for the interview.
Some other benefits of podcasting:
It’s quite easy to do. Not everyone can write, but most people can talk.
When people hear your voice it’s a great trust builder.
It opens you up to entire new marketing channels like iTunes and Stitcher Radio.
It allows you to have 1-on-1 time with people in entirely new situations (when they are driving, at the gym etc).
It gives you great authority in your field. A lot of people have a blog, but podcasting is still fairly new. I think people think it’s difficult, and you have to have a studio to do it, but that’s not the case. Most podcasters I know, even the ones with 7-figure businesses, are doing their podcast from home.
If you are interested in getting started with podcasting, you can check out my beginners’ guide here.
4. Forums and online groups
Online forums or social media groups can be a great place to build networks and find customers.
When Damian Thompson wanted to launch his new business Linchpin.net, he started with a private forum of entrepreneurs called the Dynamite Circle. Damian was a trusted member of the group, having been one of the original members. When he posted an offer, a number of people took him up on it straight away.
Damian signed up his first 4 monthly customers for his marketing automation service. This gave him a monthly revenue of $3,000 / month which was enough to make his first hire. And guess where that staff member came from? Yep, from the forum too!
Forums have a certain level of trust built in, so a lot of the hard work is done if you are already a valued member. I signed up my first customer for WP Curve in the same forum, and Damian was that customer!
Social media groups can offer similar results. Helena Denley started a business called DIY Website Coach in May 2013. She joined an online business group (Marie Forleo’s B School) and became an active member in Marie’s B Schoolers Facebook group.
Helena started logging in to the group regularly and responding to people’s questions about WordPress. Before long, she had a bunch of requests for website reviews, one-on-one training, and new design projects.
One of the benefits of groups like these is they are paid groups, which pre-qualifies the members. The fact that they are willing and able to pay, makes them far more likely to pay Damian and Helena.
5. Guest blogging
When Terry Lin worked in finance, there were a few niche gossip blogs that folks in the industry would follow. Not the big players like Forbes, Wall Street Journal etc, but smaller ones with content revolving around bonuses, employment, and a lifestyle relevant to the banker in major cities – NYC, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
When Terry left the industry to start his men’s accessories business ballerleather.com, he approached the editor of one of these blogs for a guest post. He planned on sharing his story of starting a business and the lessons he’s learned since leaving the industry. It was a unique angle and the content was different than most of the usual topics. From initial outreach to the post going live, it was all said and done within a week.
The article was only a short 600 word piece, but highly relevant to folks in the finance industry. Terry’s bio at the bottom included a link to his business, and by the end of the day he had made $700 USD in sales.
The key for Terry was just being honest and upfront, while constructing a genuinely real and interesting post to share with his audience. The other crucial factor is he knew his ideal customers extremely well. Effective guest blogging is like every other form of marketing. It’s all about targeting. If you can get your message in front of the right people, it will work well. If you get the message in front of irrelevant people, it won’t work at all.
6. Guest podcast interviews
Being on other people’s podcasts is one of my favorite ways to market a business. Firstly, like with having your own podcast, anyone can do it. As long as you know your topic area you can handle being interviewed on a podcast.
The second reason is for all of the other benefits of podcasting which I mentioned above. Great networking, great authority building, accessing new channels (iTunes / stitcher) etc.
The best part of all though is it takes hardly any of your time. When we do our own podcast it takes us most of a day to organize, record, edit, upload, and publish the show. When I go on someone else’s, it takes me 45 minutes. We do the call, they do all of the other work associated with getting it live.
I can’t think of too many ways to market a business that are free, only involve 45 minutes of work that anyone can do, and most people enjoy. I actively try to get interviewed on podcasts by targeting podcasters and asking them. It also helps to have your own podcast, you get a lot of requests for interviews when you are a podcaster yourself.
7. Listing sites
Prateek Dayal created an help desk system called SupportBee. When he launched, he visited a number of app comparison sites and added Support Bee in where he could.
After adding his app to alternativeto.net, people would find his software after researching alternatives to other help desk tools. He started getting a few free signups a day and has had a bunch of paying customers come from the free listing.
In every industry there are a range of sites that list businesses in different ways. Some examples could be:
If you were a web designer you could submit your nice designs to CSS directories.
For any kind of product or service, Product Hunt has had explosive growth and is worth checking out.
If you are a startup you could submit your idea to startup sites like Betali.st and KillerStartups.com.
If you created an app you could submit it to Appvita.com or Cloudli.st.
If you have some kind of certified skill, there might be a central site that lists people with your skill or qualification.
If you have a software app that integrates with other apps, you can apply to be in their integration directory. This is often cited by software product owners as a great way to get in front of qualified buyers.
Simply Googling will reveal a whole bunch of potential sites in any industry.
8. Webinars
John Dumas started podcasting at Entrepreneur on Fire in September 2012. I spoke with him in December after he’d recorded 115 episodes with entrepreneurs. At that stage he was getting 100,000 monthly downloads but he wasn’t making much money. Since then John has made over 1.3 million dollars.
Most of his revenue comes by selling memberships to his online training community for podcasters called Podcasters Paradise. In his most recent monthly report (June 2014) he attributed $134,000 in revenue to membership sales, 86% of which came directly from webinars.
This is John’s exact process:
He built up a large audience. Obviously this took him some time but the same could be done quickly on a much smaller scale).
He gives away freebies on his site like ebooks in return for an email address. After you enter your email address you are taken to a page that talks about a free webinar on podcasting.
The webinars provide a lot of value and help people get started with podcasting. For people who are interested in more information he has a special deal for membership to the community.
John routinely gets hundreds of people onto these weekly webinars and closes thousands in sales.
You can learn John’s exact process at webinaronfire.com.
9. Warm calling
Mark Hayes lives in New Zealand, and after selling his past business he decided to start an SEO service in February 2014. He ran through a lot of online content to learn more about what he could offer.
He decided to approach web agencies instead of just going after the clients directly. That way he could go in at a higher price point and he only had to sign up a few to build a reasonable amount of recurring revenue.
He worked out a price point of $1,000 / month to qualify clients and he started calling people he knew in agencies. The first few people weren’t interested so he simply asked if they could refer him on to someone who might be.
He pulled together testimonials from mutual contacts / friends that had worked with him in the past and was able to drop those into the conversation. He said he could have them call the past contacts if they wanted to make sure he was legit.
The first day of calling he signed up his first client. The contract was signed and the payment was made on the next day. He was able to get a number of introductions and within a week he had 4 clients in total ($4,000 monthly recurring revenue).
Cold calling is scary, but calling people you already have a relationship with isn’t so bad. If you believe in your service, you should be keen to talk about it.
10. Presenting
Organizing local, in-person events has been a winning strategy for all types of businesses for a long time; from local small businesses to global software companies like Hubspot, Constant Contact, and Salesforce.
Adam Franklin uses local workshops, meetups, and conferences to help attendees with their web marketing. In turn this helps position his web marketing firm, Bluewire Media, as a leader. While other firms were obsessing over SEO tactics and Adwords, Adam and his team were putting on live events.
The events were profitable exercises on their own, but they also brought in countless leads and high-value clients to his business. On the feedback forms, some attendees would literally write “we want to engage your services” and become clients the next day.
It also elevated Adam’s authority level to a point where, in a few short years, he became a traditionally-published author of the book Web Marketing That Works, and a well-known social media speaker.
Doing live, local events is a powerful form of content marketing. The only difference from other methods is it’s done in person, which helps strengthen ties and cement business relationships faster. Events can be daunting to host, because what happens if no one shows up? But they can pay off handsomely if you are game to try.
If this is a skill area for you, don’t hesitate to put on events and use these as a way to generate leads.
What has your most successful method of marketing been?
I’d love to hear what your most effective marketing method is in your business. Please let me know in the comments below.
Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 10 Proven Free Ways to Market Your Business (with Real-World Case Studies)