Marketing for Startups: How to Stand Out from the Crowd
Any business success depends on marketing — and startups are no exception. Here is a basic list of ideas you could start implementing today!
The road for a startup from a concept to a market leader is a windy one. That’s why Makers Boot Camp decided to hold a Meetup geared towards Marketing for startups — bringing insights for entrepreneurs who could find fresh and effective ideas to show their value proposition. The event tackled hard questions regarding how to reduce marketing costs, increase effectiveness and acquire new customers.
The introduction round by Sabrina Sasaki, Makers Boot Camp Head of Marketing & Sales, brought an interesting concept of “Account-Based Marketing” in a metaphor the Japanese audience could relate very well: the maguro (tuna), a very specific target startups should get engaged with.
Her brief showcase was followed by a pitch by Daigo Kusunoki, Dmet Products CEO, entrepreneur, dancer and tech engineer. His first innovation, a motion-activated electronic device SoundMoovz, uses the power of Bluetooth, connected to an app, to blend music while dancing.
How It Works:
To start, you need to faster two adjustable silicone bands to your wrists or ankles. As you move, these smart devices will play unique beats and rhythms that can be teamed up with a wireless speaker for better oomph.
Daigo Kusunoki shared many lessons from his journey, in a very fun and dynamic journey from a dance-lover to a successful startup founder. Within two years, he managed to create and sell 400,000 units over 17 countries with zero experience in marketing. Would you call it a miracle? Daigo doesn’t think so!
Daigo Kusunoki: ‘When I came up with an idea to use wearable motion sensors to make music, I had to choose an specific potential market or target group. To figure out how to choose between dancers and children, I took our product to America, hoping to get a valuable feedback from users. Every kid was super excited and I instantly knew that we had hit the bull’s eye.’
Armed with loads of useful feedbacks, Daigo showcased his product to many toy companies. It was a huge success: in a record time, serious businesspeople were kicking, punching and gyrating around the presentation room the same way their small customers do. He shared some cases from kids to adults who couldn’t help but dance to the beats.
Top fundamental reasons why SoundMoovz made it, according to Daigo:
1. A really new product concept
2. Prototype first. Instead of spending a lot of time on planning, make a prototype.
3. Being open-minded. Showcase your product to many people and receive feedbacks.
The second speaker was the designer Christopher Flechtner, who impressed the audience by bringing his innovative bicycle straight into our pitching area. The newly designed bicycle has two identical baskets in the rear and front with blocks that could be attached to any rigid surface.
As long as he remembers, Chris has been always passionate about bicycles and wanted to design a new practical style of bike for urban environments, with a light and fast ride.
About Christopher: With over 25 years in the world of design, Chris has been working on many scales from bespoke hand fabrication by local artisans in the US, Europe or Japan all the way to mass manufacturing in the US and Asia. Driven by his passion for industrial design, he runs a creative design studio along with his wife Junko Uchiyama.
After taking a look into the early first steps of his entrepreneurship, Christopher explained that the main inspiration for his product came from observing bicycles in Tokyo, when he used to be based in Japan. He also shared some doubts considering his marketing strategy and his digital challenges, as his company is still bootstrapping and considering the best move.
Christopher Flechtner: ‘Even if you develop a product, it doesn’t necessary mean you will sell it easily. There is so much to be done to bring it into the market, and as an industrial designer, I’m aware of it. We had many bicycles shops and users to test our bike and received important feedbacks which we used to iterate our products’.
San Francisco-based Jeff Goldsmith, a top creative mind in mastering the art of taking marketing to the next level, led an one-hour workshop based on simple hints on how to leverage digital tools to generate more sales. He revealed his secrets to building attractive marketing funnels, ways to test different messages to segmented audiences and how to generate more leads using simple digital tools, like Facebook & Google Ads. Using incredible case studies from his own journey, Jeff illustrated how headlines can win the hearts and minds of potential customers and investors, if startups try to apply more assertive and systemic message tactics.
The first thing you have to do is figure out what your message is. Test your choices to reduce your Cost per Acquisition and optimize your online campaigns.
- Create landing pages and develop customized ads for your specific market.
2. Engage with your potential customers, attend trade shows and demonstrate your product.
3. Collaborate with partners to expand your network.
4. Be digital with your customers and use techniques to drive your audience’s curiosity. Create vital spreads, social media campaigns.
About Jeffrey Goldsmith: Over 25 years, Jeff has been creating advertising and marketing strategies for various global brands, from seed funded startups to Fortune 500 companies. He has written articles for Wired, Details, and many other publications, and also facilitated workshops for accelerators, startups and corporate clients.
After the presentation, Jeff questioned attendees about their businesses challenges and suggested new ways to develop their own marketing systems. Among the ones who received free tips were MARUI VR CEO Max Krichenbauer, working on a VR Plugin for a design software called Maya, and also the winner of Get In The Ring Japan, who will participate in the Global Get in the Ring 2018 finals in Portugal; and the authentic Japanese Cabot, cajon robot, a Kickstarter campaign targeting musicians and fans.
Jeff Goldsmith will be back to Japan soon!
Originally published at medium.com on May 28, 2018.
