2086: 4 Things to Think About Before You Scale Marketing in Your Startup by Erin Blaskie on Business Scaling

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[00:00:48] This is Optimal Work Daily. Four things to think about before you scale marketing in your startup. By Aaron Blaske of ErinBlasky.com. A human being has to learn how to walk before they learn how to run, right? In a SaaS company, strengthening your business's foundation is critical before you pour time, effort and resources into marketing.

[00:01:12] There's no point in generating a lot of noise and hype if you're sending prospects to a website that hasn't been optimized to capture them and begin the relationship building process. Before you look to scale rapidly, here are a few things that I recommend you take a look at. One, your website. While we could write an entire series on optimizing your website, we're going to focus on a few pieces that should be in place before you push heavy traffic to it. The first should be a compelling and easy way to opt into your email marketing list.

[00:01:42] A website visitor is a bit of a loss if you aren't capturing them through an opt-in box, a free trial, or through a demo. So take a look at your website and ensure that this is prominent and frictionless. FreshBooks website is a great example of this as they have the enter your email option right on the homepage above the fold. And they have a try it free green button in the menu, which appears on every page of the website.

[00:02:04] Both of these call-to-action CTA elements will encourage people to become part of the FreshBooks ecosystem and will therefore be able to be marketed to on an ongoing basis. The second piece on the website should be ensuring that the copy used to describe the product clearly demonstrates the benefits to the customer and the pain point the software is solving. You should solve the vision or big change to your prospects and not the product itself. As mentioned, there are a number of additional ways that you can improve your website.

[00:02:33] But these two will, at the very least, ensure that your prospects know what you do when they land on your website and know what you want them to do. 2. Email Marketing and the Prospect's Journey Once you've improved your website, turn your attention to your marketing funnel and the prospect's journey. What does the very first email they receive from you say? How are you using that opportunity to turn a prospect into a raving fan? All too often we see companies put a funnel in place just to have a funnel in place,

[00:03:02] which often means emails that are slapped together quickly and without much effort or thought. Or we see funnels that are too sales-focused and don't spend enough time providing value to the prospect. Prospects don't like to feel sold to, so take a critical look at what you're sending them and see where you can infuse value and substance into the mix. The other thing to consider is the prospect's journey. Ask yourself, where are my prospects coming from? Where will they go once they click on a link or enter a URL?

[00:03:32] How many touchpoints do I want to have with that customer? And will I create unique and individual landing pages for each offer, or just send everyone to the homepage and hope for the best? 3. A Focus on Retention and the Loyalty Loop We've talked about the email marketing funnel and the prospect's journey, but an important piece of the email marketing puzzle is focusing on retaining your existing customers and building in a loyalty loop. Many startups put a lot of emphasis on converting prospects

[00:04:02] and in getting new subscribers to their list, but given the sometimes high cost of acquisition of a customer, it's worth putting some serious time and effort on retention. Spend a bit of time looking through the communications you have in place for your existing customers. Are you walking them through the features and benefits of your software or platform? If not, you may want to do so. While we often lead with a lot of that information, features and benefits, it's more often than not the customer who needs that information the most.

[00:04:30] They will want to know how to make the most out of your platform and the different ways that your tool can help them save time, money, resources, etc. Consider also building in some form of loyalty loop to reward your best customers and turn them into raving fans. 4. Content Marketing to Establish Thought Leadership If you're a platform that focuses on solving a unique problem for your customers, it's a good idea to showcase your expertise around that very problem.

[00:04:57] By providing valuable information around your platform's area of expertise, you'll let your prospects know that you are knowledgeable in that space, which shortens the know, like, and trust timeline. So turn to your own website and see if there are any areas of opportunity for you to show the world that you're the go-to expert in that field and that you truly understand the pain points and challenges of your target market. Another way to establish thought leadership is to help your prospects and customers

[00:05:24] solve problems through value-added resources and content. For example, let's say that you are a CRM, Customer Relationship Management Platform, but you know that many of your customers are using your platform to help with their sales process. Creating a sales playbook, for example, would then allow you to do lead generation that attracts salespeople to your list through a value offering and not a direct sales request. Both of these tactics tell your customer that you understand them really, really well,

[00:05:52] so it's worth putting some time and effort here. You just listened to the post titled Four Things to Think About Before You Scale Marketing in Your Startup by Erin Blasky of AaronBlaske.com Whatever your thing, it could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing. Canva is a simple online tool thing. It's a way to design with our magic AI tool things.

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[00:06:49] Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a year of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th. Terms at aka.ms slash college PC. And big thanks to Erin for letting us share her work today. She became obsessed with video games once she got her hands on a Commodore 64 back in the late 80s,

[00:07:16] so you'll often hear her make comparisons and analogies to video games in her writing. For the past 20 years, she's been invited to speak on stages around the world, including TEDx, and now more recently, virtual conferences. She covers marketing, community, and remote work. And you can also check out her book, Destiny, A Love Story About a Video Game, Marketing, and Storytelling. Come by ErinBlasky.com for a lot more.

[00:07:41] That's E-R-I-N, Erin, Blasky, B-L-A-S-K-I-E, dot com. But that is going to do it for today. I hope you enjoyed the post and hope you'll be with me again tomorrow where your optimal life awaits. Thank you.