13 “free” Ways for Marketing your Startup the most Effectively
“Focus on the core problem your business solves and put out lots of content, enthusiasm, & ideas about how to solve that problem.” — Laura Fitton – Founder of Twitter app store.
Marketing Topics: Startup ideas & innovations & Trends, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Launching Next, Test Launching, Feedback, Biz Intelligence Tracker, App Testers & Beta, Referral Marketing, Startup Pitch, Seed Funding.
When you have launched a Startup, one of the most important strategies is to “prove” your Concept & gain early user Traction. If you’re like most Founders, you don’t have much money, nor do you have enough money to hire a PR agency. However, to become a great entrepreneur means you have the inquisitiveness to look elsewhere to get your startup liftoff. To gain further product validation & reach product/market fit quickly – to scale – there are many platforms available to help you engage with your Target Market. Gaining early Traction is often the hardest part of the startup birth and there are hundreds of platforms to help. However, after much research, these are the best platforms to promote your startup at “no to very low” cost.
1. SpringWise Startup ideas & innovations
It’s a fantastic platform covering all types of startup ideas & innovations. They only feature 3-5 daily new ideas/products to it’s social reach of over 400K users. If you have a compelling product that is truly innovative and want to gain significant exposure, get featured on Springwise.
2. VentureBeat Profiles Startup Trends
This is only a tool that I discovered not too long ago, and it’s a great way to show your startup to many high-profiled entrepreneurs. Very similar to Index.co, it’s a handy tool to get updated with the trends of your industry for free. You can add your company there and get the latest updates on recent trends to plan your business accordingly.
3. Product Hunt in the Startup world
It is a great platform to promote services on Tech, Games, Books – virtually everything. It has voting system which enables your product to rise in the list of new products. The benefits of Product Hunt if something goes viral, similar to Hacker news, it can significantly grow your startup very quickly. If you are looking to attract customers who are always in search of newer products, then Product Hunt (90k subscribers, Free)
4. Hacker News for Techies
It can be a great way to promote your offering to a community of Hackers & Entrepreneurs. It currently has 150k + subscribers [Free] (ie, you can see how one entrepreneur used Hacker News to help him receive over 70,000 hits in just one day.
5. Launching Next most promising Startups
Very similar to BetaList, it’s an impressive platform that features the most promising startups on a daily basis. Why do I mention impressive? It has great guides and content in relation to launching startups to gain early user traction and successful case studies of entrepreneurs launching startups at a low-cost. Further related to their content, they have individually interviewed startup founders launching their startups, and asking them their experiences of launching startups, and what lessons they learnt.
6. MakerBase test Launching your Product
It’s a new platform that only launched two months ago, and has already become a prominent place to share your projects to the world. It is co-sponsored by MailChimp, Slack & Hover. Makerbase is making a big push to become the centre point of launching projects to the community. You can also add ‘makers’ who may have launched successful startups or are about to launch a new startup. This platform could eventually be up there with the likes of Product Hunt.
7. Reddit-Side Projects Feedback
Reddit is fantastic when it comes to getting very quick feedback and have discussions on any topic around the Web. Reddit-Side projects is a great sub-Reddit for new startups to get feedback on ideas for startups or small side projects. Being engaged with the community of 9k subscribers will help you sell your idea more for no Fee at all.
8. Index.co Biz Intelligence Tracker
Index.co was unveiled recently by one of the co-founders of The Next Web. It’s purpose is to be a business intelligence tool that tracks thousands of tech companies around the world. Index’s aim is to make tools for gathering info on tech companies “previously only available for Wall Street or the Fortune 500 companies – for the ‘Main Street’. Index.co will help you create your own customisable stream of companies, locations & markets to track. You can sign up for your company profile – to get updated easily for no Fee for a platform which has now more than around 7k users.
9. Beta Bound App Testers
When launching a startup to market, you will often not only get feedback on your product, but also feedback on “bugs” & other technical issues that your users will find. Us Founders want to minimize this as much as possible. If you have apps that need to be tested, then this platform with over 90,000 Beta Testers and subscribers is a great place to test your apps. With a rigorous selection process of testers, it’s not your average platform to showcase your startup, but it’s a great platform to get technical feedback on issues, before you roll out a launch to a larger audience. This will help increase confidence and provide a more valuable first-time user experience, which will then lead onto a positive “on-boarding” experience & referrals.
10. Feed My App new App beta
It’s a platform to feature new Apps in relation to major startup platforms that already exist For instance, if you have a new product that integrates with the Twitter API, and helps users identifying who their top followers are, then this platform can be used to feature your product. Submission can be done Free, but with a fee starting from $9, increasing the probability of getting featured highly – in a community of 5k users.
11. SignUpFirst Referral Marketing
SignUpFirst is a unique platform unlike other out there, and taps into the growth hacking practice of referral marketing. The concept is for both founders submitting their product, and an opportunity for users/customers, to get their hands on great discounts & deals. It’s similar to a Crowd-Funding site, but for Startups in beta. It is an ideal platform to provide incentive to potential customers to get your product – while it is still in its development phase. You can state the number of sign ups you want in your site and state the reward you are offering. [Free]
12. The Startup Pitch to Journalists
It’s what you would send to journalists to have your startup being featured in a major publication. The platform also has a community of subscribers of 25k, who will give you feedback on your pitch and even share what your startup is all about. [Free]
13. Angel List Seed Funding
If you need funds to raise funding for your startup, Angellist is a great platform to build a community that will help you get Seed funding. Within the startup world, it’s one of the best directories for exhibiting Startups globally. It’s now also starting to become a Social network, meaning you can connect with Investors & high-net worth pros to help receive funding for your startup.
Comments: Do you know any other “free” Marketing tools for a Startup?
from the Next Web 5/19 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4.biz
For more Info, click on Marketing, Startup Marketing.