Startup Resources: Distribution
Help users find your startup through marketing, viral marketing, advertising, email, SEO, PR, and sales. See the "Data & Distribution" chapter in Part I, Products for more info.
- Word of Mouth
- Advertising
- Public Relations, Media, Blogs
- Email marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media
- Communities
- Inbound Marketing
- Sales
- Further Reading
These startup resources are based on the book Hello, Startup: A Programmer's Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams by Yevgeniy Brikman. These resources are a work in a progress. They are also open source, so you can add your contributions by submitting a pull request to the Hello, Startup GitHub Repository. To see how these resources fit into the bigger picture, check out the The Startup Checklist, which is a comprehensive collection of everything you need to do to launch a startup.
Word of Mouth
Existing customers tell new customers about your product.
Advertising
Figure out where your potential customers are already directing their attention and pay money to put a message about your product there.
Public Relations, Media, Blogs
Spread your message via TV, news, radio, blogs, celebrities, influencers, and so on.
JustReachOut
https://justreachout.io/Find journalists. Perfect your pitch. Reach out and get press.
Buzzsumo
http://buzzsumo.com/Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. Find the key influencers to promote your content.
Pressfarm
https://press.farm/Find journalists to write about your startup. We'll give you their twitter and bio for free (get all 867 emails for just $9).
Promotehour
http://www.promotehour.com/A free list of 130+ places to promote a startup. The list also has few important metrics like brief description, traffic opportunity, & cost of submission.
Places To Post Your Startup
https://github.com/mmccaff/PlacesToPostYourStartupAn open source collection of places where you can post your startup to get beta users.
Kickstarter Lesson #74: Help Them First
http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-74-help-them-first/This is part of the Stonemaier Games series of posts on how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign for board games, but the advice in these posts applies to almost all marketing efforts, so it's well worth reading for everybody.
Kickstarter Lesson #43: Press Releases
http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-43-press-releases/This is part of the Stonemaier Games series of posts on how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign for board games, but the advice in these posts applies to almost all marketing efforts, so it's well worth reading for everybody.
Kickstarter Lesson #5: Connecting with Bloggers
http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-5-connecting-with-bloggers/This is part of the Stonemaier Games series of posts on how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign for board games, but the advice in these posts applies to almost all marketing efforts, so it's well worth reading for everybody.
Email marketing
Use email to acquire, engage, and retain users.
How to Send Email Like a Startup
https://www.sendwithus.com/resources/guideThis guide is a practical resource for developing a set of transactional emails that will move your new users through the sales funnel toward becoming happy, engaged, and paying customers.
Search Engine Optimization
Optimize your website so it ranks highly in search engines.
Communities
Find or create communities, messageboards, meetup groups, etc. that are interested in your products.
Inbound Marketing
Attract customers to your brand by creating content and teaching your audience, using blogs, talks, seminars, open source, etc.
LinkedIn Pulse
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/discoverWrite long-form content on LinkedIn as an "influencer".
Sales
Use automated sales, inbound sales, and outbound sales to close the deal.
The Enterprise Sales Guide
http://www.enterprisesales.nyc/The process of selling enterprise software demystified.
Further Reading
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/1400064287?ref=hello-startup-20Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions.
Crossing the Chasm
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0060517123?ref=hello-startup-20A marketing book by Geoffrey A. Moore that focuses on the specifics of marketing high tech products during the early start up period. Moore's exploration and expansion of the diffusions of innovations model has had a significant and lasting impact on high tech entrepreneurship.
Purple Cow
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591843170?ref=hello-startup-20Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, by Seth Godin.
Permission Marketing
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0684856360?ref=hello-startup-20Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers, by Seth Godin.
Confessions of an Advertising Man
http://www.amazon.com/dp/190491537X?ref=hello-startup-20David Ogilvy was considered the "father of advertising" and a creative genius by many of the biggest global brands. First published in 1963, this seminal book revolutionized the world of advertising and became a bible for the 1960s ad generation.
Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 9 Notes
http://blakemasters.com/post/22405055017/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-9-notes-essayDistribution is something of a catchall term. It essentially refers to how you get a product out to consumers. More generally, it can refer to how you spread the message about your company.
Guide to sales and marketing for startups
http://startupsheartcustomers.com/The guide to sales and marketing for technical startup people.
Social Media
Spread the word through social networks.
Facebook Pages
https://www.facebook.com/about/pagesTwitter for Business
https://business.twitter.com/LinkedIn Company Pages
https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/company-pages/get-startedGoogle+ Brands
https://www.google.com/+/brands/Instagram for Business
https://business.instagram.com/Pinterest for Business
https://business.pinterest.com/Tumblr for Business
https://www.tumblr.com/businessYouTube
https://www.youtube.com/Vimeo for Business
https://vimeo.com/business