Marketing and sales tips for startups

1. Sell the profit, do not compare yourself

You have the key to success when you sell the benefit of your product and forget about the competition. Forever.
There are several ways to do it:

• Cost: cost improves the price of the product with respect to the competition.
• Quality: do it better from the beginning.
• Combine both strategies: the best product at the best price. Unbeatable.

But even if you tell others that you sell products or services that are cheaper and more effective than the others, it is not enough. This does not tell the client how it will improve his life. I remember, when I bought my last phone this year, the salesman was telling me how the smartphone will improve my life. I was so impressed and bought the Oppo A3s.

2. Listen to your client

Do you hear the name of Sam Walton? Maybe not. But this man was the founder of one of the most important chain stores in the United States, Walmart. And, in addition, it broke one of the most important commercial paradigms of the time.

Walton opted to start his empire in the rural areas of the United States. This led to the contrary to the predominant business logic that said: if you want to move massive amounts of products, you need massive amounts of people. That is, a retail mass trade will only succeed in large cities.

But Walton knew his clients. He knew that people who lived in rural areas used to buy large quantities because they had larger families or needed more goods to maintain their own stores. The result we already know. Walmart is the most important retail store in the world. And is that the client can sometimes challenge the prevailing logic but they are always right. Listen to them.

3. Sell your product before it is completely finished

Some companies wait until their product is totally perfect before doing any marketing campaign. A serious mistake, since this attitude is accompanied by a widespread thought: “Once the product is ready, it will sell quickly.” But, the reality is that, if nobody knows it, the demand will be zero. Until you start a marketing campaign and start creating brand awareness among potential customers.

It is best to do awareness campaigns before the product is finished. In this way, consumers will already know that the product is coming. If you sell the benefit before you have it ready, customers will be eager to acquire it.

4. Think 360º

The marketing landscape changes at a surprising pace. The campaigns today have nothing to do with the work that was done just 2 years ago. They are different ways of doing things that are always preceded by some ‘guru’ that was dedicated to experimenting.

T2M URL Shortener doesn’t recommend, you start doing crazy things, because you’ll end up throwing money away. But try to have a global vision. Use all online marketing techniques that are almost free and highly effective. For example, video marketing, influencers, crowdsourcing, attractive contests, branded content and much more.

5. Trial and error

The marketing that can not be measured is failed marketing. It is clear that you can do an outdoor advertising campaign or place a canvas on the outside of your facade and it is very common. But how can you be sure that the money spent corresponds to sales? There is no way to correlate with 100% security. There may be more constraints or it may be a seasonal rebound that will disappear in a month.

If you are going to dedicate time and money to a marketing campaign, make sure you can measure the results. Establish ways to track the conversions that are derived from each marketing campaign.

And do not forget to bet on the A / B tests. This will allow you to compare and see which campaign has worked best. Eliminate what does not work and improve those that already have good results.

6. Advertise on many platforms

As we said above, it is good to try multiple sales and marketing channels to see what works best. It is almost never just one, but a combination of everything. When a customer hears the ad on the radio, sees it in a search engine and then finds a reference in a blog that he likes he begins to accept your brand as a solid and reliable entity.

It is possible that they will not buy your product immediately, but when they have the need, your company will come to their mind.

7. Strengthen loyalty

Reward loyalty and interest. The best situation you can create is that your clients become your best commercials. The testimonials of the clients that defend the brand are better than any sales team.

Therefore, try to continually reward customers with competitive prices, personalized customer service, and automatic updates to improve your product.

Check Jooble search engine for more options: https://jooble.org/

1. Indirect promotion through content marketing: publishing articles of interest in your sector can help you achieve indirect marketing and become a reference within your sector.

2. Organize surveys and mini market studies: Facebook is an ideal channel to organize surveys even starting with small surveys among your friends if you are afraid of sharing your idea with too many people. Twitter can be a complement to obtain more data once you have made the first tests.

3. Recruit beta-testers for tests before the official launch: before launching the product or service officially you can do tests within a closed circle of beta-testers. Both Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or the blog itself can serve as a recruiting channel.

4. Identify potential customers among readers and followers: if you bring a solution or a need to your target market you can get your first lead among the readers of your blog and followers of Twitter or Pinterest. Once the product is launched you can thus cut the time to obtain the first customers.

5. Create a community around the product: according to the link and the interaction that you can get among followers, fans and readers you have potential multipliers that will talk to your environment about your product. To do it well, there is no secret formula: creativity, perseverance and a lot of discipline.

6. Obtain the first financing through crowdfunding: among the beta-testers, readers, followers, and fans there may be people who want to support your start-up even financially. This crowdfunding can be the first seed to grow the company and take it to the next level.

How to get Pinterest followers fast?

There is no magic formula so that, overnight, you have a million people following you overnight. But there are some tricks. Here 10 tips from T2M URL Shortener for you:

1. Add a widget on Your Website 

Make sure you have among your social buttons one of Pinterest, both in the Home of your website and in some important pages (or that have a lot of traffic). You can include in your blog a Pinterest widget in which your readers can see the last pins of your profile on Pinterest and all the activity that you do (obviously offering the possibility to follow you).

2. Include a Button on Your Website

there are WordPress plugins that allow you to put it, such as Pinterest follow button. The theme is that you make it easy for your readers to know that you have a presence on Pinterest and can follow you with a single click.

3. Share Many Things

If you share many interesting things, every time someone opens something that you have shared, it is more likely that Pinterest will recommend you follow the board where you shared it. Of course, you have to share pins that interest your target audience, because if not, you will get many followers but not necessarily the ones you are interested in having. Try to share continuously, not all at once in a single day. Share a little each day, in small amounts so as not to overwhelm your followers, but at the same time, always be present.

4. Comment on Popular Pins

Choose pins that have been shared many times and have engagement and make a comment that is worthwhile and shows that you understand it. This will attract other people to your own profile. If your comment brings something interesting, more people will click to see who is behind that comment.

5. Mention Others

On Pinterest, like on Facebook or Twitter, you can mention one of your followers using @username. If you are sharing a pin that you think may interest someone, in particular, mentioning them in the comment will receive a notification. Always mention someone to say something positive and of interest. Try not to look like a spammer! These mentions will achieve greater interaction with your followers, improving your positioning in this social network.

6. Connect Your Other Social Networks With Pinterest

You can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts to appear on your Pinterest profile. You can also tweet your pins, which will attract your twitter followers to your Pinterest profile. Transferring followers from one social network to another is a matter of skill, share something that stings your curiosity and that is different to what you usually share on other social networks.

7. Participate in Group Boards

That already have many followers adding pins of high quality so that the followers of these group boards are attracted to your profile. Be careful, do not share pins that have nothing to do with the theme of the board, since you will be perceived as a spammer. Be moderate and share interesting things for the group.

8. Follow Other Users or Their Boards

Write keywords for your niche in the Pinterest search bar. Then decide if you want to follow pinners or boards (T2M URL Shortener advice is to choose the boards that interest you most). The person you follow will receive a notification and will probably go through your profile to see who you are and if you have interesting content.

9. Optimize The SEO of Your Boards and Pins

Never share a photo or infographic without a title. Using keywords in the titles and descriptions of your boards and pins will not only make it easier for other Pinterest users to find them, but it will improve the SEO of those images in Google. Hashtags are also another excellent method to give greater visibility in searches to a certain pin.

10. Embed Your Profile or a Board in Some of  Your Articles

If you have a blog on your website or in your online store, be sure to include a board or your own Pinterest profile inserted or embedded in it in any part of your articles (where they relate to the theme or context of the post).

For the most avid professionals, the emergence of influencers in social media means a great opportunity to reach their audience in a more organic and less aggressive way. By partnering with the right people, brands can generate quality content and amplify their message to reach their target audience through a channel they really trust.

Advantages of Influencer Marketing

1. It’s native advertising:

In recent years the saturation of advertising in traditional media and especially on the Internet has led to what is known as Banner Blindness, the ability of consumers do not see, or not register, the ads with which they are impacted day a day. An Infolinks study shows that 86% of consumers suffer from banner blindness, reflecting that only 14% of respondents remember the last ad they saw, the brand and the product it was about.

Native Advertising or Native Advertising consists of creating content, in association with a medium, that is not perceived as invasive advertising but interacts naturally in the publication support, thus circumventing the resistance of consumers to frontal and invasive advertising and presenting itself as interesting information that impacts organically.

This is the playing field of Influencers Marketing.

2. It is a growing technique:

Just as one of the characteristics of the influencers is to be early adopters, which gives them advantages and authority in the areas in which they specialize, in the same way, the brands that are added before the trends have their benefits.

The Marketing of Influencers is a technique that, although it has proven to be effective, is still in development and is a territory in which only brands willing to risk have dared to venture. For this reason, they have had the greatest gains in money, in reputation, and in conversion.

In the following graph of Google Trends, you can see the increase since 2014 in the search for the term Influencers Marketing.

3. Improve your reputation:

In association with profiles that are not only an authority in the area of your brand, but have the confidence of people, it is common for values to be transferred from people to brands in the perception of users.

When an influencer speaks well of your brand, it is not only validating the quality of your product or service but also legitimizes your strategy to approach consumers. In the Marketing practices of Influencers it  is very important to clarify that it is an agreement between the brand and the person who sponsors it, this will be seen as two parties that have agreed to work together and is beneficial for your online reputation, since traditional advertising is getting worse and worse perceived by the public, which explains the growth in the last years of the adblockers.

A better online reputation can only lead to our next point.

4. Greater loyalty and conversion:

Research shows that the purchase intention expressed by users is 53% higher when it comes to native advertising, and that is just the tip of the iceberg for the conversion rates in Influencers Marketing.

One of the main advantages of this method is to negotiate directly with the influencer the parameters of the campaign, which may include, in addition to a test and recommendation of the product, link to the online store, call to action, or even make contests and raffles that result in traffic of visits to your page, loyalty and therefore, high percentages of sales. If you don’t have enough time or resources to reach out to the influencers yourself, you can hire an influencer marketing agency that has the expertise and knowledge of your target market. Who knows, maybe this will even turn into a powerful friendship which can open many other doors for you.

But that is not all.

5. Improve your SEO:

There is little you can do with a good reputation online if people are not able to find you through the main search engine of the web, Google.

According to The Social Media Revolution and its book Socialnomics, when looking for the 20 largest brands in the world, 25% of the results belong to user-generated content. When the marketing strategy consists of generating content by influencers, people echo it and the more you mention it, the more relevant you will be to the search engine, and to the world.

But soon the marketing pros saw it as a powerful weapon to have better exposure and promote the brand they defended.

And it worked.

So you would be wrong too to deprive yourself and not take advantage of this social network to develop your business online.

Here are at least 5 reasons why you should be present on this social network.

1. Instagram has millions of users

Not only Instagram has a large audience among which there are surely people who would like to know you, but in addition, it is an active community.

Indeed, the “Instagrammers”, check their account several times a day and do not hesitate to like a photo or leave a comment. If you’re not on Instagram, you may be missing out on an exceptional opportunity to introduce you to thousands of people.

2. Instagram is easy to use and effective tool

The good thing about Instagram is that you can not spend too much time for an effective result.

Unlike Facebook where you have to invest in Facebook ads if you want to improve the scope of your publication, and therefore spend time setting everything behind, but Instagram is instant.

In a few clicks, you can post your image, add relevant text, hashtags, and post! Your image can spread widely through hashtags. It is even possible that one of your old images always collect likes or comments even a year later!

3. Instagram is a visual tool that strikes in a second

In a few seconds, you can catch the eye of someone. That’s why you should post pictures in accordance with your visual identity. This will recognize you at a glance.

You know how important your visual identity is to your site, for example. It is even more so on your networks and even more on Instagram. This is where you will further affirm your brand.

Try to post pictures or photos well framed and quality to stay pro. There are so many pictures or quality photos these days that to stand out you will have to go for your personal touch. But it’s even better because it’s your personality that will transpire.

If you think it’s complicated to create visuals, go on Canva. You will find models that can serve you at first and then you will refine.

4. Instagram will allow you to send a message across

As much as the image, the text that accompanies it is important and that’s where you’ll be able to talk about you and your brand. Your Instagram posts can bring incredible information to your followers. You can talk about many topics.

5. There are free tools to help you on Instagram

Though Instagram easy to use, there is a whole range of tools to make your life easier. As I said above, Canva can help you create your visuals. This is great for saving time and having templates to reuse. There are many apps to use directly on your phone to edit your photos quickly and easily. Some examples: Darkroom, Touch Retouch, Color Effect, VSCO etc.

There one another tool called Design Wizard: we all instagram is all about the visuals. If you want to make content that looks premium with minimal effort check out Design Wizard. They have templates you can edit to make your own in just a few clicks! You can even upload your own content which is perfect for your business

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a tool that can help you find influencers in different ways. First, it can help you find the most popular content for specific topics. You can also use it to find the top performing posts in your content niche (so you can connect with the person behind each popular post). Secondly, BuzzSumo also includes an excellent influencers search tool on Twitter. You can search Twitter bios and shared content for relevant influencers. You can also filter according to whether the influencer is a:

• blogger
• influencer
• Society
• Journalist
• “Regular” person

There are also other filters for activity, certified account, rental and more. BuzzSumo offers limited free searches. For unlimited searches, as well as more professional features, plans start at $ 99 a month.

Supported platforms: Blogs, Twitter. 

BuzzStream

BuzzStream is a tool that helps you to “Build Relationships, Build Buzz. If you’re interested in influencer marketing, this tool will help you reach your goals. So, how does BuzzStream really help you build those relationships and get that buzz? It starts with influencer research. First, BuzzStream offers an extension on your browser. For example, if you come across a popular blog in your niche, BuzzStream allows you to add this blog to your list and see a lot of information about the person behind the blog. Beyond that, BuzzStream also allows you to use keywords to find influencers related to your niche. It’s more than just a list – BuzzStream gives you a complete picture of this person’s websites and social media presence. Then you can easily add these influencers to sorted and filterable prospect lists. Once you have your prospect lists, BuzzStream makes it easy to send personalized emails and automated follow-ups. BuzzStream is designed to help you manage all of your influence marketing efforts – from research to monitoring your relationships and analyzing your performance. Despite a large number of features, BuzzStream remains accessible to bloggers and entrepreneurs. The BuzzStream Starter Plan starts at only $ 24 per month for up to 2 users. Although it does not have all the features, this should be enough for bloggers. And as prices go up, you get features that also make BuzzStream an ideal solution for large businesses. You can also take advantage of a 14-day free trial to see if BuzzStream is right for you.

Supported platforms: Blogs and social networks in some cases 

AeroLeads

Influencer marketing can boost your sales as well as a brand image like never before! It will help you build an audience that will keenly look after your products and follow on social media. These influencers can be either Youtubers or Instagram influencers or any famous personality/public figure. The best way to contact them is by using online tools like AeroLeads. No need to visit every profile and struggle for getting their contact details. Using AeroLeads, you can extract the email address, phone number, etc just with one click. You can make an email list of such influencers and segregate them on their niche. For eg, making a separate list of food bloggers, YouTubers, travel bloggers, etc. Just one tool and all influencers’ details in your hands.

Supported Platforms: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

NinjaOutreach

Like BuzzStream, NinjaOutreach is another cloud-based influencer search tool. You will see that you will see a lot of similarities between the two. NinjaOutreach allows you to search prospects in its database of more than 25 million websites. To refine things, you can add tags to refine the filtering:

• bloggers
• influencers
• companies
• Individual articles

Beyond websites, NinjaOutreach also allows you to search on Twitter and Instagram. And like BuzzStream, NinjaOutreach also offers an extension on your browser that allows you to see information on a website while you are browsing. Once you’ve found leads, you can add them to a sortable, filterable list. You can also add tags to better organize things. Once you have your prospect lists, NinjaOutreach helps you send automated and personalized emails. NinjaOutreach will track details on openings, clicks, and responses to emails so you can see how effective your efforts are. So far, it looks a lot like BuzzStream, isn’t it? Here are some notable differences you will see (but not a complete list):

• NinjaOutreach allows you to automate your entire email sequence, while BuzzStream only allows you to automate your follow-ups.
• NinjaOutreach allows you to search influencers directly on Twitter and Instagram while BuzzStream is primarily focused on websites.
• BuzzStream includes more team-oriented features than NinjaOutreach.

In addition, since the cheapest package of NinjaOutreach starts at $ 69 a month, BuzzStream is a little more accessible for smaller bloggers. Like BuzzStream, NinjaOutreach offers a 14-day free trial.

Supported Platforms: Blogs, Twitter, Instagram 

Pitchbox

Pitchbox is an influencer search tool marketed to SEO teams. Although anyone can use it, this tool is mostly for blogs rather than anything related to social media. Pitchbox allows you to find potential influencers via a simple keyword search. Integrations with SEO services like Moz, Majestic, and SEMRush help you filter out these influencers to find only those with the most authority. Once you’ve found influencers you’d like to connect to, Pitchbox helps you send personalized emails, as well as automated follow-ups that they believe can increase response rates by an average of 62 percent.

The only drawback? The price of Pitchbox ($ 195 / month) makes it out of reach for many solo bloggers.

Supported platforms: Blogs

Klear

While Klear allows you to search for influential bloggers, it is much more social-focused than the previous influencer search tools. In total, Klear has a database of over 500 million profiles across four networks:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Youtube
• blogs

For each network, you can search by skill, location, and influence level. For example, you can use Klear to quickly find the most influential Instagram users who focus on yoga. Once you have found leads, you can explore individual influencers to analyze:

• What is their influence?
• What other brands did they mention?
• How are their followers engaged?
• General demographic data for their subscribers

If all goes well with your further analysis, Klear will provide you with contact information and other ways to manage your relationships. Klear can also help you see how effective your outreach efforts are in terms of how many mentions you get and the commitment these mentions generate. If you’re focusing primarily on blog posting, you probably want to keep one of the two previous tools. But if social media is your playground, Klear is a great option. Klear has a limited free plan. For full features, you need to schedule a demo to get price information.

Supported platforms: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Blogs

Awario

Awario is defined as a “monitoring tool for social media and the web”. But some of this “monitoring” actually includes features that you can apply directly to influencer research. For example, when you search for people who have mentioned your brand or related topics, you can quickly see them and sort by “scope”. This allows you to find the most influential people who publish on you and your niche. Then you can reach these influencers or monitor them to build a relationship over time. Beyond that, you can also set up continuous monitoring for specific keywords and view a report to see the most influential accounts for a particular topic. Awario starts at $ 29 a month.

Supported platforms: Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and Forums. 

Followerwonk

Let’s make things a bit more affordable with these next two tools. Both offer free packages. And although they are not as comprehensive as the paid tools above, they are a good option for bloggers. First of all, there is Followerwonk. In simple terms, Followerwonk helps you find Twitter influencers in your niche. It does not take into account other networks but, if you need influencers on Twitter, Followerwonk can help you find them for free. The tool allows you to search Twitter bios by keyword, then compare them to other users and/or download reports. For more control, you can filter according to criteria:

• Location
• Minimum / maximum number of subscribers
• Minimum / maximum number of tweets

Followerwonk’s analytics tool can also help you create different Twitter user segments. It also includes other features for Twitter analytics that can help you monitor your own account. Although not part of influencer research, you may still find these features useful. Followerwonk is a good tool that will not cost you a cent for the basic research of influencers.

Supported platforms: Twitter 

Hunter

Read the following to know if Hunter is a tool that may be right for you. Hunter does not necessarily help you find an influencer. But, once you have an influencer in mind, Hunter can help you get in touch with that person directly through his real email address (rather than an anonymous contact form). While influencer search tools (BuzzStream, NinjaOutreach) all offer something similar, Hunter focuses solely on finding email addresses. Better yet, Hunter is free for 100 email searches per month. Hunter also allows you to save email addresses as prospects and track emails you send via Gmail. Hunter has a chrome extension too.

Supported platforms: search email addresses

GroupHigh

GroupHigh is another premium service to help you find influencers. Although the focus is on blog influencers, GroupHigh can also help you find influencers on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Its database contains more than 15 million blogs, while its social media databases are a little smaller. To find influencers, you can search for entire blogs or specific content items. And you can also filter by:

• Network
• Location
• Advertising networks used
• And many other options …

Then you can add these influencers to a list. Although GroupHigh does not offer automated streaming services like NinjaOutreach, it includes a CRM to help you manage the people you are connected to. It also includes content tracking and engagement to see if your mentions are effective. While the main service is premium (you need to schedule a demo to get pricing), they have posted lists of free influencers so you can see the type of results that GroupHigh is able to generate.

Supported platforms: Blogs (mainly), Twitter, Instagram, YouTube 

Dovetale

Dovetale is a “real-time analysis to develop your brand”. And while not all of this analytics focus on influencer research, Dovetale offers two interesting ways to find influencers related to your brand. First, it has a standard module to discover where you can search for influencers using keywords, and then filter them with i.e. total reach and location.

Most other tools can already do it for you. But the real added value at Dovetale is its Monitor function. This feature lets you track your competitors and see which influencers interact with them. From there, you can quickly add one of these influencers to your own list or post more information about them to see if they could be “better suited” to your brand. Once you have leads, Dovetale helps you manage them with lists. Another nice feature you will not get with many other tools is “Payments”. If you’re doing paid influence marketing, you can manage payments and collect banking information directly from the Dovetale interface. Dovetale starts at $ 199 a month, which can be a bit high for solo bloggers.

Supported platforms: Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter 

ContactOut

ContactOut is a simple browser extension that helps you find email addresses and phone numbers of anyone on LinkedIn at a 97% accuracy rate.
It works above LinkedIn and It provides contact information of a linkedIn user in a matter of seconds such as Email addresses (both personal and working email) phone numbers and social media account (Twitter, Instagram and etc)

Contactout offers 50 free credits per month by default, pricing is set on bulk the higher the credits to purchase the lower the price to be paid, plans start from $19

How to Get Subscribers on YouTube Fast?

1. Face your channel

It is very important to face in your YouTube channel, even more, if you want to get subscribers. Be yourself. People do not look for a superhero. Only ordinary people wanting to share interesting things.

2. Customize the look and feel of your channel

First of all, you have to show a little consideration with your audience. If a new visitor comes to your channel and what you find is the default look and feel of YouTube, you will think that you have not made any effort to customize it. It is likely that this visit will not return, because it will take the impression that your channel is not something very worked. Link with the previous tactic and include yourself in the background photo of your channel.

You can also optimize your most outstanding videos and the ways in which they appear on your cover. Here your work will try to show the best content or at least those that usually generate more answers or more clicks among the people who visit you.

3. Publish new videos regularly

It is important that initially there is an initial content of 5 or 10 videos, and then you commit to publishing at least a couple of videos a month so that people notice that your channel is alive. It is another sign of consideration. With this, you will see that as Google does, YouTube will pay more attention to you if you show your commitment to this social network by publishing fresh and interesting content on a regular basis.

4. Encourage participation from your videos and encourage your community

Equally important is that you try to encourage participation in conversations from the video itself: ask people to leave a comment, to “like” the video if the content has seemed good, and remind him that if subscribers to your channel will never lose one of your videos again.

You will have to respond to all comments and also moderate conversations if necessary. A basic work of moderation and attention, which shows that you take care of the people who interact with you on your channel.

Views, comments and good ratings directly impact the ranking of your videos on the YouTube result page and Google. With which, really, it compensates the effort to maintain a community on YouTube and achieve good participation.