Cannot stress this enough. When we started marketing our company last month we used Peldi from Balsamiq's post as our playbook. It worked...really really well. VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, and a number of smaller blogs specific to our industry covered us before we even launched (that would be today).
I just started a blog called 30startups. I started it so that I could post reviews and announcements of startups that have recieved funding or that are just launching. It's only about a month old right now but i'm starting to see an increase in traffic. If you have a startup that you would like me to post about on my blog, I would be more than happy to, just click on "submit a startup" at the top of the page and fill out the form. It gives you guys and your startups more exposure and it gives me some great content to write about.
I don't mean for this to be spam to promote my site, I just want to let you guys know that I'm more than happy to blog about your startups
I liked this article, because rather than being a bunch of abstract advice, it just comes out and says "go to these sites, do these things," which I felt was a nice change of pace. Also, Jeff from Zferral is a great guy.
It's silly. Yes, you need a great product. But you also need great messaging and media relations work over a long period of time. You think dropbox talks about how they grew for fun? No, it's part of their marketing strategy.
I do not think they advertised much back in 1998 though. Once you get to be what google is, then sure.
I do not think twitter advertises much either. So, build it and they will come works sometimes when the product is great, but sure with advertising it works even more.
Twitter does not do any outright advertising but they put an incredible amount of time into their PR management, as well as making sure that their coverage in the news was kept high and positive all through 2009.
Their early claim to fame also was when they broadcasted the #sxsw Tweetstream in a hallway during SXSW 2007, after which their traffic launched substantially and effectively bootstrapped the service into the powerhouse it is today. They most certainly didn't sit on their asses hoping that the merits of their product would grant them traffic.
I am sure when they were looking to raise money they spent a good amount of time selling themselves, their product and getting known. This is not about spending money on advertising, rather, its about 'getting noticed.'
Cannot stress this enough. When we started marketing our company last month we used Peldi from Balsamiq's post as our playbook. It worked...really really well. VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, and a number of smaller blogs specific to our industry covered us before we even launched (that would be today).
Not to take anything away from this post, but http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2008/08/05/startup-marketing-ad... is the best free advice I've ever received.