Loading...
Answers
MenuI am from the OLD school ( age 65) and I wish to learn how to adopt my ideas to the new thinking I am finding here how best can that be accomplished?
I have read a few of these questions and find I also had the same questions. Age is really not relevant being 65 myself but I realize that often a team of professionals and those that will mentor are priceless. Myself I have skills and knowledge but it is all based on OLD school experience and this is new and exciting. I have two marketing ideas for products and services that I have been developing over the last three years using OLD school techniques and now I wish to learn how to adopt to the new thinking I am finding here how best can that be accomplished?
Answers
Congratulations on jumping head first into the digital age! And good for you for having the passion and enthusiasm to learn about new ways to market your business ideas.
There are plenty of free resources out there to help you learn from top internet marketing minds. Check out this list of the top 50 marketing blogs: http://inbound.org/top/blogs. I'd recommend picking a few of those to start reading. HubSpot also has an open library of free ebooks and other helpful resources for all levels of marketers: library.hubspot.com
If you'd like advice specific to your business ideas and some guidance in getting your marketing set up, I'd be happy to schedule a call with you to discuss. Best of luck!
You're in luck. The old school techniques still work, especially when it comes to marketing. To paraphrase Dan Kennedy: the underlying principles never change, the strategies rarely change and the tactics often change.
Example: the best internet marketers these days are still using the principles of direct response popularized by Claude Hopkins and Eugene Schwartz. Instead of sending sequential mailers they use autoresponders and instead of targeting ZIP codes and buying lists they target facebook interests and buy email lists.
So what you need to do is focus on learning tactics or partnering up with someone that knows about them. If you need a hand finding where to start, schedule a call with me (gratis) at https://clarity.fm/jan.roos/letstalk
Hello!
I find your initial DQ a bit broad to provide you with a laser focused approach. Marketing has definately changed but the concepts remain the same. You ought to "hit the streets" with direct and social content so that your ideas and products are accepted then you help them get adopted.
Depending on the product the marketing could change to prioritize based ROI.
Give anyone of us a call to help you out more!
Or maybe post a simpler more specific question to help you out.
Related Questions
-
How was SnapChat able to grow so quickly?
I'm answering your question assuming that you hope to be able to replicate it's own success in your own mobile app. There are a couple of factors responsible for it's growth that are instructive to anyone building a mobile app. "Leveraging the intimacy and privacy of the mobile phone." We now have an *intimate* relationship with our phone like no other device in the history of technology. Every internet company that started before around 2010 has built their core interactions around "the old web" one which was accessed primarily via a browser on a computer. Companies that start with a clean slate, should be building their interactions around how to do whatever the app is supposed to do while leveraging what is unique to people's relationship to their mobile devices. Photo-sharing has become a core part of the way we communicate now. Snapchat built something that provided an experience that leveraged the feeling of privacy and intimacy that is unique to mobile. "Provided an escape from the "maturity" of other online services." Too many parents, aunts, uncles and other "old people" have encroached into the social networks of teens and young people. As a result, they've had a desire to find places to express themselves in places inaccessible by older generations. An important distinction is that it's not just parents and relatives that young people are trying to avoid, but also employers & colleges who are increasingly using "mature" social networks to review applicants. "Leveraged PR even bad PR" The fact that the app got so much press about it being used to sext was perfect PR for the company, as it essentially reinforced the brand experience that it has today. Essentially, "if it's safe enough to send a sext, it's safe for any kind of communication I want to have." And although the safety and security of Snapchat is actually not as advertised, it still enjoys the reputation of having less impact than any primarily web-based service. Building a successful mobile application is one of the hardest challenges to face designers, programmers and entrepreneurs in the history of writing software. Happy to talk to you if you're considering building a mobile app, about what I've learned about the "table stakes" for success.TW
-
When raising money how much of equity do you give up to keep control? Is it more important to control the board or majority of shares?
It entirely depends on the kind of business you have. If you have a tech startup for example, there are pretty reliable assumptions about each round of funding. And a business plan and financial forecasts are almost totally irrelevant to sophisticated tech investors in the early stages of a company's life. Recent financial history is important if the company is already generating revenue and in that case, a twelve-month projection is also meaningful, but pre-revenue, financial forecasts in tech startups mean nothing. You shouldn't give up more than 10-15% for your first $100,000 and from that point forward, you should budget between 10-20% dilution per each round of subsequent dilution. In a tech startup, you should be more nervous about dilution than control. The reality of it is that until at least a meaningful amount of traction is reached, no one is likely to care about taking control of the venture. If the founding team screws-up, it's likely that there will be very little energy from anyone else in trying to take-over and fix those problems. Kevin is correct in that the board is elected by shareholders but, a board exerts a lot of influence on a company as time goes-on. So board seats shouldn't be given lightly. A single bad or ineffective board member can wreak havoc on a company, especially in the early stages of a company's life. In companies outside of tech, you're likely going to be dealing with valuations that are far lower, thus likely to be impacted with greater dilution and also potentially far more restrictive and onerous investment terms. If your company is a tech company, I'm happy to talk to you about the financing process. I am a startup entrepreneur who has recently raised angel and VC capital and was also formerly a VC as part of a $500,000,000 investment fund investing in every stage of tech and education companies.TW
-
What is a good scope of work for a marketing and PR department?
Build a body of work in the form of a blog. Much depends on the size and scope of your company, but branded journalism can really make a huge difference.....AW
-
How much equity is typically taken by investors in a seed round?
From my experience I would not advise you to go with Venture Capital when you're a start-up as in the end they will most likely end up screwing you. A much better source for funding would be angel investors or friends/family. The question of how much equity should I give away differs for every start-up. I remember with my first company I gave away 30% because I wanted to get it off the ground. This was the best decision I ever made. Don't over valuate your company as having 70% of something is big is a whole lot better than having 100% of something small. You have to decide your companies value based on Assets/I.P(Intellectual Property)/Projections. I assume you have some follow up questions and I would love to help you so if you need any help feel free to call me. Kind Regards, GiulianoGS
-
Does anyone know of a good SaaS financial projection template for excel/apple numbers?
Here is a link to a basic model - http://monetizepros.com/tools/template-library/subscription-revenue-model-spreadsheet/ Depending on the purpose of the model you could get much much more elaborate or simpler. This base model will help you to understand size of the prize. But if you want to develop an end to end profitability model (Revenue, Gross Margin, Selling & General Administrative Costs, Taxes) I would suggest working with financial analyst. You biggest drivers (inputs) on a SaaS model will be CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost, Average Selling Price / Monthly Plan Cost, Customer Churn(How many people cancel their plans month to month), & Cost to serve If you can nail down them with solid backup data on your assumption that will make thing a lot simpler. Let me know if you need any help. I spent 7 years at a Fortune 100 company as a Sr. Financial Analyst.BD
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.