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Marketing Strategy: What are the best ways to generate traffic or ways to reach to the customers you are looking for as a startup?
DM
DM
Dan Martell, SaaS Business Coach, Investor, Founder of Clarity answered:

It really comes down to 2 major buckets.

1) CONTENT / INBOUND MARKETING

Some people consider this option free, but it's not. Time is money, and it requires an major investment to do it right. The options are:

- Company blog
- Guest post on other blogs
- Engage on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
- Press
- Videos on YouTube
- Create a free App (web or mobile)
etc ...

This strategy is all about create amazing content/information/tools for your customers. Think about their major questions they have for your industry, and answer them. Even consider teaching them everything you know about your industry. Doing so will attract them, and make you look like an authority.

I've done this with my past 2 companies Flowtown (300K U/V), and Clarity (40K U/V) blogs.

Each of the items mentioned above have a unique strategy and tactic .. so best to pic the one you'd be most excited about creating, and do just that one with all your resources.

2) PAID MARKETING

Paid means using advertising to introduce your company to potential customers. Some options you have:

- Google Adwords
- Facebook Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Bing Ads
- Banner Ads
etc ...

The only way I would suggest paid marketing is if you truly understand your customer LTV (Lifetime Value). If you don't know that, then you could be wasting money attracting views to your startup that aren't profitable. So be sure to have a product / service that makes profit, then you can test different paid marketing channels.

My rule of thumb, is it'll cost your $200 to get 1 new paying customer (on avg.), so unless you're making $600 profit from a new customer, don't both for now.

If you need to discuss further, you know how to find me.

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