Mediaboss Marketing

On Monday morning, the first person in the United States received a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. Now images of Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, are going viral. But over the coming weeks and months, shell be far from the only person showing up in social media feeds getting inoculated.

At the dawn of the pandemic, celebrities and influencers flooded our feeds with content urging us to take preventive measures, like hand-washing, social distancing, and mask-wearing. That wasnt a coincidence: Public health leaders and campaigns strategically encouraged and recruited those with large online followings to use their platforms for good.

Now the groundwork is being laid for the same thing to happen again except this time, the mission is to convince as many people as possible to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

Recent polling shows that the number of Americans willing to get the vaccine, and to do so as soon as it becomes available, oscillates. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that more than 80 percent are willing to get the vaccine, but just 40 percent will do so as soon as they can. Pew Research Center found about 60 percent of people would probably or definitely get the vaccine in an early December survey.

Thats a significant jump from the 50 percent who said they would be willing to take a vaccine in September but it still means millions are hesitant about getting vaccinated. For the vaccine to have a large-scale impact, people dont just need to be willing to be inoculated; they have to be enthusiastic enough to seek it out (and possibly twice, if theyre getting the Pfizer vaccine, which requires a booster shot).

The global campaign to encourage Covid-19 vaccination will be unprecedented, and many institutions will have a role, including government and public health authorities. But some, including the World Health Organization, the Ad Council, and the United Kingdoms National Health Service, are already laying the groundwork for influencers and celebrities to have a hand in the process.

They say influencers could help promote positive, accurate vaccine content to a wide audience, as well as target content to individual communities. But theres also concern the campaign could backfire: One persons trusted celebrity is anothers red herring. And influencers and celebrities that encourage their fans to get inoculated will inevitably be jumping into frequently tense online discourse surrounding vaccines and exposing themselves to misinformation and online attacks from the anti-vaccine movement.

Still, these campaigns are already in the works. In the United Kingdom, where the Pfizer vaccine was rolled out in early December, the National Health Service is planning to get celebrities to encourage people to take the vaccine, with soccer player Marcus Rashford and members of the British royal family identified as optimal candidates, the Guardian reported.

Influencers can be very helpful in spreading awareness about benefits of vaccines and advocating for vaccine acceptance, Tarik Jaarevi, a spokesperson for the WHO, told Recode, in an email. WHO is working on a comprehensive campaign on immunization and Covid-19 vaccines for 2021. The organization added that the value of recruiting influencers depends on the audience, and that its not always influencers with a huge online following that have the most value.

In the US, there are many efforts meant to involve celebrities and influencers in rolling out Covid-19 vaccination. The Ad Council which famously created the wildfire prevention campaign of Smokey Bear and the 1990s AIDS prevention campaign encouraging safe sex is putting together a $50 million campaign that will rely in part on influencers to encourage people to take the vaccine. Some have even floated the idea of offering athletes and a subset of rich and famous people the vaccine early in a bid to boost confidence. Some politicians, including former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, have already said theyll take the vaccine publicly. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci has volunteered to do so on camera.

In fact, the Trump administration had planned a Covid-19 public awareness campaign on celebrities earlier this year. The federal government planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a broad marketing effort that would enlist celebrities like Dennis Quaid and Billy Ray Cyrus to counter sadness triggered by the pandemic and boost excitement for the vaccine. The plan fell apart amid Democrats concern that the ploy was actually designed to boost Trumps reelection chances. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is moving quickly to develop a new outreach campaign focused on the vaccine on a somewhat rushed schedule. A spokesperson for HHS told Recode the original plan to use celebrities has been put aside, making the influencer- and celebrity-based campaigns being developed outside the government perhaps even more important.

The virtue of recruiting influencers for this marketing effort is that not everyone cares or is even paying attention to what Fauci or other US public health authorities have to say about the vaccine. And even for those who are, repetition of that message can make getting a Covid-19 vaccine become a social norm more quickly, especially in an environment where peoples faith in official public health sources is strained, according to Sherry Pagoto, a professor who directs the University of Connecticut's Center for Health and Social Media.

To the extent that we can leverage other trusted and influential sources to get the word out, I think well have better luck at getting people to feel comfortable and have confidence in the vaccine, Pagoto told Recode.

That celebrities and influencers would have a role in promoting a Covid-19 vaccine isnt surprising. Elvis Presley famously took the polio vaccine on The Ed Sullivan Show in order to encourage other young people to do the same. And celebrities have made a significant impact on public health communications in the past. Some researchers have found, for instance, that Angelina Jolies 2013 op-ed about getting a preventive double mastectomy might have boosted genetic testing that could indicate future breast cancer.

Throughout the pandemic, a number of influencers have stepped up to encourage coronavirus safety measures. TikTok star Charlie DAmelio made a social distancing-inspired dance go viral. Kim Kardashian West arranged a private Zoom call with dozens of celebrities and Fauci to ask questions that could inform how they spoke to their own followers. Some social media influencers have even been brought on to promote flu vaccines.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams directly called on celebrities like Kylie Jenner to encourage people to take the pandemic guidelines from health professionals seriously (the reality television and cosmetics industry entrepreneur obliged in an Instagram Story sent to her 166 million followers). Actor Harrison Ford also encouraged Americans to participate in Covid-19 vaccine trials in a public service announcement.

The next phase of the Covid-19 outbreak will require sharing accurate information about vaccinations, a task that will need to be tailored to different communities. The distribution for the vaccine will be in phases based on who is most at risk, meaning that young people without preexisting conditions are likely last in line.

We know for sure that a one-size-fits-all message will not be the solution to such a complex challenge, said Michelle Hillman, the Ad Councils chief campaign development officer. We also know that a patchwork approach wont work.

Influencers will be part of the Ad Councils effort. Over the coming weeks and months, the nonprofit is laying the groundwork for a $50 million campaign to encourage Covid-19 vaccination, which the organization thinks could be one of the largest public education efforts ever run in the US. The idea is to use trusted people with large online followings to discuss vaccine safety and address misinformation.

Even though it will likely be some time before a vaccine is widely available, Hillman said the work for finding the right voices and messaging to counteract vaccine hesitancy needs to begin now.

The Ad Council is taking an approach that involves influencers, in part because it wants to tailor messaging to particular communities. The organization will even use artificial intelligence from IBM Watson to study and predict what kind of content does best with different audiences. The campaign will pay particular attention to Latinx and Black communities, in which reluctance toward taking a Covid-19 vaccine can be higher due to distrust in the government, existing health inequities, and a history of systemic racism in the US health care system.

This approach is similar to the Ad Councils #MaskUpAmerica campaign, which encouraged mask-wearing in the pandemic. So far, the nonprofits Covid-19 efforts have involved more than 120 influencers and celebrities who have pushed pro-mask content on a variety of platforms, including Twitch and TikTok.

But the Ad Council isnt alone in its focus on influencers. When a vaccine becomes widely available, Qianna Smith Bruneteau, the founder and executive director of the American Influencer Council, is planning to encourage influencers to share information about getting vaccinated. The council, which operates as a nonprofit trade organization, has already created an online resource center. In addition, Bruneteau and Patrick Janelle, the councils chair and an Instagram influencer with more than 400,000 followers on Instagram, both plan to livestream their vaccinations on the platform.

That lots of influencers will play a role in promoting getting vaccinated against Covid-19 seems inevitable, according to Tyler Farnsworth, the chief growth officer and founder of the influencer marketing agency August United. In some sense, the effort will build on influencer marketing campaigns that Farnsworths company has already worked on during the pandemic, like hand-washing content produced with a soap company.

The groundwork has already been laid for it, Farnsworth said. There is at least one state that we are actively working together with [...] on putting together a plan to activate influencers across their state to encourage the use of the vaccine. I believe many more will follow. He added that, in the past year, influencers have become more open to potentially contentious content, like political advocacy, which could make them more willing to speak about the Covid-19 vaccine.

Vaccine misinformation is showing up on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, so anti-vaccination content, and even Covid-19 conspiracy theories, will certainly impact the work that influencers can do to promote a vaccine. Earlier in the pandemic, some celebrities and political activists, including actor Woody Harrelson and the commentator duo Diamond and Silk, spread conspiracy theories about Covid-19, and theres no sign that trend will stop when a vaccine candidate is authorized in the US. Now some see a role for influencers in counteracting such messaging.

Recently, conservative commentator Candace Owens posted a video on Instagram raising skepticism about the need for a Covid-19 vaccine, and implied that people who take the vaccine are sheep. The video was flagged by Facebooks fact-checking system but was still viewed nearly 2 million times. Other longstanding anti-vaccine voices, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have remained active on social media, and theyre increasingly focusing on sowing skepticism in Covid-19 vaccine candidates.

Before the emergency use authorization arrived, Facebook and YouTube started to adjust their policies on Covid-19 vaccine misinformation, such as banning vaccine conspiracy theories and content that contradicts the recommendation of public health authorities. But these changes dont mean content thats skeptical toward such vaccines is always removed.

Public health experts have also emphasized that people are going to have worries about a new vaccine, and should have space online to ask questions and share their concerns. Those fears could be exacerbated by blatantly wrong misinformation.

We are dealing with so many people having doubts about the vaccine, said Bruneteau of the American Influencer Council. Creators can 100 percent help combat Covid-19 vaccination misinformation.

Influencers smaller, more focused accounts than celebrities with tens of millions of followers rely on clients to pay them to promote certain products. That means some influencers dont always want to post content they fear could be controversial, like politics, or even information about vaccines.

Every time I post about vaccines in general, I get just in droves people coming and attacking my page, Danielle Jones, an OB-GYN who has more than half a million subscribers on her YouTube page, told Recode. At one point in the past couple of years, I actually had to make my Instagram private, because people had gone over and just started commenting that my kids were vaccine-injured.

She added that attacks from anti-vax accounts will discourage some people from posting about Covid-19 vaccines. Still, she says she feels a duty to share the right information.

Theres no single entity responsible for encouraging vaccination. As a result, it seems like many groups including social media companies, the White House, public health experts, and even influencers need to be involved.

The hard part [is] that theres so many players who need to be at the table, and theyre all so critical that any one of them missing would possibly lead this to not work, said Carly Goldstein, a Brown University psychiatry and human behavior professor who has written about potential Covid-19 vaccine influencers.

Careful calibration is important, experts told Recode, because missteps could lead to a campaign backfiring. A government agency bringing along celebrities could actually decrease peoples trust in the governments abilities, notes Alessia Grassi, a lecturer at the University of Huddersfield. Even if a particular celebrity did manage to convince their audience, their endorsement could potentially turn off another audience.

A guide to Covid-19 vaccine communication produced at the University of Florida, in partnership with the United Nations anti-misinformation campaign, has urged public health leaders to choose the right messengers. That initiative found that celebrities on their own are not trusted sources of Covid-19 information.

That might indicate that influencers themselves shouldnt get too into the scientific weeds, and should instead play a role in diverting people toward public health sources. It might also mean looking more toward influencers with a health care background. In fact, the public could likely benefit from the surge in the number of nurse and doctor influencers seen in 2019 and 2020, according to Joe Gagliese, the CEO of the influencer agency Viral Nation, which worked with the WHO to provide accurate information to influencers earlier in the pandemic.

What youll see is theres a ton of influencers that are in the health care space, and theyll generally lean toward whatever the consensus is in the medical field, Gagliese told Recode.

In fact, some of these influencers are already starting. Some physicians have posted TikToks explaining how mRNA works, which is foundational to the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines. Others, like Jones, the OB-GYN, have offered guidance on what the vaccine might mean for pregnant people. And then there are the physicians who are just sharing their excitement about the prospect of inoculation.

I cannot wait to get the vaccine, because I know it can protect me, and it can protect those around me that I care about, Jennifer Arnold, a doctor with preexisting conditions who stars in the TLC show The Little Couple and has nearly a million followers on Instagram, said.

I get excited when I am able to have any type of influence, she added. If I can help one other person to decide to get the vaccine and ultimately save a life through social media, that is phenomenal.

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Why Covid-19 vaccine ad campaigns will include celebrities and influencers - Vox.com

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robin Stevens Payes, social marketing consultant, science writer, and author of the Edge of Yesterday teen time-travel adventure series (EOY), announces the launch of the third book, Saving Time. EOY focuses on empowering girls in STEM/STEAM learning, and its latest evolution, STREAM, with the R standing for Reflection.

STEM is the fastest-growing sector in employment, increasing 28% since 2000 compared to 6% in other fields according to U.S. News & World Report/Raytheons STEM Index. However, there is a gap in the amount of U.S. college graduates with STEM degrees.

Developed in partnership with Saving Time book promotion sponsor, Acquired Data Solutions (ADS), the MASTERY program offers a unique spin on learning as a natural process. Its name comes from its core focus areas: Mindset, Arts, Storytelling, Technology, Economy and You.

Saving Time takes the core principles of our MASTERY method up several notches to address the evolving, real-life needs of young people, Payes said. In adapting Leonardos special gift for seeing things in new ways to the present day, young readers are supported in navigating virtual school, distance from friends, and new social challenges to see differently while reinventing and recontextualizing their lives and futures.

About Edge of Yesterday and its Founder

Edge of Yesterday is a time travel novel series created by social marketing consultant and science writer, Robin Stevens Payes. Its interactive learning platform, and new MASTERY program, are created to pioneer a new form of engaged learning through story.

About Acquired Data Solutions (ADS)

ADS has over 20 years experience providing technology solutions for the engineering life cycle to government agencies and the commercial sector. To learn more visit https://acquireddatasolutions.com/.

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Edge of Yesterday Debuts Third Book, Saving Time; Expands Learning Resources for the Pandemic Era and Beyond - Business Wire

Saying that 2020 has been a tough one is stating the obvious. Its a year we will most definitely tell the kids about when we are grey and old. What has been most interesting, however, is the shift in advertising and social media. Strategies have done a 180 degree turn overnight, annual marketing calendars thrown into disarray and a focus on consumer behaviour has taken centre stage.

Consumers have been interacting with brands and consuming content in new ways, meaning trends that no one could have predicted have emerged and are here to stay. Audiences are also keen to be engaged and take on a creative challenge set by brands, but they also want more in return. They want to know that brands actually care and in return for this proof they will pay you with their loyalty.

With brand building being more tightly wound with brand purpose than ever before, we have taken a look at whats to come for 2021 and how brands have the opportunity to flourish in this space if they act fast.

Remixing is where user-generated content takes existing formats, ideas or templates and recreates them to express a users own personality or ideas. If you didnt at least attempt a TikTok remixing trend this year then what were you doing?

Heba Sayed, strategy leader at IBM Cloud and AI, has predicted that: User-generated content will be the crown jewel for great brands in 2021. The best pieces of content will be the ones marketers dont create, but instead facilitate. At a time where consumers lives have changed dramatically, they look to people, not brands, for inspiration about products and services that fit within their new lifestyles post Covid-19.

With TikTok and now Instagram Reels on the rise, there is a big opportunity for brands to provide audiences with the tools to chime in and create content under branded hashtags. By getting content creators to influence the consumer with a fun and engaging challenge, brands embed themselves within the creative.

As Covid really started to hit home, we saw an influx of nostalgic content. Naturally, people wanted to remember better times and connecting with positive memories helps people disconnect from their current struggles. When brands connect with that positive memory, they are then able to build an emotional relationship with the consumer. This is because when the audience feels good, they will then associate your brand with that feeling.

According to a recent study completed by Talkwalker and Hubspot, mentions of keywords on social media related to nostalgia increased from around 13m to 24.4m; an 88% increase.

A perfect example of how to do this effectively is Guccis 2020 Christmas Gift campaign. It imagines a holiday party in an office with a retro 90s setting. This example presents an event which is unfortunately nonexistent this year but still allows the consumer to feel a sense of normality with a luxurious twist. Its playful and entertaining, which currently audiences desire.

Going into 2021, brands should look to use nostalgia and emotion to engage audiences but strategies need to work around uplighting memories or escapism. Adding in loneliness or a well meet again song to the mix will not send out the message you think it will.

Socially conscious marketing will be key for 2021 and brands will have to engage more with topics such as mental health, inclusivity and justice. If they dont, they run the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Vikas Chawla, co-founder of Social Beat, DigiGrad and Influencer.in, stated: With an increased focus on well-being of self and society, the relevance of brands giving back to society and environment has never been higher. Audiences are also connecting more with brands that have a cause or stand for initiatives that they relate to and this trend is going to grow even further in 2021.

Messaging will need to focus on the brand's mission statement to really gain consumer loyalty and this will need to be delivered with authenticity to effectively connect with younger audiences.

Overall, its clear that consumers care and are starting to be a lot more vocal about their wants and needs from brands. Brands need to go above and beyond to make an impact moving forward and based on a poll by Forbes in 2019, 88% of consumers want to support brands that have social causes aligned with their end product or service.

According to GWIs Connecting the Dots report, 72% of consumers said companies behaving sustainably was more important to them because of Covid-19. The pandemic really put brand purpose to the test and consumers expect more than just large donations or prosaic statements. Consumers want to see that brands actually care. Therefore, businesses looking to grow need to align with their customers values in ways that are authentic and sustainable.

A brand that really stuck out this year was KFC and the quick U-turn it had to make after the pandemic butchered its original campaign idea. After months of working on a 2020 strategy, the whole thing was scrapped because of its slogan, Finger Lickin Good. Unfortunately, that message in 2020 was just not going to do. The iconic slogan was replaced with a tongue-in-cheek strategy that gave the creative an uplifting twist thanks to messages like: That thing we always say? Ignore it. For now. And: Wash fingers thoroughly before lickin.

It even set audiences a challenge through influencers, asking them to come up with a temporary replacement. What was so great about this activation was that no matter where you were in the world the message still applied, unifying everyone. Brands are expected to think fast in order to avoid backlash and this will still be expected moving forward. Consumers are looking for that support from brands through these tough times.

With January creeping up on us there is a clear understanding that the consumer is king. Tacky I know, but with a looming mental health crisis and 31% feeling like they are able to turn to social media for help with their mental wellbeing (GWI), brands need to think about the type of message they are putting out in the world more than ever. And as KFC has proved, the strategy might change but there is a serious opportunity to rise above the rest and build loyalty like never before.

Ellie Owen, strategy manager at Tailify.

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The trends that will dominate the social space in 2021 - The Drum

After a rough year for the tech industry, things are starting to look up.

In Q1 2021, tech businesses are likely to see a slow movement back towards normal levels of demand but maybe not full economic recovery. Your business will likely still have to cope with lower levels of consumer and business confidence, a weakened economy and the knock-on effects of a strained supply chain, making tech sales more challenging.

In IT, for example, Gartner predicts sales growth over 2020 but still a lot less demand compared to what we saw in 2019.

These eight tips will help any business improve their tech sales in Q1 ahead of the full recovery that economists continue to predict will start sometime in early or mid-2021.

Old strategies of B2B marketing cold-calling, networking events and impersonal email blasts arent as effective as they used to be. Now is the time to take advantage of virtual sales processes wherever you can.

Taking an omnichannel approach to sales prospecting and using all the data you have at your disposal can provide you with a real competitive advantage.

Right now, B2B customers, just like consumers in general, want marketing that is more personalized and more tailored to their particular needs and tastes and a major portion of B2B marketers believe theyre not doing enough to personalize their marketing efforts.

Adopting sales strategies like email campaigns that take into account client preferences, targeted advertising and digital events may be necessary if you want to find success in 2021.

With resources tight, inefficient processes can be a major pain point for B2B clients. Tools that help clients and individual customers get more done may be especially appealing right now.

When advertising, it may be a good strategy to emphasize how your products can boost customer efficiency allowing them to do more with less.

What businesses dont have right now is a lot of slack. With demand down and the labor market unpredictable, many companies are working with limited staff who may still be adjusting to team collaboration in the era of working from home (WFH).

The pandemic isnt going to last forever but shifts in business workflows and consumer preferences tend to stick around well after a crisis ends. There are already some signs that businesses will continue to offer work-from-home options and that workers who transitioned to remote work earlier in the year may continue to work from home, even once its safe to return to the office.

Improving support for remote collaboration may be a solid long-term strategy even if lockdown measures are lifted in just a few months.

The new year means a fresh start and a great opportunity to take another look at your pricing structure.

During Q1, you may want to take quick stock of your sales data and see if your current pricing model works for your customers. You can use metrics like plan-by-plan conversion rates to see which plans are selling and which ones dont grab the interest of potential customers.

If your clients tend to gravitate towards one plan, leaving others behind, that may be a sign that you should reorganize or simplify how you price your services.

Maybe customers pick your cheapest or most expensive service, with just a handful opting for middle-tier options. Simplifying your pricing structure could help make the buying process a little smoother without limiting customers options.

You may also find that it makes more sense to price based on use, charging by how much support or resources a client needs.

The right changes can go a long way in helping customers find the plan that fits their needs.

Your business can also take advantage of new sales automation tech to improve internal workflows.

Chatbots and various new sales automation tools can make it easier for your sales reps and customer service agents to handle requests potentially giving them more time to spend on the complex problems that require full attention and creative thinking.

Even simpler robotic process automation (RPA) software can go a long way in managing repetitive tasks and freeing up your administrative staff for work that requires a human touch.

Business growth doesnt always mean new customers. Current clients are just as important to growing revenue as new clients and because you already have an existing relationship with them, it can be more efficient to sell new products directly to them.

Depending on the product range you sell, it may be better to focus on cross-selling to existing clients in some cases, rather than pursuing new clients.

No matter how slow your Q4 was, marketing will continue to be key to business success. You may not necessarily want to increase marketing spending, but you definitely dont want to cut your current ad budget.

If you find that your current marketing spend isnt helping your business grow, its a better idea to optimize rather than reallocate funds. Adopting new marketing methods that have proven effective during the pandemic like social marketing, word-of-mouth marketing and even influencer marketing may be a good strategy for optimizing your budget and boosting sales.

As companies move more and more of their data to the cloud, cybersecurity has become an even more important topic for tech businesses.

If youre holding on to customer data or helping companies manage transitions to the cloud, you and your sales reps should be able to answer some basic questions about data security. If prompted, its good to be able to tell customers what youre doing to ensure data is protected from hackers and cybercriminals.

2021 is likely to be a lot more normal than 2020. However, tech businesses may still be in for a few rough months.

Companies wanting to boost sales in Q1 should play to the challenges of the moment. If your products can solve pain points related to business productivity and work-from-home woes, you may have a real valuable selling point to lean on.

Updates to pricing structures and the use of efficiency-boosting sales tech can also help you drum up some additional revenue and build stronger relationships with clients.

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How to Improve Your Tech Sales in Q1 2021 - TechSpective

You have just raised your first funding round and you have to spend a part of it on marketing. Defining the right marketing strategy, identifying the most effective tactical activities and communication channels is not easy, but the choices you make will have a crucial impact on the future of your startup.

As a marketing professional with a hands-on experience in B2B and B2C, I have observed many startups that make a lot of marketing mistakes right from the start. While these companies were from various industries, ranging from ecommerce to digital health, they often share common pitfalls.

Learning about these missteps can help you better navigate your business activity and guide your team during the uncertainty associated with the early days of the startups scaling so lets take a closer look.

It is crucial to set well-defined business goals that you want to accomplish by implementing certain marketing activities. These goals should be specific to a particular startup, with an explicitly-stated timeline, and have achievable metrics.

Some founders, especially those coming from an engineering background, are often confused about connecting the dots between the precise features of a technical product and intangible creative ideas.

They spend the majority of their time building a product, launch it by putting a significant budget into multiple promotional activities, and realize that they dont know how to evaluate their effectiveness.

Thats why getting marketing advice in advance becomes tremendously important.

As a founder, discuss the value offering with a marketing expert, identify the way you will communicate this value to your target audience, and prepare an actionable plan to deliver it. While it may seem a bit challenging to do at first, the derived plan will give your startup colossal leverage in the long run.

One mistake I often see in early-stage startups is zeroing in on two or three marketing activities. For example, promoting a startup on social media and obsessing over SEO.

While digital communication channels are important, especially with the soaring importance of digital marketing accelerated by lockdowns and social distancing measures, you should keep in mind that marketing is a combination of many aspects advertising, PR, sponsorships, just to name a few so dont fixate on a couple of them.

Overall, the reasons for this mistake are diverse. Sometimes, chosen activities are the most familiar and/or the easiest to implement if a startup doesnt have a full-time marketing employee. Another explanation is that some founders rush to repeat the activities which are successfully pursued by their competitors. Either way, becoming attached to a limited set of actions is not the best approach.

To avoid this and to make sure that you arent wasting your marketing budget on irrelevant activities, try to conduct profound research beforehand, and get a diverse set of opinions relevant to your unique situation.

I often hear from entrepreneurs that they just need help with marketing but cant state precisely what exactly they need help with.

Is it writing an annual marketing plan with a detailed description of all activities throughout the year? Or is it running digital marketing campaigns? Or maybe, its overseeing the whole marketing function: from brand building to performance in digital channels?

Thats why identifying the underlying goal and writing a job description for a marketing position with regards to this goal is vital. For example, hiring a social media manager and expecting them to do everything related to marketing is destined to fail.

On the flip side, hiring a huge team of marketing professionals can be too costly for an early-stage company with a limited budget. Startups can mitigate this either by recruiting an experienced marketer with a diverse experience or by outsourcing particular marketing activities to external contractors.

I often witness two diametrically opposed situations. In the first case, founders do not want to hire young people with little experience, but cant afford prominent experts. In this case, I recommend looking not only at the resume but also at the potential of an applicant. Sometimes young marketers strive to grow and can bring fresh ideas to the company that is not visible from the inside.

In the second case, founders hire very qualified and well-known marketers, often from international corporations who are used to working in a completely different environment.

Diverse functionality in marketing, lack of clear guidelines, myriads of challenges that a startup encounters all of this can cause a panic for people who are used to corporate processes. In this situation, you should discuss with the candidate whether she or he is ready for a radical change in their working rhythm and functionality.

In fact, if you want to work with a particular marketer, you can try to invite her or him as an external expert and advisor.

Some founders are strongly convinced that they understand what is needed to be done by marketing people. As a result, they state the required plans and metrics without an objective assessment and a preliminary discussion with marketers.

However, marketing professionals should be involved as early as possible and actively participate during every stage of the startup lifestyle. Ideally, contact marketers even before building an MVP because they can help better understand the needs and wants of your potential customers, identify the strengths of a product or service, and point out its weaknesses.

By conducting market research, in-depth interviews, and customer surveys, marketers can find possible ways to enhance a prototype, prepare a set of best-suited measures to launch a product or service, as well as provide active support in subsequent promotion, aligning the latter with a business development strategy.

Ive encountered situations when there is a ready-to-launch product and founders want to advertise it, so they hire a marketer. However, when they start to analyze the situation, hidden drawbacks become visible. They can be diverse: from identifying the wrong target market, to the unclear positioning and value proposition.

Well, a marketer can deliver a project they were hired for, but the underlying issue will remain untreated and eventually negate the short-term gains from the project implementation. So, in order to save resources, time, and energy, you should talk to marketers early on.

Finally, it is vital to put marketing as one of the core functions, not merely a supporting one. The stakes and expectations are high for early-stage companies. Every wrong step can make a drastic negative consequence on your business.

By avoiding these mistakes and putting time and effort into building the right marketing, you can leverage the level up in the playing field and streamline startup growth.

Published December 15, 2020 07:00 UTC

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4 marketing mistakes early-stage startups make and how to avoid them - The Next Web