When Describing Your Startup as “Uber for X” is a Big Mistake
While using an existing product to help describe your own might seem like a great shortcut, it comes with a lot of risk.
Messaging
7 Steps to Better Startup Value Propositions
Marketing messages and value propositions are notoriously difficult to create for startups. Startup founders have a tendency to focus too much on features and not enough on the value those features deliver. They also often spend too much time talking about features that don’t really differentiate them from their competitors or are simply irrelevant for …
A Value Proposition Worksheet
Crafting great value propositions is a critical marketing job but creating them isn’t easy. This template helps capture the necessary inputs and assumptions.
Startup Marketing: Does the Competition Matter?
Prospects are evaluating your solution against alternatives (which may not be products) and communicating how you are better than those alternatives is a key part of great startup marketing.
Lipstick on the Enviropig: A Tale of Messaging and Manure
If you tell people something is great and make sure not to talk about any of the risks or downsides of your product people will believe you, right?
Lousy Marketing Messages: 5 Causes and Solutions
There are so many examples of bad marketing messages out there yet some companies seem to effortlessly create great one. Why is that?
Do Not Build Startup Messages for Your Grandmother
The cliche of creating marketing messages for a fictitious clueless non-technical person isn’t just annoying, it’s dumb.
Your Startup Tagline is Anti-Social
Most startup marketing folk seem to love taglines. Practically every web page I see has some version of the classic three-word tagline. As a marketer I appreciate the focus on distilling down the essence of what you do to its most simple form. As a human being however, I hate taglines. I’ve written about why …
Should Your Messaging Use Your Competitor’s Terminology?
Should you describe your market the same way your competitor’s do or try to come up with new terms that help you to differentiate what you do?
Startup Messaging: Should You Differentiate Against Your Competitors?
Should you bother to position your product against your competitors? You should. However, be aware that both how you accomplish that and who you are positioning against isn’t always obvious.