In the old software world, sales were the competitive advantage. At this point in time, we are living in a world of product-led growth, where engineers (as well as the software they have built) are the biggest differentiator. If your customers love what you’re building, you’re headed in the correct direction. If they don’t, you’re not.
However, even the most profitable product-led growth companies will get to a tipping point, because no matter how good their product is, they’ll need to figure out how to expand their customer base and then grow from a start-up into a multi-billion-rand revenue enterprise.
The answer is the hamburger model. Why call it that? Because the best go-to-market (GTM) strategies for start-ups are like hamburgers:
- The bottom bun: Bottom-up GTM.
- The burger: Your product.
- The top bun: Enterprise sales.
Other Start-Up Marketing Strategies
Send Emails
Email marketing is a crucial strategy for attracting customers to your start-up for absolutely little or no cost. When you have a prospect or customer’s email address, you will be able to send him or her emails to promote your start-up.
In order to take advantage of this marketing strategy, you need to first collect prospects’ email addresses. If you require a site for your start-up, consider placing a newsletter sign-up form on it. Instead, you can ask customers directly for their email addresses.
The very important thing to remember is that you need to diversify your emails with non-commercial content such as guides, how-to articles, videos and infographics. If you just send advertorial emails, subscribers will probably opt out of receiving your newsletter.
