As you may already know, I am passionate about helping as many people as possible to massively boost their sales and profits. This means I’m always looking for great marketing ideas, which I can share with people – and today, I have enlisted the help of 37 amazing professionals, who are going to each give a single, short marketing tip!

What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?

My question was; “What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?” Now, the reason the following answers to this question are so focused, is that they were given by people who only had 140 characters in order to get their answer across!

Twitter

Yes, each of the answers you are about to read, were submitted by people I do not know, but who follow me via my favourite social media website Twitter.  The end result are 37 diverse and often-powerful answers, from 37 incredibly clever people, who wanted to pass on their ideas to help you and your business!

I am posting the answers exactly as they were sent, with the abbreviations etc, so you can see for yourself just how much value someone can get into such short messages!

It’s also worth considering that these answers come from a brilliantly rich group of people, from many different profiles of businesses, and this is reflected in their answers – which really helps!

I think the end result is amazing and would like to personally thank everyone who was kind enough to offer this advice here for my readers.  Obviously, I do not endorse and am not responsible for, the content of the external sites listed in this post!

After you read the answers below, see if you can offer some great advice yourself, using 140 characters, in the comments section!

So, what 1 piece of marketing advice would YOU give to a start-up business?

Here’s 37 answers in 140 characters or less!

Marketing is like a snowball. You have to keep rolling to see results. You can’t start and stop and start and stop.
Cynthia Powell www.ChicksAndCubs.com

Innovation in marketing is as much imp as innovation in product itself. think different in marketing it.
Sushrut Bidwai www.sushrutbidwai.com

Invest in the right marketing people, both leaders & executers. People w/ vision + desire / workethic to make vision happen.
Chris Hoppel Samsung www.samsung.com

Think, do you need your product to succeed or do your customers need your product to succeed?
Aronado www.LuckyStartups.com

1. I laid every biz card I had across a table, picked up the phone & started calling ea. contact.
2. Held in-person meetings to tell our story.
Lisa Cruz

Help others link to you by writing articles, link swaps, donate products for prize giveaways, send products for blog reviews.
www.MyPreciousKid.com

Take small steps toward big goals every day, don’t climb the mountain all at once or you’ll get discouraged. Discipline counts.
Juliann Grant http://blog.telesian.com

Communicate possible outcomes. Start-ups are driven with passion. Visualize potential outcomes so clients get excited.
Jeff Cook www.digitalriver.com

Don’t try do everything yourself, outsource tasks that don’t directly make you money. Ex: accounting, website design.
Kim Cornwall Malseed www.marcomink.com

Focus, focus, focus!
Lance Ulanoff Editor-in-chief with www.PCMag.com

Be clear about what you do, focus on it and be as good as you possibly can at it!
David Rosam http://dangerous-thinking.com

Establish an ad budget first thing. 5% of sales should be saved for marketing and decided upfront where to spend.
Joe Gauder http://supersonicstandstill.blogspot.com

Brand representation is every experience the customer has in affiliation with the company.
Christina Wehry www.coloradoshakes.org

Blog for SEO. Human, affordable, & allows in-bound marketing
http://blogging.compendiumblog.com

Define yourself and be true to that definition in everything you do. You cannot be “all things to all people
Kathleen Morse

Work, work some more, keep going, keep trying and be patient – take extra care of your users.
CJ Jenkins http://scienceforseo.blogspot.com

Relationships matter most. Emotional connection+status w brand. Offer MORE value that what u get. Participate in community.
Lisa de Bruin http://winedivergirl.wordpress.com

Do not compromise your fees. Charge by project, not hourly. Don’t waste money on brochures. Have a clear vision of your business/market.
Joanne Victoria www.JoanneVictoria.com

Have money and plan set aside for 2 yrs of no-to-next-to-no profit; of course aim for better and sooner
Christian Markley; www.blu3digital.com

Follow up with clients and potential clients on a consistent basis, create simple systems to maintain the follow up!
Alan Underkofler www.followupsuccess.com

My advice: Social networks do not magically bring people to your product you have to engage in the community to see any results.
Tony Colvin http://ireflectm.com

Define your niche market, stay away from paying big bucks for ads that don’t target your niche.
Denise Russos http://posolutions.wordpress.com

First marketing money should be spent on the web – highest accountability & returns.
Darryl Parker www.parkerweb.com

All action is a response to a felt need: find the need, appeal to the need at least 7 times, and offer a solution!
Bill Collier http://blog.freedomist.info

Do your research first! Make sure you have a market for your product or service. Separate your emotion from the facts.
Wendy Limauge www.businessbloggingguide.com

Make sure you know your purpose, identity & audience. 100% focus & clarity is key to success in a fragmented world.
Damien Basile www.thecauseisthehabit.com

Just get it out there. It doesn’t have to be perfect yet. Don’t let analysis paralysis set in. You can always fine tune later.
Christopher Thiede www.buildcommunications.com

Don’t overestimate your own ability to market yourself. Get an expert. Their objective view and knowledge is invaluable.
Tony Roberts www.inhumanbeings.com

Build your network, both online and in person. these are your foot soldiers, resources, etc. help them and they will help you.
Jon-Mikel Bailey www.woodstreet.com

Be honest. Under promise and over deliver.
Brian Johnson www.konnects.com

Be authentic and truly desire to help people with your business and success will come to you.
Kim Fenolio www.americasbestcompanies.com

Do NOT skimp on your web presence. Regardless what product or service you sell/provide most research begins online.
Charles Lauller www.bizzuka.com

Monitor activity and track time/resources invested vs returns. Change one aspect at a time to understand impact of the change.
Reeta Luthra www.paradoxofreality.com

Shamelessly leverage who you know to seed word-of-mouth marketing. your network is your most valuable asset
Maxine Teller http://mixtmediastrategies.com

Talk to your customer. constantly. don’t assume you have what they need. confirm it with them.
Julie Lenzer Kirk www.JulieLenzerKirk.com

There are “bug” days and “windshield” days. Be the Windshield and ready to travel lonely dirt roads to reach your destination.
Tim Hayden www.gpexperience.com

Truly love what you do or you won’t stick with it long enough to succeed!
Karalyn J. Eckerle http://cardinalpointva.typepad.com

Conclusion

The marketing tips above were sent to me within just thirty minutes of asking the original question.  This means that there are not only a lot of extremely helpful people ‘out there’ – it also shows what a great marketing and business development tool Twitter can be for your business.

OK – Now it’s YOUR turn!

In 140 characters or less, please share YOUR answer to this question;
“What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?”

I look forward to reading your replies!
.

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If you want to improve your marketing, boost sales and increase the profitability of your business; you need to understand and use the power of questions!

In marketing – questions are like gold dust because…

The questions you ask determine the answers you get!
The answers you get determine the actions you take!
The actions you take generate either success or failure.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Bob is struggling to win new clients for his business.  The mailshots he has always relied on to generate his sales leads, have slowly become less and less effective.  With very few leads, Bob is now making very few sales. So, Bob asks himself this question;

“What can I do, to make my mailshots more effective, so they generate more leads?”

The kind of answers Bob can expect might include:
“I could make a more attractive offer in the letter.”
“I could get my letters written my a professional marketing copy writer.”
“I could use a better mailing list.”

These are not bad answers – but they are answers to the WRONG question!

Bob’s problem is not the success of his mailshots! His problem is the number of sales he is making!

Bob should have asked himself a question like;

“How can I achieve a massive increase in sales and profits?”

This kind of question would lead to far more valuable answers, like;
“I could stop mailing 500 companies a month using the post and mail 100,000 companies a month instead using email.  The savings will be massive – making the cost of each sale dramatically lower and my profits far higher!”

“I could advertise my widgets in ‘The Widget Gazette’ and get my sales message in front of 200,000 widget buyers next week!”

“I could start attracting leads using pay-per-click advertising on Google / Yahoo etc!”

“I could get my widget website fully Search Engine Optimised and use an SEO company that will work on a commission basis!”

“I could do an endorsed mailing with another company; where they recommend my widgets to their clients – the results can be stunning and the cost-per-sale is very low, increasing my profits!”

The marketing power of questions

There are an almost limitless number of GREAT answers to the second, more effective question!  Each answer has the potential to solve Bob’s sales dilemma and with so many great options, it’s far more likely that he will turn his sales figures around!

If you want to make more sales or increase your profits – make sure you are asking yourself the right questions.

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