SUCCEEDING ON THE WEB

Although the vast majority of web and mobile start-ups probably disappear without a trace, such is the magic of those who succeed, such the potential reward and so many the potential applications – that numerous young entrepreneurs, as well as more established companies backed by eager investors, continue to devote time and resources to developing new platforms and services.

Often, enthusiastic entrepreneurs, themselves keen followers of web-based technologies, are convinced that their idea will add huge value for their users – much more, than it actually does in reality. Consumers, on the other hand – a few aficionados aside – are much more time-constrained, and it is much more difficult to capture their attention and to make them believe in the product and understand what it can do for them than these entrepreneurs imagine.

TURN YOUR WEB BUSINESS INTO A FUNKY BRAND

Even once a consumer has bought your technology or signed up for your service, you still face a problem – they are very likely to use only a small fraction of its potential, or even quickly lose interest altogether. That may not matter if all you care about are trotting out artificial membership figures to hopefully naïve investors. But you will not build a “lovemark” like this – a site or service that people come back to again and again and rave about to their friends!

So what to do? The key is to make sure your business is customer, not technology, oriented.

OVERCOME ADOPTION INERTIA

Marketing a web-based or mobile service is not, fundamentally, different from marketing anything else. It does, though, present a few special challenges and opportunities. The main challenge is overcoming adoption inertia which is composed of skepticism as to the service, concerns about user data and privacy, and on-line “attention deficit”. The opportunities are afforded by the nature of the service itself, which makes online promotion channels particularly appropriate, provided they are well chosen, and provided they are appropriately complemented by a mix of other channels in the real world. In turn, online promotion has the great advantage of making it possible to begin a true dialogue with your customers – and so make sure you are meeting and continue to meet their needs.

SCHMOOZY FOX is uniquely placed to help you define and exploit this mix. We have the knowledge and the tools to:

• understand, analyze and improve your business strategy to make it more customer-oriented;

• position your brand in clear terms the customer understands;

• help you build critical user mass.

To sum it up, our strength is that as well as understanding your business, we know two things well. One, we know the online channels and techniques to help make your business a success on the Web. And two, we also use traditional marketing tools to build your online brand with a not-so-geeky customer in mind!

To learn more about the importance of strategic marketing for web start-ups, read Smart marketing is key to success on the web.