7 low or no-cost marketing techniques for startups without funding

Whilst many big name startups do receive funding, they're the exception. The startup I co-founded has never raised a penny in external funding, so in this post I share some of the low or no-cost marketing techniques we used when launching MyCurrencyTransfer.com and MyTravelMoney.co.uk. We completely "bootstrapped" our comparison business, but using some of the methods I describe here we’re now helping over 120,000 visitors per month find a fairer and cheaper deal on foreign exchange. Yes, it was exhausting in the early years. Yes, the pace of growth was infuriating at times. But would Stevan (my co-founder) and I have done it any other way? Absolutely not! In this article, we’ll share some of our startup ‘war stories’ and show you how you can also market your startup on a shoestring.

1. Build…

New data shows relative importance of different social channels on volume and quality of Ecommerce site visits

Value/Importance: [rating=4]

Recommended link: E-commerce Monetate 2013 Quarterly report

We're alerting you to this regular research from Monetate since it gives potentially useful benchmark data for Ecommerce marketers to compare themselves against. It also highlights trends such as the impact on Ecommerce sites of increasing mobile usage and the influence of social media which we focus on in this alert.

The data is based 500 million visits amongst their clients who include Ecommerce brands such as Best Buy, Frontier Airlines, Aeropostale, The Sports Authority, and PETCO.

The focus of the Q1 2013 Ecommerce Quarterly report is social media, VP of Marketing Blair Lyon explains:

'We focused this EQ on social commerce since the data show that companies have not yet cracked the code in leveraging social media to drive e-commerce traffic. We know that social…

An analysis showing how using the right calls-to-action can increase content sharing on blogs, Twitter and Facebook

Great content is naturally sharable based on the visuals or copy you use to describe it. But this latest infographic from Dan Zarrella shows how you give content a further boost to reach a larger audience by including the right type of call-to-action to encourage sharing.

This is great insight since there are big differences based on using the right CTA, particularly on Twitter… expect to see a lot more “Please RT/Like/Share” in social media. Remember you can overdo it… Please RT can look desperate if used too much… creating compelling content that is more naturally shared is still most important to shareability.

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A briefing and research on native video advertising effectiveness

Native video advertising is potentially quite controversial. The term refers to advertising that is designed to blend in with the page it is placed on. In other words, it is advertising that is trying to look like it isn’t advertising. Genius? Or just sneaky? Native video advertising is watched by viewers by choice. The power of choice over being ‘forced’ to watch is undeniable. When a viewer chooses to watch an advert the impact on branding is far more positive than when a viewer has no choice. In this article I am going to share the findings of two recent research studies into the effectiveness of native video advertising. I am going to look at the value of the findings and also raise some questions about the ethics of a native approach.

Sharethrough

Sharethrough are a native advertising platform who believe in thoughtfully integrated brand…

Multiple, lightweight interactions will rule in the 'Always-on' future of marketing

The sentiment in the headline is something that we keep seeing - that marketing is rapidly evolving - look at how much people talk about content marketing now compared to only a year ago. It's worth learning from what Paul Adams is advising on this topic;  it's from a different perspective, but with a degree of bias I might add. I'm a very big fan of his recent book, Grouped, a must-read for anyone who takes the future of web-based marketing seriously, hopefully that's you! Paul was until recently, the global head of brand design at Facebook. So hugely credible if not likely a little biased. I first read an article by him in Wired magazine and have enjoyed his articles ever since. This post by Paul on his blog is about the Future…

15 key takeaways from SMX London 2013

The recent SMX search marketing expo in London had a great range of speakers that covered a variety of topics over the two days. In this post, I thought I’d share some takeaways on common best practices described by speakers. I've grouped the best practices under three key themes explored at the conference.

From authorship to authority

As search continues to evolve, a number conditions outside of links and on-page SEO factors will begin to affect a website’s authority within the SERPs. ‘Authority’ will become an increasingly important factor and it’s vital that writers and brands claim their online identities through Google Authorship and 'rel=me' for and build trusted and respected profiles. 1. Best practices for building authority: Keep an author consistent on an article URL Verify mark-up with …

An example of using Google's Multichannel funnels reports to prove the value of digital media

There have been quite a few recent stories detailing how big brands such as Interflora have fallen foul of Google or announcing they have ‘stopped using’ digital marketing as it ‘doesn’t work’. For example,  a piece of research conducted by Ebay, led to reports in the trade press claiming that ‘PPC doesn’t work’. These stories led me to dig a little deeper into the research conducted by eBay to identify what the real story was and not what the press would lead us to believe. The test conducted by eBay in essence stopped paid search on non-brand keywords for 60 days and results indicated that on average ‘consumers do not shop more on eBay when they are exposed to paid search ads on Google’. They found therefore that Google ads did not play a role in…

New Nielsen research reviews investment and ROI from social media

Nielsen have shared some recent interesting findings from their research on Paid Social Media Advertising 2013.  500 Digital Marketing and Media Professionals were contacted by phone and email, and asked for their views and practices on social media advertising. The report concludes:

'Marketers are increasingly viewing and using paid social media advertising as an integrated tool. Social media is no longer being viewed as its own discrete medium but instead used alongside other tactics to achieve an overall, usually branding related, objective.......,

but there is a gap between how marketers would like to use the medium and the current reality. This gap is the most pronounced when it comes to measuring ROI...'

Key insights I think are worth highlighting include:

3/4 of respondents use Paid Advertising and 64% were seeking to increase spend this year.Budget spend is shifting from off-line to on-line.ROI is…

Aberdeen Research shows how content marketing is becoming more integrated into Public Relations

Value/Importance: [rating=3] Recommended Link : Aberdeen Research: Content Marketing is the new PR In March 2013, Aberdeen Research undertook research to investigate how social media has impacted PR and how companies are reacting to this, through an integrated strategic marketing communications strategy and focus on their content strategy. Their research is compiled from surveys, interviews and data analysis, from 70 end-user Marketers and Communication professionals. Aberdeen present their findings as 'Leaders' and 'Followers'. Here is our summary of two of the key takeaways and the full report can be downloaded freely from Aberdeen's website.

1. What are the aims of integrating Content Marketing into PR?

63% of respondents identified as leaders are aiming to adopt or increase their use of content marketing and 31% view it as a means to improve their brand image (build brand equity). [caption id="attachment_24232"…

A tutorial on how to use Facebook's Power Editor

If you are a regular advertiser on Facebook you really ought to be using Power Editor to create your ads rather than the standard self serve ad tool interface. Facebook's own help pages explain why. There are a number of advantages such as placements and custom audiences that you can only access via this tool. Power Editor is easy to set up since it's a Chrome Extension.

It's not the most user friendly tool imaginable but there are plenty of online help articles and videos to help you. There's also a helpful Power Editor guide to download here.

Facebook Offers

I first wrote a simple guide to Facebook Offers last September. Since then the fees have gone up dramatically, so many will be asking what can we do to reduce costs and improve effectiveness?

One answer is to create your offer via Power Editor.…