Marketing tips for startups that bootstrapped their way to success

When building your startup, you have two options; raise funds or bootstrap. The business plan way of raising money for your venture still has its place. However, intense competition among startups makes raising funds a long shot for most entrepreneurs.

For the most part, you will be better off bootstrapping your startup until you have some traction to raise the eyebrows of keen investors. Marketing can make or break your startup.

Establish Networks & Connect

Prepare a list of professionals to connect with them, dig-out your full resources to get a contact detail of professionals. The best source is internet where you will find bunch of professionals.  Join relevant groups on LinkedIn, YCombinator, and Reddit to connect with people that can help you. Conferences are also great; just attend the right ones.

Get Customer Input

Get feedback for your product before you build it. Interview your prospective customers to determine their problems. Then, provide different solutions and identify the ones the prospects seem to favor. Finally, ask the prospects if they will be willing to pay for the solution.

Listen to Customers

Listen to the needs of your customers. Use your customers to determine what to provide and how to provide it. Before you make a full offer, test the waters with your customers and let them drive your offer and marketing strategy.

Use Partnerships

Use partnerships to grow your business. When promoting your startup or product, identify other people in your space that can help you get the word out. Partnering with an established company can help to build credibility for your startup.

Use Influencers

Identify a number of key influencers in your industry and form a good relationship with them. Focus your efforts in building a relationship with influencers that have followers and that can market your startup to the right audience.

Trending Topics

Generate buzz for your startup by riding on the coattails of a currently trending “hot topic.” 99designs used this strategy to create buzz on their startup. When GAP unveiled a logo design, which was heavily criticized on the web, 99 designs took advantage of the happening with a crowdsourcing competition to show what its community can deliver.

Use Email

Use email to reach your prospects. There are many cost-effective email solutions that will work for your startup. MailChimp has a free plan that allows sending emails to up to 12,000 subscribers per month. If you can invest in paid email solutions, you can set up autoresponders and run more elaborate email campaigns.

Use Video

Many startups tend to forget the power of video. YouTube is a must if you are bootstrapping your business. Video can not only build your brand, but also get subscribers and visitors to your website. Sevenly.org leveraged YouTube to generate over 40,000 unique visitors in less than 30 days.

 Focus on Benefits

People always buy the benefit, not the feature. Do not lose sight of your business value proposition. You do not have to be better, different or expensive in the market. What matters is how you frame the differences in terms of the benefits, associated risks and value that resonate with your customers.

Cold Calling

Do not be afraid to do cold calling. If you have a great product that will be useful to your target market, call people and ask them to use it. Liam Martin got initial traction for his business through cold calling.

5 Indian Women Who Are Disrupting the Startup World

1. Anisha Singh of MyDala

Anisha Singh started MyDala in the year 2009, is one of India’s largest coupon provider website.

Well she has a solid background, she holds a masters degree in political communication and MBA in information systems from American University. Earlier she also worked for Clinton Administration for raising funds aiding women entrepreneurs.She ran a startup of 400 people, could do 30 push-ups, had two twins and still had so much energy left in her.

2. Radhika Ghai Aggarwal for ShopClues

Radhika is Co Founder and CMO of ShopClues one of the India’s largest shopping sites named Shop Clues. Radhika Ghai Aggarwal

Radhika is a product right from Silicon Valley. She started this site from there and before this she was a fashion blogger.

Shop Clues has over 8 million visitors per month.

                                                      

3. Upasana Taku from MobiKwik

Upasana Taku Upasana Taku is a co founder of MobiKwik online mobile phone top up website. She is also founder of Zaakpay a payment company that deals with ecommerce websites.

As far as her educational qualification is concerned she is B.Tech from NIIT, MS in management science & engineering from Standford University.

4. Sabina Chopra of Yatra.com

Sabina Chopra Sabina is co founder of Yatra.com a well known travel portal. She had exposure in travel industry hence it made easy for her starting a travelling website.

She worked for Europe’s leading online travelling company then she also worked for Japan Airlines before launching Yatra.com.

5. Neeru Sharma of Infibeam.com

Neeru_Sharma Neeru is co founder of another famous ecommerce portal named Infibeam.com. Neeru has worked for Amazon USA in corporate development and media retail.

As far as her educational qualification goes she holds a MBA degree from Carnegie Mellon and Engineering degree in computer science.

India rejects Google Street View over security concerns

Google's Street View service, which uses 360-degree cameras on cars, tricycles, boats and more to provide high-quality panoramic views of streets across the world, has hit a roadblock in India.

The country's Home Ministry has rejected Google's plan to collect images around India, citing security implications, The Hindu reports. The government is concerned that Google's service can disclose sensitive defence installations. Furthermore, it says its inability to monitor Google's service once it is green-lit as "detrimental to national security."

The report claims that Google's proposal was rejected by the Indian government in February after aterror attack at the Pathankot Air Force Station. Seven people, including three security forces personnel, were killed in the gun battle. Investigators believe that terrorists used Google's mapping service to locate the airbase.

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As of today, Street View can be used in India to explore select monuments. Users can experience 360-degree panoramas of wonders such as the Taj Mahal, Humayun's Tomb, the Red Fort and the Gateway of India, but coverage of regular streets -- as you find in most western countries -- remains unavailable.

The feature would be another selling point for Google's suite of services in India, where internet-related markets are growing rapidly. Other tech juggernauts, such as Apple and Amazon, are also looking at expanding their businesses in the country.

It appears Google has already requested that the local government reassess the matter. According to a separate report, the Indian government says it will reconsider Google's request for Street View access after its 2016 Geospatial Information Regulation Bill is cleared by parliament.

"All such issues will be sorted out after the bill comes into being," Kiren Rijiju, minister of state for home affairs told the Hindustan Times. The bill's draft states that it will be mandatory to get permission from a government authority before "acquisition, dissemination, publication and distribution" of geospatial information in India.

This is not the first time Street View has ignited controversy. Since its limited launch in India in 2011, the navigation service has caused many to worry about privacy and security. The same year, city police in the Indian IT hub of Bangalore had ordered Google to suspend Street View. In 2013, Survey of India had filed a complaint against Google with Delhi police for hosting its Mapathon content.

Ola launched Ola Operator a new B2B app for fleet owners

Online taxi hailing firm Ola introduced ‘Ola Operator’- a first of its kind mobile technology solution with its new ‘Ola Operator’ app – built for entrepreneurs who have grown from one car to many on the Ola platform over the years, as well as operators who own cars, but employ drivers, to work on the platform.

With this launch, Ola aims to add tens of thousands of new Operators onto its platform, including driver-partners who have turned entrepreneurs, operators in the business of transportation, as well as aspiring first-time entrepreneurs who would like to be part of the mobility ecosystem with minimal time commitment.

“Ola Operator has been built for entrepreneurs who have grown from one car to many on the Ola platform over the years, as well as operators who own cars, and employ drivers,” Anand Subramanian, the senior director of marketing communications at Ola told reporters.

“We expect this initiative, and our other recent initiatives to help Ola double its fleet size from 4.5 lakh, in the near-term. While we haven’t set a target, we are adding at least 1,200-1,300 cars everyday, and expect to grow exponentially with this initiative,” he added.

The app will help operators conveniently track the location of each one of their registered vehicles, in real-time as well as receive live alerts on their running status. Operators can monitor log-in details, daily earnings, and performance, all from a single window in real time. The app dashboard will display details on the Operator’s current balance, total number of rides completed and earnings with break-up in cash and online payments made for selected period with detailing at a vehicle and driver-level. The app will also act as a repository for requisite documents such as vehicle registration, insurance and license of appointed drivers, amongst others.