How to write a one-sentence value proposition
Say what you save the customer in one sentence, before the features. The bottom-line test an early-stage investor uses, and the buyers who quietly walk away.
Startup positioning and the offer
Most marketing problems start with the offer: what you sell, who it is for, and why anyone would switch. The offer, the message, and trust before a launch.
Start with the one-sentence value proposition: name the money you save the customer or the profit you add, in one sentence, before any feature. Orlie Gruper of Mobilitech Capital tests it against a slide that shows the company in three icons. If you have replaced the marketing people and the numbers still will not move, treat it as a product problem and check whether the same pitch closes the same kind of customer across your last few deals. And before you hire a marketer, put about $100 of ads behind a bare landing page and watch who tries to buy.
Trust comes next. The founder should be the face of the company early, then build it to run a full quarter without them. Bridgewise won Japan's stock exchange and Rakuten Securities with a few long dinners for about ten real decision-makers, not a launch campaign. Where a regulator stands between you and the buyer, keep the CEO where the market is: Talor Sax of eHealth Ventures says meeting the US regulator in person saves two years over email.
The cheap moves come last: one plain benefit, said loudly, in a category the incumbents stopped defending, a guerrilla stunt built on your sharpest difference, a return policy generous enough to be the pitch, and the unpaid reaction that tells you the timing is right.
Is it a marketing problem or a product problem?
Replace every marketing hire you like, and a product the buyer does not want still will not sell. How to tell the two apart, and the test to run first.
Do you need to talk to customers before hiring a marketer?
No, but someone has to. Put a landing page behind a hundred dollars of ads before you hire, read who tries to buy, and know where the cheap test stops.
Should the founder be the face of the startup?
A founder whose first company collapsed when she left on why you have to be the face early, the point where that turns into a risk, and how to build past it.
How to build trust with enterprise clients in a new market
Enterprise buyers in a new market already know your field. A few small, hours-long executive dinners with the real decision-makers beat any launch campaign.
How to make a boring product go viral in a dull category
A boring category run by lazy, high-margin incumbents is an opening, if you say one plain benefit loudly. What Dollar Shave Club got right, and the test.
How a startup does guerrilla marketing on a budget
The stunt is the easy half. Dramatize your sharpest difference cheaply, the way one startup mailed bitten iPhones at the 30% app-store cut, then broadcast it.
Turn your return policy into a marketing strategy
A return policy can outsell a campaign when the product backs it. How a six-month wear-and-return offer became a store's whole marketing, and how to copy it.
Should a founder move to their target market?
Prove a product at home and the target market still won't buy on trust. Put the CEO where the market is; with a real gatekeeper, presence can save years.
How to tell if the timing is right for your startup
The clearest signal this early is an unpaid reaction that amplifies itself, the way a Reddit thread once did for Honey, well before your metrics can say.
Tell me what stopped working
I help seed and Series A founders run their marketing, week by week.