Communication and strategy in the business world are key, as any situation that involves money on the line can be challenging. Successful entrepreneurs can see problems from different perspectives, and always keep up on new terms. It’s easy to get so busy with budgeting, marketing, and future strategy that you can miss out on changing trends and strategies.
The very best entrepreneurs may not be experts at everything. However, they can wear many hats and speak many languages. Financing, programming, designing, marketing, and business development are all areas that require a good deal of expertise to master. Terms such as “Pitch deck”, “SaaS”, and “Unicorn” are all examples of startup terms that come from a specified facet of the business. The following are a few terms that anyone within the realm of business startup should be familiar with.
Founder: Anyone can create a URL and deem themselves a worthy founder. A successful one is a true doer, who makes an impact and is excellent at following through on promises.
Wantrepreneur: A wantrepreneur is an idea person. Whether their background is in tech or not, they sometimes have issues completing tasks. They could be stuck in various stages of obtaining investment, developing, or fully getting the ball rolling. Many wantrepreneurs unwittingly stay in this category of non-committal limbo.
Validation: This is the metric that is all about proving the need and demand for your product. One of the strongest validation signals is when your customer pays for the product, and then recommends it to others with similar interests.
Accelerator: If you are launching a startup, accelerators can help you with moving your idea quickly. They provide you with fundraising, mentorship, and other opportunities during a program over months.
Unicorn: Only a small number of startups ever reach and bypass a billion-dollar valuation. These startups are called unicorns.
Dragon: There’s an even smaller number of startups that raise over one billion dollars in one fell swoop of funding. These are called dragons, with Uber being a viable example.
Disruption: Any investor who is asked what a startup’s good qualities are will have a few very important words about their founder. If they have aimed to create business models and products that spark change in the world, they firmly stand out. This term is not negative, as it depicts those who exemplify above and beyond traits.
SaaS: One of the most common startup business models of today offers software as a service. You can create a product with features that customers need a subscription to enjoy. This is similar to the practice of charging a monthly fee for hosting or email marketing.
Pitch Deck: Before anyone parts with money, the investors anticipate a quick presentation that highlights the startup’s key traits. Product specs, target market, plan, and traction all are relevant details. Entrepreneurs will create and use these for their presentation to potential investors.
Here are a few other definitions of strategies that provide an outside-the-box approach to success!
Guerilla Marketing:
Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional, low-cost marketing strategy designed to obtain maximum exposure when resources are low. Some of the best ways to accomplish this are through campaigns with the type of pull needed to render viral attention. Extreme creativity and the element of surprise both works here. One of the most famous examples of guerrilla marketing is the Blair Witch Project, which came with a documentary and “missing person” posters.
This strategy was instrumental in helping the film achieve box office success with a very tiny budget. Finding ways to capture attention is the name of the game, and guerilla marketing is a bit different from sensationalized and streamlined copy. While not an all-in “choose-your-own” form of communique, it still encourages creativity. The skateboarding industry, photographers, and even food brands have been able to put this tactic to use.
Dark Social:
Dark social refers to the sharing of content that cannot be tracked through traditional analytics. Private channels such as messaging apps, invite-only social groups, and other overlooked entities abound. The traditionally high-ranking and common places such as Facebook and Instagram are not where this activity takes place! Even though a significant portion of your potential audience can be difficult to track, 32% of users share content only through these mysterious channels.
Apps such as Snapchat and WhatsApp flow into a “direct” channel, which includes visits from users who type the URL into their address bar. This leads many marketers to believe that social traffic in Google Analytics is only allowing users to see a small part of the shared picture. Using tools such as UTM parameters in your URLs can provide insight into traffic sources and identify patterns within this practice. Services such as Bit.ly offer both link shortening and tracking, which enable you to have a much clearer indication of how much secret sharing from your channels is taking place.
The Chasm:
This term refers to a gap between very early adopters and the first stages of a technology adoption lifecycle. For many startups, crossing the chasm is necessary to gain attention in mainstream circles. Tesla was highly appealing to early adopters by curating value for an early majority. This is an exciting occurrence that consists of five different groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards.
The space between the early and mainstream markets is the chasm where all-around sales can reach a plateau. Audiences who are very up-to-date on events such as product launches within a given industry tend to be very savvy. Strategies to cross the chasm involve a thorough understanding of how the product has served the mainstream market. Mainstream audiences have completely different expectations than early adopters, which demands a very creative messaging approach. The technology adoption lifecycle calls for the adoption of products that are sometimes unfinished.
Evangelists:
Evangelists are customers of the absolute most enthusiastic type! They are willing to tell others how great your product is with haste. Their value lies in their endorsement style, which is very authentic, and how effective it can be at influencing others. The Apple brand has been heavily promoted by evangelists, who are always sharing their positive experiences. Many CEOs dream of having unpaid marketers who are passionate, as they can quickly boost a brand’s reputation.
For hungry and eager founders, the skill of nurturing evangelists can lead to very positive bursts of growth. When customers feel rewarded, they can become very vocal ambassadors. Even a very well-thought-out marketing plan may not possess quite the impactful reach of these individuals! This is the kind of effect that well-executed TV commercials from eras such as the 1970s accomplished. Once any customer tells others that your product had a positive effect on their life, you can scale the competition by leaps and bounds.
From Viable to Victorious: Strategic Positioning for Startup Founders
These strategies sometimes need an extra boost from an expert to steer us in the right direction! At Farfetched Studios, every brand is an opportunity to shine and develop success. There’s nothing we love to take on more than the challenge of harnessing growth. Contact us today to clue us into your future blueprint and become a well-earned notch above ordinary.