100 Ways To Promote A Startup
By Jason Drohn • Nov 12th, 2007 • Category: Features, entrepreneursLifehacker had a link to 100 - 100 lists, along with a real nice explanation of why writing down 100 things is useful in any niche. So, I decided to take the challenge and see what I could come up with in terms of promoting a startup/product.
Please keep in mind, I am doing this off the top of my head. If number 58 has nothing to do with business, don’t hold that against me :0)
100 Ways To Promote A Startup
1) Online Newsletter
2) Google Adwords
3) Yahoo Publisher’s Network
4) 7search.com
5) Blog
6) Website
7) Free PDF
8 ) Open Source Application
9) Widget
10) Firefox Addin
11) Paid Blog Review
12) Buying of a text link ad
13) Designing a free template for a blogger
14) Purchasing ad space in someone’s sidebar
15) Doing an interview with a blogger
16) Helping out a nonprofit or a charity
17) Guest blogging
18) Offering a friend help
19) Helping out other people in your niche, competitor or not
20) Putting your logo on a tshirt
21) Designing cool-looking business cards
22) Getting the logo tattoo’d on your ass
23) Putting stickers of your logo everywhere you can (like convenience stores, parking log signs, etc)
24) Desinging logo’d mouse pads
25) Putting your company’s logo in the signiture of you emails
26) Putting your logo on your car
27) Taking out a phone book ad (although I don’t recommend it)
28) Taking out a newspaper ad
29) Giving like minded people a hook like a tshirt, pen, boxers.. something
30) Register domain names that deal with what you do.. like empowerideas.com redirects to jdsblog.com
31) Write a book
32) Become the expert
33) Establish pages on your site that focus on one niche and send traffic to them
34) Make friends with a creative expert
35) Do online PR releases
36) Post regularly on the forums
37) Comment regularly on other people’s sites
38) Play with your products price point
39) Give a trial of your product away for free
40) Offer different versions of your product, but don’t sacrifice quality or time
41) Bundle your product together with other offerings. Google Toolbar gets installed with Adobe Reader? I think not.
42) Find creative partners
43) Do CPA advertising. I don’t like it though.
44) Offer advice on the topic
45) Do non-profit work
46) Throw a convention or a get together
47) Sponsor a party
48) Sponsor a website
49) Do creative giveaways
50) Pay someone to review your product
51) Get into a magazine
52) Advertise in trade journals
53) Do cool commercials
54) Have a commercial before a movie (which are annoying as hell but that’s how Axe got their start!)
55) Offer one very good product, and expand at lightning speed (like Under Armor)
56) Realize that the Internet evens the playing field between Fortune 500 companies and your startup
57) Promote someone elses product with yours as a tie in
58) Get a list of potential customers and send them a brief letter
59) Design a 3×5 postcard and mail it out
60) Hire door to door sales reps
61) Get community input
62) Open up your product in Beta
63) Do a viral marketing campaign (That’s how John Chow got his start…)
64) Offer something that no one else has
65) Be entertaining
66) Sponsor a rock concert
67) Give free promo products away
68) Develop a kick-ass WordPress plugin
69) Do a Facebook widget that promotes your product somehow
70) Submit an article to article directories
71) Submit to site directories
72) Participate in a Problogger or Daily Blog Tips contest
73) Sponsor a comic
74) Give free demos
75) Give something away for free
76) Be honest
77) Get a good graphic designer
78) Do something different like FreelanceSwitch
79) Tie into an already established API
80) Establish some sort of 2.0 community to market to
81) Promote yourself
82) Build a blog
83) Have good brand recognition
84) Use fun colors
85) Attend networking events
86) Tie into professional organizations
87) Meet everyone
88) Use Flickr and Twitter to your advantage
89) Establish price points depending on user location
90) Experiment with different price points
91) Do a marketing calendar and guage the results
92) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
93) Get professionally branded apparel
94) Build different sites per niche
95) Build and market your product differently per niche
96) Do walk in sales calls
97) Have great business relationships
98) Tie your posting to your company’s website
99) Have booths at demonstration type events
100) Attend business events
Well, I guess that’s that. I was grasping at straws towards the end, as you can tell. I hope that this list is beneficial to some of you though. Me… I need to go take a nap :0)
Jason Drohn is a blogger, business owner and consultant concerned with helping others build their businesses. So far, he has founded Tech Solution, Axiium, JDsBlog, and a host of other properties both on and off the web.
Email this author | All posts by Jason Drohn
Hi Jason,
I’m really glad you enjoyed the List of 100.
You have a very interesting list here!
I created a group writing project for the best “list posts” with some prizes.
Check it out here: Announcing the Lists Group Writing Project.
Your list is great and I think it would be a good contestant. Don’t you want to join??
(Litemind doesn’t fit in item #72, but maybe you’re interested anyway…)
Thanks Luciano!
Very good of you to stop by! And I appreciate the invite to be part of the group writing project. I just send you an email to enter my list!
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Your list is a great brainstorming session for business owners that are trying to get the word out. The list helps to get the creativity flowing.
Wow Jason!
Great list. It’s amazing you can come up with 100 ideas to promote a startup. I think I’ll be stuck at 20 onwards.
To make it better, I have a suggestion, how about giving a short one/two liner description about the benefits of each idea. I know that’s going to take some time, but it certainly helps people like me to understand your points better.
My 2 cents worth.
[...] 100 Ways To Promote A Startup by Jason Drohn [...]
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Wow! This list is awesome. Way to go.
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[...] 100 Ways To Promote A Startup | JDsBlog.com …writing down 100 things is useful in any niche. So, I decided to take the challenge and see what I could come up with in terms of promoting a startup/product. [...]
Number 32 is a good place to start. Thanks for the inspiration, and watch for your link.
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