maxWow, just posted a query on HARO – my favorite site in the world for tapping into expert advice from journalists, experts and entrepreneurs on the front lines of so many industries and topics.
I’ve included about 90% of the replies – very smart people who have been there from all angles.
The simply diabolical question is:
If You Were Launching a New Brand Product or Startup, What Would You do With $15,000?
As you’ll read, there are a lot of approaches – if you need consulting, or just need an experienced agency to help you to launch your new brand product or startup, give Supercool Creative Agency a shout. We develop digital strategies, create / produce video, social media content, manage
#1 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
- Name: Priscilla
- Company: MULTIWEAR
I’m the CEO of MULTIWEAR a company of one. I started with the Cardimom® and now am launching a Kickstarter.
I can tell you that 15k is a huge amount and if I had that much to just do marketing, some of it would be spent on attending a trade show at the cost of around 4k. Then about 1k would be spent on product development whereas about 4k would be spent on new product investment.
That would leave me with just enough to launch the Kickstarter and pay someone to do the video at around 2k and about 1k to hire a PR professional to get the Kickstarter funded. The remaining investment would be used to pay influencers to promote the product on social media.
My kickstarter is: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/multiwear/the-division-of-labor-dual-tote
#2 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
- Name: Andrew
- Email: Andrew@thepublicityguy.com
- Company: The Publicity Guy
Publicity is key.
Publicity is key and the company can learn how to do it themselves instead of hiring a PR agency. Most agencies are much more than $15K, such as mine.
What we have are courses that teaches you how to get publicity on your own. So you don’t have to hire a PR firm. Our courses are very affordable. Launching new ones this week. Starting as low as 2 payments of $247 to get access our training.
I would say invest in learning publicity with some of that budget, go get yourself exposure and then use the rest of the funds to market your publicity combined with your product to bring in massive sales. That’s a whole different other strategy that we teach as well.
#3 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Max
- Email: maxrobinson21@aol.co.uk
Market a new product/startup with $15,000 (viral marketing)Viral marketing is still the most cost-effective way to market any business, especially if you’re working on a tight budget.
Of course, viral marketing won’t suit all businesses, but you’d be surprised at the success that even businesses working in ‘boring’ industries can have with this method (often having even more success than businesses operating in ‘exciting’ industries).
If we were launching a new product, I’d arrange an ‘AMA’ (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit to drive some immediate traffic to our site, where we would have opt-ins to try and get visitors to sign up to our email list so we could promote our product to them again.I’d want to invest most of the money into design for promotional purposes, to get our branding spot on and to ensure that all of our marketing efforts were consistent across email and across social media.
Max Robinson is a marketing executive for WeSwap Euros https://www.weswap.com/en/buy-euros
#4 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Shel
- Email: shel@greenandprofitable.com
- Company: Green And Profitable
Build in social conscience–and partnerships – HARO
- Build in social entrepreneurship features so that every sale of your product or service makes someone’s life better (and I’m not talking so much about charity donations or the buy-one-give-one model popularized by TOMS–but about creating products and services that have social change built in. My favorite examples are the various companies profitably selling solar-powered LED lamps to replace toxic, flammable, and expensive kerosene in developing countries.)
- Partner with others who can spread your message much farther and faster than you can alone (and this costs nothing except commissions).
- Do some small, high-targeted spends on social media.
- Purchase a high-quality story-behind-the-story press release (disclosure–I write these) and distribute to traditional media. Follow up with non-pushy emails to media you’ve identified as key.
- Use public appearances (which can take many forms, from speeches to product demos) effectively.
For many years, I’ve been a green business profitability consultant, copywriter, speaker, and author.
Now I’m going beyond just going green to show businesses how they can profit by turning hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance–and going beyond sustainability to the world we all want. Using these techniques, I immediately got on best-seller lists with the launches for both my two most recent books:
My 10th book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (published in April and on two category bestseller lists in its first month) has endorsements by Jack Canfield, Seth Godin, the founders of BNI and GreenBiz.com, the author of The New Rules of Green Marketing, and essays from the authors of Unstoppable/Unstoppable Women and Diet for a Small Planet. Previous books include the long-running category best-seller Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, named a Groundbreaking Indy Book by Independent Publisher magazine.
Twitter: @ShelHorowitz
#5 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Jignesh
- Email: jignesh23@gmail.com
- Company: Olbuz
Working strategy to promote business at $15000 budget
Allow me to introduce myself.My name is Jignesh, founder & marketing head @ OLBUZ, a Google adwords partner agency having over 10 years of experience working with startups, products or a SMBs having limited budget to get most out of it brand exercises.
I used to do the budgeting and planning for almost all clients had similar right budget as you explained the case. If I will have to invest $15K for a brand, this is what I will do:First and very important point for me to understand the client requirement. Whether they are looking for branding only or they are looking for short term marketing strategies that result in quick sales and sustainable online growth.
The strategy will be different in both the case and in our example; I will go for second option recommended for a small / medium brand.I will distribute the budget in two different parts for 3 months time span:1) Organic traffic (SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing, PR, VIDEO etc) 2) Paid Traffic (Adwords – Remarketing / Facebook ads / Paid PR)First month – $5000Spend atleast $3500 in paid marketing to get quick sales by reaching out highly targeted audiences through Google adwords search ads + remarketing ads.
Spend $1500 on building compelling content and organically distribute to established social media channels. After evaluating the result by end of month, increase or decrease the budget from paid marketing to organic marketing and this is how you get most out of it.
Here, spending more on building compelling content will help on long run but don’t avoid paid traffic. It will help to build initial business and eventually result in sales from the initial period.
Once your content started attracting audiences, you can add more budget in promoting the same to attract organic backlinks that will boost your organic search rankings.Keep optimizing your strategy based on what works best for your brand and you will definitely see 10% to 50% improvement in sales within 3 months. My profile:Jignesh is a founder & marketing head @OLBUZ, a Google adwords partner agency having over 10 years of experience working with startups, products or a SMBs to promote their business online. Twitter: @jigneshgohel
#6 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Jacob
- Email: Jacob@clickplayfilms.com
- Company: Click Play Films
Marketing a startup on $15,000
I started my business on exactly $15,000. I tried advertising on Facebook but I didn’t get great results. Nothing gave me the bang for my buck as much as google Adwords. Everytime I launched an Adwords campaign I was able to convert a new client. I also bought a mailing list of email addresses for marketing department personnel which converted very well.
I would send out a few hundred (100-500) emails a day and usually ended up with at least 1 new appointment a week and sometimes as many as 5 appointments a week! Most other advertising at this. Budget simply didn’t work for me.
My name is Jacob Tanur, I am the Founder and Creative Director of Click Play Films (www.clickplayfilms.com). My twitter handle is @clickplayfilms and my profile picture is attached!
#7 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Chris
- Email: cmccarron001@gmail.com
- Company: Flash Bang SEO
Sounds like you’re writing a really interesting article!
#8 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Brian
- Email: brianhays15@gmail.com
- Company: Patriot Restaurant Delivery
I would begin by creating an eye catching video or social media post, and then, begin calling/messaging/texting/emailing or whatever is needed to enlist influencers to share the video in exchange for free product!
#9 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Matt
- Email: matt@dashdm.com
- Company: Dash DM
Launching With A Limited Budget
Pitch Contents: I deal with this all the time with my DashMKTG clients. Every clients wants major sales from small marketing investments.
It’s not realistic, but there are ways to make a big enough impact that you gain their trust and open up the budget on future products.I have a unique situation where I run two small businesses. DashMKTG (a small marketing firm) and BladeButter Brand (a shaving product line).
I’m able to mirror the marketing techniques I use in the real world with BladeButter and usually show my DashMKTG clients I can get them the most bang for their buck.I follow a disc formula that always starts with PR.
I like that old saying “you can’t have spell profits without P-R.” From there, I’ll add SEO and Social Media if it suits the clients well. One of my favorite techniques is to produce a video because YouTube videos are indexed by Google within 24 hours. That video needs to make a connection to the viewer.
I’ve worked with local restaurants to tell the personal story of their businesses. It’s not really about the food, it’s about the people behind it. When I’m working with local businesses that deal directly with consumers, I’ll definitely add in Every Door Direct Mail.
It’s very inexpensive and the client gets much more advertising real estate to work with because it doesn’t require space for addresses and it’s the same cost for small and large pieces.Another (usually free) technique is pairing up businesses as strategic partners. My client that sells Surface Mount Technology Equipment is now paired up with another company that sells used parts for that equipment.
So they have a revenue stream they never thought of before. That adds value for me in the long run.There’s more, but I need to answer some calls.Feel free to contact me directly if you’re interested in more information.
#10 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Jessica
- Email: jthiele@virtuallogistics.ca
- Company: Virtual Logistics Inc.
Invest a good chunk into visual medium creation
Observing several startups from afar and up close, there’s one element that I see in common time and time again with those who make it big: great visual content. Speaking with one particular startup, I was recently shocked to find that they had spent a whopping $7k of some seed money to produce a video for their consumer product.
But in seeing the final edit and the resounding effect it had on their business (including major online media outlets re-editing the video for a shorter master edit — and changing the music to something far more funky), I can see this was a strategic investment into their business itself.
#11 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Tom
- Email: tom@digitalpudding.co
- Company: Digital Pudding
In this order: Paid Social, Influencer Marketing, Paid Search.
It’s really going to depend on your objectives from there.
I’ve been a marketing consultant for the past 10 years, specializing with digital marketing for startups and small businesses. My current consultancy Digital Pudding just made it to one year. In past positions, I’ve launched new products and services with brands like AIG and MARS Drinks.
Tom J. Cameron
#12 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Max
- Email: blkboxdev@gmail.com
- Company: CouponHippo.in
My name is Max Page and I am the marketing director at the U.S. based https://www.couponhippo.in. I have been doing online marketing for 10 years and have worked at startups and web companies who launch new products all the time.
#13 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Greg
- Email: gregscott@infrasupport.com
- Company: Infrasupport Corporation
I’m far from a marketing pro, but I do have first-hand experience with this very issue. I’m an indie author and need to figure out a way to find an audience. “Bullseye Breach” is an educational book disguised as a thriller story about how an ad-hoc group comes together to fight back against the Russian mob after they steal 40 million credit customer credit card numbers from Minneapolis retailer, Bullseye Stores.
My challenge is exactly as you described. Although I wish I had $15k to spend.
I spent money on publicity and PR. I scored a couple of local TV interviews that did not lead to sales. I spent money on a Google Adwords ad, and spent hours working with a nice specialist from Google who helped pick out keywords. I ran the campaign for six months. I spent $300 per month and generated $100 per month in sales. The revenue and spend lines never looked like they would converge, so I stopped the campaign after six months.
Content marketing is free for me because I have the tech skills to put up my own content. Although I have no graphic arts talent. I have plenty of content available at the book website,http://www.bullseyebreach.com and my personal website,http://www.infrasupport.com. I’ve also done great social media posts, but finding an audience to read them is a challenge.
What has been effective? I’ve managed to score a few excerpts in security focused online magazines. I did an email campaign to 500 people who visited the IBPA booth at the 2016 Chicago BEA book tradeshow – the largest book tradeshow in the United States.
So given what I’ve learned, I would spend some of the $15K to revive that Google Adwords campaign, with a higher daily spend limit, maybe $50 instead of $30. I would also look into paid content on popular blog sites. I’d look into lists and run an email and direct physical mail campaign, sending copies of the book to opinion leaders.
I would also consider hiring the right coach to help me with small experiments with other approaches. I would not pour all of the $15K into one approach, but instead spend it little by little on different experiments.
And I would be skeptical of PR and ad agencies. They’re money pits. They all make big promises, but I haven’t seen any deliver.
You can find a photo of me and a bio on the book website. Apparently, photo attachments to HARO responses don’t work well. My Twitter handle is @dgregscott.
Watch for “Bullseye Breach,” a story ripped from the headlines about yet another major data breach.
Except this time, the good guys fight back.
Available from booksellers everywhere.
Check out http://www.bullseyebreach.com
#14 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Meredith Wood
- Email: meredith@fundera.com
- Twitter: @mere_wood
#15 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Jon
- Email: jon.ivanco@lifx.co
- Company: LIFX
#16 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Randy
- Email: randyg@gunteragency.com
- Company: The Gunter Agency
- Twitter: @GunterAgency
The first thing I would do with a start-up is spend some time (and money) developing the brand identity.
Who are you, what do you do, why are you different, who is your audience, what is the personality of the company, etc. And I don’t mean just creating a graphic logo and look (which is important too), but really defining who you are and why people should care about what you are doing.
The reason you need to do this before you jump into any actual marketing is that all of this will define the thought process of everything that follows and the messages that you convey. Plus, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.
#17 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Jeff
- Email: jslivebetter@gmail.com
- Company: JS Live Better
At JS Live Better, www.jslivebetter.com,we believe that you should be able to have all the Outdoor & Hunting Gear that you need to go on any of youroutdoor adventures. We made this site because of our love for deer hunting andthe great outdoors.
Because we are a small business, we, ourselves, like toshop small businesses for our outdoor needs. In doing so, we found that to finditems in all the categories of outdoor enjoyment, we ended up visiting severalsites to accomplish all of our needs. This is why we have a variety of productsfor all your Outdoor &Hunting Gear needs.
#18 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Kimberly
- Email: priska@bittylab.com
- Company: Bittylab
Pitch Title: How Would You Market a New Product or Startup with $15,000?
Pitch Contents:
#19 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Robert
- Email: rmbarrows@gmail.com
- Company: R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising & Public Relations
Aside from the fact that every marketing plan will be different based on who buys the product, when, where and why…;here is some basic math you can take a look at for the best way to spend that $15,000 for advertising and publicity:1)
Agency fee for planning and development: $5,0002) Allocation for the production of creativematerials (estimated at 15% of the total budget: $2,2503) Allocation for press releases and publicrelations efforts: (Estimated at 10% of thetotal budget: $1,5004) Balance for paid media advertising: $6,250 ______ $15,000Now:
Based on $6,250 for paid advertising and $1,500 for publicity efforts, the only way to answer those questions is with specific information regarding the potential customers and how, when and where to reach them.The answers will be different for each and every product, timetable and each and every geography.
#20 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: robby
- Email: robby@fingerpuppetsinc.com
- Company: Finger Puppets Inc
My name is Robby Sorensen, I’m the Founder and CEO of the award winning children’s brand called ThumbThings Handmade Finger Puppets.
#21 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: BJ
- Email: bodyworksball@aol.com
- Company: Bodyworks Enterprises, LLC
After being wiped out by Superstorm Sandy (house, car, possessions, office) I left a 19 year career in exporting, to start my own wellness company.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I WOULDN’T TYPICALLY INCLUDE ALL THIS EXTRA STUFF… BUT WHY NOT?
#22 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Stacy
- Email: stacycaprio@gmail.com
- Company: SmartBooks Corp, Inc
It depends on the type of business and business goals, but I’ll do a clothing ecommerce example.
First, I would set up Adwords and Facebook accounts and a remarketing pixel. Make sure you get an Adwords code for free $100 or $150 when you spend $50 as well.
Then I’d set up a Google merchant center account and data feed then start advertising on Google shopping, you’ll show for low cost, relevant clicks as an image on Google when people search for your exact products.
Then, I’d pay some 3 million + clothing Instagram influencers to put up the best performing FB images on their account for a 24 hour cycle while giving them each a unique trackable code to put in their bio so you can measure if it is working.
Finally once your remarketing pixel has collected some traffic start remarketing campaigns and RSLA for search, RSLA for Google shopping & general remarketing on Facebook and Adwords.
#23 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Julie
- Email: hydrosport@hotmail.com
- Company: Create for Cash
I’m an inventor with a product called swiggies, wrist water bottles. I literally started with $5.00 and a lump of clay and never spent a dime on advertising, yet sold almost a million of them through social media and publicity.
I would spend $10,000 on a small, boutique PR firm that charges between $1,000-2,000 a month, no more. They should also do your social media and SEO for that.
At the same time I would be making my own cold calls. Don’t hire anyone to do it because you need to learn how to pitch your own product. Spend the bulk of your time doing this and start building up your network.
Also, partner with others who have large networks already for cross promotion.
Best,
Julie Austin
#24 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Paige
- Email: paige@mavensandmoguls.com
- Company: Mavens & Moguls
I started a global marketing firm 15 years ago. We work with a lot of startups and small businesses with limited budgets and I have a strong preference for public relations to attract visibility and awareness quickly.
There are many short lead time opportunities with newspapers, radio, online media, etc. where you can get a quick hit and watch the traffic and sales jump. I would put $10-12k into PR and the balance into paid social media depending on the product or service (it could be in Adwords, video, etc.).
In my experience, within 2-3 months you should have enough of a return on your investment through sales to be able to continue promoting the business through PR. Photo is attached.
My bio: Paige Arnof-Fenn is the founder and CEO of global marketing firm Mavens & Moguls, based in Cambridge, MA. Paige serves on several boards and is a popular speaker at industry events and conferences.
She has been a columnist at both Entrepreneur and Forbes. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigearnoffenn
Thanks,
Paige
Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO
Mavens & Moguls
#25 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Ryan
- Email: rbuttie@luminous.agency
- Company: Luminous
Pitch Title: Response to: How Would You Market a New Product or Startup with $15,000?
This is a decision that most of our clients are faced with. We create some great video, radio, and collateral advertising for them, and they want to know the best bang for their buck.
#26 How to Launch a New Brand Product or Startup Under 15K
Source Contact Info:
- Name: Bianca
- Email: biancaylee@whiterosemarketing.com
- Company: White Rose Marketing
If we were launching a new product, we would kick off with an experiential launch event that could serve as real time research of the product and key messaging as well as content creation. We would get testimonials from customers as they interact with the product, record the experience to provide content for visual platforms, and sample/sell as much product as possible at the event. We would follow up with a post event amplification campaign online.