photo credit: lumaxart

Interviewing developers is much easier than interviewing marketers

But still, you do need a marketing team (and a good one of course) and above all you want to be fair in deciding whom to hire.

Questions/conditions for hiring developers are quite straightforward. They either know or they don’t – do they solve problems easily? Do they say the right things? Do they know what they’re doing? Selecting developers is more towards the objective side while hiring marketers is more subjective.

Here are a few tips for hiring that ‘dream marketing team’:

Active on Social Media
Does he have a decent amount of followers on Twitter? Can she get people to become a fan of your startup product/service on Facebook? Is she an active content writer or does he have a separate marketing blog? Yes, ask these questions and make sure they’re ‘virtually active’ before hiring them.

Modesty
A startup operates in an ever-changing environment. Product, expectations, definition of a customer changes almost everyday, and marketing strategies must be invented and reinvented frequently. You need someone who is modest enough to accept what he doesn’t know and be motivated to work on it.

Someone who is detail-oriented
A big NO to someone who thinks they know everything. Willingness to learn and attention to detail is a key characteristic of a marketer.

Analytics/Measurement
Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing effort at an early stage of a startup can be somewhat unreasonable. Don’t hire anyone who thinks like that. Make sure the person believes in measuring efforts (of any kind) and is willing to take responsibility of success or failure.

Mutual Respect with developers
Developers and marketers don’t get along too well – a belief (I disagree though) many have. Make sure that the developers have a sense of respect for what the marketer is doing and they like him/her.
 
For more detail on this topic visit OnStartups

photo credit: M i x y

Let’s start by explaining what Inbound Marketing is all about – the style of marketing that focuses on getting found by customers (when they need) and not ‘pushing’ your product or service (referred to as Outbound Marketing) is known as Inbound Marketing.

As a customer when you need to buy a product/service, you don’t solely trust the ad or newspaper release. Suggestions and feedback from friends, family and other customers influences your decision in a big way. And getting this ‘feedback’ has become so much easier with the advent and rise of the Internet and Web 2.0.

All you today need to do this type your query in a search engine and here you go! You have hundreds of reviews, suggestions, feedback (negative too) in one search. Traditional Marketing methods are effective but with the rise of Web 2.0, inbound marketing is definitely the future.

Now as a startup you need to go out there and market your product or service. Inbound marketing is the one stop solution to all your marketing strategy confusions. Your website, SEO techniques, blogs and social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc all come under the Inbound Marketing umbrella.

 As a startup you gain the following benefits from Inbound Marketing:

1. Better Relationship Management – which can lead to higher prospects to client conversion
2. Loyalty factor can lead to more sales
3. The methods of implementing it are far less expensive and as a startup you can’t spend heavily due to financial constraints
4. Easy to use and ready-made tools available online

Inbound marketing can be related to what Seth Godin describes as ‘relationship marketing’ which can turn out as long-term strategy for your startup business if implemented wisely.

Three quick points for Startups: Content, SEO and Social Media

(1) It Costs Less - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying email lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it.

For more information visit:  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4416/Inbound-Marketing-the-Next-Phase-of-Marketing-on-the-Web.aspx

I recently came across an article on Internet News.com stating that Corporate Blogging is soaring everyday. The article was flooded by comments made by larger corporates, smaller companies and business professionals as well.
As corporate blogging has gained ground in the USA, the overwhelming majority of businesses around the world is also heading the same way.

Companies around the world are no more hesitant to start blogging because the benefits, costs and implications are very clear to them now. Today as the number of internet users are increasing so is the visibility of a corporate blog. Under the right circumstances and with the right approach, it has been contributing greatly to achieve a multitude of business objectives.

Today Blogs are certainly a better way for companies to inform customers about their products.
My suggestion to the companies in this not-so-distant future is they should allow the public discussion to flourish Weblogs ? A failure of nerve on the part of firms determined to stick with more timid, one-way communication may allow other, braver companies to achieve more “mindshare” by engaging the public.

Discussion is going to break out. Might as well have it break out where you can see it.

Did you ever think that Skype would make the single, most successful online communication tool?

The answer to it is very simple - A great product backed by even better marketing (effective use of website to position and promote their services).

Just like many other Voice Over Internet services, Skype queued the competition. Another product pitted at a customer who has more choices then ever and can has the flexibility to move from one product to another in a matter of time.

In such a market scenario Skype came up with a simple product that solves an average consumers needs. Talk … Talk and Talk… the fact that it was soo simple to use added to its adoption and huge success.

However, what is helping Skype move to the next level is no longer the product or its simplicity but the brilliance of its marketing team.

Skype grabbed the relevance and importance of its website and made it simple and user-friendly focusing on the information they would provide to their audience.

They added a forum to involve people to discuss ideas and views on how the product can be evolved.

Once the product had been well recognized they started using their website to sell other value added services. All done gradually and systematically - keeping the customer in mind.

The latest idea - to put customer success stories and Skype share are again examples of simple marketing ideas that can help promote a brand and in turn, involve the end user.

Therefore, if we analyze, Skype did not do anything unique or spend millions in marketing - they used simple ideas that people like you and I can adopt towards our product or business.