How to build a marketing strategy for a startup without investing a lot of money?
In the previous part we told the story of the creation of the service Metni Kabanchik . In this publication, we want to share the buzzing cones and the experience we gained in the process of building a marketing strategy to promote our project.
The initial difficulty in choosing the right path for advancement was that we were pioneers in the field of C2C services in our region. Direct competitors at that moment, too, were just starting their journey, so there was no opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others.
We looked at the success of TaskRabbit, but at that time they raised more than $ 38,000,000 investment and could afford to move simply due to PR activities (as it turned out, this is the way to nowhere, but we'll tell about it later). Our starting budget was $ 800-1000, so we had to move more prudently and to a point.
')
We did not have a clear understanding, so we decided to conduct a series of experiments and find out by experience.
For these purposes, we have compiled a list of all possible rational online marketing channels (we crossed out offline advertising immediately for obvious reasons). He looked like this:
Since the limited budget did not allow checking all possible channels at once, we divided the entire list into small groups and planned to check one group each month. Each channel was allocated $ 150-200 of the marketing budget.
To get performance data you need analytics. Fortunately, in online marketing you can get very detailed information about at least a specific user visit. To obtain the necessary data, we had enough use of Google Analytics and UTM tags for marking traffic. (more details can be read here ).
The most important and difficult stage of analytics preparation was setting up E-commerce in Google Analytics (read here ). Using this data, we obtained data on the conversion of specific traffic into tasks, as well as the amount we earned with its help.
To calculate the result, we decided to use a simple formula:
(REVENUE / MARKETING COSTS) * 100% = ROMI,
where REVENUE is the income received from a specific marketing channel, MARKETING COSTS is money invested in a marketing channel, ROMI (Return On Marketing Investments) is a return on marketing investments.
On an example, it looks like this: invested $ 100 -> attracted 2,000 traffic sessions -> received 40 tasks (at a conversion of 2%) and $ 80 with a return (with an average income of $ 2 per transaction). Then our formula will look like this:
($ 80 / $ 100) * 100% = 80%
It is easy to guess that the ROMI value should be at least 100%. This will mean that you, at a minimum, have recouped your investment in marketing. In this example, you would lose $ 20 net, not counting the time spent by the marketer and other project related costs.
But in practice, it is difficult for a new project to immediately get “plus” from the first attempt and a positive value can be achieved by optimizing marketing campaigns, improving conversion pages and simply better understanding customer needs. Through some channels, we managed to improve the baseline by a factor of 2-3. But if you received ROMI 5% on a certain channel - optimization of 3 or even 5 times will not save you.
Of course, to test the viability of your startup business model, you need to use more in-depth analytics and a lot of additional metrics (LTV, churn rate, OPEX, CAPEX, etc.). But for starting experiments the ROMI indicator can be your reliable adviser. For example, with its help, we immediately removed from the list paid expensive publications in the media, teaser networks, contextual advertising in social networks, a banner and left a context in Google Adwords + organic search traffic (SEO). In the last two channels, we ended up investing the bulk of our marketing budget.
How do you test the effectiveness of your marketing activities? Share with us in the comments to the post.
The initial difficulty in choosing the right path for advancement was that we were pioneers in the field of C2C services in our region. Direct competitors at that moment, too, were just starting their journey, so there was no opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others.
We looked at the success of TaskRabbit, but at that time they raised more than $ 38,000,000 investment and could afford to move simply due to PR activities (as it turned out, this is the way to nowhere, but we'll tell about it later). Our starting budget was $ 800-1000, so we had to move more prudently and to a point.
')
Which promotion channels will be most effective for the C2C marketplace?
We did not have a clear understanding, so we decided to conduct a series of experiments and find out by experience.
For these purposes, we have compiled a list of all possible rational online marketing channels (we crossed out offline advertising immediately for obvious reasons). He looked like this:
- Contextual advertising on Google and Yandex
- Search engine promotion (SEO)
- Teaser networks
- Banner advertising
- Paid publications in the media
- Promotion in social networks (SMM)
- Traffic links on thematic sites
- Targeted ads on Google Adwords
- Affiliate program, etc.
Since the limited budget did not allow checking all possible channels at once, we divided the entire list into small groups and planned to check one group each month. Each channel was allocated $ 150-200 of the marketing budget.
How to check the effectiveness of the marketing channel promotion?
To get performance data you need analytics. Fortunately, in online marketing you can get very detailed information about at least a specific user visit. To obtain the necessary data, we had enough use of Google Analytics and UTM tags for marking traffic. (more details can be read here ).
The most important and difficult stage of analytics preparation was setting up E-commerce in Google Analytics (read here ). Using this data, we obtained data on the conversion of specific traffic into tasks, as well as the amount we earned with its help.
To calculate the result, we decided to use a simple formula:
(REVENUE / MARKETING COSTS) * 100% = ROMI,
where REVENUE is the income received from a specific marketing channel, MARKETING COSTS is money invested in a marketing channel, ROMI (Return On Marketing Investments) is a return on marketing investments.
On an example, it looks like this: invested $ 100 -> attracted 2,000 traffic sessions -> received 40 tasks (at a conversion of 2%) and $ 80 with a return (with an average income of $ 2 per transaction). Then our formula will look like this:
($ 80 / $ 100) * 100% = 80%
It is easy to guess that the ROMI value should be at least 100%. This will mean that you, at a minimum, have recouped your investment in marketing. In this example, you would lose $ 20 net, not counting the time spent by the marketer and other project related costs.
But in practice, it is difficult for a new project to immediately get “plus” from the first attempt and a positive value can be achieved by optimizing marketing campaigns, improving conversion pages and simply better understanding customer needs. Through some channels, we managed to improve the baseline by a factor of 2-3. But if you received ROMI 5% on a certain channel - optimization of 3 or even 5 times will not save you.
Of course, to test the viability of your startup business model, you need to use more in-depth analytics and a lot of additional metrics (LTV, churn rate, OPEX, CAPEX, etc.). But for starting experiments the ROMI indicator can be your reliable adviser. For example, with its help, we immediately removed from the list paid expensive publications in the media, teaser networks, contextual advertising in social networks, a banner and left a context in Google Adwords + organic search traffic (SEO). In the last two channels, we ended up investing the bulk of our marketing budget.
How do you test the effectiveness of your marketing activities? Share with us in the comments to the post.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/294368/
All Articles