Paid advertising on social media, particularly Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be highly targeted and so I am sure you could find relevant keywords and topics to target using those platforms. Depending on where you are in the world, look for events on meetup.com and/or Yelp. There are almost certainly going to be groups and events related to your target demographic. Think book clubs, wine clubs, sports, theatre etc. Digital signposting - e.g. screens at medical establishments, local public transport, gas stations. Lastly, perhaps advertise at night-schools or venues that host a lot of evening classes.

First, you will need to figure out a brand strategy for your company/product. From there, you will have a better picture on the following: 1) Who you are 2) What you do 3) How you are different 4) What you stand for 5) Why people should put their faith and trust in you After that, a marketing strategy can then be developed to figure out how to get the word out and with what tools.

I have worked in and with insurance companies for more than 10 years in underwriting- and pricingroles and -projects. So I am familiar with how the processes in an insurance company works. For insurance companies in general, they are used to working with external suppliers, so you should be able to screen time with relevant people, if your service creates value for them. However, you should be really sure how your service creates value in the company and for whom, and be very clear on that. Insurance is very numbers-driven, and your success will depend on the business case you provide. How much claims cost can your solution create? Will it reduce head count? Will it help the customer experience? And if you can show, that you understand the needs of the company you are talking to (current market position, size, prodcutivity, etc.), that will increase the likelihood of success. The size of the insurer will also affect your selling process. The larger the insurer, the larger the need to identify the relevant decision maker. Does this company have a central supply chain-team, or are the individual departments doing their own buying? With a larger insurer, there can be a risk that the responsibility is were silo-split, which can make it harder to get a decision from them. So the more you can document the value you create very specifically - both with numbers and what people changes it can lead to, the higher the likelihood of success. If you would like more discussion on this, feel free to set up a call. Good luck with your proposition. Best regards Kenneth Wolstrup

I'd recommend both. That's what I've done, and I've never hurt for work. The thing is, many marketers offer lots of ideas, but are unable to implement the solutions. This means that a client has to hire a marketing consultant to create a plan, and THEN hire a designer/developer/etc. to actually implement that plan. This, to many clients, feels like paying twice. Many of the people I've met will value development over marketing, and therefore cut corners on the marketing budget. This is bad news when you're a contractor who relies on other contractors or teams to build the things you offer as a service. However, by building the skill set to not only design a marketing plan, but implement it as well, you're now able to market yourself as a 2-for-1 deal. As a freelancer, this is HUGE, because it creates a higher perceived value, and allows you to charge a higher rate. (They only need to hire you, vs. two separate contractors who will likely take longer overall to complete the job due to meetings, etc..) Web development is the easier role to land early contracts. There are far more small projects for web dev; marketing tends to be a bit harder to break into (in my experience). So for quickly building a stable income, start with web dev — but always continue learning. Every skill you add to your toolbox means one fewer contractor your clients need to hire, and that means happier clients, faster turnarounds, higher hourly rates, and a better overall experience for everyone involved. I've been adding skills to my repertoire for over a decade now, and I bill my services as a one-man research and development team, because I can plan, design, develop, market, test, and manage a new business idea on my own. It took a lot of work to get here, but I'm now able to effectively write my own ticket because I can offer so much value and experience to my clients. I'd be happy to discuss specific strategies if you'd like to put together a career development plan. I coach several entrepreneurs, and I think I'd be able to help you hit the ground running. Let me know if you'd like to schedule a short call. Good luck!

Without knowing where in the world you are it's hard to name any specific institutions but here are some things I've learned over the years: 1. Don't do business banking virtually. By having a relationship with my local bank officer I was allowed to go over my line of credit limit by $5,000 for 14 days on her authority alone. The only reason she let me was our personal relationship. People matter. 2. Ask if you'll automatically be offered credit limit increases based on account activity or if you need to apply each time you want to expand credit. Applying each time will likely create a 'hit' on your credit score. I once had my credit expanded by $20,000 simply because of the account activity. 3. Get a clear understanding of the fees and understand that dealing with you costs the bank money. I'm very suspicious of 'free' accounts of any kind. There is always a cost. 4. Make sure the branch is convenient. I don't like waiting for an hour on the phone to speak to someone in a call center. When there is a royal screw-up in your banking nothing beats marching down and talking to the commercial manager. They'll want you out of their office fast and that means getting a resolution most of the time. 5. If you're going to be doing business internationally, ask about foreign branches or brands. Here in Canada most of the banks own US banks so it can make things easier for business in the US to open a US account in the USA from the comfort of home. Set up a call if you'd like to talk about your specific needs. David C Barnett

Sorry, this is too late for the contest, but ou should be trying to direct market to one of the groups you mention on your website.... Interior Designers Based on what I see on your site, those would be the people that will want to buy from you most likely.

There is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding content marketing and its need within a brand’s overall marketing strategy. Doing content marketing is much more than publishing on your blog occasionally and posting your thoughts on social media. “Do stuff and maybe it will work” is not a strategy, it is a gamble. A risky and expensive one, at that. Even so, many brands have yet to create an effective content marketing strategy. What does such a strategy look like? Where are the examples of brands doing it well? Here, I will show you examples of an effective content marketing strategy and offer ways for you to craft your own for your business. What is Content Marketing Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it. This generation of customers are taking drastic steps to avoid marketing messages. As consumers, we use DVRs to skip television ads, pay internet radio subscription fees to avoid commercials, mentally block out — or use plug-ins to avoid — internet click ads, and gloss over road-side billboards, rendering them useless and ineffective. So how are marketers supposed to combat this shift? Education. Consumers are still buying and making purchases, but the way they go about making a decision has changed. With all of the world’s information at their finger tips, savvy consumers are doing enormous amounts of learning and self-education before stepping into a showroom or talking to a salesperson. Knowing this is a huge opportunity for brands. If you know consumers are looking for information, be the source of that information. Not with sales-y content that puts your priorities before theirs, but information that the buyer really wants and needs. The Marketing and Sales Departments must align to create a buying path for this new era of consumers that provides authentic and transparent information about a product or service (the mission of Marketing) and closing the sale (the mission of Sales). Content marketing closes this gap by using brand-created educational content to satisfy the prospective buyer while helping the sales team convert anonymous visitors into buyers. Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world, including the likes of Seth Godin and hundreds of the leading thinkers in marketing have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present (see the video below on the history of content marketing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHgMMpGLzk The key ingredient to using content to attract new customers is in the advanced planning. The strategy. What is a Content Marketing Strategy A content marketing strategy is a roadmap; a “User’s Guide” to how your brand will do the following: - Meet the customer at their specific point within their buying cycle - Align the customer’s needs with your knowledge and expertise - Use your brand’s assets to meet these objectives Business-to-Business marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy are 66% more likely to consider themselves effective compared to only 11% of those without a documented strategy. A content marketing plan helps you see the end-game before you have even started. Further, it gives a clear, articulable vision for your entire team and keeps you on track throughout the campaign. Just like New Years resolutions often fade into a foggy memory, our intentions are good – but we allow resolutions to fail. To be successful in any strategy, we need to be intentional. For proper sales and marketing alignment, and for the success of your bottom line, you must have a plan in place. How to Start Your Content Strategy The framework of a content marketing strategy is fairly straight forward: - Who are you targeting? What are their needs? - How are you going to reach them? (Attract new and nurture existing) - What content do you have now to get started? - What is your plan to develop and share more - How will you measure your efforts 1. Personas Take some time to consider who you are targeting. Are they male or female? Does it matter? Do they have a career? Children? Are they affluent? Coupon cutters? What are their goals? What happens if they do not reach them? Is their a monetary penalty for them? Will meeting this goal further their career? Will it make them happy? Clearly defining your targeted personas will save you a lot of time, energy, and money as you continue your business. With this person in mind, your content marketing strategy will begin to fall into place and you will feel that you are having a conversation with this “person”, rather than blindly throwing stuff out there. 2. Outreach Content marketing and social media are often used synonymously. This is a mistake. Content marketing is a broad method of marketing whereas social media is a tool that complements getting your content seen. Imagine your website as your online hub, where all of your brand-controlled content resides, your social media profiles are spokes that lead back to your home base. Social media has the power to reach incredible numbers of potential customers, influencers, existing customers, and even the opportunity to convert customers from competitors. Social media, in and of itself, is not content marketing. It is one of your outreach tools. 3. Available Content Next, take stock of materials you have on hand already. Many of us sit in offices filled with brochures, flyers, handouts, manuals, and documents loaded with helpful information, but we do little to extend that information to potential customers on the web. Make a list of the content available to you immediately and start identifying which persona is most aligned, where they are within their sales process, and what pain point they are currently facing. Getting started, you can use what you have on hand. But I recommend expecting this low-hanging fruit to run out. You should plan on developing your own, unique content. For a number of reasons, search engines reward fresh, unique content. Further, your prospective customers will be looking for information that is not available everywhere. Your unique perspective and “voice” (the tone in which you talk, the way you communicate, and what you share) may be the first experience a prospective customer has with you. This is the beginning of a long business relationship. 4. Schedule and Share Your Content After you have compiled your educational materials, grab a calendar. I recommend looking out 3-4 months to start. Mark holidays, special events, and milestones. Working backwards, prepare your marketing message for these campaigns. For example, one client of ours hosts 4-5 annual sales. They all surround major US holidays (New Years, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving/Black Friday). By knowing this, it is easy for us to prepare everything from banner ads, Pinterest images, blog posts, Facebook Status, videos, and even newspaper ads (don’t shoot the messenger). Once you have those events marked, consider a “theme” of the week for those 3-4 months. With that theme, and your personas in mind, write out the following for each week: - 2 Blog Posts - 8-10 Facebook updates - 20-30 Twitter updates - 4-5 product photos for Pinterest - 3-4 Instagram ideas - 1 Video By no means is this list all-inclusive. It is a starting point to get you thinking about how to plan content. To get a specific content marketing plan designed for your brand, I need to interview you and understand your goals, personas, and timeline. 5. Analytics Finally, how are you going to measure your work? Remember when we set up our goals earlier? Were you specific in identifying how many leads you want to generate? “Get more leads” is a horrible strategy, better is “Gain 50 new leads by September 1st” or “increase from 6% conversion rate to 12% conversion rate” These types of goals are easily measured and tracked. Do you have a mechanism in place to measure, monitor, and gauge your efforts? Further, do you have the right people on your team to help you know what is working and what is not? Can you explain why certain marketing dollars are generating a return on your investment while others fall flat? Final Thoughts Just like runners know the course of the race before they start, your brand should know the route you will take to your finish line. Having a strong content marketing strategy in place will ensure your team is setup for success. I'm happy to help and provide more specifics. All the best, -Shaun

Based on Radio and TV ads in the US, anything about flipping houses, weight loss, making money the easy way. Watch late night TV where you are and see what is selling on Infomercials, trust me if they are selling it as an infomercial, there is probably profit in what they are trying to sell.

SaaS is the way everyone seems to be going these days, as it is a huge revenue producer for software vendors. Why make $50 once when you can instead milk someone for $10/month for life? As a holder of multiple desktop licenses for products like Quickbooks, Photoshop, etc I can say that I HATE when I am forced to go to a subscription-based model unless it comes with some very good perks. Quickbooks is using pretty brutal tactics to get everyone to switch, including disabling real-time sync with bank accounts, etc. For this reason I will probably switch to a different software vendor in the very near future. If you do decide to go to an SaaS model, make sure that you give the users a very good reason to switch and ideally give them a choice, don't force it on them. Free upgrades are petty much a given, or else what are they paying for?

Hi I have worked on executive compensation in multiple companies and I am presenting information based on my recent work in this area. COO salaries in the US will range from USD 105K to USD 268K depending upon experience, location & skills being hired. This will include base pay + 401(k) benefits + Performance incentive/bonus. If you are offering equity then thats an excellent negotiation tool. You would have to first decide what compensation positioning you want to take or have already taken wrt your existing talent at developer level. This can determine a pay range - then look at your budget & discuss with your recruitment partner if you can identify talent at that cost. Keep a range say from 75% to 90% of the compensation ratio as your target cost for a role like COO. Take a look at tools like Robert Half - rht.com. I am happy to help you with the details in case you want to do a more detailed analysis/study.

Strikingly.com is pretty good. Wix is also good. Squarespace also good.

Definitely a C-Corp in Delaware. You can use the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). That's a better version of the convertible note, made by Paul Graham from Y Combinator. You can find it on his personal website. You should buy the best seller book THE ART OF STARTUP FUNDRAISING by Alejandro Cremades. You can find it on Amazon.

You are going to need to find a Shopify developer to build this functionality for you, as something like that is definitely not built-in or available as an app. https://www.shopify.com/developers https://experts.shopify.com/developers

I would run a test with Search Ads in Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads to see which one perform the best. That would be my short term! Then, Content Marketing (Blog), Social Media, Email Marketing and some Display Advertizing. I've worked with 2 companies like yours and these channels worked for them! I usually work on a weekly meeting (1 hour) basis and it usually takes between 2 and 3 months to have an integrated digital strategy up and running!

I would rather work 80 hours per week on a project I was passionate about than 40 hours a week on a project I didn't care about. You're right, there is no "right answer". You have to know what will get you out of bed each morning and excited to tackle new problems and challenges.

If you have international customers who speak other languages, response is lower when you speak to them in English. Solutions like Trustpilot handle that. Have implemented them plus some other methods for international customers in various countries, would be good to know a bit more about your specific requirements and share some tips on a phone call.

Depending on the advertising platform and your budget, you can run multiple highly targeted campaigns at the same time. The more targeted your campaigns the more profitable they will be. For example, Campaign A can target only those in US, while Campaign B, can targeted only those in Australia. Each campaign has its own messaging, landing pages and specific ad copy to that region. Campaign A and B can both run at the same time as long as you have the advertising budget to so, if you do not then I recommend choosing your most profitable country first.

First things first. I must appreciate that the website has good content. You should ask yourself the purpose of creating this website. Information is now available all over the place. Right from individual portals to the Feedly, Mashable, Newsify and Pockets of the world. How do you want to differentiate yourself? What do you think is your strength? What has worked for you or your company in the last 3 quarters? Many answers lies in the purpose of the company, which only you can answer. Do you know who the target segment is? If your TG is young startups, offer them content that addresses their initial / teething problems. If your TG is startups in Growth phase, help them with content on building operational efficiencies, right hiring, employee retention, customer delight, building organisation culture, how to get the next funding, etc. The world is moving from Content to Context. We are worried with Information Overload. So, help them to find relevant content at ease. Any amount of information is of no use if they don't relate to it. It becomes another news paper, which is anyways a crowded market. My intent is not to give you a solution, because the right answer lies within you. My idea is to help bring that out for you. Hope this will be of some help to you. Regards, Shiv.

In my opinion your cannot make something "go viral" organically. It is something that happens naturally and with a great marketing campaign. There are more than 1.5 million apps on iTunes and the chances of your getting found are minimal. You need to create a marketing campaign that uses paid traffic from Facebook to spread brand awareness and increase app downloads. I would like to ask how your Facebook page has 24,000 likes, but your app only has 300 downloads? If did not pay for this "likes" then there is a way where you can turn those fans into app downloads.

This is a little hard to answer because it is so vague. It depends on the area, the market and the strength of innovation. I know that The App Guy has a terrific podcast at http://www.theappguy.co/ and is also trying to organize a community for App developers to sell their ideas. Let me know if I can be of further assistance to discuss patentability in terms of its value to getting a sale or license. What ever you do, don't spend money filing a full patent, just a provisional. Good luck.

If you have a marketing budget (even $5/day will elicit much more response than you'd expect), there's tremendous untapped opportunity for your niche. Based on the description in your question, I think Facebook advertising would be smart, targeted and provide the best ROI. Why? 1. It's simply the most cost-effective way to engage an audience in a specific niche like you're targeting. 2. It works great for B2C and B2B. 3. Unlike Google AdWords and other PPC options out there, Facebook makes it much easier for entrepreneurs and business owners to get started and manage campaigns. 4. Facebook is growing exponentially in terms of user engagement and activity on the platform. Your target customers are likely on Facebook and it's going to get more expensive to reach them as demand increases. I'd recommend going to https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/ to get the basic knowledge you need to test a campaign. There are literally hundreds of other resources online that go into more detail on creating your business page, choosing audience and objectives, ad layout and other useful tips. Hope this helps provide some direction :)

Regardless of your industry or product, we all want to increase the amount of traffic to our website. Right? After all, more visitors usually means more sales. The easiest way to increase website visitors is to pay-to-play. You can buy ads on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter to send more targeted traffic. You can also pay Google to appear in the search results more often. Here are some ways to increase the number of visitors to your website which don’t require a huge budget. 1. Business Listings Sites like Foursquare, Google, Yelp, and Yellow Pages are great for driving more people to your website. Several years ago, HubSpot published a list of 50 local business directories to submit your business listing to. Check it out. These links will not help you for SEO purposes, since many of the actual hyperlinks are ‘no-follow’, but they still generate a great amount of human traffic (let’s not forget, humans click on links, too) 2. Create a Slideshare Slideshare, a service now owned by LinkedIn, is a like a traffic firehose. The service allows you to upload presentations (think about that PowerPoint presentation that you made last quarter for the talk you gave at the local Chamber). Visual marketing and corporate storytelling are huge this year (and will be for the next several years), having engaging slide decks on SlideShare will drive your targeted audience back to your website and increase your reach. If you need some inspiration, here are some examples of great PowerPoint or Slideshare designs. 3. Video There is a huge demand for video content right now. In fact, video posts generally out-perform text and image-based updates on Facebook. Moreover, most modern smartphones are packing a high-quality video camera anyway. Use your smartphone to record a series of videos answering common questions your customers have. Upload to your blog, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, SnapChat and Facebook (side note: upload the video directly to Facebook, it will get more reach than simply sharing a link to the video from another service). 4. Guest Blogging Guest blogging is writing content for another website in your industry. Just like you and your website, other brands are struggling to generate relevant content. Contact the owners of a complementary website and offer to write a high-quality blog post for them. Don’t be overly promotional (respect their audience and their platform). Again, you won’t get a ton of SEO benefit, but you will get exposure to their readers and benefit from that cross-promotion. 5. Interview Other Experts Chances are, you know other folks in your industry with an expertise or specialty. Interview them and post the transcript on your website. 6. Blog On Your Own Site Blogging — that is, regularly publishing high-quality content — on your own website is absolutely, without-reservation the best way to attract visitors to your website. Blogging works because search engines are always looking for the best possible content for their customers — the searchers. Search engines love fresh content that is relevant to a specific topic. By publishing this on your site, you are signaling to the search engines that you are an authority on that particular topic. 7. Evaluate Your Message Visitors are always asking WIIFM: “What’s In It For Me?” If you have some traffic coming to your website, but are not converting them into known leads (growing your email list, for example), then it is likely that you are not “speaking their language” and providing a clear unique proposition for them. Be very intentional about your language — and use words, terms, and phrases that your ideal audience will connect with. 8. Experiment with Pay-Per-Click Facebook and Google offer incredible pay-per-click programs. You can set a either a daily budget or a campaign budget and your ads will be shown to your selected audience. For as little as $5 per day, you can see how your message resonates with your intended audience and adjust accordingly. I usually see website traffic increase almost instantly when running pay-per-click ads. 9. Social Media Social media is a great “outpost” for your brand. It should be used for listening to the needs and frustrations of your ideal customers — not for self-promotion (there is a place for that, but that is in another article). Focus first on developing a relationship with your followers, ask questions, answer their questions, be helpful, and always be looking for ways to make their lives easier. 10. Website Analytics Install a free analytics tool like Google Analytics to start tracking where your existing visitors are coming from, what content is most popular, and how visitors are interacting with your site. This will give you key insights on what your audience is craving — publish more of that. Bonus: Make Several Pieces of Content from One Idea Don’t fall into the trap of using your content only once! Members of your audience consume content in different ways, from video to podcasts and infographics to text, be creative by re-purposing your content. For example: If you interview a partner within your industry, host the interview on Skype or Google Hangouts and record the video and audio. Pull out key quotes from the interview and schedule them as Tweets with a link back to the edited transcript on your blog. Hire a graphic designer to apply those quotes to an non-stock photo and share on Instagram or Facebook. You can also use a service like Canva. Next, save just the audio of the interview and make it available for offline listening. If the interview is especially long, break it into multiple parts and publish them over time. Assuming you publish 1-2 blog posts per week, this will give you content for your blog for 2 weeks. Recap: As you can see, it is entirely possible to generate 10-20 pieces of content from just one interview: 6-10 Tweets of quotes from the interview 6-10 images with text to publish on Instagram or Facebook 1-2 part video segments 1-2 blog posts with a text version of the interview 1 downloadable audio file for offline listening 1 Slideshare presentation recapping the interview Conclusion While the technical aspects of search engine optimization have changed over the years, the principles have not. If you continually optimize for your human visitors and establish yourself as a knowledgable authority in your field, you will see an increase in website traffic. Remember, Rome was not built in a day. Neither will your online empire; but with any combination of these tips, you will attract more traffic to your website.

You should have a proof metric - market traction, market proof, proof that they are not wasting their time on your site with half-baked ideas. You should also have some way to show that there has investigation and transparency into the crowdfunders. Try a group with vetting services like http://clearbusinessdirectory.com/vetting-services/ Lastly, you should have clear focused categories that are not overrun with misfits. Investors may want to focus only on a particular area of interest. Make that clear.

First off, always good to see more and more tech companies in Europe. Berlin is producing a lot of great startups. Your geo-location isn't nearly as relevant as: - Your stage (Seed round) - Age (1 year?) - Pre-revenue or post (post) - Business model (B2B SaaS) - Vertical (Hardware) While plenty of VC firms will deal specifically within their own or select territories, it's more common that they have focused on the stage of the company or the business model. You'll need an effective deck and an outreach plan. Assuming that's in place, VCs are easy to find and at minimum a junior will be happy to receive your slide deck. Use Angel, Pitchbook, Crunchbase, DealStream and similar to sort based on the criteria mentioned here. Find multiple contacts at those firms via LI if needed. You can use platforms like Crunchbase to better identify which VCs are investing for your target investment level, or in your industry and use that as a filter to short-list. SaaS is, of course hot. More so B2C but certainly B2B has very strong interest and high activity levels. It won't take much effort to find yourself in "interesting" dialogue. More important than who to contact and gaining their interest though, is ensuring you walk away with a good deal. You're not dealing with amateurs. And their proposed term sheets won't be generous in your favor to say the least. Get yourself an accountant with M&A experience or a third-party VC on retainer for the advisory.

I think it would be vital to the company's survival that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. If there's grey area, I've found that work tends to gravitate toward the more motivated party, and the social/power structure gets weird. I started a company with four founders, and we didn't define roles. What ended up happening is one person didn't do anything that wasn't interesting to them, one person would start a bunch of tasks and leave them half-finished for someone else to handle, and one person was only capable of handling process-based work, which left the fourth person (me) to handle everything else (and write the processes). It bred resentment and made it very difficult to adjust roles going forward, because it had been established that I could do everything and therefore I became the final point of responsibility, even if we'd defined new roles later. Our only way out was to sell the company. In later companies, I laid out responsibilities clearly and made sure each founder had ultimate responsibility and autonomy around their tasks. This has worked out FAR better in every case. I've built a framework that I use for defining and divvying up tasks, and it's made a huge difference. I've had my coaching clients use it as well to similar results. If you need a fresh set of eyes on it, or if you'd like to bounce ideas, I'd be happy to talk. Drop me a request and we'll talk. Good luck!