How much should you spend on marketing. This is a question every entrepreneur thinks about. Here is what Evan says:
Interested in seeing if online advertising will work for your business? Start with $500 and see if you can get a return on it. It’s not too hard to find $100 Google AdWords credits for first time advertisers so you’re a fifth of the way there!
Can trade shows help boost your sales? Partner up with someone who is already going and see if you can get a part of their booth instead of dropping thousands of dollars on your own. See if you’re getting a response from people and then you can make an educated decision on future trade shows.
The real answer is “it depends”. But Evan leads you through a way of thinking through this problem.
Here are some of my thoughts:
- You need to spend some effort and money in going to trade shows where your potential users show up. We have done it with a lot of success. In these conferences, you don’t really sell. You observe. Talk to people, network and validate some of your hypotheses.
- You need to use lot of free inbound marketing techniques – Blogging, Tweeting, Leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook, Creating whitepapers, screencasts, conducting webinars. Try them all. As Evan recommends, measure which one works for your product and industry.