Don’t launch with a whisper; launch with a roar. Here’s how.

Don’t launch with a whisper; launch with a roar. Here’s why: When you’re a young company, you don’t have time to sit around and hope your brilliant idea catches on. Either you’ll run out of money or be displaced by a competitor who takes over your market before you can gain a foothold.

Ultimately, then, your company’s success hinges on your ability to build buzz early on. The following strategies will help you do just that.

1. Get influencers on board early.

Admittedly, “launching” isn’t as simple as opening your doors and presenting yourself to the world. It’s more of a multi-step process, which is why you see so many apps going through MVP and beta iterations before presenting their formal marketing launch to the public.

When I was building Mailshake, our formal launch occurred after we’d hosted several dozen beta users and made changes based on their valuable feedback. That way, we were confident that the buzz we’d built wouldn’t oversell what we were actually delivering.

In addition, one unexpected benefit of not launching too soon is that you can bring influencers onboard early on and actually make them a part of the development process. Stuart McKeown of Gleam describes another successful tech brand that did just that:

“Take Product Hunt as [an] example,” McKeown says. “They never really did a big huge launch; instead, they focused on early adopters and influencers to get them sticky on the platform. I personally think that you should be doing your marketing launch once you already know your product is going to be a success [or has traction].”

If you’re building something revolutionary, then (and you should be, if you expect to score any serious buzz), you may see authority figures in your niche jumping at the opportunity to help turn your product into the solution they’ve been seeking. All you have to do is ask, and then treat their eventual contributions with the respect they deserve.

2. Build some mystery.

No, I’m not talking about the Sarah McLachlan song. I’m talking about getting users excited about your upcoming marketing launch, before you roll out the red carpet and invite them in.

Think about how Apple rolls out new products. Consider this appraisal, from the KISSmetrics blog: “What really sets them apart is they get everyone talking months before the product launches, usually before there’s even a demo for anyone to see. No one is talking about what the product does; they’re talking about what it might do.”

Related: Use Breaking News to Build Buzz for Your Business

Certainly, Apple has an advantage. The company is, at this point, a well-oiled launching machine, with everyone from journalists to breathless fanboys out there willign to back them up. But there are still lessons you can learn from Apple’s example:

• Tell a story. People are naturally driven to complete stories and patterns. When you give them just a hint — especially a hint they’re interested in — they’ll want to learn more in order to satisfy their curiosity. Building mystery into your launch through your pre-launch content and landing pages has the same effect.
• Put up a “Coming Soon” landing page on your website that teases the value your new product will provide and when it will be available. Make sure you have an opt-in form with a CTA that encourages visitors to subscribe for future notifications.
• Offer “sneak peeks” that build excitement without giving everything away. Do this through social media messages, YouTube clips or any other medium that supports your brand.

3. Create an “in crowd.”

Take a page out of the high school mean girls playbook. Everyone wants to be a part of the perceived “in crowd,” and you can leverage this in your launch plan by requiring would-be users to get invites from current customers.

Blueleaf, a personal finance startup, took this approach to the extreme back in 2010 by not just requiring that prospective users request invites, but opening invitation periods for limited windows.  In an interview with Business Insider, the founder of Blueleaf, Sachin Agarwal, shared how doing so helped his team sign up more than 10,000 users before launching

“Rather than limit the number of invites someone has,” Agarwal said, “there are an unlimited number of invites; but we’ve limited the time frames to invite a friend.  We turn on the ability to invite a friend for just an hour or two, so that people who want in have to beg everyone they know who’s on to let them in before the window closes.”

Related: Where on Earth Is Buzz? Why Honey Nut Cheerios Nixed Its Busy Bee.

These strategies may or may not work for your specific product; if they don’t, you’ll need to explore others to get your name out there as you build buzz for your growing company.

Thanks to the folks who slugged through their struggles and inspired us to overcome ours, the secrets of true success are already laid out for us. These successful people didn’t get where they are because they were crafty, wicked or born with a trunk load of cash (as the movies often portray); they made it big with their willingness to collaborate, perseverance to slough ahead through crap, calm-yet-ambitious persona and creative solutions.

Here are four amazing (but simple) secrets that hold the key to creating your own empire:

1. Small groups can beat large groups.

Smaller groups don’t just offer multiple, augmenting skillsets: With multiple perspectives often influenced by each other’s personal choices, these viewpoints can often have the team approach the project from different angles.

I recommend encouraging your coworkers to form small groups and break tasks evenly between themselves — remember, two hands are needed to make a sound.

2. Look inward often.

Why are you doing what you do? Why should your clients care? What’s your brand’s story? People may not need your brand or service to survive, but they are still in business with you because they care. They support your story and care for your vision to succeed.

Apple’s Macbook advertisements are the pinnacle of innovative stories. The 2016 Mac’s tagline said, “We set out to do the impossible: engineer a full-size experience into the lightest and most compact Mac notebook ever.”

Why do people prefer Apple? Because they make you feel good. They instill the confidence that you and I can conquer the impossible with the beautiful and easy-to-use products they create. 

3. Learn to walk it out.

Exercise has proven to enhance your decision-making skills by providing clarity, collect your thoughts and come up with innovative solutions. In your workplace, you can always take a quick hike around the floor should you feel the need to. I’d recommend encouraging your employees to get up and stretch their legs — grab a coffee, perhaps? — if they find themselves running into a brick wall.

Or, dive in for a game of poker with your colleagues on the myriad online websites found out there. It might sound unconventional, but it can add much-needed clarity.

4. Transparency is key.

Clothing company Everlane is a good example of the power of transparency. Most companies disclose their manufacturers and other sources to the consumer, but Everlane dives in far deeper, disclosing prices it paid for the components, labor, duties, transportation and the real cost of the item for sale.

By sharing these crucial details, Everlane garners consumer and revenue, as consumers bound to share the company’s story with their friends.

Business is hard. The top companies seem to have rocketed to the peak with gliding steps, but most business owners insist that things are not usually this easy. So then, why are some companies able to see such enormous returns on investments, huge efficiency and quick growth?

Max Berry, CEO and Founder of Attract.ly, a leading advertising firm, notes that the biggest problem preventing companies from maximizing their potential is the lack of inspired growth hacking techniques. An early one he found and exploited was Instagram.
“Why more small businesses aren’t actively advertising on Instagram is beyond me. The fact is, for many businesses and brands, their target demographic, 18-35 year olds, spend multiple hours per day on Instagram,” Berry said. “SMB’s need to start getting in front of their market where they spend most of their time or they’re going to miss the mark and the opportunity.”
Growth hacking is the means of streamlining your business functions and focusing on unique tailored interaction with your customers. As you aim to growth hack your business and increase efficiency, these are the top tools for developing rapid, sustainable growth in your venture.

1. Goco.io

GoCo.io is a must-have solution for any business with more than a handful of employees. Their cloud-based platform collects, organizes and manages all your employment documents, records and compliance needs, converting your filing cabinets into a digital breath of fresh air.
Formerly tedious tasks like employee onboarding, paid time off tracking, performance management, and benefits open enrollment are now an automated breeze. Your employees may even shed a tear of joy! This service powers your business with an all-in-one system that streamlines your workflows and effortlessly syncs your existing payroll and benefits systems harmoniously together. GoCo.io distinguishes itself from other players in the HR tech space by delivering an experience others can’t: top technology paired with a local go-to benefits broker to bring businesses the personalized benefits service they deserve.  

2. Telzio

Telzio powers cloud phone systems for companies around the world, and provides an online platform that makes configuration and management of services easy. This eliminates the need for hardware and also empowers users with collaboration tools.

Telzio enables organizations to integrate mobile devices, add features and users on demand, and unify locations under a single system. With Telzio, customers experience enhanced call quality, reliable uptime and fast as well as knowledgeable support.

3. TrendKite

Often times, PR can be a powerful but hard to measure tool. TrendKite has a suite of functionality allowing businesses to directly measure the results from PR in comparison to their competitors. 

Tracking traffic driven to your site, mentions of your company in feature and generic pieces, and giving benchmarks of competitors, TrendKite makes it easy to measure the value of PR. It will give you a sense of whether or not you are performing to the level you need to be to grow effectively. TrendKite makes PR more tangibles and data-driven, thereby making the valuable tool much easier to use for businesses large and small.

4. Leadcrunch

Finding qualified leads is the top problem for over half of B2B companies. But Leadcrunch offers the solution to this annoying dilemma. By comparing your best leads with bad leads, Leadcrunch implements artificial intelligence algorithms to generate a list of decision makers at companies similar to your best leads.

Then nurture them to either marketing or sales-qualified leads using a marketplace of 3rd party marketing services. LeadCrunch customers close 300% more sales because they can focus on closing rather than prospecting. 

5. Google Suite

While the Google Suite has a large range of options and value for businesses, perhaps one of the least acknowledged is its ability to provide businesses with actionable data on their customers. Using both Google Forms and Google Analytics, it is possible for companies to fine-tune marketing techniques with the added benefit of sculpting consumer personas. 

Furthermore, the versatility of the Google Suite and totality of its product offerings allow for the platform to give an enormous range of application as well as simplification through the combining functionality in one suite.

6. Select Card
For many business owners, networking and creating new connections have to sit on the backburner to day to day operations of the business.
Select solves this problem head on by allowing to you join an exclusive club comprised of other successful pioneers in your city. On top of this, Select Members receive discounts at the best restaurants and unbeatable hotel discounts whenever they travel. For the business owner looking to create a solid network in the easiest way possible, there’s no better option than Select.

7.Twillio

For many companies, technology automation is not an option due to the high costs of hiring a coder and getting the systems up and running. Typically, these types of automation solutions also take a while to program.

However, Twilio lets you get automated phone centers, customer success modules, and other applications set up easily, so you can cheaply maximize your business. Automation allows small businesses to operate as cohesively and successfully as large corporations, and Twilio is the trick to reaching that point. 

8 Burstorm

All businesses need compute, storage and network cloud services to support their digital needs. However, few businesses have the time and expertise to find the best solution for their specific needs.

Burstorm delivers the most complete analytics platform. It allows you to model, benchmark, buy and deploy any cloud infrastructure solution you might need with the utmost ease. And Burstorm does so by automatically mapping and match your requirements to the 1200+ products set in the Burstorm platform. What could be more efficient than that?

9. Trello

One of the worst problems for small businesses is the overwhelming nature of to-do lists, problems of multi-tasking and coordinating work with teams. 

With color coded boards and an integrated messaging plus commenting platform, Trello makes working as a team and managing multiple projects easy.

10. Tableau
Data harvesting, analysis, and portrayal typically require advancing coding and statistics backgrounds. They can also be time-intensive and daunting tasks. Tableau allows users to easily and effectively gather, understand and present their data and eliminates much of the advanced and time-intensive aspects of the process. 
Using data to drive your business can increase efficiency, drive sales and let you stand out from your customers.

11.Guestpost 

Guestpost grants anyone access to a list of publications accepting guest posts and prolific writers with large followings. This enables you to build your status as a thought leader by sharing your knowledge on a plethora of platforms. You will also discover who you need to reach out to for featuring your company on any number of sites. 

PR and branding are critical for transforming a venture from a small business to a powerful corporation and Guestpost gives you the resources you need to do this with so much convenience to you.

Growing your business can be scary and seem like a game of luck. But with these eleven products you can increase the technological functions of your business, boost efficiency and growth hack your way to success.

Why This Approach Will Work For You

I love to run. Fast. But the reality is, sometimes I run too fast, too quickly, and that can lead to huge challenges for our businesses.

I got into talking recently with my friends at Innovative Attorney Marketing, a full-service marketing agency that drives new clients to attorneys and law firms and a Likeable Local partner. They’ve been working in the legal direct mail and digital marketing space for more than 15 years, so they know a thing or two about growing and maintaining a business. I asked them about their approach, and why “Crawl, Walk Run” works best:

It sounds like you have been a leader in the attorney marketing space for over a decade. What changes have you seen as the industry evolves?

For one thing, direct mail does not work on its own anymore. Potential clients used to receive a letter targeting their legal needs in the mail, open the envelope, and pick up the phone. These days, consumers are much more savvy. They will take the time to research a firm online prior to making a phone call, and will also shop other firms before making a decision. Because hiring a lawyer is such a personal decision, it is critical for attorneys to have a professional digital presence. Furthermore, a digital presence no longer means simply having a good website – you need to have social media accounts, blogs, reviews, be found on page 1 of search results, etc.

Yes, digital marketing is obviously a hot topic. What advice do you have for people who are entering into this area for the first time?

We look at digital marketing for attorneys in a “crawl, walk, run” approach. In the crawl phase, you are establishing a digital and direct mail foundation. You need a solid website which will serve as the backbone for a direct mail campaign. Your website should include your resume so that potential clients can see your accomplishments as well as practice area pages that explain what exactly it is that you do. It needs to be mobile responsive with clickable calls-to-action. In addition, using targeted and timely direct mail campaigns with optimized formatting and custom branding will set you apart from the competition and drive visitors to your firm.

As you learn to walk in digital marketing, you establish a social media presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Not only should you establish a presence, but you should begin to interact with others in the form of blogging, sharing, and commenting online. This will keep you relevant, establish you as a thought leader, and drive your SEO efforts.

Finally, when you begin to run, you start to engage in activities such as digital advertising through a pay-per-click campaign, paid social media marketing, and full-scale SEO efforts such as link building and website optimization.

Interesting perspective. What else would you add?

Law firms and other small businesses should not jump into digital marketing without a clear strategy – doing so could waste thousands of dollars and countless hours. In addition, small business owners should focus on what they do best – practicing law if you’re a lawyer, or accounting if you’re an accountant, or consulting if you’re a consultant, etc.

Because successful marketing requires time, expertise, and effort, teaming up with an experienced marketing partner who understands the area is essential for success. Finally, keep in mind that not all companies can benefit from all types of advertising. As an example, consider Radio Shack, who spent $8 million on a Super Bowl ad and then closed almost all of their stores a few months later. Not all advertising is good advertising, which is why it is advisable to work with an experienced partner when planning your digital and direct mail marketing strategy.

Crawl, then walk, then run!

This augmented reality treasure hunt game makes experiential marketing accessible and affordable to your small business.

If you’re attending SXSW this year, you may want to try your hand at a bit of augmented reality to compete for $50,000 in venture capital. Snatch, a virtual treasure hunt played via mobile, will show you how to snatch virtual parcels containing valuable prizes (like 50 grand in seed money), free vacations, and free meals. The catch is, you must hold on to your parcels for six hours before they are yours to claim. Your virtual treasure hunt is filled with mystery and challenge while others try to “snatch” your parcels away from you.

Dubbed the Pokémon Go for brands, Snatch certainly has more than fun and adventure in mind for their clients and “Snatchers”. They plan to break down the walls between Millennials and brands by creating a positive, interactive experience for consumers who want to shop and engage on their own terms.

“Snatch is about people engaging with brands in their own environment, rather than brands being in places we’d rather they weren’t, like YouTube and Facebook,” says Phil Lloyd, Chief Marketing Officer at Snatch. We’re knocking on the door and asking to be let in, not kicking down the door and interrupting.”

The company has recently won the attention, and funding, from Unilever Ventures. While Unilever typically does not offer seed-funding to pre-series A companies, they know that augmented reality is here to stay.

“Over the past year, augmented reality has gone from a novelty to a real part of our day-to-day lives,” says Jan Harley, Director, from Unilever Ventures. “Immersing people in an interactive environment where they’re actively seeking out products and feeling the elation of winning something tangible, is a really exciting addition to the marketing toolkit.”

Gamification offers an experiential marketing experience for consumers, and it’s proving to hold their attention far longer than traditional marketing strategies. On average, Snatch users remain engaged for more than one-hour of cumulative game time and enter the app four times per day. That kind of engagement would cost more than any SMB is likely to invest in advertising through other, more traditional, channels.

“Our platform is built by design for brand integration at the heart, delivered via an addictive and engaging gamification layer,” says Lloyd. The app’s core audience is in the 18-30-year-old range, but it’s really for anyone. My question is, can a small business afford to bring such an augmented reality experience to their customers?

“Our attention is not restricted to the Unilever’s of the world; we don’t delineate between large and small brands,” says Lloyd. Parcels range in value from ten-dollars up to $50,000 (so far).

Snatch is working with mom and pop companies in the U.K., including a hair salon startup, providing very low customer acquisition costs, along with outstanding redemption rates. “When people select their favorite parcel, and compete to hold on to it for six hours, redemption rates will naturally be higher,” says Lloyd. And, the platform really gets people talking. “When you offer things like a year’s supply of avocado’s,” says Lloyd, “how can people not talk?”

Snatch launched just last month in the U.K., has already been downloaded more than 250,000 times, and has held tight to the number one position in Adventure apps. They plan on launching in the U.S. early in summer of 2017 and will continue to expand internationally.

It may be time to graduate beyond content marketing in a world that’s saturated with content.Ready to join the ranks of top brands like Starbucks and Sephora in the world of experiential marketing? Fortunately, gamification is becoming more accessible to small businesses with each passing year.