Marketing & Branding for Start-ups - What are investors looking for? [with Bart Dalton]

In this episode of the Marketing Innovation Show Podcast by Marketiu we have B.D. Dalton as a special guest, who is a No. 1 Best selling author, Angel Investor and Serial Entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in financial and business sectors, building successful businesses in The United States and across Europe.

The subject for today is Marketing & Branding for start-ups - what are investors looking for?

 

As we dive in this episode, Andrei and Bart will be discussing on how to use Marketing & Branding can help small businesses that are just starting out.

 

“Everything is about wealth. Wealth is the ability to create experiences for your family, friends, clients. People that are wealthy have so many experiences in their lives.”

 

A: To get started with, I would like to know what you are looking at from an investor's perspective and what your network is looking at when you are looking into acquiring new businesses, valuing businesses, as well as investing in new businesses.  I know that you also have a business in Birmingham sort of Dragon's Den business that you launched and I would like for you to tell us a bit more about that one - how it came to life and how you guys are looking at through that program when you are evaluating businesses.

 

B: You want to know how to make sure that investors are looking at your business. So as an investor, as a person that trains businesses to make sure that they are investible, I want to make sure that when you're looking at the Marketing we want to have a concise message, we also want to know who you're competing against, we want to know how big that market is and how easy they are to approach. Just like you know when it comes to SEO or any other optimisation engines is you need to figure out how much is gonna cost you to do that. So if you're going to ask me for 100.000 pounds, I want to know how fast, how real it is that you're going to get it back, or what the next stage is. (...) What you need to look for as a start-up is when do you feel comfortable, when do you feel wealthy. (...)

 

A: It's not only about the money, but also the network of the investor?

 

B: Correct, it doesn't matter if you're looking for money or to grow your business. It's about energy, time and focus - the only things you have in your whole world. People that are buying from you are also wanting to know that you're successful, that you're good, so you need to be investible. When people know that you are in desire for other people, they're gonna want to buy you. No matter whether you are a start-up, in looking for money, you're a or a start-up business, so you're selling to people, you need to do all these things. You need to become investible, even if you don't want money.

 

A: In the context of seeking investment or wanting to grow, would you say that branding should come before the lead generation or do they have to do it at the same time?

 

B: It's a great question! In general, 90% of the businesses out there are sales businesses. Sales businesses have to prove traction, they have to prove knowledge, that they have clients before they can become a marketing company. So you have to have somebody to pay your bills, to prove that you know what you do before you can go to a marketing exercise in a proper branding exercise. It might be 2 or 3 clients, but you need to prove that your marketing works, that people will buy from you or from what you do, so the first branding you have is your personal branding. Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room.

 

A: When you are in the beginning, it can be hard to get those first initial paying clients, which they are important to prove that somebody is willing to pay money for your thing, so you can go out for investment. What's your view on businesses or agencies or people working for a discount or for a fee to build their initial portfolio before going out and selling more and going for investment?

 

B: You need to prove that your market will buy at your price point. Pricing strategy is okay, as long as you can find the money. If you're going to go chasing lots of one pound notes, then that's very difficult. You have to find where the money is, then you have to find how hard it is to get in there, who you're competing with. Overall, when we start to look at your sales methods and how you're working, I almost say never discount, not on the headline.

 

A: Let's say you just invested in a new start-up. They have one or two clients and they want to take advantage of the current situation, so they want until summer to be two levels up. What would be the first marketing thing you'd be looking out for them? What would you prioritize?

 

B: You look at your competitor and at your target demographic, where they are shopping, what they're looking at, what they're doing, look at the marketing of the big guys that you're competing against and go to out and mimic something that they're doing - because they spend huge amounts of money to figure out that TikTok is the place to be or that they have to show pictures of geese flying and it has to be the blue color. They spend huge amounts of money to figure out how simple things need to be and go out and model some of that. This way you can save a lot of money and build to where you're going to be a marketing leader. 

 

A: Can you please highlight 2-3 actionable points that people can get from this episode and apply it straight to their business? 

 

B: Things that they want to apply today: First of all, who is your target market, how much money do they have, how are you going to try to get a little bit of that market share? In the start-up phase, you need to spend as little money as possible on SEO and all that type of stuff. So I'd rather pay 5 pounds per click and hit your inbox directly because I know you'd buy from me tomorrow, than random inboxes, it just doesn't make any sense. You need to go from shotgun to riffle. Also, you need to find a partner. Somebody else is going be attacking that demographic from another angle. Partner up with them, create a story together. If you can find two other people that want to attack the same market, you can save marketing budget, you can cross-reference each other's websites, you can go after the same clients.

 

A: That would be complementary, right?

 

B: Yes, if you were selling ice cream, you would want to find a cone manufacturer and a refrigerator distributor. If you sell books, you want to find somebody that makes bookmarks, then you want to find somebody that delivers coffee so that they can drink coffee and read your book and have a bookmark. You want to find complementary people. 

 

A: We know you also have a podcast. Tell the audience a bit about it, what are you talking about in the podcast and what they can come to you to learn through the podcast.

 

B: Grow, Sell and Retire is all around that, so you want to grow as a person, you want to grow as a business, I've got ideas around that, or if you want to sell a business , you want to sell more stuff, and then retire - different ways to retire, about the different roles in the community different ways to make business and also different ways to make sure that you're saying - I've got about 50 interviews, and 50 top tips. If people want top tips and you want to refresh things, they're 10-minute episodes on the top tips, there are half an hour episodes on the interviews, but there are great people. I want to make sure that everybody can get to their next level. 

Video Episode Available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS35zbvz8Ji3JGDIKoyXWag

 

Get in touch with Bart:

BDC Website: https://bartdaltonconsulting.com/

Temple Row Management Website: https://templerow.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrowSellRetire

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBhSWdxovOODxClKv3m29tQ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-d-next-level-dalton-ii-8a42752/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BartDaltonConsulting

 

Connect with Andrei:

Marketiu: https://marketiu.com / https://marketiu.ro 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreitiu/

Marketiu on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketiu

Marketiu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketiuagency

Email at hello@marketiu.ro