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( votes)With the development of technology and its constant improvements, the popularity of tech solutions is rising as well.
Starting a tech company is a smart business move at the moment. Not only is it a popular career choice, but it’s a profitable venture as well. It’s expected that by the end of 2020, the global information technology industry is going to reach $5.2 trillion.
However, because the industry is so popular, if you decide to start your own tech company, you’ll have a lot of competitors. That’s why you need to know how to start a company that will attract customers.
Start with the core features
The first step in creating a successful tech company is to create your Minimum Viable Product (MVP). An MVP is a development technique that includes building a basic version of a product with just its core features to allow early adopters to test it and provide feedback.
When you build an MVP, you can identify all the problems in your product early on and create effective solutions.
Before you build your MVP, keep the following factors in mind:
- Know your success criteria. To have a clear goal for your MVP, you need a long-term goal for your startup. Ask yourself why you’re building this MVP and identify your success criteria.
- Address pain points. As your end goal is to solve your customer’s problems and issues, find their pain points, and design the MVP to address them.
- Prioritize the core features. The MVP only needs to have the product’s essential features, the ones that make the product function and solve the customer’s pain points.
Build a website
The first step in creating a successful tech company is to create your Minimum Viable Product (MVP). An MVP is a development technique that includes building a basic version of a product with just its core features to allow early adopters to test it and provide feedback.
When you build an MVP, you can identify all the problems in your product early on and create effective solutions.
Before you build your MVP, keep the following factors in mind:
- Know your success criteria. To have a clear goal for your MVP, you need a long-term goal for your startup. Ask yourself why you’re building this MVP and identify your success criteria.
- Address pain points. As your end goal is to solve your customer’s problems and issues, find their pain points, and design the MVP to address them.
- Prioritize the core features. The MVP only needs to have the product’s essential features, the ones that make the product function and solve the customer’s pain points.
Build a website
Creating a website is an essential part of any business, especially a tech company. Before you even start building your website, you need to establish a website strategy. Set a quantifiable goal for your website and then start building it with that goal in mind.
The next thing you need to think about is what kind of core features and functionality your website needs. Separate them into those you need to include on your website as soon as it’s built, those that you will need in later stages, and the ones that would be nice to have but are not necessary.
The last step is to decide how you want to build the website. While most people decide to create it at once during one big project and only work on it when it needs updates, this approach isn’t ideal. It’s better to prioritize the website’s critical features and build it in stages.
Hire the right talent
A company is only as good as the employees who work there. Once you believe the time is right to find talented people for your company, it’s time to post advertisements on online platforms such as OnlineJobs. There, you can find the best talent located around the world and then watch how they contribute to your company’s growth.
However, make sure to invest a lot of time in the hiring process because if you cut corners and don’t devote enough time, you’ll end up with the wrong people.
Once you start your search for the perfect team, keep the following things in mind:
- Make the perfect advertisement. To find the best possible candidates, advertise your company and specify all the high-level responsibilities you require from a future employee.
- Tell candidates what to expect. Working at a startup usually means that employees have to do a lot of things without any help, so you need to hire people who don’t have issues with being self-sufficient.
- Buy vs. build. Decide whether you want to hire people who already have the skill sets you’re looking for, or just want intelligent people who are willing to learn.
- Communicate with top candidates. While the screening process is important, you also need to set up communication with your top candidates. Through written and telephone communication, you can get a better feel for which candidates stand above the rest.
Focus on marketing
As we already stated, the tech industry is very competitive and if you want your company to be noticed, you need to direct a lot of your focus towards marketing.
Below are listed the best marketing strategies for tech companies.
Create your own videos
Videos are becoming very prominent in advertising, especially for tech companies, as they are a clever, engaging, and fun way to introduce customers to new solutions.
Some things you can focus on when you’re creating marketing videos include:
- Great stories about your company and team that tell how you got your company started and what lead you to create the solution you’re selling.
- Entertaining or humorous videos that will present your solution in a much more interesting way than your competitors.
- Tutorials, how-to-style videos, webinars, and generally useful and informational content your customers would be interested in.
- Testimonial videos from previous clients that tell the story of how your solution was used successfully and helped their company.
- Animated infographics that represent a colorful and interesting way to show important statistics and information to customers.
Write high-quality content
If used right, content can be a powerful tool in your marketing strategy. With so much unoriginal and boring content online, your customers will value your company much more if you provide them with interesting content that was created with a lot of expertise, patience, and effort.
Don’t create boring and click-bait content just to get people to visit your website. Instead, provide a stream of high-quality content that will help you develop trust between your customers and your brand.
Influencer marketing
Tech buyers have become immune to many forms of old-school marketing and now they look for recommendations from people whose opinion they trust. Many people turn to influencers, people with large social media following, for recommendations and advice.
Investing in influencer marketing can be very profitable, as 89% of marketers say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to or better than other marketing channels.
The trick to influencer marketing is to identify your ideal buyers and do research on the influencers they follow and engage with online. Develop relationships with those influencers while also building social credibility.
Finally, get in touch with those freelancers and set up a deal where they will review your product in exchange for a fee or even a free product.
Keep monitoring data
Data monitoring is important for every company, and you can’t afford to neglect that just because you’re currently a startup company with a small amount of data. The importance of early-stage data is much higher than some people realize, as this data is the main tool that will help you make smart and informed decisions.
In the beginning stages of your company, it’s important to track inbound leads and see which marketing channels drive them. You can use that data to form better marketing strategies.
Another very important thing to monitor is your key performance indicators (KPIs). This data can help you see if your business is growing and moving in the direction you intended.
Some KPIs you need to monitor include:
- Lifetime Value (LTV). An estimate or the average revenue you will receive from a person during their lifespan as a customer of your company.
- Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC). The average cost of acquiring a new customer.
- Months to Recover CAC. How many months it takes the company to recover the CAC.
- Average Revenue Generated per Customer (ARPA). Your company’s total revenue during a specific time period divided by the number of customers you acquired in that period.
An important thing to remember about monitoring data is that you need to start small and with a simple process. As you’re still in the early stages, a lot can change and you shouldn’t waste time trying to perfect the entire process right away because the data will probably change soon.
Monitor and measure your data frequently and tie it to a goal so you know if you’re meeting your goals and how you can improve your metrics. And finally, be transparent with your data and share it with your employees so you can get constructive feedback.
Bonus tip: Scale, scale, scale
Since there are a lot of costs associated with the growth of a company, scaling is becoming more popular among startup businesses. While some still focus solely on growth, scaling is a much better alternative for some businesses.
Unlike growth, scaling is achieved when a company increases its revenue without a significant increase in costs. Since the number of customers and revenue grow exponentially, your expenses increase incrementally. However, sometimes this is not necessary at all.
If you want to successfully turn your startup into a large corporation without spending too much of your revenue, all you need to do is prioritize scaling overgrowth.
Summary
It’s impossible to start a company and find success overnight. It takes a lot of time, hard work, and planning to grow a business from the ground up. However, as long as you know all the steps you need to take to find success, the task won’t be as daunting as it seems in the beginning.
What started off as nothing more than an idea can easily become an MVP, which you will later fully develop. With a well-designed website, a great team of talented people, and good marketing strategies, all that is left is to keep measuring your data and scaling until you finally reach your goals.
