Image by Divinemissn via Flickr
How do you scale a clever mobile app solving a simple problem in the large retail space? And how do you do it on a shoestring budget?
An interesting challenge I recently got to assist an entrepreneur with.
One way is to attract more prospects in the targeted segment, on the cheap; another way is to extend the segment through business model innovation.
Work completed
- Introduction of the entrepreneur to inbound marketing and crossing-the-chasm concepts e.g. importance of (1) not selling “pragmatist buyers” on innovation, but product’s usefulness, reliability, and existing users (2) focusing on a cohesive market in which decision makers speak to each other)
- Recommendation for a light-weight self-serve version of the product, that smaller retailers can purchase and configure online for a monthly fee
- Recommendation to focus on (1) inbound marketing (2) referral strategy for existing clients
- Advice on fundraising roadmap
Key contributions
- Business model and product recommendations currently pursued
- Helped avoid common mistake of spending lots of money and time on conventional marketing
- Focus on inbound marketing yielded increased number of high-quality leads
- Large new opportunity emerged for entrepreneur through referral
