If i was given 1 million naira to use in creating awareness or to promote a startup, I will spend it as follows.
First I will try to understand what the startup is offering and whom its trying to reach. Questions I will ask will include:
- Is it trying to reach businesses? It is trying to reach consumers?
- Which demographic of business or consumers? Is it large or small businesses? Or is it male or female consumers?
- Are they online? If they are what are there common online activities? Where do they hang out online?
- What might they consider valuable and appreciate to have related to what I am trying to promote? Example if i were trying to promote a ride sharing startup, I might say my target audience will appreciate to have a simple calculator that will estimate for them the price of car drops within Lagos.
- I will tie such value with the startup I am trying to promote. For example, I will make the simple calculate available on the startup site and immediately after you are give a price quote, you will be presented with an option to share a ride with someone at a discount or make money with your car sharing a ride with someone.
Next. I will device how to create the value they will appreciate and ways to reach them online and off. I will be aiming for a viral effect. Read my answer on “how can you create virality?”. Using my earlier example, I will work to create the simple calculator and list a good number of online influencers I would reach out to help me tell their audience about the simple calculator. I will also outline the relevant sites I would undertake direct response adverts on.
Since its suppose to valuable to their target audience and they would want to be seen as people that share value, I will not offer any monetary incentive for them to share. I will just position the calculator as something of value that would help their target audience. For influencers with a tremendous reach, I might consider providing monetary incentive especially if requested.
I will buy pay per click ads on the relevant networks where my target audience hang out and will also actively participate in discussions within groups, forums, etc.
Lastly, I would measure results and optimize my approach based on outcomes.