Five tips on marketing, from Spot.Us creator David Cohn

Earlier this week the News Challenge folks asked me to give some marketing tips for anyone starting up a news project. Humbled, I have created the following list. But I must give a big disclaimer - my background is in journalism, not marketing.

In my year of Spot.Us, however, I have learned a thing or two about successful marketing and it goes something like this.

1. Get the messaging right.

Spend at least one day brainstorming on your message. This consists of three things:

a. A messaging matrix

Create a simple list of nouns, verbs and adjectives that might be related to your startup. It should be free association in the beginning. There is no right/wrong answer.

Start combining the lists until you get a tagline. ("Community-Funded Reporting" -- Spot.Us' tagline.) Yes, this is similar to that joke about using darts to combine words and make headlines. But there is some truth to that cliche.

The tagline should be short and encapsulate what your project is about.

Now comes the hard part: Prepare yourself to repeat this phrase over and over again. You will eventually get sick of it, but you'll have to grit your teeth and repeat it no matter what. When somebody asks you what your project is, you'll automatically go to the tagline you created earlier.

Who knows how many times I've said Spot.Us is trying to pioneer "community-funded reporting"?

b. A narrative

Journalists reading this should already know where I'm going. People, especially the press, won't be consumed by just anything. They need something to connect. And that happens through narrative. Construct a narrative. It shouldn't be fake - but it should highlight the story behind where your project came from. People will always be asking you how your project got started. They want a story. Take them along for that ride.

c. Positioning

What IS your project and what ISN'T your project.

No, your project is not "like Facebook meets Twitter with a dash of YouTube." It's fine to compare your site to others, but make sure you define what makes your project unique. Where is its added value? The site above -- "YouTwitFace" -- has no value.

2. Invite people into the process.

Again, marketing is a lot about narrative. There is the narrative of how you got to build your project but there is also the narrative of how it will move forward. This is where you want to invite people in. They will help shape your narrative. Don't hide behind a marketing curtain. Open the windows and let the sun shine in.

This is where you can employ the ever powerful-buzzword of "social media marketing."

Of course I'm only half-kidding when I refer to "social media marketing" as a buzzword. It is an incredibly powerful concept and movement online. But it will only be useful for your startup if you are really ready to embrace it.

As an example: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29792566@N08/page11/">I was comfortable putting up designs of Spot.Us</a> before they were finished. For me it was a way to get early feedback and suggestions. But it takes thick skin and a mind-set that "my readers know more than I do." If you have neither, entering this space will be bad news.

If you aren't ready to embrace it, that's fine. But don't just give it lip service. That'll only backfire on you. Just move on to tip #3.

If you are ready to embrace it, keep this in mind: Don't confuse strategy and tactics. The strategy here is to invite people into the narrative of your project moving forward. Tactics include crowdsourcing contests, Twitter, Facebook groups, etc. If some of these fail, don't give up on the strategy. Just re-think your tactics.

3. You only have so many pellets.

(Advice I heeded from Jeremy Toeman.)

Marketing is like having a shotgun with only so much birdshot. You can load all the birdshot at once and take a big shot and spread the pellets about. Or you can load them one at a time.

If you load it all at once the goal will be to make a big splash, get some momentum, etc. You are more likely to hit your target.

Until you are ready for that, just use a few pellets to get started. But don't go using all your birdshot on small random shots, because then you'll be left with nothing for the big shotgun blast that can really do damage.

This is why Spot.Us' early coverage in the New York Times might not have been the best thing for us (we were just a wiki at the time). I wanted to scream "come back in a few months!"

4. Always be in beta.

Keep your expectations low so you can constantly be moving forward. As you make progress see tip # 2. It's best not to market your project as THE solution. It's great to dream big. In fact, you want to have giant dreams (see tip #5) but it's a bad idea to come out and think you can reach for the stars. Things take time and it's important to be patient.

I tend to believe that most community sites take AT LEAST one year before they'll get major traction.

5. A good product does the best marketing.

In other words, don't get distracted!

Your best marketing will be determined by what it is you are bringing to market. Marketing is important but only if you have something you believe in and a bigger vision that is pushing you forward.