If a Startup Makes a Product in the Forest and No One Is Around to Hear It, Does It Make a Sound?
Building a great startup, which in turn creates a great product or service, is extremely tough. But people have done it. Where most entrepreneurs mess up is with what comes next: getting potential customers/users to be aware that your startup and product even exist.
\ The problem is that there is so much noise on the internet and so many startups being created every day that this one great startup can go unnoticed forever. If you make a useful and amazing product, but no one even knows it exists, does it really exist in the first place?
\ No need to answer that question because if you play your cards right, you will never have to come across it. Here are 3 ways to promote your startup and to get the word out.
1. Start a Blog on Your Own Website
If you want to increase your visibility online, a good way to do that is to improve your website’s search engine ranking. One tactic is to write useful articles on your startup’s website that answer readers’ burning questions. The more people click and find value in your articles, the more people become aware of your startup, which increases your pool of potential customers. This should also boost your website’s SEO and credibility; a win-win.
\ If you’re afraid of becoming lost in the ocean known as Google, try republishing your articles on a publishing platform. Maybe a platform like HackerNoon :man_shrugging:. With HackerNoon’s Business Blogging program, you’re able to republish and redistribute your startup’s article, allowing it to reach a whole new audience. Here’s everything that comes with it:
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- Instant credibility by publishing alongside respected tech voices
- Community reach to 4M+ monthly readers actively engaged in tech topics
- SEO foundation with 87+ domain authority and structured content that ranks
- Long-term presence through evergreen articles that continue working for you
- Global distribution across newsletters, social channels, and 70+ languages
2. Don’t be Afraid to Self-Promote
People hate self-promoters. But many successful stories have started with someone self-promoting on Reddit, Twitter, etc. For example, Lil Nas X, who had the massively popular song, Old Town Road, started by self-promoting on Reddit. And how many artists have we seen explode in popularity on Twitter because they weren’t afraid to self-promote their art?
\ Make no mistake: there’s a difference between spamming and promoting. Getting banned from subreddits isn’t the end of the world, but it’s also not a good look. Read the rules carefully and avoid self-promoting too much in one place. Spread it out across different subreddits, platforms, and websites. All it takes is one person to be aware of your startup, then the rest will come.
3. Ads are Unbeatable
There’s a reason that advertising has existed for centuries. It’s because it works. But just buying any random ad campaign is not the way to go. You only have so much marketing budget to work with; don’t spend it on campaigns that won’t get you new customers.
\ If you really want to get a bang for your buck, there’s no better deal than HackerNoon’s Targeted Ads program. Here’s everything that comes with it:
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- HackerNoon has curated 100,000+ technology tags to date.
- These tags are grouped into the relevant parent categories like AI, Web3, Programming, Startups, Cybersecurity, Finance, Business, and more!
- Every story organically gets at least eight relevant tech tags and a parent category.
- Sponsors buy multimodal placements on relevant categories with all the tags and stories.
- These Ad placements include Banners, Logos, Newsletter Ads, and Audio Ads (what we call truly AIO - Activities, Interests, and Opinions).
- Optimized for: Brand Recall and Clickability (Get 3× more clicks for the same impressions compared to elsewhere).
- Get quality leads at unbeatable prices, with CPM ~ $7 and CPC ~ $5.
\ If you’ve already built your startup from the ground up, congratulations; that’s step one done. Then comes everything else, including building brand awareness. You don’t have to go at it alone. HackerNoon is here to help.
\ Now, let’s look at 3 amazing startups that are making their evergreen mark on the internet.
:::tip Publish your first story with HackerNoon today!
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Meet Indian Startup News, BharatPe, and Delphic (India): HackerNoon Startups of the Week
Indian Startup News
If you want to find out anything about the versatile, impressive, and growing Indian startup scene, there’s no better place to go than Indian Startup News. In their own words, they hope to “cover the uncovered entrepreneurial ventures of tier 2, tier 3 cities, and bring them out of their shell and connect them with the elites of the startup ecosystem.”
\ Indian Startup News recently made waves by being declared Startup of the Year in Chhattisgarh, India, while also receiving nominations in the Messaging and Communications, IT Services, and Blogging categories.
BharatPe
If you’re a business, why make accepting payments hard for you and your customers? That seems counterintuitive. BharatPe agrees. That’s why they’ve worked hard to make payment acceptance quick and easy; all you have to do is pull out your phone and scan the QR code. Bam done; a win-win for both merchants and consumers.
\ It’s this efficiency that helped BharatPe get nominated for Startup of the Year in Gurugram, HR, India. They also received nominations in 3 other categories: FinTech, Banking, and Payments.
Delphic
IT services are time-consuming, confusing, and most importantly, extremely critical to every business. It’s so important that you should let the pros handle it; pros like Delphic. They offer everything from resource outsourcing to support services to even migration services. And of course, we can’t forget about essential services such as offering ERP and CRM solutions.
\ Delphic’s thoroughness and readiness helped them nab 4 nominations at HackerNoon’s Startup of the Year awards, including HackerNoon Startup of the Year in Uttarakhand, India, and in the Software Development, IT Services, and Web Development categories.
:::tip Want to be featured? Share Your Startup's Story Today!
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That’s all for now.
\ Until next time, Hackers!
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