Strategy
In the race to be "the best" there's one winner and lots of losers. I work with companies to help them better understand strategy - how decisions about features, brand, and defining success come together to create a unique fit that fosters profitability and differentiation.
This work involves a mixture of stakeholder interviews, competitive/market analysis, brand development, surveys, messaging, and business development planning.
Marketing
With so many ways to market today, there is no silver bullet. Marketing starts with a solid product, strong branding that sets you apart, and well-informed experimentation to find the most successful channels. Working with dozens of startups has helped me understand the core foundational elements that propel companies to success, including features that accelerate interaction and growth.
In practice, this involves re-evaluating branding, messaging, public relations, audience targeting, product polish, copywriting, and suggestions on where to start in the vast online advertising space (although many startups probably don't need to spend much money to market themselves).
Public Relations
After 10+ years working with journalists and bloggers, media training executives, running trade show booths, and hosting corporate events I still see public relations as the best way to spend marketing money when you're starting out. There are 10 things that make a story newsworthy - I help people understand how to tell stories that stand out.
Public relations work starts with defining memorable messaging, teasing out a company's stories, stats, quotes, and facts, and preparing for interviews. After that it's focusing on the right channels for your message, the right journalists, and making sure the stories about you carry your messages.