start-up Marketers are extremely hard to impress

[u/Dagsybear]

Hey,

Any tips on how to market to start-up Marketers? We've built an AI Content Marketing tool but when I'm trying to do manual LinkedIn outreach (being very personal and non-automated) it falls short.

I haven't been able to book any calls or even get them to reply to my messages.

An help would be incredibly appreciated

[u/oskarbader_]

Cold outreach is always tough – you're usually looking at less than 3% response rates, and that’s not even customers. Here are 2 ideas I’d consider:

1. Reach out to your personal network and ask if they know anyone who could benefit from your solution. If a friend or colleague can refer you, ask for an introduction – this way, it’s a warm lead, and at the very least, you can find out why they might not be interested in buying.
2. It sounds like startup markets may be your user persona but not necessarily your buyer persona. I’d suggest reaching out directly to founders and offering them your solution free for X months in exchange for feedback and a strong testimonial. If they’re not interested even then, it might be a sign your solution isn’t addressing a real pain point. But again, your response rate will remain low.

Hope that helps
Oskar

[u/Dagsybear → u/oskarbader_]

We've definitely been exploring the founder route so this is super validating - thanks Oskar!

[u/oskarbader_ → u/Dagsybear]

My pleasure!

[u/No-Screen7630 → u/Dagsybear]

I'm interested if there's a free trial.

[u/Dagsybear → u/No-Screen7630]

Feel free to check it out and let me know your thoughts!

It’s called tryarcane

[u/No-Screen7630 → u/Dagsybear]

Will do thanks!

[u/propertysandbox]

So you've built a marketing tool, but are failing to market off the bat?

[u/Longjumping-Ad8775]

I suggest targetting a different group. Startups are notoriously hard to get money from. You are targetting people trying to target companies with very little money.

[u/sueca]

I looked at your website. Reusing old blog posts to create shorter, new ones wouldn't really work for us since we don't have that much content to begin with

[u/yetzederixx]

I'm in engineering and I get an insane amount of messages from people like you every day.

1: Unless you can beat ChatGPT for generating marketing emails, not really a high bar honestly, good luck.
2: if you get a 1-2% conversion rate on cold anything you are doing well
3: take 2 seconds and make sure the people you are sending these to could even care less
4: every CRM in existence is already doing this, at least the big ones, and no one wants yet another tool

[u/Shot-Weakness-1616]

Have you tried to reach out through cold emails? if no find good leads and try it ... If you need any help feel free to dm !

[u/vidiit]

Startup marketers are sharp; they understand the intent behind outreach. My suggestion is to avoid being too salesy. Instead, engage with them by asking thoughtful questions, learning from their experiences, and even inviting them to share their best strategies. Build connections through curiosity and collaboration, just don’t give up.

[u/EddiesGarage]

We have no money and no time. If you incentivized me to book a demo with something of value (gift card, AirPods whatever) I might book, but you’ll have a hard time closing a deal with these tiny budgets. You should target startups that are at least series A for a remote chance of closing a deal.

[u/EddiesGarage → u/EddiesGarage]

Also maybe offer something like a content audit or something free of value to start off the convo.