Startup Founders, Venture Funders & Marketing, Oh My
Key Questions to Ask About Marketing
In Startup World, a relentless focus on product development and market entry can easily overshadow one crucial element: marketing. For many founders and venture funders, the urgency of a launch often blurs the line of what constitutes sustainable growth. We’re sharing some pressing questions to reflect upon regarding your marketing strategy.
TLDR? We get it. We’re a startup, too ;)
This article looks at:
Planning for brand awareness
Maintaining your brand stability during headcount growth
Supporting brand awareness during building
Spreading the word
What underdeveloped marketing can mean for revenue
Trends and challenges
SEO, GEO & AI tools in marketing
A client Shout Out
Fun quote from “The Office” (yes, really)
What is your plan for brand awareness?
Brand awareness is the foundation of customer loyalty and market presence. As a startup, how do you plan to establish your brand identity amidst a cacophony of competitors? Are you leveraging social media, public relations, or content marketing to create a consistent narrative around your brand? How does your branding resonate with your target audience? You don’t need a ton of financial resources to have effective measurement systems and reliable marketing processes. A strategic marketing plan, developed in the early stages of your business, helps accelerate growth and traction. A forward thinking plan guides you from building to scaling stages. Using classic SMART goals, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound, sets the tone. (1)
We’ve been on the ground floor of LOTS of transformational technology.
How is Your Brand Maintaining Stability Amid Rapid Hiring?
During the initial startup phase, the excitement of building a team can lead to distractions from maintaining brand consistency. As your company grows, how are you ensuring that your messaging aligns with your evolving brand identity? What strategies do you have in place to ensure that new hires understand, communicate, and embody your company’s core values? A strong and stable brand identity not only differentiates you from the competition. It builds audience trust and credibility and can also increase investor attraction.(2)
How Does Your Marketing Support Brand Awareness When Building?
In a building phase, your marketing tactics must adapt to support growth while still fostering brand awareness. This phase presents the chance to reinforce your market position and engage with your audience. What strategies are you employing to ensure that your marketing aligns with your growth objectives and continuously nurtures your brand perception?
How Are You Spreading the Word About Your Product or Service?
Thank you, Al Peters, we appreciate you!
Effective communication about your product or service is key to attracting customers. What multi-channel strategies are you employing to reach potential users? How do you plan to differentiate your offerings in an increasingly saturated market? Are there approaches, such as influencer partnerships or multi-pronged content marketing, to amplify your reach? Are there things you absolutely should not be doing? It’s important to think about those things, too…and, are there lessons to be learned from your competitors?
What are the Implications of an Underdeveloped Marketing Function?
Lack of a robust marketing department can hinder your ability to meet growth targets. If you don’t yet have a mature marketing function or are relying on intermittent marketing efforts, how could that absence be impacting your traction in the market? Consider the missed opportunities and delays in reaching your desired customer base that stems from inadequate messaging and outreach.
Without Accelerated Recruiting, What Are the Costs in Terms of Revenue?
As you build your team, think about the correlation between your hiring pace and revenue growth. If you’re struggling to recruit talent or expand your client base quickly, what financial implications does that have on your overall business health? What strategic steps are you taking to ensure that you are drawing in prospects while also maintaining a streamlined hiring process?
Understanding Market Trends and Challenges Facing Startups
Startup founders and venture funders often face shared challenges when it comes to scaling their businesses. Some of the most pressing concerns include economic fluctuations, changing consumer behaviors, and increased competition. In this landscape, how are you staying informed about trends that could impact your operations? What proactive measures are you taking to mitigate potential risks?
Who is Handling Your Marketing Decisions?
The decision-making process around marketing in startups can often be fragmented or rushed. Who is guiding your marketing strategy? Is it someone with the right expertise, or is it falling to developers and product managers on top of their existing roles? The lack of a dedicated marketing perspective can dilute the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.
Is Your Website Optimized for SEO and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your startup. Is your website not only optimized for SEO but also for GEO (generative engine optimization)? If you’ve been following the rapid changes in how people find businesses like yours online, you know we’ve already entered a new era. Search isn’t just about Google anymore. More people are turning to AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Bing Copilot and more, to find information about businesses and get recommendations. According to OpenAI, over a billion web-related searches were made in ChatGPT in a single week (April 2025) (3) How effectively are you harnessing these vital tools to improve engagement?
The Power of AI (and People!) in Marketing
Incorporating AI tools into your marketing strategy can be a game-changer, but only when paired with experienced professionals. While generative AI can help create marketing collateral at a fraction of traditional costs, the output will only be as good as the strategic thinking behind it. AI can analyze text and generate content based on patterns, but the nuances, cultural references and ethics of truly human communication can be diminished and negatively impacted. (4) How is your team using AI to enhance their capabilities without allowing it to overshadow the human creativity and intuition that are essential for tailored marketing success?
Partnering with the Right Expertise and Perspective
As founders and funders, remember that you don’t need to establish a full-scale marketing department to see results. A partner that understands the unique struggles of startups can provide documented strategies and content that resonate with your audience.
Just ask one of our clients.
“Melissa and ChitChatDigital kick ass at re-balancing the roles and workflows between marketers, content writers, and designers, to increase efficiencies, while keeping a human centered approach,” says Al Peters, Founder of Wave Function, a company providing strategic support for founders, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
“She understands the journey of not only the startup Founder, but also what goes on from the perspective of a venture Funder. Melissa can see through everybody’s lens, and her marketing strategy and content expertise is among the best I’ve worked with,” Al shares.
We function as an “extra brain” to help you scale efficiently while you focus on what matters most: your product or service.
Committed to Seeing You Succeed, without Breaking the Budget
We understand the challenges facing startup founders and venture funders because we have navigated those waters ourselves. We’ve built entire marketing functions from the ground up, revamped existing marketing departments, and served as an architect for special projects in companies with a strong marketing team in place. And we’ve been in situations where we’ve seen a LOT more get spent on marketing than is necessary.
Amazing marketing strategy and content doesn’t have to break the bank.
So we’ve developed a transparent approach to what we do and what it costs.
Our passion for creating impactful marketing content is rooted in our commitment to helping you succeed, and the fact that we LOVE helping people.
By harnessing AI tools and focusing on strategic insights, we deliver tailored solutions that help your startup flourish.
We really like the quote from the character in The Office, Michael Scott, who said (in the episode “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”, iykyk) “In the end, life and business are about human connections.”
Need help with marketing strategy and content? #LetsChitChat
Sources
1 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferlotito/2024/01/10/how-to-set-smart-2024-goals/)
3 (https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/28/openai-upgrades-chatgpt-search-with-shopping-features/)
Authored by CMO Melissa E. Daley