Getting the word out about your startup?

Create high quality content. That's the trick. Be persistent and build an audience.

It works. Just not overnight. It may take two years before you get any traction. Which is why people give up and try get-quick schemes and other sleazy tricks instead.

The only people who write about how social media fixes everything are people who want to sell social media solutions or who want to make a career out of their social media expertise.

But you know all this already. You just need to figure out if you're willing to do the work. Sticking with something for a long time before seeing any kind of payoff is demoralizing. But that's exactly why so few people do it and why you get the reap the benefits if once you get there.

You MUST have a distribution strategy before you build your startup. This is more important than the product.

You probably worked with a lot of companies that had the core channels worked out, and your job was incremental improvements.

Social Media and content marketing are neither the only ways to grow or nor the most effective.

If you haven't figured this out before launching, be prepared to throw away much of what you have built.

Word of mouth is the most effective advertising strategy. How to get people to talk about your product? That’s the question that I ask myself <em>before</em> deciding whether I should build a product or not. If you build something “cool” enough that’s different than what exist and people love it, they will do the marketing for you. Figuring out how to grow from there comes next.

There's a thing called marketing --> go find your customers!

I would argue that the method depends on who your customer is

If your co is b2b then you should invest the time in content and develop your personal brand as a thought leader in the space. It will take at least a year of hustle to make yourself known. Write the post share it on social use appropriate hashtags and tag relevant ppl cos in the article to get visibilty. Make it easy for your employees friends and clients to retweet your co posts automatically with an ifttt recipe.

It sounds like you already have traction. Do interviews with existing clients use them to sell you. Ask them to connect you with other clients. WOM. Trusted reco.

Getting on local news can also help esp if it gets syndicated around the country. (US).

I had a friend I kind of know email me (& prob everyone in his dir) with a short blurb on who his product was for and the prob it solves and the copy to share it & introduce him to any ppl i thought could benefit. Use your network to drum up the wom and trusted reco sources.

I share your sentiment about flooding the net with clickbait content and popups. But they sadly work to get attention. Swallow your integrity do some good in the world and make some money!