Did you know you can also use crowdfunding for business and launch your online store?

In fact, crowdfunding is expected to be the future of small business financing where the focus will be on community building.

So how does crowdfunding work in helping you launch an e-commerce store?

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is Crowdfunding?  

Crowdfunding uses a platform like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to connect business owners or project creators to an online community who may be interested in investing, funding, or backing the project.

For a complete understanding of crowdfunding, download the Crowdfunding Launch Playbook.

What is Crowdfunding for Business?

Sometimes, project creators or innovators have just enough funds to create a product prototype. To sell the product to an audience, they would need funding.

Banks or VCs don’t often support product funding unless it has immense potential to disrupt the industry.

Most crowdfunding products are a novelty and hence do not have enough viability to attract the support of bank or VC loans.

This is where crowdfunding for business works its magic.

• Project creators launch their products on a crowdfunding platform.
• They set a funding goal that they need to bring the product to market.
• They set various pledge amounts that backers can “pledge” in return for an early bird price.
• The more people “back” the product, the faster it will reach funding goals.

Once the funding goal is reached, the product owner uses that amount to start manufacturing the product and delivers to backers on the estimated delivery date.

With the help of crowdfunding, the project owner has achieved three key benefits:

1. Received funding from a community to kickstart product development.

2. Now has a community of early adopters and buyers who are also creating hype & boosting the brand image.

3. Now has the chance to take this audience off Kickstarter and to the owner’s personal store.

In some cases, these business owners also launch brick and mortar stores which is then visited by their backers who are in the same city/country.

It’s a win-win deal!

Sounds Easy So Why Isn’t Everyone Using Crowdfunding to Launch E-commerce Stores?

Because without an audience or a community, you are selling to crickets.

And an audience won’t come if they don’t trust you.

With crowdfunding, you’re essentially asking people to pledge/invest in your product without:

• knowing you
• any social proof of your product
• any experience of your product.

So as easy as it sounds, using crowdfunding to launch your e-commerce store requires a strategic approach.

How to Launch E-commerce Store Using Crowdfunding?

While there’s a lot of work involved in launching an e-commerce store using crowdfunding, you can begin by taking these basic steps:

1. Conduct a Market Survey of Your Product:

Never begin a crowdfunding campaign without conducting a survey to understand audience expectations of your product.

One of the classic mistakes most product founders do is launch directly without adequate market surveys to understand whether the intended audience will even pay for the product.

If you’re selling something for, say, $300 – $500, on a crowdfunding platform, you need to be sure it’s something people would line up to buy!

2. Conduct an In-Depth Research for Similar Products on Crowdfunding Platforms

Always make it a point to conduct in-depth research for other similar products on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

You can go on to the crowdfunding platform, type in the keyword (for e.g fitness smartwatch) and assess the results.

Go through each and list down key points in a spreadsheet as shown here:

This data is important for you to assess so you can position your price point, messaging, and USPs.

3. Build a Landing Page to Showcase Your Product

If you’re new and just starting out, build a landing page to talk about your project.

Don’t lead your crowdfunding audience to an online store yet.

The way it works is the landing page becomes a squeeze page where your audience can sign in so they can become part of your email funnel.

This way you can reach them directly with product updates and launch details.

Here’s an example of a landing page.

4. Start Driving Traffic to the Landing Page Using Free & Paid Mediums

Now that you’ve got the landing page ready, start driving traffic to the page using a combination of free and paid mediums.

Free channels include email marketing, content marketing, social media, word-of-mouth marketing, groups.

Paid channels include Facebook ads, Twitter ads, retargeting ads.

With all this, you direct traffic to your landing page where they can sign up to the deal.

5. Get Ready to Launch When You Have At least Over 200 Sign-ups

For crowdfunding to kickstart, you need to have at least, over 200 sign-ups.

But make sure you calculate this estimation based on your funding goal.

So, if your funding goal is $10,000 and you expect each person to pay at least $79, then 200 ready backers mean you’ll be looking at around $15,800.

That’s just an initial figure to start with.

During your campaign, you’ll be sending out multiple emails, invest more in retargeting and Facebook ads to direct people to the page.

A crowdfunding campaign is live for 30 days only. You have to make sure you meet or exceed your funding goals.

In case you don’t meet your goals, you won’t be able to obtain any amount from Kickstarter because the platform operates on an All-or-Nothing model. This means if you don’t meet your funding goal, you won’t be able to withdraw any money raised.

6. Moving to E-commerce After a Successful Launch

If your product is a hit and you’ve over exceeded your goals by making a 6 or 7-figure raise, you can now invest that money into building an e-commerce store (of course after making sure it’s spent on manufacturing and ensuring delivery on time).

At this point, you’re scaling.

If you’re still unprepared for an e-commerce store, you can raise additional funds using Indiegogo In-Demand, a platform by Indiegogo that allows successful Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns to continue raising funds.

You May Also Like to Read:

5 Essential benefits of crowdfunding: what exactly makes it cool?
How To Achieve Success With A Crowdfunding Campaign? Digital Marketing

Although crowdfunding is supposed to help you with funds for the project, you’ll still need to have some money for marketing and spending on creative assets.

And if you want the help of an agency, you’ll need to have at least $7,000+ set aside.

To Conclude

If you’ve got an amazing product idea but limited funds to get started, you might want to consider crowdfunding. If that proves a success, you can invest the money raised into building your online e-commerce store!

The post How to Use Crowdfunding to Launch Your Online Store appeared first on samitpatel.

But wait.

Before you get all eager and excited, caveats apply. It’s not easy to succeed with crowdfunding if you don’t have a product people will love to have. You cannot pull in investment if you are not trustworthy. Most importantly, you cannot succeed if you don’t have a solid plan.

Finding success with crowdfunding is a difficult feat, but with the right plan and strategies, you may very well be on your way to earning your first capital & your first round of customers.

So can Kickstarter be used to start a business? Yes.

Can it be successful? Yes.

Can you make over $100K in funding? Heck yes.

Let me show you how.

Creating a Kickstarter Business Plan

Most people sign up on Kickstarter without a plan. They pull together a haphazard landing page, upload a few images and videos, run a few posts on social media, and have their friends and family to pitch in.

Their story can be summarized as, ‘I’ve developed a cool (product), because I have a passion for (any niche) and looking to get funded.’ The campaign will either not pass the Kickstarter approval process or if it does, ends in disappointment because no one cares.

This is not how Kickstarter works.

You need to have a well-constructed Kickstarter business plan that includes:

• Market research
• Competitor analysis on Kickstarter
• A 6-month marketing plan
• A 6-month editorial calendar
• A series of PR campaigns
• A list of influencers and backers to follow
• Lots of social media posts & activities
• A budget for paid ads (Facebook and Google Analytics)

Sounds like a lot of work? Well, it is.

You need to be prepared at least six months in advance to have all your communication and marketing assets ready for the campaign to work.

Crowdfunding, be it on Kickstarter or Indiegogo needs advanced preparation. The campaign itself runs only for 30 days, it’s the work you do before it that determines your campaign success.

How Kickstarter Works?

Kickstarter is the world’s top crowdfunding platform with over 191, 078 successfully funded projects. Over a decade, a total of $5.3 billion with more than 18M backers.

Impressive numbers.

Yet, of the $5.3 billion, $484M were unsuccessful dollars – projects that failed. The success rate on Kickstarter, as of 2020 is 38.19%.

You start on Kickstarter by creating a project page that should have a great video and actual images of your products along with a description. Your page remains a draft until you are ready to make it go live.

You must set a funding goal before making the page live. The goal amount is entirely up to you, but note that anything above $100K will require a significant amount of PR, marketing, product hype, and social media noise.

When the page is live, backers will donate funds according to the fund slabs you provide. Funding usually starts from $10 and can go up to $10000. If you reach your goal, the money is awarded to you at the end of the campaign.

Kickstarter has an All or Nothing policy which means you can receive all of your funding in one go if you meet your goals. If you don’t meet the goal, you’ll lose the money.

Do check out Kickstarter’s Creator Handbook section to know how it works.

What if the Project Fails?

Hey, at least you tried!

Ok, jokes aside, when you start your Kickstarter campaign, keep in mind, it’s not going to be an easy ride. With a 38% success rate, you have far many uphill battles to win.

One of the key problem with most failed projects is they don’t have effective messaging or campaigns. Worse, they are not innovative. This is why it’s so important to conduct an in-depth research of your audience, their preferences and of past campaigns in your industry or niche.

If despite doing all the right things, your project still fails, you can always try again. No money is collected, and no cards are charged unless the project is 100% funded. Your backers receive an email that the project has not reached its target and that they will not be charged.

What Do You Need to Do to Be Successful on Kickstarter?

Although Kickstarter is open to everyone, highly inventive projects are more inclined to finding success. A business venture with existing funding is not.

For instance, a business funding its next SaaS solution cannot find success on Kickstarter. You’d need an angel investor for that because a SaaS solution would need millions of dollars in investment and not just a few hundred thousand.

However, a gaming company launching a new gaming headset, a tech company launching a new entertainment device, or smart tech accessories are the perfect projects to succeed with crowdfunding.

To be successful, you will need to leverage on your social network – it’s your biggest asset.

The more people know about your project, the higher your chances of building an email list and succeeding with your initial funding. This is where social media marketing comes into play.

If you’re curious to know how crowdfunding works as a whole, grab a copy of my book on crowdfunding.

Why Opt for Crowdfunding?

Because apart from funding, a platform like Kickstarter is a fantastic method to launch your product into the market.

You’ve got the email lists, the social media following, the backers, and the press. All you need is to make sales. So for most companies, it’s not the funding on Kickstarter that is the attraction – it’s the audience. People are willing to be beta users. They are also willing to become life-time customers if your product meets quality standards.

You May Also Like to Read:

Detailed Tips to Promote Your Kickstarter Campaign
What is The Most Funded Kickstarter Project? You’ve Probably Heard of this One!

Most companies reach out to angel investors after they find success with crowdfunding. So if you’re doubting the validity of your project or think you might not be able to get a bank loan, you can start by crowdfunding. Once you hit your goal, you can then decide your next funding preference.

To Conclude – You Can Start a Business with Kickstarter, But It Needs to Meet Conditions

Starting a business on Kickstarter is not as easy as it is perceived to be. You need to have an advanced plan, budget for marketing and hiring an agency, a prototype of your product ready, and a powerful email list. With all of this ready, you can then launch a campaign and introduce your product to the market.

Need help on how you can start a business with Kickstarter? Reach out to us for a free consultation!

The post Can Kickstarter Be Used to Start a Business? Here’s Everything You Need to Know. appeared first on samitpatel.

$1.6 billion raised.

11 million contributors.

Indiegogo is a powerful, open crowdfunding platform that has made it possible for hundreds of businesses to raise funds for their projects. What’s better is the platform’s in demand feature that has allowed for entrepreneurs and businesses to raise funds even after they’ve met their goals.

2019 has seen some amazing projects on Indiegogo crossing the $1Million mark.

Let’s take a look at some of the best tech projects of the year and discover what they did right!

1) MATE X: Foldable e-Bike – $17.7 Million

This high spec eBike is the highest funded project on Indiegogo standing at $17.7 Million with more than 22, 770 backers. So what’s super cool about this bike? It is a foldable, e-bike with a computer display that provides you with basic info on mileage, speed, battery life and other personalized setting options. The selling feature of the Mate X is not its looks or its size, but it’s ability to fold down to a very compact 78 cm high, 103 cm long and 59 cm wide. This means it can be brought along anywhere you want without occupying major space.

What to Learn from this Campaign:

Innovation is great, but innovation is not enough. There are many cool gadgets out there, but only those that offer comfort, ease, quality and affordability make it to the top. Secondly, always improvise. The Mate-X is an improvement from the former Mate eBike launched in 2016.

2) Flow Hive 2 – $14.9 Million

Ok, so this one’s pretty interesting! Although it’s not a tech product, it is rated highest in the innovation category. The Flow Hive 2 is beekeeping done right. Extracting honey from hives has always been a demanding labor – suiting up, smoking the bees, sweeping them off, transporting frames and so on. This new product removes all the hassle to beekeeping and honey extraction! The Flow Hive is designed like a mini cabinet with multiple frames, windows and hardware that lets you extract honey while being gentle on the bees. This innovative item has made it easy for anyone interested in bee collection to pursue the hobby without the extra labor involved.

What to Learn from this Campaign:

Solve a problem within your line of work or your favorite hobby. The founders of this project were veteran beekeepers and they figured out an easier way for people to pursue a hobby they love without all the extra hassle that comes with it.

3) Ubuntu Edge – $12.7 Million

With 27,633 backers, Ubuntu Edge has been around since 2014. For the uninitiated, the Ubuntu Edge is a smartphone that uses open-source Ubuntu Touch Software as well as Android. It’s a low-volume, high-tech phone that brings new technologies to the forefront, challenging existing, traditional systems. What’s more is the phone’s ability to connect to any monitor and transform itself into a fully integrated desktop OS. Now that’s talking innovation! In the words of Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Edge is a ‘superphone,’ created to drive the next generation of personal computing.

What to Learn from this Campaign:

Don’t let the mainstream products or technologies intimidate you. While Ubuntu may not be globally popular like Samsung or Apple, it is one that is loved by its target audience for its functionality and smart use of tech.

4) ZeTime Hybrid Smartwatch – $6.5 Million

Indiegogo and Kickstarter are loaded (overloaded?) with smartwatch projects. The ZeTime however stands out from the rest of the projects as it blends the classic design of a traditional timepiece with advanced features of a smartwatch. But what is truly remarkable of this watch is the fact that it can be worn for 30 days without charge. You get all the essential functionalities like you would get in a normal smartwatch – heart rate monitoring, integration with chat apps, missed call notifications, weather notifications etc. Designed in Switzerland, the ZeTime smartwatch starts at $159.

What to Learn from this Campaign:

There may be dozens of products in your chosen category, but what helps you stand apart from the rest is your determination to provide design, features, autonomy and quality at an affordable price point.

5) Pilot Smart Earpiece Language Translator – $4.4 Million

This is a traveler’s dream come true. The Pilot is an earpiece which translates between languages. You can hear foreign languages translated into your language as they speak. Using speech recognition and machine translation, users can speak different languages and still be able to understand each other. There is however a catch – the other person needs to have the same earpiece and if they don’t have the earpiece, they can use the smartphone app which can act as a loudspeaker.

What Can We Learn from this Campaign:

What we love most about the Pilot’s campaign is its honest explanation of the product. It doesn’t promise instant translation. It doesn’t promise a seemingly impossible idea. It doesn’t promise perfection. The company has clearly mentioned that machine translation is not perfect and it will make mistakes, but it gets better as more people use it.

Conclusion:

Starting a project on Indiegogo is easy as it’s an open platform, but for backers on Indiegogo to support your project, it needs to offer a lot more than just innovation.

You May Also Like to Read:

How your startup can make $250k in just 56 minutes. Learn how…

If you want to truly be successful on Indiegogo, you need to know for sure what people really want or you should be able to solve a real-world problem at an affordable cost. More importantly, you need to keep it real. There are hundreds of projects on Indiegogo that promise the moon, but none of them get backed by people who are tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and product experts themselves.

Check out the videos below for more.

The post Indiegogo Top Successful Projects 2019 with Over $1Million Funding appeared first on samitpatel.

Indiegogo is a dynamic and renowned crowdfunding platform that empowers innovators, creators, and entrepreneurs to transform their dreams into reality. Since its inception in 2008, Indiegogo has become a leading force in the world of crowdfunding, connecting project creators with a global community of backers eager to support a diverse array of ideas and initiatives. From groundbreaking technological innovations to artistic endeavors and charitable causes, Indiegogo serves as a catalyst for innovation, providing a platform where individuals and organizations can seek financial support to bring their passions to life. Let’s delve deeper into the world of Indiegogo and discover how this vibrant crowdfunding ecosystem has transformed the way projects come to fruition.

So how does Indiegogo work? Let’s dive in.

Getting Started on Indiegogo

Indiegogo is quite simple to get started on. Unlike Kickstarter, you don’t have to submit applications or wait for a review of your project. 

You can just simply start a campaign by visiting the website and signing up for your Indiegogo platform. 

Being an open platform, Indiegogo does not limit its intake of projects; moreover, if you’re a non-profit, you can benefit from the platform’s Go Fund Me feature that caters specifically to non-profit funding. 

Once you sign up, you can begin inserting details of your campaign, which will remain as a draft until you publish it. 

Choose Your Funding Type

Indiegogo has two main funding options – fixed and flexible. For both options, you are not required to achieve your main funding goal in order to withdraw money. 

Indiegogo does not have an ‘All or Nothing,’ policy like Kickstarter, so you don’t have to worry about losing your money even if you have not reached your goal. 

If you choose the fixed funding option, you can easily withdraw your money after your campaign ends regardless of whether you’ve achieved the goal. 

In the Flexible option, you can withdraw money as you go. It is the most popular form of funding on Indiegogo as it’s easy for project creators to use the money they need to continue their work. 

Regardless of fixed or flexible, the minimal funding goal on Indiegogo is 500 (USD/CAD/GBR/EUR/AUD) 

For most project creators, waiting for months to receive the cash is counter-productive. It beats the purpose of crowdfunding if you have to wait for money when you’re in need of it. 

Preparing Your Campaign

Although Indiegogo is an easy platform to start your campaign, it comes with its set of challenges. 

For one, the lack of an internal review means anyone can submit projects and this leads to trust and credibility issues. Some backers are aware of this and so they may be reluctant to crowdfund a project that does not have all the right elements ticked off. 

So be sure that you prepare your campaign well and include all the necessary elements that make for a great crowdfunding campaign.  

Some things to prepare are:

• An amazing video narrating your story or journey 
• If you’re funding a product, then 3D renders of the product and preferably a prototype too to show the functionality and features 
• Transparent milestones and timeline for your project. Backers LOVE those who adhere to deadlines and show results on said deadlines 
• Perks for your backers. Crowdfunding is a rewards-based system which means you need to give your audience some perks or rewards for backing your project. This could be a limited edition of your products, gift packs or anything of value as a token of appreciation for people backing your project 
• Your first 100 backers. For any campaign to be successful, you need to have at least 100 backers to fund your project on the platform. So bring in your friends, family, and friends of friends if you want to create some noise for your campaign! 

Assess the Cost of Running a Campaign on Indiegogo

Indiegogo has a 5% platform fee and a 3 – 5% payment transaction fee that varies according to different regions of the world. 

Transfer fees, or Bank Delivery Fees, are also applied each time Indiegogo sends funds to your bank account. 

Apart from the platform fee, you also have to take into account other costs such as marketing, PR, photography, videography and lots more. 

With every withdrawal that you make you’ll be charged the platform fee, bank fee as well as the transaction fee so make sure you keep all this in mind before you withdraw the money. 

For a crowdfunding campaign to be successful on Indiegogo, it is imperative that the campaign has transparent details, has quality backers, has great PR and marketing & has a goal that is achievable. 

You May Also Like to Read:

Can Indiegogo Be Trusted? How Trust Affects Campaigns & Backer Confidence

Want to know if your project can be successful with crowdfunding? Drop us a note below and we’ll get back to you with the necessary information to kickstart your crowdfunding project! 

Check out the videos below for more.

The post How Does Indiegogo Work? appeared first on samitpatel.

You can now go right down to the micro-details of your target audience and show them ads that are relevant to their preferences. For this to happen though, you have to develop a strong, focused audience strategy and know exactly the kind of people you want to target with your ads. How do you do this? Here’s some action-oriented advice. 

Create a Customer Persona

Although you may have a generalized idea of who your target audience is, it’s not enough to really benefit from Facebook ads. 

The reason? 

FB has an extensive list of demographics that you could use to reach the right audience. 

If you opt to use only generic demographics like age, location, sex, marital status, religion etc, you’ll have a very broad range of millions of people who might not even be the customer you’re targeting. This is also how you’ll be losing money – when your ads are not reaching the right people with the right message. 

So the first step to successful Facebook advertising is creating a detailed customer persona. 

Details that should be included in your persona are: 

• A personal name that you can take from the most common names of people born within a certain era. For example, men born in the 1970s, Michael is a popular name. 
• Their job: What does Michael do? 
• Their payscale: How much does Michael earn 
• Their family dynamics: Is Michael married? Does he have kids? How many and how old? 
• Michael’s underlying ambitions: Where does Michael see himself and how can your product help him. 
• Michael’s motivations: What motivates Michael in his daily life. 
• Michael’s fears: What are situations or things that he is afraid of. 
• Michael’s consumption habits: Is he a spendthrift or does he save every penny. If he has a high paying job, owns a home and a car, chances are he may be willing to spend money. 
• Michael’s hobbies or activities: Does he like sports, books or online games? If he’s 40+ chances are he is more into books than games. 
• Michael’s interests: What popular brands does Michael follow? Coke vs Pepsi, Android vs iOS, Samsung vs Apple, etc. Knowing this can help you figure out what elements of your product or service may be crucial to Michael. 

The narrower you go with your persona, the better your chances of reaching the right audience. Use customer surveys, feedback forms, one on one interviews to create your persona. Never make assumptions when it comes to customer personas. 

You May Also Read:

Facebook Ads For Crowdfunding
Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo

Create Your First Audience Set

Now that you’ve got your customer persona ready, you can start creating your first audience set. 

Head over to the Facebook Business Manager page, click on Create Ad, the click on Audiences. 

Remember to select the right Objective before you select an audience.

To create a new audience set, Click on Creating New Audience. 

There will be three audience options to choose from: 

Custom: You use an audience set from various sources such as website traffic or from previously run ads.  

Lookalike: An audience that shares similar traits to your custom audience. 

Saved: Audience set that you save to be used for other campaigns. 

You can also choose to create a generalized audience based on location, age, gender, and language.

So in summary, there are three ways to go about creating your audience set. 

• Use a generalized audience based on Facebook’s recommendations 
• Use a custom audience based on pre-defined parameters and sources
• Use a lookalike audience based on your core audience set
• Use a saved audience (a set you’ve used before)

If you take a look at each of these options, you’ll understand why you needed a detailed customer persona. 

Even if you select preliminary features like age, location, gender, you’re still targeting a very broad audience. So let’s say you’re targeting 20-30-year-old male in Hampstead, London. There are thousands of 20-30year old men in Hampstead, but are they all your target audience? No. 

In the Detailed Targeting box, you’ll find options to target people based on demographics, interests, behaviors. Click on the box and you’ll see a long list of target options. 

The level of in-depth targeting options FB offers is remarkable. You can reach the right audience if you are able to create a detailed customer persona. 

Making Use of the Exclusion Option

Facebook has an exclude option that is often underlooked because it seems confusing. Why would you want to exclude anyone? 

The reason is quite simple actually. When you’re running Facebook ads with the objective of increasing brand awareness or acquiring new leads, you do not want the ads to be viewed by the people who have already interacted with your page. 

The exclude option then prevents the algorithm from displaying ads to people who are already customers. 

There are three ways you can exclude people: 

• those who have already followed your page
• those who have already converted on your website  
• those on your mail list. 

This level of detailed segmentation lets you spend your ad money on the audience that is most likely to convert. 

Be warned though, do not use the Exclude option to exclude groups based on discriminatory factors like religion or race. You’ll get in trouble with FB. Use the option wisely to reach the people who care about your product. 

Why You Need Lookalike Audiences

The lookalike audience is one of Facebook’s most powerful features. 

It allows you to use pre-populated data by Facebook to reach people who share a similar interest to your custom audience. This tool helps you reach your ideal target audience even if they’ve never heard of your brand. 

Lookalike audiences are tied to your custom audience. This means once you’ve defined your custom audience, you’ll just need to create a lookalike audience following three simple steps. 

1. Choose an existing data source. If you click on choose a new data source, you’ll have to create a new custom audience set. So for example, you can create a custom audience based on video views of your video ad and then create a lookalike audience for the same. Facebook will then target people who share a similar interest to the people who watched your video.
2. Select the location of your audience.
3. Select audience size. This means expanding your lookalike reach. Facebook recommends a 1% size which consists of the people most similar to your lookalike source. Increasing the percentage creates a bigger, broader audience.

There’s another advance option in the Lookalike audience called the Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This option targets your high-value customers – that is customers who buy quite frequently, who are your long-term supporters, who are your premium members etc. 

The LTV option requires you to state your source of data. Because you’ll be uploading very specific and personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, zip codes etc, you are required to state where you’ve obtained the data from. 

Once you’ve filled in the relevant data, Facebook will determine the people who share similar traits to your LTV customers and show them your ads. This is a great way to acquire new leads who you know have the capacity to convert into clients. 

Lookalike audiences are one of the most effective audiences targeting strategy for lead generation. If your objective is to get leads who may convert to buyers/donors/investors, use the custom + lookalike combination to get maximum benefits. 

The success of your ad strategies is tied to your audience segmentation. There are dozens of options you can use to get your ads to the right audience – the only requirement is, you know exactly who you want to target and why. 

You May Also Like to Read:

How Much Should I Spend on Facebook Ads – Our Guide to Facebook Ad Budgeting
A/B Testing – What is it and How Do You Use it? – Samit Patel

It is highly recommended that you spend time creating a detailed persona based on the demographics, interests and behaviors options given on Facebook. It is only when you’re able to narrow down your audience persona that you can run a successful & profitable ad campaign.

You can also read:- Facebook ads for Crowdfunding

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Custom and Lookalike Audience Sets appeared first on samitpatel.

This article offers a concise guide on optimizing Facebook ad budgets for successful campaigns. It emphasizes clear objectives, understanding the target audience, calculating Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), setting realistic Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) goals, and using Facebook’s tools for effective targeting. Testing, monitoring, and adapting budgets are crucial for achieving desired outcomes in a dynamic market. Let’s get started. 

Some Keywords to Understand: 

• To help you get a hang of the budgeting aspect, here’s a list of some important words (concepts) to look out for. 
• Budget: This is the overall amount you want to spend on ads. From $5, to $50,000, the choice is up to you. For small business and startups, it is recommended that you start with $5 a day to test waters and figure out the quality of results. Once you’re satisfied and confident that your strategy is yielding maximum returns, you can then gradually increase your ad spend to $500, $1,000 and above. If you’re a beginner to Facebook ads, it is recommended that you always start with the lowest ad spending to see how the ads perform. Once you get the hang of measuring results and achieving a goal, you can then scale up your advertising budget. Remember, there is no fixed formula or budget for ad spend. Each business is unique in terms of its offerings, budget, costs etc so it’s all up to you and how much you’re willing to invest in FB ads. 
• Bids & Bidding: With thousands of businesses competing for user attention, it’s almost impossible for FB to place every ad out there, so what they do is put your ad in an ad auction where those with the highest bids get their ads displayed across the network. The bid is the amount you’re willing to pay to get your ads to reach a specific action. So for example, it costs $10 to reach 10,000 people. You bid for $10, your competitor bids for $11 and some more bid for $7, $8 etc. Now, Facebook will not make you pay $10 to get 10,000 impressions. It’s the amount that you’re willing to pay, but the amount that will actually be quoted is $1 (the difference between your bid and the competitor’s bid). Although this sounds simple, the actual process is complex with thousands of businesses competing against each other. If you bid too low, you’ll get zero impressions. You can always bid higher because the actual amount that will be deducted will always be the lowest amount because according to Facebook, ‘you’re often charged less than your actual bid.’
• Impressions: When your ad is displayed across the network, it is displayed on people’s newsfeed. So one person view is 1 impression. Now if the person’s friend shares the same ad and is viewed by the person a second time, then that’s two impressions. Remember, impressions are not clicks. They are just views and one person may view your ad multiple times. 
• Reach: The number of people who will see your content. 
• Cost Per Click: The cost of acquiring one click. The average is $1.72 CPC.

So How Much Should I Spend?

Truth is, there is no absolute answer or formula to how much you need to spend. The reason is it’s largely dependent on your budget, audience size and your objectives. 

That being said, for anyone who’s new to Facebook ads, the standard expenditure is $500 for you to see some reasonable activity. With Facebook ads becoming expensive, do remember that you’ll have to spend significantly more to see high ROI. 

This is why it’s essential to use audience optimization strategies (which we’ll cover in the coming blog posts) to make maximum use of your ad spend. 

Entering Your Budget Numbers

When your ad campaign is ready, you are required to enter your budget for the ad to start running. 

There are two options to choose from: 

1. Daily Budget 

You can enter how much you want to spend X amount of days. For example, you want to spend $10 for the next 10 days, so Facebook will charge you $10 on a daily basis. However, on some days, the algorithm will determine that you have higher opportunities of getting views so it might overspend your budget by $2 or $3. You can choose to control this if you’re not comfortable with it. 

2. Lifetime Budget: 

This is a one-time budget that you enter and direct Facebook to spend it for a set amount of days. This will function just like your Daily Budget with the only difference that you won’t be charged every day. 

Scheduling Ads

Other important sections of the ad budget window are the Ad Spend Limits and the Schedule option. 

When you’re prompted to fill in the Ad Spend Limit, be sure to fill in the minimum and maximum amount you want FB to use on a daily or monthly basis. This is part of what is called a budget optimization and helps you remain in control of your spending. 

Finally, in the Schedule option (which is really very beneficial), you can choose the time of the day you want to display the ad to the audience. FB automatically shows you the time when your audience is the most active, so all you got to do is choose the right option and it will handle the rest. 

To make your ads more effective, you have to have a very clear idea of who you want to target. The better you segmentize your audience, the higher the chances of your ads being effective. 

You May Also Read:

Facebook Ads For Crowdfunding
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What Does Ads Placement Mean?

When you create an ad on Facebook, you get to choose where you want the ad to be visible. 

When FB ads were still in its formative stages years ago, ads would only be displayed in the user’s newsfeed. Now, however, FB ads are spread across a wide network that consists of platforms like Instagram and Messenger. 

So when you create an ad, you are asked where you want to place your ads. Facebook has done the hard work for you here and has created an automatic ad placement option which means that it automatically displays your ads across all channels using the lowest cost. 

The automatic option helps you control costs and ensures that you are getting the maximum value out of your budget. For beginners, using the automatic option is best unless you have a very clear idea (and experience) of knowing which platform serves you best. 

Ads are placed in: 

• Feeds: This is the main placement area, your customer’s feed on Instagram and Facebook. Your ads will be placed on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook marketplace, Facebook suggested video and Facebook right column. 
• Stories: Your content will be placed on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger Stories. 
• Messenger: These are placed in messenger inbox and messenger sponsored messages. 
• Audience Network: This is an, off-Facebook, in-app advertising that uses apps and networks other than Facebook. Why do you need the audience network if it is not on the main platforms itself? Simply because you benefit from extended reach. 

Measuring Ad Performance

So now that you’ve created your campaign, got your audience, created your ad set, and have also successfully run the ads, what’s next? How do you make sure that your ad converts and what kind of reporting metrics should you be looking at? 

When you’re running your campaign, it’s mandatory to measure metrics every day the campaign is running. Facebook’s Ad Manager has all the metrics you need to identify the performance of your campaigns. Here, you can filter your campaigns by dates, objectives, etc. and “zoom in” any campaign to measure the performance of every single ad set or ad. 

You can see metrics for: 

• Cost-per-click: The total cost of each click. Say you’re running an ad for $10 and it’s clicked by 100, then your cost per click is $10 (total cost)/(100 total clicks) = $0.1/click. 
• Cost-per-conversion: The total cost for each conversion regardless of the clicks. 
• Impressions: The total number of times your ad has been viewed. 
• Unique Link Clicks: The total number of unique clicks on your ad. 

Facebook’s reporting feature is pretty extensive and provides you with figures for important metrics such as reach, relevant score, CTR, cost per result etc. You can customize the kind of reports you want to see on your dashboard and select only those elements that are important to you. Some of the most important metrics you want to cover could be: 

• Ad performance: Results, Impressions, Reach etc are all types of metrics relevant to ad performance. You’ll need these data sets to understand how your campaigns are performing. 
• Engagement: This is important to measure the engagement rate with your audience. How many likes, shares and comments are you receiving using the Engagement part. 
• Website conversions: If you’re leading your audience to your website or landing page, it’s important to measure website conversions, signups, cost per website conversion, etc. 

Finally, you can also choose to have daily or weekly reports delivered to your inbox for free. Once you’ve created a report based on your preferred metrics, you can save the report and have it emailed to you. 

So there you go folks! You now know how to budget your ads. For maximum results though, do try to study the information that Facebook provides for each term used on the ad page. You’ll see a small ℹ️at the end of every term. Make sure you read the information carefully and be informed of every item on the dashboard.

You May Also Like to Read:

A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Custom and Lookalike Audience Sets
A/B Testing – What is it and How Do You Use it? – Samit Patel

Remember, although Facebook ads may look pretty simple, they are in reality quite complicated and require smart strategies to be effective. 

We highly recommend using a Facebook ad specialist or a reputable ad agency if you’re seriously considering using Facebook ads to expand your business.

Also, Need help to boost your crowdfunding campaign? Hire our crowdfunding marketing agency today.

The post How Much Should I Spend on Facebook Ads – Our Guide to Facebook Ad Budgeting appeared first on samitpatel.

When they are in this mode, they need to be ‘pushed’ or, ‘encouraged’ to make that decision. Popups, push notifications and sales pop messages are the tools designed to attract and retain the user’s attention and getting them to make that important decision. 

What is a Push Notification?

It’s a small pop-up that appears your desktop or mobile as a regular notification (like SMS, or messenger notifications). The purpose of the notification is to prompt the user into visiting the site to read an article or a news piece. 

In an age where everyone wants to remain on top of the latest news and happenings, push notifications are pretty much in demand.

Let’s say you have tens of thousands of subscribers and you want to update them with new information. You’ll simply generate a pop-up and subscribers will receive the notification of your news piece in their browser, desktop or mobile. 

Because push notifications grasp the instant attention of the user, they are much more effective in getting the user to take the desired action. If used along with other digital strategies as email marketing (we know the problem with email is low open rates),or messenger bots you can really make sure you are generating close to 90% open rates.

The benefit to this, is your subscribers get instant information and do not miss out on any important happenings. 

There are multiple tools out there that let you create push notifications, providing you with multiple options. A popular tool is PushCrew which allows you to push targeted, personalized messages to your subscribers instantly.

Do take note though that people are very specific when it comes to browser notifications – unless it’s content that is helpful for them, they will not want to be disturbed with a notification. 

Misusing (or abusing!) push notifications can result in your business being perceived as spammy or annoying. This means people will instantly block or unsubscribe from your business. Don’t let this happen. Use push notifications sparingly spearheaded by a strong strategy. 

In this modern age, personalization is super important and push notifications to help you deliver a personalized approach to your subscribers that not even emails can achieve. 

What are Sales Pop Tools

So! Another of our favorite is the sales pop tool. 

Notice when you browse an e-commerce website, there is a small pop-up that says something like, ‘Someone from London just bought Fitbit Versa FX.’ 

This is called a sales-pop (popup!) that plays a significant role in promoting purchase activities on your website or store. 

If you have an e-commerce site, the sales-pop app is a great feature to have. It encourages people to make a purchase based on the purchase activity of other customers. It’s quite a powerful motivator as it makes people feel like they are in a marketplace where other customers are buying the same product from their region. If they have any doubts, the popups effectively remove those doubts.

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Why Pop-Up Forms are the Most Important Conversion Tools

You can set up sales pop-ups by using apps and services such as Beeketing that offers customized sales-pop solutions to businesses large and small and can easily be integrated with WordPress, Shopify, Weebly, and Big Commerce.

So folks! If your conversion rates are taking a hit or you’re out of ideas on how to get your customer’s attention, you can try out push notifications and sales pop boxes. Do make sure though that you use these tools along with other marketing strategies to maximize their effects. 

The post How Push Notifications & Sales Pop Tools Can Increase Your Conversion Rates appeared first on samitpatel.

Is it useful or is it plain annoying?

A 2016 study comparing several pop-up styles found that 50% of participants rates pop-ups as “very annoying,” and “extremely annoying.” Most digital marketers shy away from popups because they have really been grossly misused. There was a time when people couldn’t browse websites peacefully without experiencing frustrating popups selling all kinds of weird stuff. Not to mention, they have also been linked to the virus, malware and dozens of other problems. Yet, they are still being used and are actually quite important for your conversion rate.

What is a Pop-up?

Popups can be considered as mini-reminders that, ‘pop’ up when you’re visiting a web page. Their main goal is to remind, encourage and prompt visitors into making a decision or taking an action. It could be from something as signing up to the monthly newsletter to making a purchase decision.
Over the years, marketers have become creative and have taken steps to create less-intrusive popups. This has led to a variety of popup styles and designs that are being used by almost every website on the internet. In fact, a website without a popup feels incomplete!

Different Types of Popups

While designs and styles of popups vary, there can be categorized under five common types. These are:

✔️ Exit-Intent: Notice how often you get a popup just when you’re about to press the ‘x’ button to close the tab? That’s called the exit-intent popup. This is used as a reminder to help visitors remember to make a decision about an offer, a discount or anything else you’ve set the popup for.
✔️ Time-based: Anyone scrolling the website for more than a few pre-determined seconds will be shown a popup. This is to help people make a decision while they are on that particular segment of the website. For example, if visitors have been scrolling through your blog or reading a post, you can have a popup asking them to subscribe to your blog!
✔️ Scroll-based: As people scroll down a webpage, they see popups at specific sections. Like when they reach a customer testimonial area, they might see a popup asking them to book a demo. This is less intrusive and allows the visitor to scroll for information without being bothered with a popup right at the beginning.
✔️ On-click based: This one is pretty simple. It serves the purpose of capturing the visitor’s attention right when they are clicking a banner or an image. People tend to respond to popups that appear only after they have clicked at a particular section.
✔️ Scroll-box: Unlike other pop-ups that hit at the center of the screen, scroll boxes come from the side. They are designed to capture attention without being intrusive. A lot of websites today prefer to use scroll-boxes to get user signups. They are a much politer form of the usual popup box.

Why are Popups Still Important and Relevant Today?

Apart from improving conversion rates, here are a few important reasons popups are still relevant.

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✔️ They help your visitors know what action to take. Is it to sign up for a newsletter? Or for a promo deal? A discount? Whatever the purpose of your website or landing page, the pop-up form is the sort of push you give to your visitors to take action.
✔️ They help your visitors notice the obvious. For example, a discount deal that they may have ignored while browsing other sections. With a pop-up, they will be more inclined to avail that discount.
✔️ They act as a reminder for the visitor to make an important decision. It’s almost like reminding a guest to come again just when they are about to leave. Despite being controversial, popups are still beneficial and are used for a number of reasons. There are also a variety of popups that are used at different segments of a website. What are those popups and how do you use them? These will be discussed in detail tomorrow. Notice how it’s all about the visitor? Because when the visitor remembers to sign up, avail a discount or makes a purchase decision, your business benefits. This means popups are only successful IF they cater to people.

Pop Up Best Practices

As marketers begin focusing on user behavior, they have learned to smartly use popups. There is also an increasing focus on writing copy that motivates people to take the desired action without being salesy or annoying. Here’s a list of best practices when it comes to launching popups on your website.

✔️ Decide on the type of pop-up you want to use: Spend time studying and researching on the different types of pop-ups that are commonly used and decide on which will suit your purpose best. Every business’s purpose for using a pop-up is different and is based on what the business wants the audience to do.
✔️ Focus on the design: Good popups are pleasant to the eye. Try making popups that a visitor cannot ignore simply because the design is so pleasant! Keep colors cool, text prominent and the main message visible.
✔️ Write great copy: We’ve talked about copy plenty of times before. I’ll just reiterate the main point – your copy needs to be simple, to the point, and creative.
✔️ Don’t ask for too much information: Keep it simple. Want them to signup? Just ask for their email address in a field bar.
✔️ Be careful of time: If you’re using a time-based popup, be careful of the time. Too early into the browsing experience, will cause people to leave in frustration. Too late, and you won’t meet your goals. Your website bounce rate and the average user time spent metrics can help you determine the time duration you need to set.
✔️ Make them user-friendly: Your audience should have the option to easily close the popup. There should also be an option to opt-out from being shown the popup again while browsing the site.
✔️ Follow Google’s rules for popups: Yep, Google wants visitors to have a non-intrusive experience while browsing websites, so make sure you read up on what Google suggests for popups. It directly affects your SEO practices.
✔️ Place them at the right location: Again, the main purpose is not to disrupt the visitor’s reading experience. You could place them when the visitor reaches the mid or the end of the page.
✔️ Do your A/B testing: Remember we discussed A/B testing previously? You can test the effectiveness of different types of popups with A/B testing. Test, measure, record, implement.

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How Push Notifications & Sales Pop Tools Can Increase Your Conversion Rates

✔️ Offer value: Think of why a user would want to entertain the popup? Is there anything of value to them? Are you offering them anything of value? Popups that offer incentives are likelier to convert higher than those that don’t offer any value at all.

Although pop-ups are controversial and Google has taken a strong stand, it is all just to ensure a smooth audience experience. Remember, popups are just the means to an end, they shouldn’t overpower other essentials.

The post Why Pop-Up Forms are the Most Important Conversion Tools appeared first on samitpatel.

For example, you notice that people are visiting the landing page but your sign up rate is around 15% and you want to increase this. But that’s not going to happen until you don’t know which element of your landing page affects the rate.

Therefore, A/B testing allows you to test different elements to figure out what works, what needs to be improvised and what needs to be completely revamped or removed.

Why Do You Need A/B Testing?

Other than increasing your conversion rate, there are a few more important reasons why you should perform this activity often.

✔️It helps you know what your visitor pain-points are

When visitors come to your website, it’s mainly with a certain goal – to buy your product, to read industry insights or simply to browse for information.
Whatever their goals are, it’s crucial that they are able to achieve them once they are on the website.
This means that a confusing headline, lack of a CTA, non-user-friendly navigation etc are pain-point areas that cause the visitor to leave the website without achieving their goals. With A/B testing, you are able to identify those areas and solve them.

✔️Increasing your conversion rate

The higher the conversion rate the lower the cost per sign up = more $$$ for you. When you perform A/B testing, you’re basically trying to find out ways to increase that conversion while maintaining the lowest cost per sign up.

✔️Increasing your ROI

Of course, when conversion rates increase, so does your ROI. Every lead becomes a business opportunity. It’s not an understatement to say that marketers’ fundamental goal in conducting several A/B testing rounds is to increase revenue!

✔️Improvising with low-risk activities

A/B testing is not a drastic change or revamp. It’s minor testing carried on different sections of the website or landing page to test for results. This makes it a low-risk activity with high results. It doesn’t cost you a fortune & doesn’t affect your site traffic or ranking.

✔️Use data to make decisions

A/B testing is data-driven. This means, there is no guesswork or feeling involved. Instead, with modern tools, you are able to make informed decisions about your website as well as your audience. With metrics like time spent on the page, sign-up rate, click rates, etc you can get statistical information that will help you make the right decisions.

How to Start with A/B Testing?

You can A/B test almost everything on your landing page, from your images, headlines, ad copy, and even the discount offers.

Here’s how you can start.

✔️ As a rule of thumb its best to only run one test per time otherwise you won’t know what is working.
✔️ It is important to list your hypothesis and then test it like a scientist, allowing enough data to be processed per test i.e around 1000 bits of traffic.
✔️ It is best to start with those things that affect conversions the most i.e testing light backgrounds vs dark backgrounds…generally dark backgrounds outperform light ones.
✔️ Other important things to test are your hero image as well as the key product hook that you have.
✔️ While you’re doing all this, don’t forget to optimize your page for mobile as most traffic comes from mobile visits.

A/B testing is all about improvement. If you’re not meeting your signup or conversion goals, you will need to perform multiple A/B testing to figure out the problem and what steps you can take to fix the problem.

You May Also Like to Read:

A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Custom and Lookalike Audience Sets
How Much Should I Spend on Facebook Ads – Our Guide to Facebook Ad Budgeting

Since A/B testing directly impacts the performance of your site, it must be done with caution. Speak to an expert or get an opinion from trusted acquaintances before you make a drastic change!

The post A/B Testing – What is it and How Do You Use it? appeared first on samitpatel.

Does my story sound too easy and good to be true? Well, in all honesty, it’s not. Entrepreneurship did not come easy. My first client could not afford to hire me, my second client literally had to build everything from ground zero. My company started out with a minimal amount of investment.

Take it from me – an entrepreneur with over ten years of experience, entrepreneurship is a brutal road. If you want to succeed, you have to be smart, focused and goal-oriented.

Yes, you need commitment, passion and what not, but these are not enough to help you remain profitable or even functional! You need to make smart, calculated and effective decisions if you want your business to thrive without having to rely on investments or funding.

So if you’re new to entrepreneurship, or you’re struggling, this article is for you.

Here are some of the most valuable lessons I learned as an entrepreneur bootstrapping my own business.

1. Try to Bootstrap Rather than Take Loans or Seek Investors

Nothing is more liberating than using your own capital to kickstart your business. Of course, investors can give you big money and you may need them later, but do that smartly.

Once you have an investor on board, you’re practically giving control of your company. Once you have loans and debts, you’re spending your time overcoming financial constraints rather than making a profit.

I learned this the hard way when I lost my initial businesses to personal setbacks. I realized I had no money in hand and if I had to continue my entrepreneurial dreams, I needed to earn money and use it in my business.

Once, I was able to work with a few companies and build my portfolio, I was able to earn a significant amount of money that I used to bootstrap my business. The profits I received from the business was reinvested to create additional companies and systems.

Key Lesson: Bootstrapping may be hard but it helps you keep the power of managing your company. You get to direct your company the way you want to.

2. Gain Experience & Build Your Portfolio

We live in a competitive world today. There are thousands of people out there who have the same skills, drive, and competence like you and for each job application, for each investment pitch, for each startup idea, there are at least 10 more people vying for the same thing.

So what is it that will set you apart from the crowd? Your experience, your exposure, your portfolio and the results you achieved!

Whether you’re working for someone or establishing your own business, people will only hire you when they see your work. You have to spend a significant amount of time building your portfolio and gaining experience to build a strong profile.

Back then, I suffered a personal setback that made me lose my business. I had to stand up back on my feet and stand up fast. I eyed an opportunity with a startup that was an innovative smartwatch company called Blocks.

I sent them my CV and chased them but they didn’t have the funds to afford me. I told them I just wanted to work and gain experience. That’s how I got involved in the world of product launches.

Within just 56 minutes of launching the campaign, we were able to make $250K in funding! Ever since then, I knew my strength was in product launches and began establishing my marketing agency.

         Key Lesson: Sometimes, you have to see beyond immediate benefits and gain experience that will help you long-term.

3. Find Opportunities and Reach Out to Them

Opportunities hardly walk up to your door. You have to go out there, search for it and grab it by the horns.

The company that I helped get $250K in funding still could not afford to keep me for long as they had to focus on production, but I knew that I had to find more companies to work with if I was to advance in this business.

I searched for another company and came across Carv, the world’s first wearable ski coach! Here I literally started from ground zero. The creators were engineers and needed an expert marketer.

Before I worked with them, the highest they raised was $30,000. We created a new benchmark and went on to raise 2million. This led me to grow my business and since then I’ve run it bootstrapped with year upon year of profits reinvested.

      Key Lesson: Opportunities are limitless but not all opportunities can help you grow. Find an opportunity that can help you grow and excel.

4. Invest in the Right People and Automate Processes

I’m a big believer of automation and by automation, I don’t mean AI or high-end technology. I mean the creation of a process, the hiring of the right people to fit in the process and enabling them with the tools to get the job done.

Entrepreneurship is most of the time overwhelming. Because you’re responsible for managing everything in your company – from hiring to legal contracts, from customer service to creative execution, from marketing to advertising, you’re literally swamped. This leaves little time to do what’s truly important.

As an entrepreneur managing three companies, I’ve learned that being swamped and overwhelmed is part of the parcel, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you go about it smartly.
You have to let go of the control, build the framework and enable both your team and your company to grow. This will help you focus on growth, customer satisfaction and profit – things which matter most for an entrepreneur.

Key Lesson: Trust people. Build processes and make use of existing technology to free up valuable time.

5. Do Not Fall into the Trap of Perfection

I’ve seen so many entrepreneurs fail because they cannot give up perfection. If you’ve hired the right people to do the job, give up the control of micromanaging.

I’ve worked with multiple resources over the year and I’ve learned that enforcing perfection only causes conflicts and troubles.

If you want your business to succeed, you have to give up on the need to be perfect otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time focusing on the small matters.

Remember, there is always room for improvement and growth. Perfection is the killer of growth, creativity, and achievement of goals!

Key Lesson: Do not waste time focusing on the small stuff. Be smart, hire smart and avoid making perfection as your ultimate goal.

You May Also Like to Read:

Product Launch Strategy & How To Do Them Just Like Apple

Entrepreneurship has been an exciting journey for me and one that I intend to continue for a long time, but if I’ve learned anything, it takes more than grit and perserverance to be a successful entrepreneur. You need to have the bigger picture in mind and use smart, calculated moves to achieve your goals.

Have any experience to share as an entrepreneur? Drop your comments below!

The post Five Valuable Lessons I Learnt as a Bootstrapping Entrepreneur Managing a Marketing Agency appeared first on samitpatel.