Marketing tips for Internet startups

Before I start I need to make some disclaimers first. First, there is no formula for success, if there was everybody who has the formula would be successful which is clearly not the case, Second, I'm no expert, there are thousands of people out there who read way much more about marketing and know all the terms and theories. Reason why I don't share a lot of knowledge, expertise and experience is because it simply makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable, it seems somewhat pretentious. However, I can consider myself as a serial startup entrepreneur and with every startup I was directly involved on the marketing side. The numerous tests, failures and occasional successes have finally led to my so far most promising startup in which our marketing strategy seems to pay off. Last disclaimer is that this has been definitely a team effort and I'm lucky to work with some smart and creative people.

Anyway, enough with the disclaimers and on to the core. The startup community in Indonesia and especially Jakarta is a fast growing, enthusiastic and passionate community with some promising startups. Often startups are created by geeks, and I mean no disrespect, after all, Mark Zuckerberg might be considered a geek but he also definitely had his share of luck. So for most startups the struggle begins once they've launched their platform their startup won't just take of by itself, it requires marketing, most of the time lots of it. So this in this post I share some of my experiences and opinion in the hope that it will help startup entrepreneurs around the world and especially in Indonesia.