The document discusses how start-ups can leverage crowdsourcing to conduct marketing activities on a limited budget. It recommends crowdsourcing ideas, design and content creation, surveys, and promotions. Five tips for effective crowdsourcing are provided: provide clear directions, have an open mind, set a fair value, focus on important details, and avoid over-committing to ideas by committee. Crowdsourcing can help start-ups efficiently generate and test many ideas to find the best ones for marketing.
Making it Happen in a Shoestring: Crowdsourcing Your Marketing Activities
1. MAKING IT HAPPEN ON A SHOESTRING crowdsourcing your marketing activities Ross Kimbarovsky - crowdSPRING Start-Up Marketing Boot Camp October 8, 2010 #FMbootcamp
The brief can make or break a project. Define the problem and define your goals - creatives essentially are problem solvers. Being creative is not something that magically happens—it's a process. If you provide better details — you'll generally receive better solutions to your problem.
Unless you want something very specific, don't limitby describing specific imagery/concepts in your project brief. While you may have a vision, you could be missing out on many other terrific concepts, one of which may be perfect for you!
The value you set will reflect the quality of the work.
Don't get caught up in details before they become relevant. When your project is for logo design, for example, do not get caught up in colors - creatives can easily customize colors to your liking within seconds, but a design takes a lot of hard work and brainstorming. Color iterations can be discussed in the post-project wrap-up after you pick the winning design. Focus on the details that are most relevant.
You make the decision — not the faceless crowd, not the current trends, not even your 2-3 most trusted advisors. Listen to the input, absolutely; do your homework, definitely. In the end though, you decide.