Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
In today’s world, startups play an important role in economic development and innovation. However, to succeed in the market, it is important to create a carefully processed promotion strategy. It will determine 60% of the success of the entire marketing campaign.
So how do you create an effective promotion strategy? The answer is — with the help of a marketing analysis!
After all, it gives businesses an understanding of market trends, which audience to target, which markets are the most promising for your product, how to outmatch competitors, and so on.
In this case, we will tell you how our remote marketing department conducted a marketing analysis and created a strategy for launching an innovative product — AI for traders.
Project CMO is Kristina Gladunova.
Our service is a remote marketing department: marketing analysis.
Navigating the case
- Our team
- Stage one. Introductory consultation
- Stage two. Marketing research
- Stage three. Conclusions and basic strategy
- Results of the work
Approximate time for reading the case — 15 minutes
Our team
To conduct a marketing analysis, we form a team of specialists who can fulfill the tasks.
Stage one. Introductory consultation
Depending on the stage which a startup is at — a business idea or a finished product — the needs of the business will differ. This will also affect the specifics of a marketing analysis.
That’s why we always hold an introductory consultation with the client before starting it, during which they fill out a brief. This process allows us to better understand the project, its product, and the corresponding need.
In this case, we were approached by a client with an innovative product — Jerold, an artificial intelligence that helps traders make the right decisions and trade confidently on the markets with its signals.
During the introductory consultation, we identified the following need: to formulate an effective marketing strategy for launching a ready-made product on the market.
Stage two. Marketing research
As we mentioned above, in order to build an effective marketing strategy, it is important to conduct market and project research. Therefore, we immediately started conducting a marketing analysis, which consisted of the following steps:
Step 1. Trends and demand. Market assessment
To select the optimal market, we analyzed the English and Russian segments using Google Trends.
English-speaking segment
To assess the market activity in the direction we needed, we chose “Trading platform” as the first query, as it would demonstrate the general interest in trading among users in certain countries. First of all, we analyzed the query statistics for 1 year to get up-to-date information.
Here are examples of several countries that we have researched:
USA
Great Britain
Canada
As a result of the trend analysis, we found that the most active English-speaking audience in terms of trading is concentrated in the UK, India, Canada, and the US.
Russian-speaking segment
Here, we analyzed the most popular query in the Russian-speaking segment — “trading”. The period is similar — 1 year.
Here are examples of several countries that we have studied:
Germany
Israel
Poland
When it comes to the activity of users from the Russian-speaking segment, the leading countries are Germany, Poland, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
We also analyzed the traffic of competitors and found the following countries that are most active in trading: Great Britain, Australia, the USA, and Georgia.
We did not prioritize Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Russia due to uncertainty about the solvency of these users.
Step 2. Project website
To evaluate the effectiveness of the website and identify details that could be improved, we analyzed it and followed the path of a potential client.
This is how we came up with a list of comments and recommendations for optimizing the site before promotion. Here are some of them:
№ 1. The website design is interesting, but visually difficult to perceive.
№ 2. The website is poorly adapted for mobile devices. This is important because in most cases, this is how users search for the information they need.
№ 3. The website and Telegram bot have only a Russian-language version, which significantly narrows the target audience.
№ 4. The website provides little information about the product and its creators.
№ 5. There is no information about the legal status of this development. The presence of the headquarters or documentation in the public domain makes the product more serious in the minds of users, which increases their loyalty to it.
№ 6. There are icons for social networks, but there are no project pages or links to them. And when promoting a website, it is important to use only those tools that work.
№ 7. The website also states that 100 subscriptions are available at a promotional price, but this number does not change during the week. Because of this, users may get the impression that the product is either not in demand or it is a fraud.
Therefore, we have proposed the following optimization methods:
— set an odd number of share packages that should change;
— place a counter with a countdown.
We also investigated the availability of a trial package, the process of signing up for a trial subscription, and the operation of the Jerold Telegram bot.
Step 3. Lead generation tools
To promote the product, the client used lead generation via YouTube in a funnel:
In total, there were three ad launches, and we analyzed them. Here is an example of the analysis of one of them:
Step 4. Competitors
Entering the market without analyzing competitors is a blindfolded game with a likely sad ending. To create a truly workable market entry strategy, you need to make sure that your product is unique, what your direct/indirect competitors are, their experience, strengths and weaknesses. Knowing this, you will understand where to expect “threats” and how to outmatch your competitors.
That’s why we conducted a general overview of them, analyzed their traffic, social networks, and websites. Now, let’s learn more about each of them.
General overview of competitors
Our team researched the competitors identified by the client. As a result, we made a list of conclusions. Here are the key ones:
№ 1. The largest competitor is not focused on the RUNET market.
№ 2. Most of them do not offer a standalone product to help traders. Most of them are either a section of a trading platform website or a subsidiary of a large company.
№ 3. There are no products similar to Jerold in terms of technological excellence.
Analysis of competitors’ traffic
We looked at the channels and traffic distribution of competitors. This gave us an understanding of user behavior and what to focus on during promotion.
Here are some examples:
IG Trading Signals
Bistat
Analysis of competitors’ websites
We analyzed the websites of seven competitors and identified their strengths and weaknesses. Here is an example of an analysis of one of them:
Analysis of competitors’ social networks
In the course of our marketing analysis, we found out that competitors are actively maintaining their social media pages: the frequency of posting is 2-3 times a week.
The main platforms for the English-speaking segment: Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram. For the Russian-speaking segment, VKontakte, Whatsapp, and Discord are also added.
As for major competitors, they also create separate social media profiles for key regions using their local language.
The total percentage of traffic from social networks is 1.5-5%. The main ones are:
In our marketing analysis, we also described in more detail what content competitors use on various social networks.
After analyzing this, we came to the conclusion that the percentage of traffic from social networks is relatively small, but it is driven by these platforms:
Stage three. Conclusions and a basic strategy
After conducting research on the project, market, and competitors, we confidently proceeded to create a basic strategy, which consisted of the following steps:
Step 1. Entering the market
We analyzed the Russian and English-speaking audiences, and accordingly, we wrote down recommendations for working with each of them.
For example, we do not recommend targeting products with a price tag of more than $79 at post-Soviet countries. As they are not known for their high solvency, this price is likely to be too high for them.
Instead, it makes sense to target the Russian-speaking audience that has immigrated to Europe and America.
After studying migration statistics, we concluded that the best countries to start promoting are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Israel. In the future, we can also test Australia, France, and Poland.
If the client decides to focus on the English-speaking audience, they should repackage the project according to the specifics of their markets. And the promotion should start with such countries as the UK, the USA, Australia, Canada, and France. Later, you can also try to enter the markets of Israel, India, the UAE, and Poland, countries that are clients of indirect competitors of our project.
Step 2. Positioning
In order to increase the number of users of the product and bring the expected result, it is necessary to take into account the expectations of the target audience.
For example, Jerold AI’s target audience includes beginners and professional traders.
Knowing these factors, the client can improve the product and service, develop a positioning that is more likely to be remembered by the audience, which will make the project promotion more successful.
Step 3. Website optimization
The specifics of the topic and product mean that the first thing you need to do is gain the trust of a potential client. To do this, it is important to have an effective website with an attractive design, a clear structure, usability, and high-quality selling text.
Therefore, we have prepared the following recommendations for the client:
Step 4. Basic content strategy
As we have already partially mentioned above, the reputation of a product on the Internet is extremely important for the trading industry. You can increase the credibility of your product with the help of content marketing.
This is how we recommend developing internal and external content marketing. This is a great opportunity to interact with potential customers through content on various resources where they may be present.
Internal content marketing
Internal content marketing is the placement of content on the company’s own resources: a website, a blog, social networks, and email newsletters.
Website
Having a website filled with high-quality content is critical for any business, especially in trading. Without it, even the use of social networks or other tools to attract customers cannot be as effective as possible.
That’s why we recommended adding more information to the website first:
Blog
To increase user loyalty and convert them into customers, it is important to show your expertise and product quality. You can do this with the help of a blog — a part of the website where you will post expert articles, case studies, guides, event announcements, and much more.
Social networks
A huge number of users are registered in social networks, including traders, of course. Therefore, having pages on social networks is a must-have for business.
After analyzing competitors, we found that most of them have pages on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
Youtube has the highest percentage of targeted traffic compared to other social networks. Therefore, we recommended starting with content that will help to familiarize yourself with the service and understand the product. Videos for beginners will also be effective. Then, market analytics, news, podcasts, interviews, or monologues from reputable personalities.
Facebook will help to accumulate an audience, receive feedback, and notify about new opportunities and company news. And if you are ready to run ads in Meta, it will be relevant to create an Instagram to gather an audience from users who have seen the ad. Content adapted from Facebook will do.
We also recommend creating a Telegram channel. After all, there is a large concentration of the target audience there. It is also a great platform for building trust in the product. This is where you can accumulate those who are interested but have not yet made a decision to purchase a subscription.
You can gain an audience by:
- advertising in thematic channels;
- internal advertising on Telegram;
- Meta.
External content marketing
External content marketing is the publication of content in thematic communities and channels, specialized media, and partner platforms.
In other words, you can also increase the credibility of your product by posting content about it on reputable specialized resources. We have compiled a list of links to them in our marketing analysis.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a tool for promoting a product through email campaigns.
We recommend developing email chains to achieve the following goals:
Step 5. Lead generation strategy
Before conducting a marketing analysis, the client was already using Youtube advertising. With this in mind, we recommended refining the existing path and testing other advertising tools.
However, to launch Facebook and Instagram ads, it is important to familiarize yourself with the rules of advertising and prevent violations. Why?
Gerald AI has features of financial services, software, and subscription services. Therefore, the ad may be suspended and the account blocked.
They also gave a list of other recommendations.
- Create 3 ad groups with different audiences. In the ad settings, specify the utm-label to track where the lead came from in the CRM system and compare this data with payments.
- Add a FAQ block and test video creatives to better convey the benefits of the service and describe its operation.
- Make changes to the landing page in accordance with the rules for advertising the subscription service:
- write that the subscription can be canceled;
- add a checkbox that confirms the understanding that this is a paid subscription service;
- write a warning that this is not software that needs to be installed (and duplicate this in English);
- write a warning that it does not guarantee income, but only a trading tool.
- Launch remarketing on social media.
Results of the work
As a result of the marketing analysis for the Jerold startup, the following was done:
You can also find out how we conducted marketing analysis for other startups with different needs. You can read them here and here.
