Looking back, the single early stage marketing decision that most defined our company's trajectory was prioritizing Google Business Profile reviews. When I started my roofing company in 2018, I felt massively behind. There were already so many roofing companies on Google that had been in business for years and were ranking far above me. The big question was how do I get into the map pack. The map pack is the top three listings that appear when someone searches for a local business, and that is almost always where people choose who to call. I looked into different strategies, and the one thing that felt easiest to control was reviews. Asking for them. Consistently. It was not just about the total number of reviews, but how often you continue to get them. Is a business trending or stagnant. At the time, the top two roofing companies had around 350 and 500 reviews. I started asking every single person I provided a service for to leave a review. Not just customers who bought a roof, but homeowners I inspected where the roof was in great shape and no replacement was needed. I would say please leave a review letting people know I did an inspection, was honest, and did not try to sell you a roof you did not need. Homeowners were happy to do it. Those reviews started generating calls from people who just wanted an honest assessment. At the time, most roofing company reviews all sounded the same. Great roof. Great communication. These stood out because they focused on trust instead of just the install. I stayed consistent. If I worked a real estate deal and helped both the buyer and the seller, I asked them both for reviews. After more than a year, I was competing with the top roofing company in terms of total reviews, and my rating was higher because I did not wait for reviews to happen naturally. Eventually, I passed a roofing company that had been open for thirty years. That is when they noticed and became more consistent with review requests. We stayed ahead by staying consistent. Today we continue to rank on Google and AI driven search above companies that have been around far longer. Google is a golden ticket that continues to be ignored. You can optimize listings and post updates, but the most important thing by far is getting reviews and responding to them consistently. It is free, and it works. Byline Aaron Christy is the founder and CEO of Indy Roof and Restoration. Learn more at indyroofandrestoration.com.
The most pervasive decision that we made early on was to actively choose to neglect building our own brand. Instead, we focused on being a top-rated provider in a few specific categories on sites like Elance, the predecessor to Upwork. This closed the loop on two of our hardest problems as a startup: we lacked leads and credibility. The platform gave us the projects, and each successful delivery became part of a public-facing record of reviews. This created cash flow and built our portfolio ... before we'd even paid for a website or ads. The insight is subtle: if you run a services business, your brand is not your logo--it's your public record of execution. We opted to amass proof on a trusted third-party marketplace first. When we ultimately launched our own direct sales channel we weren't a random vendor, we were the proven team from that marketplace, making trust building almost frictionless.
The most significant decision we made regarding marketing was to market how fast our responses are instead of trying to market our brand image. We did not lead with catchy advertising or overly exaggerated promises; rather, we let customers know that "Every call is answered by a person, every time." Then we followed through operationally. We thought there was an element of sophistication missing at the time. In retrospect, this choice became the foundation for the way we ran our company. The way customers compare answering services is not by looking at which service has more features, but rather by evaluating how quickly and reliably the company handles calls. As a result, an important lesson is that removing friction is the best way to increase growth early on; therefore, if your offering resolves significant pain of waiting too long, market that pain of waiting. The need for fancy positioning is less important than an ability to rapidly grow your customer's level of confidence through speed of service.
One of our early-stage decisions was to understand what was happening with our clients who had the most success. we could teach people how to run improvement projects and then see how many knew what to do in terms of what we taught. However, many did not have the project management skills required to run an improvement project. The soft skills about people, communication, and change management. Step 1 was customer research which gave us an understanding we did not expect to see. We adjusted our messaging to emphasize projects and adjusted our content to cover those project management skills. This led to client success and repeat business. A related part of our marketing message was to be clear about what we did that was different. We linked our educational programs to professional certification credentials. We did not market ourselves as able to customize every class to unique customer requirements. We invested in being the best at what we provided. We did not invest in the endless cycle of customizing our service for every customer. Step 2 was develop a service which filled a niche which was ignored by others. The marketing decisions worked because we responded to market research and crafted a service and message which filled a need. The subtle insight is to have a message which describes what you do. The common wisdom in our market is to proclaim you will customize everything for any customer. We do not lead with offers of customization. We tell people we have researched how to train people on running improvement project and crafted a solution which provides results without costly customization.
I started a global branding and digital marketing firm 24 years ago and my biggest mistake was not realizing sooner that the people you start with are not always the ones who grow with you. The hardest lesson I learned when I started my company is not getting rid of weak people earlier than I did in the first few years of my business. I spent more time managing them than finding new customers. I knew in my gut they were not up to snuff but out of loyalty to them I let them hang around much longer than they should have. It would have been better for everyone to let them go as soon as the signs were there. They became more insecure and threatened as we grew which was not productive for the team. As soon as I let them go the culture got stronger and the bar higher. "A" team people like to be surrounded by other stars. It is true that you should hire slowly and fire quickly. I did not make that mistake again later on so learned it well the first time. I wish I had known it even earlier though but lesson learned for sure!
When we started out, we were just another web design agency. After being in this field for over ten years, we changed our positioning from web developers to Marketechstm, expert WordPress developers who think like marketers and execute like engineers. Built for speed, growth, and reliable delivery. I think this was the turning point for our company. There was a huge discrepancy in the industry and a common frustration that developers didn't understand marketing and marketers didn't understand coding. But both had to work together if an organization wanted to scale. We built our solution around that gap. For every startup navigating growth, I'd say pay close attention to your customers' pain points and what others in your space are consistently missing. That's where real differentiation lives, not in doing what everyone else does slightly better.
Early on, I chose scalable, trust-building domains when we relaunched Tudos.no and built Penro.co.uk. It worked because we avoided clever or narrow names that can hurt brand perception, SEO, and future market reach, which kept our options open as we grew. The simple lesson is your name does real marketing work, so choose for where you plan to go, not just what is available today.
When I first started using social media as a media tactic, I posted inconsistently across restaurant and travel platforms, hoping to grow faster. When I narrowed to the San Diego food scene and shared personal experiences, engagement became steady, and an invested and engaged community formed. It worked because specificity and authenticity build trust. The insight is that depth in one niche beats breadth when you are earning your first loyal audience.
We decided to run our ads at breakeven instead of requiring them to turn a profit or standard 3:1 LTV:CAC type benchmarks. We were doing PPC ads so had very good visibility into profits from ads, we knew we had an organic component so we just reinvested every penny we made back into ramping ad volume, and eventually the organic side effect of this accelerating cycle eventually become the biggest source of leads. This accelerated our ramp up more than anything, it was the most important decision we made in terms of GTM in the history of the company (Now at $30M in ARR, going since 2018)
Not focusing enough on sales and being too dependent on recommendations. To this point, recommendations are the most important sales channel for us, but having regular outreach and ways to attract new leads is so critical, especially at the beginning if your network is small. The same is true in a more B2C sense; getting customers and early feedback is most important to improve before scaling. Today I am often using the phrase "Sales is everything" and trying to make sales my number one priority. This is the lifeblood of the company, not fancy talks, Christmas parties, feel-good managers, or process optimization.
Over the past 20 years, our first marketing strategy for Metropolitan Shuttle was the decision to market our product as a process instead of as an outcome; we focused on all of the processes that are used to coordinate transportation, such as dispatch, safety checks and escalation procedures, rather than just promoting the end result of our services. This approach appeared to be a gamble on our part at the time, because our competitors had louder advertising campaigns, but ultimately it worked to our advantage. Buyers tend to trust things that they understand, and this insight has led us to believe that, during your first stages of growth, it's less important to be memorable than to be credible, as the credibility you build for your business will compound itself faster than any of the attention you are creating. By taking this approach, we have been able to shorten the length of our sales cycles and generate repeat business prior to developing any type of brand recognition.
An early strategic decision regarding the direction of LINQ Kitchen was to make customer comments and engagement the top priority in how we wanted to market our products. Immediately upon launch, we began conducting regular surveys and using online feedback forms to capture direct insight into our customers' experience with us, including their preferences and issues. We found this method to be successful. It provided our audience with a tangible representation that we took their opinions seriously and were continually working to improve the overall experience and offerings available through LINQ Kitchen. Collecting data and insights from our customers allowed us to constantly adjust and fine-tune our offerings and marketing to best suit their needs, thereby building a loyal customer base, encouraging word-of-mouth referrals, and ultimately promoting organic growth. Actively engaging with our customer base is vital to your business's overall growth and development. Providing a product is just one part of the equation. Building relationships and demonstrating an investment in the customer journey is equally important. Customer engagement can offer deeper insight into your customers' needs and desires, helping guide all aspects of your business, including product development and marketing strategy. For fellow founders, I want to stress the importance of creating a feedback loop early in the business. Actively seeking input from your customers will allow to continue evolving and improving offerings while also building a relationship with them that will set the brand apart from others in the marketplace. Customers who feel heard and appreciated by the businesses they support will often become some of the strongest advocates for those brands, and will create a solid foundation for ongoing and future growth and success.
Looking back, the marketing decision that defined my company was creating signs and ads that spoke directly to a seller's pain, like 'Tired Landlord?' or 'Inherited a Mess?'. This worked because it immediately signaled that I wasn't just another investor, but a specialist who understood their specific burden. The insight is simple: don't just market that you buy houses; market that you solve the *problem* the house has created for its owner.
We decided to let the audience shape the roadmap by observing behavior instead of asking opinions. This worked because actions reveal priorities more honestly than answers collected through feedback. We let marketing evolve based on what people returned to rather than what they praised. That approach kept us focused on real use and reduced noise during early growth. The insight we gained is that early growth depends on listening without interrupting people. Many founders ask too many questions and miss quiet signals hidden in daily behavior. We trained ourselves to watch patterns of attention instead of reacting to loud feedback. Over time we learned that attention patterns are more truthful than surveys in practice.
One decision that defined our company was intentionally marketing our "no pressure, no obligation" approach right from the start--even in postcard copy and first calls. By making it clear we respected sellers' situations, people felt comfortable reaching out with tough problems that others ignored. My advice to fellow founders: give prospects permission to say no as freely as yes, and you'll earn trust--and opportunities--for life.
Early on, we invested in SEO. We started writing weekly blog posts on topics that are relevant to our target audience, using strategic keywords. We then published snippets on social media with links to those blog posts. Reaching out to other high-credibility websites, we offered guest posts and asked for links back to our website. This activity built our domain's authority and increased our keyword rankings. Over time, our website was organically ranking on Google's page 1 for relevant inquires. Orders followed.
Looking back, I remember one early-stage marketing decision to choose face over brand that proved to be an actual game-changer for my company. Before this implementation, I used to handle situations in a professional manner as a founder rather than behaving just as a member of the team for better audience interaction. However, this strategy significantly contributed to my business startup in terms of success and growth. So, what I did was, I focused on what customers feel and want from my company, not just products, but also a strong connectivity. I chose to interact directly with users so that they would feel that they were helping a community rather than paying a company. As a founder, I also made the most effective decision to post my business stories directly on social media platforms rather than spend money on advertising. These actions built an unbreakable connection with customers and even the entire team of my company.
You don't get into the startup world without a strong tolerance for failure, but I was sure that I had really failed with our initial marketing choices for this venture. Our goal was to provide back-end services to enterprise clients for the most part, but we quickly found that virtually all of that pool either handled this work in-house or had third-party providers they were happy with. We had to pivot, in a hurry, to a focus on small, local businesses. I'm very proud that we were able to make that pivot, but it definitely wasn't my initial plan.