Marketing Tips for Founders: 7 Must-Know Shifts for Early-Stage Success
- Pernille Aggerholm
- 14 minutes ago
- 7 min read
If you’re building a startup, you already know this: it’s not the best idea or product that wins. It’s the business that learns how to communicate clearly, consistently, and confidently in a noisy market.
In the early days, marketing can feel like guesswork. You’re trying things on LinkedIn, dabbling with a website, wrestling with your pitch deck, and wondering: Is any of this working?
That’s why I have rounded up the seven strategic shifts that help founders move their mindset and marketing from ad hoc activities to essential foundations that will support growth.
In this article, I’ll walk you through those shifts at a high level. If you’d like to go deeper, you can watch the free on-demand masterclass, “Stop Guessing, Start Growing: 7 Must-Know Shifts for Startup Success”, where I unpack these with real-life examples and frameworks.
Shift 1: From confusion to clarity
The most common trap I see early-stage founders fall into is this:
You can talk about your product for 20 minutes, but you struggle to explain what it is, who it’s for, and why it matters in 10 seconds.
If someone lands on your homepage, your LinkedIn profile, or your pitch deck and can’t quickly answer those three questions, they could be gone. In a world of short attention spans and constant content - it really is this simple; “if you confuse, you lose.”
Clarity means:
Using plain, direct language instead of jargon and buzzwords
Leading with the value and outcomes, not the underlying tech
Treating your core message as a doorway, not a full instruction manual
Instead of “we leverage AI for real-time optimisation,” say something like:
“We help safety teams predict workplace accidents before they happen.”
You don’t need to list everything you do on the first screen. Start with a sharp, simple positioning line and one or two key benefits. Once someone feels seen and understood, they’re willing to scroll, click and learn more.
In the masterclass, we go deeper into how to craft customer-centric messaging that helps you answer the “so what” test.
Shift 2: From blending in to standing out
Scroll through any startup directory and you’ll see a familiar pattern:
“All-in-one platform…”
“Innovative, game-changing solution…”
“One-stop shop for X…”
“AI-powered, data-driven, next-gen…”
After a while, everything sounds the same.
Standing out isn’t always about having a wildly different product. It’s about having a clear, ownable point of view and expressing it in a way that feels fresh and memorable.
That might look like:
A simple, sticky hook (e.g. “Part-own a wind farm” instead of “Flexible green energy investment solutions”)
A bold stance on how your industry should change
A niche you serve deeply, rather than trying to be for “everyone”
You don’t need the perfect, clever tagline to start. What matters is that your story, your language, and your visuals all work together to answer:
“Why you, and why now?”
And remember: differentiation isn’t only in the product. It can come from your values, your story, how you deliver, or how you treat your customers. The key is to stop hiding behind generic phrases and start saying the thing only you can say.
Shift 3: From inconsistent to consistent brand presence
In the early days, brand consistency feels like a “nice-to-have”. You’re in Canva at 11pm, hacking together pitch decks, social tiles and one-pagers and hoping it "kinda looks alright".
This is called the halo effect: we assume the quality of what’s inside based on how it looks and feels on the outside.
You don’t need a $50k visual identity, but you do need a minimum viable brand system, for example:
A small set of logo variations (and a clear rule about which one to use where)
2–3 core colours and 1–2 accent tones
1 heading font + 1 body font
A simple tone of voice guide (how you speak in copy)
Then the real magic is in sticking to it. The goal is that when someone sees your post in a busy feed or opens your deck, it feels consistently “you”.
Consistency builds recognition. Recognition builds trust. And trust is what allows someone to move from “interesting idea” to “I’m ready to pay for this.”
In the masterclass, I share what a mini brand guidelines document looks like.
Shift 4: From features to stories
Most founders love talking about features:
“We use APIs to optimise…”
“Our platform supports multi-tenant, multi-site…”
“We integrate with X, Y and Z…”
Your customer, meanwhile, is thinking: Will this save me time? Will it make me look good? Will it reduce risk? Will it help us grow?
Features matter, but they don’t move people on their own. Stories do.
A more effective approach looks like this:
Name the problem or pain in language your customer commonly uses
Show you understand their world (symptoms, frustrations, missed opportunities)
Paint a picture of the “after” – what life looks like when the problem is solved
Then connect your product as the bridge from “before” to “after”
Even when you describe a feature, follow it quickly with “so that…” and paint the outcome:
“NinjaX blender has a strong motor, so you can make a smoothie in 30 seconds and get out the door on time.”
“Automate your onboarding workflows so your team stops copying and pasting from old emails and can focus on high-value tasks that contribute to growth.”
You don’t need a novel for every feature. Even a few lines of human, specific context can transform dry specs into something people care about.
Shift 5: From hiding to showing up
Many founders wait to be “ready” before they show up:
“We’ll start posting when the product is finished.”
“I’ll share more once the brand is polished.”
“We need more proof points before we talk about this publicly.”
The problem is that trust doesn’t magically switch on the day you launch. It builds slowly, through repeated, honest touchpoints over time.
Showing up can look like:
Sharing your founder story – why you care about this problem
Talking about the journey, not just the wins (pivots, experiments, lessons)
Posting short, useful insights from your industry
Re-using existing assets – webinars, talks, panels, articles – in smaller pieces
Recording simple, phone-quality videos that feel human and real
You don’t have to become an influencer. You do have to accept that being in business includes being visible.
In the masterclass, we explore a specific mindset shift that helps you move the focus from “How do I look?” to “How can I help? ”If one person hears something that makes them feel smarter, braver, or better equipped to act, your post did its job.
Shift 6: From assumptions to insights
Here’s a hard truth: you are not your customer.
You might be close to the problem. You might even have lived it. But your current buyers have their own constraints, language, and priorities – and these change over time.
Instead of guessing, start gathering real-world insight:
Customer conversations – informal chats, recorded calls, discovery interviews
Surveys – short, focused questions about pain points, priorities, and value
Usability tests – watching someone try to complete basic actions in your product
Offer and price tests – different packages, messages or price points to see what appeals
You’re looking for:
The words they use to describe their world
The moments that trigger action (“I’d had enough when…”)
The outcomes they care about most
What would make them comfortable to commit
This is about closing the gap between what you think your market wants solved and what they’re willing to pay to have solved.
It’s the lightweight tests and raw feedback that turn into winning messaging and positioning that feels like you’re reading your customer’s mind.
Shift 7: From tactics to strategy
Marketing is more than:
“Posting on LinkedIn”
“Trying some ads”
“Sending a newsletter when we remember”
Those are tactics – the visible, busy part of marketing.
Without a strategy behind them, you’re just spinning plates.
A simple strategy connects:
Business goals
Revenue targets
Markets you’re entering
Products or features you’re prioritising
Audience and positioning
Who you’re for
What problem you solve
Why you’re different
Customer journey
How people first discover you
What they need to learn or experience to trust you
What helps them decide and commit
How you keep them engaged after they buy
Only then do you choose tactics:
Content, email, events, partnerships, outbound, product marketing, PR and so on.
And finally, you move into operations and optimisation:
Who’s doing what
How often
Which metrics you track
What you scale up, tweak, or retire
Even a lightweight strategy – a one-page view of your goals, objectives, key touchpoints and focus channels – will keep you from chasing every shiny marketing idea that pops up in your feed.
Want to go deeper on the 7 shifts?
These seven shifts are designed to give you a clearer lens on your marketing, so you can:
Cut through the noise with a sharper message
Build a brand that feels consistent and confident
Show up in ways that feel sustainable and true to you
Make smarter decisions about where to spend your time and budget
If you’d like to see real examples, live commentary, and practical prompts for each shift, you can watch my free on-demand masterclass:
Stop Guessing, Start Growing: 7 Strategic Shifts for Startup Success
And if you’re ready to turn these ideas into a concrete plan, you can join the waitlist for the 5-week marketing sprint, where I work with a small group of founders to sharpen their positioning, clarify their content strategy and build a startup friendly 90-day marketing roadmap that's both realistic and impactful.
Think Boldly! helps founders and early-stage teams turn marketing chaos into strategic clarity.
From fractional CMO support and strategic projects to sprints and webinars, we meet you where you’re at, with tools, insights, and action plans you can confidently execute. With deep start-up and investor experience, we cut through the noise, move fast, and focus on what truly drives growth.
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