Scott Olson
Scott Olson is a serial entrepreneur and is currently the president of MindLink Marketing providing strategic marketing services to startups. He has founded two companies, one of which was sold to Cisco Systems, and served as the VP of Marketing at three others, one of which was sold to Symantec. He has guest lectured at the University of Texas at Austin on Entrepreneurship. In 2007, Duke University Engineering Department honored Scott with the Distinguished Young Alumni award. He can be found on twitter at @scottdolson1.
Recent Posts
5 ways to break the startup funk
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
Startups aren’t for the weak of heart. There are inevitable ups and downs that every entrepreneur faces. Part of your challenge is not getting carried away during times of success and not getting despondent during your setbacks.
When you find yourself in a startup funk, it’s frequently a period of indecision or uncertainty, where planning and meetings seem … Continue Reading
How to use social media to unlock true fan marketing
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
Quick marketing poll: Who has bought an industry contact list and used that to send out direct mail, email or some other marketing promotion?
Guiltily holding your hand up? You’re not alone, but it’s pretty well established that this approach no longer works. Playing the numbers game of a less than 1 percent response on marketing outreach to … Continue Reading
Need sales leads? Think like an editor.
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
I had an interesting conversation the other day with a colleague about the challenges he was having with his company’s leads pipeline. He had the contacts, but the opportunities weren’t growing fast enough.
I’ve actually seen this many times. The assumption is that once an initial outreach has been done to new contacts, the conversion has to happen … Continue Reading
There's no medal for first to market
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
The iPhone, Google search and Facebook were all latecomers to the game. None was first to market – but all of them are now the dominant players in their category.
In the business world, being a trend setter doesn’t guaranteed success. In fact, a great majority of those that blaze new paths fail. Yet entrepreneurs continue to chase … Continue Reading
Excel where your competitors suck
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. A version of this column originally appeared on his blog.)
Customers have a natural affinity to stay with their current vendors. It is, after all, far less trouble. Most of the time, when someone moves their business, it isn’t because the competitor has that much better of a product or service, it’s because their existing vendor ticked them off in some way that a … Continue Reading
Shoestring marketing for start-ups
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
In a startup, there is no more precious commodity than capital. It’s hard to come by and easily burned – and marketing budgets can quickly become one of the biggest line items.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though.
There are more cost effective and free marketing tools than ever, letting companies get a lot more marketing … Continue Reading
White paper guidelines – less glory, more story
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
Every good marketing professional knows when it comes to Internet marketing; success depends upon high quality, original content. It’s critical to any number of goals, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), sponsored links, newsletters, drip marketing and web click through and conversion.
Of all the web content available, white papers are the strongest in terms … Continue Reading
Win when you lose – 10 guidelines for loss analysis
(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)
Losing is never fun. When you invest significant time and resources pursuing a deal and it falls through, it’s frustrating – and invariably causes some self-reflection.
Why weren’t we successful this time? What could we have done differently? Implementing a process to learn from your losses can yield great dividends – and is often the best way to … Continue Reading
How to determine if your marketing is worth the cost
You don’t have to be a dedicated student of current events to know that businesses are scrutinizing expenses more than ever. In an environment where staff cuts are commonplace and budgets are shrinking, marketing has quickly become one of the favorite targets for cost cutters.
If you work in a venture backed startup today, it is a good bet your board is taking a harder look than ever at marketing expenditures, trying to understand what … Continue Reading
Why is simple design so hard?
On a recent business trip to Austin, I stayed at my father’s house. It’s a beautiful home – with the confounding exception of the guest bathroom. The builders, for reasons I can’t even fathom, decided to install an individual switch for every light, as well as for the vent and heat lamp. As I fumbled around for the right combination for a successful shower and shave, I found myself wondering, why is simple so hard?… Continue Reading
Five key marketing priorities for a startup
Prioritizing your marketing time and resources can be a daunting task. Having previously discussed five marketing time wasters that startups should avoid, it seems wise to examine five marketing priorities you should consider as you put together a plan.
In general, your marketing efforts have two goals: reach potential customers and help them find you. If you can successfully navigate the following marketing deliverables, you’ll be well on your way to providing a strong foundation … Continue Reading
Five marketing time wasters
Deciding how to allocate time and resources is a difficult process for any business -and it’s even harder for start-ups. But of all the allocation decisions to be made, there’s none more difficult than marketing.
Promote your company too little and you’re almost certainly doomed to fail. Promote it too much and you’re squandering dollars that might be better spent on R&D or preparing for a fundraising round.
As you consider your marketing strategies, here … Continue Reading
