Marketing Strategy Session for Startup Founders

Context

SOSA, a startup accelerator based in New York, invited us to deliver an online marketing strategy session to one of their startup cohorts in Fintech. These early-stage startups each face different challenges, but all with the same need: to make smarter marketing decisions with limited time and budget.

Our goal was to bring clarity, focus, and practical tools to help them move faster and more confidently.

The Challenge

Startups often operate without a structured marketing plan. They jump into campaigns too early, invest in the wrong tools, or struggle to explain their value clearly. SOSA wanted a session that would:

• Help founders understand what makes a marketing strategy effective

• Provide a clear framework for decision-making

• Show how to prioritize marketing efforts based on stages and goals

• Deliver tools and insights they could apply immediately

What We Did

We delivered a 60-minute session designed to be both insightful and immediately usable:

• 45-minute presentation

• 15-minute interactive Q&A

The session was structured around real startup pain points, covering five core areas:

Strategy

We showed founders how to build a marketing strategy that starts from their product-market fit, not from a channel or trend. We talked about how to prioritize messaging, timing, and budget based on where they are in their growth journey.

Marketing Tools

Rather than throwing dozens of platforms at them, we narrowed it down to essential tools for early-stage startups, covering AI and automation tools.

Budget

We introduced a simple framework for allocating budgets across content creation, SEO, SEA, analytics & testing. The goal was to avoid waste and start small but smart.

Messaging

Many startups struggle to explain what they do in a way that resonates. We gave them a formula to define their core message based on audience pain points, not internal jargon.

Website Optimization

We shared examples of poor conversion flows, then walked through real use cases of how a better landing page structure, message hierarchy, and basic analytics setup could drive results.

The Impact

Startups left the session with:

• A better understanding of what makes a marketing strategy work

• A list of priorities to focus their time and resources

• Practical tools to improve their campaigns

What They Say

“Lena delivered a terrific Marketing Strategies session to our startup accelerator cohort, delivering quality insights on best practices in designing marketing and advertising campaigns, marketing tools, budget allocation, core messaging and branding, and more."