uke Lazarus was just 8 years old when he built his first business. And though he excelled at a wide range of academics and athletics through University, it was his entrepreneurial passion that shaped his career. It was a career in which he found unparalleled success. Over the decade following his completion of a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Melbourne, Luke Lazarus founded 4 different startups, and sold them for phenomenal profits. By the time Lazarus was 35, he was free to retire, and never have to worry about money. Or he could go on to found more startups to see more profits.

Instead, Luke Lazarus chose to share his success with others in the business community, becoming a consultant for other startups. By sharing his unique approach, Lazarus is able to help startups achieve their goals. He is an expert when it comes to identifying a company’s problems, creating marketing strategies and increasing company value.

How Luke Lazarus Helps Startups See Amazing Results

Lazarus offers a truly original way of looking at business. He believes in both a strong emotional connection between customers and stakeholders, while also maintaining that data must always play an integral role. While many might see these two different viewpoints as being at odd with each other, it is Lazarus’ combination of the two principles which accounts for the underlying genius of his roadmap to success.

Why Emotions Are Central

While Lazarus has a highly-rigorous approach to creating a strong business plan, he stresses that it’s not all about facts and figures. One of the core tenets to Lazarus’ approach is the importance of an emotional connection between stakeholders and customers. It is not enough for a company to just offer a product or service, but to see true success, a company must offer a story that allows the customer to connect.

It is so easy for companies to focus on profits and products, and as a result, the connection to the customer gets neglected. The company may even fail entirely to make a connection with the customer. And without a story, how can a company engage with potential investors. Creating the right story—the one that will elicit an emotional connection, can help with creating a stronger bond between the company and stakeholders as well.

A story is capable of answering many questions. It can help a company distinguish itself from all others, it can be a creation story, telling how a product or service came to be created, what problem it solves and why customers need it. There is no overestimating how powerful a story can be in creating a strong connection, and in turn, transforming itself into a powerful marketing tool. It can create believers—the kind of brand ambassadors who will spread word-of-mouth advertising, which we all know is the most persuasive kind.

Why Data Is an Integral Part of the Puzzle

From this perspective, it can seem like Luke Lazarus has thrown at the rule books, or is advocating for a purely instinct-driven approach, but this is far from the case. Rather, Lazarus advocates for a system that is not only emotion-centered, but it’s also data-powered.

Lazarus has a deep understanding of how data and analytics work, and as a result, he knows how critical they are to the success of a startup. Understanding the customer is far too important to leave up to something as inaccurate as assumptions. Startups don’t have the resources to implement campaigns that lead to failures. And in the early days, when founders attempt to be responsible for so much, it is all too easy to miss critical components.

That is where data comes in. By leveraging data, Lazarus possesses the know-how to help startups to create winning brand messaging, as well as information on how to scale into a larger company. With Lazarus’ help, many startups have been able to create a rock-solid business plan and also a well-developed brand. From there it is time to meet investors.

The Importance of Finding Investments

A startup only has 30 seconds to get an investor’s attention when they are meeting with a venture capitalist (VC) for the first time. Having created the right brand messaging, backed by a strong business plan and proven by data, the company can’t fail to offer up the perfect pitch. It becomes a cinch to quickly demonstrate to the investor what the company offers and what it will accomplish. With money gained from VCs and angel investors, a startup can grow into a global organization.

It is critical for even a budding startup to secure funding. It is only through proper funding that a startup can expect to grow into a multi-national operation. Sometimes it can seem that success with VCs and angel investors comes down to luck, but Lazarus believes that a true entrepreneur makes their own luck. It also takes more than a splashy PowerPoint and a few buzzwords. But by following Lazarus’ intensive plan, has become an invaluable resource for many startups securing funding.

The Highest Valuation Possible

With the many different companies Lazarus has worked with, he has always focused on one primary goal: to increase the company’s valuation. Whether a company is headed for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) or an acquisition, Lazarus believes that following the right plan can yield the highest possible valuation. With this as the central overriding goal, Lazarus has helped many startups achieve incredible goals, including IPOs worth millions.

Spreading the Strategy on Social

A major motivating force for Lazarus is to share his wisdom and empower those start-ups and entrepreneurs who are either just starting out or are struggling to find success. With approximately half of all startups failing in their first five years, it can seem like there are many who need the help. But with the majority of founders putting in 10-15 hours of work a day Lazarus understands that these failures don’t come from lack of hard work or even creativity and good ideas. Rather, it is lacking the right strategy that hampers success.

That’s why, in addition to acting as consultant to many startups and companies seeking to achieve their funding goals, he is also generous with what he shares over social media. You can follow him on YouTube, Medium and Twitter, where he is @LukeLazarusAU, where you gain powerful insights into his overall strategy, and useful tips for employing in all kinds of businesses.

Luke Lazarus on YouTube

From how inspiration can lead to a multi-billion-dollar global company to low-cost ways to market your company, Lazarus has dozens of two-minute easy-to-watch videos illustrating so many concepts and ideas that can help you and your business. Though the videos are short in time, Lazarus goes in-depth on such topics as the importance of competition and taking it seriously. Lazarus’ YouTube channel provides a veritable how-to for many basics of becoming a successful entrepreneur, as well as more advanced topics.

Lets take a look at a couple of recent videos.

In one of his longer videos, he shares the most important marketing strategies to make use of right now. These include, Building a niche and building credibility within it. In order to do this it is critical to create a trustworthy brand. Another important strategy is the use of SEO techniques. By using keywords you can drive traffic to online platforms. Another great strategy that is highly overlooked, is to sponsor an event. There are shortage of events across industries looking for a sponsor to help with the costs of staging. By acting as a sponsor, you can highlight your business.

As always, Lazarus stresses the importance of connecting with customers. In the video he shares one way to reach out and connect with potential customers is through giveaways and samples. It can be as easy as reaching out over social media and offering samples in exchange for an honest customer review. Choosing to offer your product or service to a select few is one truly revolutionary marketing strategy. Another idea is to offer great coupons, which gives both a sense of urgency and promotion to products and services. Research suggests many can’t say no to this winning combination. There are many ways to go about it, from snail mail, to email, to mobile offers, but however you do it is an excellent strategy to encourage people to make a purchase with your company.

All of that is in just one video!

Luke Lazarus on Medium

For a somewhat more in-depth look, you can check out Lazarus’ articles on Medium. These dive deeper into many of the topics covered on his YouTube channel, including “What Technology Does to Your Mind” and how important humility and modesty is in a CEO. He has even been using the forum Medium provides to offer advice that is specific to these unique times during the pandemic, including what to keep in mind for marketing and how to avoid WFH burnout. His Medium posts are a great resource for the latest news and updates on marketing strategy for any startup.

In one of Luke Lazarus’ latest posts, he offers up an in-depth look at startup marketing’s most advanced digital applications. A huge cornerstone to this process is catering to modern consumers. While it used to be fine to launch a product with a “Coming Soon” website, today’s consumer expects more from a product launch. By engaging certain tools, a company can make sure they have the right campaign for the modern consumer. These include:

• Use of latest AI and ML technology
• Blockchain development
• Client handling across domains and platforms
• Campaigns that use interactive content like AR and VR applications
• A wide range of web and mobile services
• Web development that offers a global experience
• Specialized team of market researchers
• A strong team

Finding revolutionary technology services to implement all of this is the way to take advantage of the most advanced applications. Fluper is one such service, that does a good job of actually offering that full array of tools. That is highlighted also by the success the company has had. It has contributed to the completion of 320 projects from over 300 professionals. But it’s important each individual company carefully consider its own marketing needs before choosing the right services for them.

The importance of blockchain is another major aspect worth thinking about. Lazarus counsels to expect wide adaption of blockchain. Why? There is a widespread lack of efficiency with digital ad spending due to fraud, mismanagement and no transparency. With the amount going into digital ad spending getting close to $500 billion, this level of mismanagement is becoming more unacceptable. Blockchain is great for eliminating fraud and creating transparency. At minimum, Forbes is projecting that blockchain will see $23 billion of digital ad spending by 2023.

From blockchain to artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), there is no lack of incredible technology that will be shaping digital marketing for years to come. But the advantages are especially great for early adopters. By staying at the cutting edge of the latest innovation, startups can gain a competitive edge. And so often this is the difference that leads to success. It can even lead to creating a challenge to some of the most well-established companies. It is going to be some time before huge behemoths like Twitter and Facebook are able to fully integrate VR and AI at the same level and speed that a startup could. By making partnerships to give yourself access to the latest technology, you are creating limitless potential for success.

Once again, that is all from a single article!

Luke Lazarus on Twitter

For regular updates on the most important marketing and startup news all around the globe, follow @LukeLazarusAU. From unbelievable valuations to the latest financial news, just following along with Lazarus’ feed will keep you well-informed. In a single day he shares dozens of articles to keep you up to date on all of the latest news, as well as providing an in-depth look at some of the most fascinating stories involving startups and businesses.

The Latest Market Trends

Recently, Lazarus share his take on the latest market trends. For his 5 top trends, he named:

1. Social Media Marketing: While this trend may seem like an old story, the truth is that with a constantly shifting landscape and exponentially growing potential, it’s critical to stay up to date on the latest techniques in the field to maximize all that is possible here.
2. Instagram: In particular, the platform Instagram has shown potential that is nearly equal to that of sister site, Facebook. There are currently 1 billion active users on the site, 60% of whom are actively discovering new products to buy. That is an incredible consumer base from which to gather data and possibly leads and sales.
3. Mobile Payments: This was already a growing trend: people always have their phone on them, it can be easier to pay with that than have to worry about carrying around a piece of plastic. But the ability of mobile payments to adjust to the need for contactless payment has made the use mobile payments in demand.
4. Voice Recognition: Studies estimate that in 2020 up to 20 million people will be using smart speakers, and that is in the United States alone. The growth of voice recognition devices and people’s reliance on them for information and for getting what they need while in their homes has led to largely untapped potential for new marketing opportunities.
5. Interactive Content: As mentioned above, Lazarus is a big believer in the importance of storytelling to create a meaningful connection. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through interactive content that lets customers engage with the content, the brand and the marketing in entirely new ways. Examples of this include virtual reality and 360-degree videos that allow user interaction.

This is just one small piece of the helpful content which Luke Lazarus offers. On his social media sites he offers a great deal more of valuable advice and overviews. And of course, it is the clients of his in-demand consulting service who are able to gain the most complete benefits from Lazarus’ system.

About Luke Lazarus

While bitten with the start-up bug early in life, Luke Lazarus also believed in the importance of an education. In school, he excelled at both athletics and academics. When it was time for university, though he was recruited by Ivy League schools, Lazarus chose to stay closer to home, attending University of Melbourne, where he received a Masters in Business Administration at the age of 24. With his education complete, Lazarus was free to return to his passion for business, where achieved unparalleled success, building 4 businesses and selling them for millions.

Rather than retire or continue to found more companies for profit, Lazarus chose to help others share in his success. His startup marketing consultancy has helped numerous companies, both new and established, achieve their goals.