#3 Ways Startups Can Manage Marketing at Slimmer BudgetsThe key is to understand who are you talking to and what matters to your customers.

Most startups do not have the luxury of fancy budgets to splurge on marketing and it's important to know how to market your product without shelling out extensively.

Puneet Chhahira – Global Marketing Head – Infosys Finacle, EdgeVerve, spoke to Entrepreneur on some of the key requisites required by startups to manage marketing at slimmer budgets.

Get your target audience right

The key is to understand who are you talking to and what matters to your customers. If you get that act right, which is very difficult, once you get that, then you build your strategy around it. Once you get you initial bit of critical mass, then you just have to build around it and that connects you to the right people.

Let your customers speak for you

If you are in a B2B world, finding your first set of customers is the most difficult part. Once you get them, you need to make them shine so that these clients market your product. It's important you make your customers feel good because in today's world customers make a brand.

Multiplying with influencers

There are certain people who could be on the social world or physical world, or even consultants. You need to understand who the influencers in your business are. If you gain them, you get to know and interact with a lot of other folks. You've got to have that singular mind of identifying those influences fast and investing a lot of time in interacting with them and build a relationship with.

In his role, Puneet is responsible for charting out marketing strategies, enhancing brand differentiation and driving growth. In the past, he has closely managed the relations with industry influences, led regional marketing activities, thought leadership programs and launch of Finacle solutions.

Puneet was one of the key speakers at a panel discussion on 'Sales at Startups' conducted by Lucep at Bhive Workspace