The Pre‑Seed Marketing Checklist

Introduction

Pre‑seed founders face a unique challenge: how to attract users and prove traction when there’s little or no budget. Investors expect evidence of market interest, but marketing often feels like guesswork. Following a structured checklist helps you focus on high‑impact activities without wasting time or money. This guide provides a comprehensive marketing checklist tailored for pre‑seed B2B startups in the UK. It blends customer research, brand foundations, content strategy and scrappy growth hacks to help you build momentum before your first institutional funding.

Why startups fail

Before diving into the checklist, it’s important to understand just how high the stakes are.

• About 90 % of startups fail, and one in ten fails within the first year.

• Failure is most common during years two through five, when 70 % of startups shut down

• According to CB Insights’ analysis, the top reasons include misreading market demand (42 %), running out of funds (29 %), weak founding teams (23 %), competitive pressure (19 %) and poor marketing, pricing or product timing (≥ 10 %).

These figures underscore that understanding your audience and communicating your value early isn’t optional. Effective marketing helps validate demand, attract early adopters and generate revenue to avoid the cash‑flow crunch that kills many startups.

Marketing channels & tools

Not all marketing activities have the same cost, speed or resource requirements. The table below compares common pre‑seed channels:

Founder-led Marketing

To visualise how early‑stage founders tackle marketing with limited resources, watch the REWORK podcast episode “Founder‑Led Marketing – REWORK podcast”. While the discussion focuses on founder‑led tactics, the principles translate directly to pre‑seed marketing: start by sharing your journey, talk with users and use your voice before spending money on ads.

7 Step checklist to ramp your startup:

1. Clarify Your Audience and Problem

• Interview target customers – Speak with at least five to ten potential users to understand their pain points, goals and current solutions. Ask open questions: “What’s the hardest part about …?” and “How are you solving this today?” Synthesise patterns to confirm problem‑solution fit.

• Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) – Based on interviews, create a clear description of your ideal buyer: company size, industry, role, challenges, regulatory environment. For fintechs, note whether they’re FCA‑regulated. For SaaS, consider factors like tech stack and procurement process. A focused ICP guides messaging and channel selection.

• Map customer journey – Outline how prospects discover, consider and adopt your product. Where do they research solutions (forums, LinkedIn, Google)? What triggers them to seek help? Mapping the journey highlights content and touchpoints you need to create.

2. Craft Your Value Proposition and Core Message

• Develop a compelling positioning statement – Use the formula “For [ICP] who [problem], [product] is a [category] that [unique benefit].” Keep it concise and benefit‑driven. Avoid jargon.

• Align your story with customer motivations – Highlight why you started the company and how your solution creates tangible outcomes. Authentic founder stories resonate more than polished marketing speak.

3. Build a Minimal Viable Brand and Digital Presence

• Choose a brand name and domain – Select a name that is easy to spell and relates to your mission. Secure a matching domain and social media handles.

• Design a simple visual identity – Develop a logo, colour palette and typography. Use free tools like Canva or Figma. Consistency helps build recognition.

• Launch a basic website – Create a one‑page site with your value proposition, product overview, benefits, founder story, and a clear call to action (e.g. “Join waitlist,” “Book a call”). Ensure mobile responsiveness and fast loading. Include a privacy policy and cookie banner to comply with GDPR.

• Set up analytics – Install Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track visitors and search performance. Configure events (e.g. button clicks, form submissions) so you know which actions lead to conversions. Set up a CRM (HubSpot Free, Airtable or Notion) to capture leads.

4. Create Early Content and Lead Magnets

• Identify core topics – Based on your ICP’s pain points, list topics you can address in blog posts, guides or videos. For a fintech startup, this might include compliance tips or payment integrations; for SaaS, perhaps productivity best practices.

• Produce one flagship piece – Create a high‑value resource (e.g. an e‑book, checklist or template) that solves a specific problem. Use this as a lead magnet in exchange for email addresses.

• Write two to three blog posts – Publish long‑form content (1,500–3,000 words) that dives deep into a problem your ICP faces. Many existing guides are generic and by offering detailed steps and examples, you differentiate yourself. Optimise posts for targeted keywords and include internal links and calls to action.

• Set up email capture and automation – Integrate an email form on your site to capture leads. Use an email service (Mailerlite, Brevo or Mailchimp) to send an automated welcome email that delivers your lead magnet and invites recipients to follow your journey.

• Follow up with a drip sequence featuring useful content and an invitation to a demo or beta. Personalise your drip campaigns and include clear calls to action.

5. Engage Your Network and Early Adopters

• Leverage existing relationships – Reach out to friends, former colleagues, mentors and investors. Explain your mission and ask if they know potential users or partners. Unknown VC emphasises nurturing existing relationships and asking for referrals to grow your customer base organically.

• Join founder communities – Participate in local UK startup groups (e.g. TechHub, London Fintech Week), online forums (Indie Hackers, r/entrepreneur) and accelerator alumni networks. Share your journey, ask for feedback and offer help to others.

• Launch a beta user programme – Invite a small group of ICPs to trial your product. Provide hands‑on onboarding, collect feedback and iterate. Early adopters often become evangelists if they feel listened to. Offer incentives (extended free access or exclusive features) in exchange for testimonials or referrals.

6. Plan Low‑Cost Growth Experiments

• Organic social media – Choose one or two platforms where your ICP spends time (LinkedIn for B2B, Twitter for developers). Post regularly using your founder profile. Share valuable content, behind‑the‑scenes insights and commentary on industry news.

• Community contributions – Write guest posts or answer questions on relevant blogs, podcasts or newsletters. Offer to speak at webinars or meetups.

• Partnerships – Collaborate with complementary startups or service providers to cross‑promote. For example, if you’re building a payments API, partner with a fintech law firm to co‑create content on compliance.

• Testing ads – With a small budget (£200–£500), experiment with targeted LinkedIn or Google Ads promoting your lead magnet. Monitor cost per lead and conversions to evaluate channel viability.

7. Measure, Learn and Iterate

• Define metrics – Track website sessions, conversion rate (visitors to sign‑ups), email open and click rates, demo bookings and eventual conversions to paying customers. Create a simple dashboard in Google Sheets or Notion.

• Analyse and adjust – At the end of each month, review performance. Which blog posts attracted the most traffic? Which channels brought the highest‑quality leads? Double down on what works and cut what doesn’t. Marketing at pre‑seed is about learning what resonates; treat experiments as data gathering.

• Update the checklist – As your startup grows, revisit and refine the checklist. Some tasks become less relevant; new challenges emerge (e.g. scaling content production or implementing account‑based marketing). Keep learning and iterating.

And finally…

For a visual walkthrough of early‑stage marketing, watch "Five Marketing Tactics That Took My Startup From $0 to $350,000 USD". The presenter shares her real‑world experience of gaining traction without a large budget.

Conclusion

Pre‑seed startups don’t need large budgets or teams to build marketing traction. A clear checklist that covers customer research, value proposition, brand basics, early content, network engagement and simple experiments will help you attract early users and demonstrate momentum to investors.

Most importantly, let the founder’s voice shine through your messaging. The authenticity and passion of a founder resonate with early adopters and differentiate you from generic corporate marketing. Follow this checklist, measure your progress and stay flexible. Traction is the result of disciplined execution and relentless curiosity about your customers.