The Complete Startup Marketing Checklist (Free PDF)

A startup marketing checklist is the ordered list of everything you need in place before, during and after launch: positioning and ICP, messaging, analytics, email authentication, a launch-week runbook, a 90-day follow-through and the always-on habits that compound. The order matters more than the length. Most early-stage marketing fails because a founder runs launch-week tactics on top of missing foundations, so the traffic arrives and nothing converts or gets measured.

The checklist below has 88 items across five phases. You can work through it here, tick items in the interactive marketing checklist (progress saves in your browser), or grab the printable startup marketing checklist PDF.

How to use this startup marketing checklist

Work top to bottom. Each phase assumes the one before it is mostly done.

• Foundations is the work nobody sees and everybody pays for later if they skip it.
• Pre-launch builds the audience and assets you'll need on launch day.
• Launch week is a runbook, not a brainstorm.
• First 90 days turns a spike into a system.
• Always-on is the short list of habits that keep running after the plan ends.

You don't need every item. A pre-seed devtool can skip the paid section entirely. But if you skip a whole phase, write down why. "We didn't have time" is a reason. It's rarely a good one.

How long each phase of the checklist takes

Founders usually underestimate foundations and overestimate launch week. These are typical timelines for a two-to-five person team doing the work alongside product.

If you're compressing, compress pre-launch, not foundations. A shorter waitlist hurts less than a homepage nobody understands.

Phase 1: Foundations (positioning, ICP, messaging, analytics, email)

Foundations are where I see the most launches fail quietly. The founder can't say who the product is for in one sentence, the website talks about the technology, and the analytics were installed by a contractor two years ago and nobody checked. Everything downstream inherits these problems.

Positioning and ICP

• Write your ICP in one sentence: role, company size, industry, trigger event.
• List the three alternatives your buyer uses today, including "do nothing" and spreadsheets.
• Interview at least five customers or prospects and record the exact words they use for the problem.
• Write a positioning statement: for whom, what category, key benefit, versus what alternative.
• Pick the category name you'll use everywhere and stop using the other three.
• Identify the one proof point that makes the claim believable (a metric, a customer, a benchmark).
• Define who the product is not for, in writing.

Messaging

• Write a homepage headline a stranger understands in five seconds.
• Write a 25-word description you can paste into any bio, directory or pitch.
• Write a 100-word boilerplate for press and partner pages.
• Draft three message pillars, each with one proof point.
• Remove jargon your buyer wouldn't use in a Slack message.
• Test the headline on five people outside the company and note what they think you sell.

Analytics and tracking

• Install product and web analytics and confirm events fire in production.
• Define your activation event (the moment a user gets value) and track it.
• Set up UTM conventions and write them down in one shared doc.
• Connect signups to source so you know which channel produced which user.
• Set up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• Build a one-page weekly dashboard: visitors, signups, activations, pipeline, revenue.
• Add a "how did you hear about us" field to signup or demo forms.

Domain, email and infrastructure

• Configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your sending domain.
• Use a separate subdomain or domain for cold outreach so you protect your main domain.
• Warm up any new sending inbox before volume sends.
• Set up a branded email address for press, partnerships and support.
• Confirm the site loads fast on mobile and every page has a title and meta description.
• Create an XML sitemap and a robots.txt that doesn't block what you want indexed.
• Secure your company handle on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, GitHub and any community platform your buyer uses.

Phase 2: Pre-launch (audience, assets, outreach)

Pre-launch is where you earn your launch day. If nobody knows you exist on day zero, the launch is a tree falling in an empty forest. The work here is building a list, building assets, and lining up people who'll show up.

Audience and list building

• Launch a waitlist or early-access page with one clear promise.
• Send a short update to the waitlist every two weeks so it doesn't go cold.
• Start founder posts on the one social platform your buyer actually uses.
• Join three communities where your buyer asks questions and contribute without pitching.
• Build a list of 50 friendly accounts (customers, investors, advisors, peers) who'll share on launch day.
• Recruit 5 to 10 beta users and get permission to quote them.

Launch assets

• Write the launch announcement post for your blog.
• Record a 60 to 90 second product demo video.
• Prepare screenshots and a GIF of the core workflow.
• Build a press kit: boilerplate, founder bios, logos, product images, fact sheet.
• Draft social posts for launch day in each platform's native format.
• Prepare an email to your waitlist and an email to existing users.
• Write FAQ answers to the five objections you hear most.

The press kit and launch PR template covers the press assets in one place: boilerplate, fact sheet, founder bios and an embargo note.

Outreach and partners

• Build a short media list of 15 to 30 reporters who've covered your space in the last 90 days.
• Decide whether you're offering an exclusive or a broad embargo.
• Brief any integration partners and agree on co-promotion.
• Line up two or three newsletter or podcast mentions timed to launch week.
• Prepare your Product Hunt or launch-site listing if you're using one.
• Set the launch date and check it against major industry events and holidays.

Phase 3: Launch week runbook

Launch week is execution. Every decision should already be made. If you're writing copy on launch morning, something went wrong in phase 2.

• Assign one owner for the day and a backup.
• Publish the blog post and update the homepage.
• Send the waitlist email first, then the customer email.
• Post on founder and company accounts within the same hour.
• Message your 50 friendly accounts with a direct link and a one-line ask.
• Post in communities where launch posts are allowed, following each one's rules.
• Send embargo-lift or exclusive follow-ups to reporters.
• Reply to every comment and question for the first 24 hours.
• Monitor site uptime, signup flow and payment flow every few hours.
• Log every signup source and every piece of coverage in one sheet.
• Thank everyone who shared, by name, within 48 hours.
• Write a short internal note on day 5: what worked, what broke, what surprised you.

If you're launching on Product Hunt, the Product Hunt launch checklist goes deeper on that platform's quirks. For the full day-by-day version, see the startup launch week plan.

Phase 4: First 90 days after launch

The 90 days after launch decide whether the spike becomes a business. Most founders treat launch as the finish line. It's the starting gun. The goal now is to find the one or two channels that actually produce activated users or pipeline, and put most of your time there.

Weeks 1 to 4

• Email every new signup personally and ask what made them try it.
• Call or meet the first 10 activated users.
• Turn launch coverage and quotes into homepage social proof.
• Publish two problem-first blog posts targeting search terms your buyer types.
• Set up an onboarding email sequence tied to the activation event.
• Review the dashboard weekly and write down one decision each week.

Weeks 5 to 8

• Pick three channels and pause the rest.
• Publish one customer story or case study.
• Start a recurring content habit (weekly post, newsletter or video).
• Test one paid channel with a small, fixed budget and a clear kill rule.
• Pitch one data-backed or opinion story to press.
• Add a referral prompt at the moment users get value.

Weeks 9 to 13

• Compare cost and time per activated user by channel.
• Double the time on the best channel and cut the worst.
• Publish a comparison page against your most common alternative.
• Ask happy users for reviews on the directories your buyer checks.
• Update positioning based on what customers actually said.
• Plan the next quarter with one primary metric.

Phase 5: Always-on marketing habits

Always-on is the small set of things that keep working after the plan ends. They're boring. They compound.

• Founder posts at least twice a week on one platform.
• One piece of long-form content every two weeks.
• A monthly email to users and the waitlist with something useful, not just updates.
• A monthly check of rankings and AI assistant answers for your top five queries.
• A running list of customer quotes, metrics and stories.
• A quarterly refresh of your top ten pages.
• A short media list you update monthly and contact only with real news.
• Two community contributions a week where your buyer hangs out.
• A weekly review of the dashboard with one written decision.
• A quarterly customer interview round of at least five calls.
• A monthly check that email authentication and deliverability still pass.
• A yearly review of positioning against how the market has moved.

The GEO and AI search checklist is worth adding to the monthly routine. More buyers now start research inside ChatGPT or Perplexity, and the sources those tools cite tend to be the pages and press that already rank.

Where earned media fits on the checklist

Press shows up in pre-launch, launch week and the always-on list for a reason. A credible story in the right outlet does three jobs at once: it reaches the buyer, it gives sales a link to forward, and it becomes a source that search engines and AI assistants trust. You can run this yourself with a tight media list and a real story. When the stakes are higher (a funding round, a category launch, an APAC market entry), that's the work I do as a fractional PR lead, and the checklist above is the same one I'd start with.

Common mistakes when founders use a marketing checklist

A checklist is only as useful as the judgment you bring to it. These are the patterns I see most often:

• Treating every item as equal. Positioning is worth ten social posts.
• Ticking boxes without checking quality. "Analytics installed" means nothing if the activation event doesn't fire.
• Running all 20 channels at once. Three channels done well beat ten done badly.
• Skipping the 90-day phase because launch felt good.
• Never writing down what you decided not to do.

Eighty-eight boxes is a lot. You'll get further ticking the first 30 properly than ticking all 88 halfway.

Want it printable? Download the free startup marketing checklist PDF, or track progress in the interactive checklist.