David Houston was struck with an eureka idea for file-sharing on a bus home. Sometimes, that’s all it takes to form a $10 billion tech startup. The story of Dropbox has its own little stepping stones which every startup experiences – starting with funding, manpower and most of all, customers.

Dropbox, a startup primarily based on a simple program and an even simpler layout, made gigantic leaps in the particular genre of tech companies leaving its competitors on a lifetime chase. Anyone would think that a startup requires loads of money to be flushed for marketing to attract customers towards it; and so did Dropbox. After an initial investment on Google AdWords, they realized that they were spending more than earning. This led to one of the forming of the core of Dropbox’s marketing strategies which led  from one to one hundred million faithful customers.

Dropbox Marketing Masterstroke #1

Dropbox hasn’t changed the simple and authentic layout of their homepage for years which consists of just two tiny things – an explainer video and a download button. This let folks landing on their site to concentrate their attention to the video. Videos have always had a tendency to get more attention than the most amazing of writings.

The explainer video narrates a beautiful story of why Dropbox could save you in the worst of situations. It created that lasting impression on customers which startups usually look for. The video spoke a million words and cultivated billions more. The tiny investment on making the video led to the startup tech company reach the top of the ladder:

Dropbox Marketing Masterstroke #2

The other landmark marketing tool Dropbox used was Social Media, carrying out a viral campaign which made its way into the history books. Dropbox, which rejected a merging with Apple, encouraged their existing customers to invite friends and family through Social tools such as Facebook, Twitter etc. with the promise of providing extra space on their accounts for every customer they lure in. Satisfied customers, in the greed of the extra free space, went on an epidemic of a run spamming every friend, neighbour and colleague. The staggering campaign led to 2.8 million invited in merely a month. This unique referral tool made Dropbox the ultimate file sharing company, helping it graduate from a tech startup into a billion dollar firm.

Sometimes, what you require to be huge is an idea . But most times it’s the way you express your idea that earns the plaudits.