A successful marketing strategy is the lifeblood of any business. It will help you stand out from the crowd and make your brand memorable in a crowded marketplace.
Like any other business, marketing for start-ups is a vital component in the success of any company. With so many different platforms, knowing where and how to start can be hard. There are many digital marketing channels that you can use for your start-up. That’s why you should choose the right digital marketing strategies for your start-up to get maximum output. Which strategy works well for your start-up depends upon your niche, target audience, and many other factors.
Creating a unique, interesting, and ultimately effective marketing plan for your start-up can be challenging. You may not have the budget for in-house marketing and advertising specialists as a start-up. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful online. A growing number of start-ups are achieving success with digital marketing strategies. Here are 8 best digital marketing strategies start-ups should know:
List of Digital Marketing Strategies for a Start-Up Company
1. Start with SEO
SEO is the most important form of digital marketing for start-ups because it’s free, and it results in traffic that leads directly to sales. If you don’t start with SEO, then you may not have any tangible results from your efforts at all.
2. Build your website
When someone searches for a relevant keyword phrase, then your site should show up on page one of the search results for that phrase. It’s not enough just to have a site with pages about various topics; instead, build your site around phrases that people will use when they are looking for products or services like yours.
3. Social Media Marketing
It uses platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+ to encourage fans and followers to post comments or reviews about the business’s products or services. It also utilizes widgets such as the “like” button on Facebook and the “Pin it” button on Pinterest, which are free marketing tools for small businesses.
You should give it a try to some platforms to see which works best for you before choosing anyone. You can read their case studies and stats published on their sites to get a better idea about a platform.
Benefits offered by social media marketing:
- It increases exposures and traffic
- Builds customer trust & loyalty
- Helps improve search ranking and generates leads
- Establishes thought leadership
- Gives fillip to sales
4. Paid Search Marketing
This is a powerful marketing strategy where you pay for displaying ads on search engines when people search for certain keywords relevant to your business. This is a very effective way of reaching a wider target audience at a lower cost than other digital marketing strategies.
5. Pay per Click (PPC) marketing
It is bidding on search terms relevant to your business and having them appear as sponsored links when people search the internet or click on search results. In this strategy, you pay for each click on your ad. The cost per click depends on the keyword that is used in the search query in which you want your ad to appear.
The benefit of using PPC:
- Low cost entry point. Relatively inexpensive
- Effectively target potential customers
- Flexible. Can change your ads whenever you want
- Delivers results
- High ROI
6. Email marketing
It is a great way to reach your audience directly. Email marketing has many advantages over other forms of marketing. It’s very specific and targeted. You can send out just the right message to your target audience and measure your campaign’s success by looking at the open rates, link clicks, and other statistics available on every email marketing platform.
Here are some tips on launching a successful email marketing campaign:
- A lot depends on a subject line – make it catchy, engaging, and benefit-rich
- Avoid jargon in your email copy – write in plain, persuasive language
- Break up text so it’s easy to scan – use bullets and subheading
- Talk about the benefits you’re going to offer
- Optimize emails for mobile devices
- Include a professional email signature
7. Affiliate marketing
It is a great way to promote products and services online, but it can also be an effective way to generate sales for your own products and services. It is a cost-effective way to get traffic to your website or landing page. And if you want to increase your sales, affiliate marketing should be at the top of your list. If you already have a product or service that you want to sell, there are affiliate networks out there specifically for people with their own offerings. You can create campaigns and links that send traffic to the offers on those networks. When someone buys something through your link, you get a commission.
Affiliate recruitment is a time-consuming task that can be made simpler with the help of affiliate recruitment software. Tools like these make it easy to find and recruit relevant affiliates to your brand and products.
8. Content marketing
It refers to a wide range of marketing techniques, but it is most simply defined as creating and sharing valuable or entertaining content consistently. Content includes blogs, infographics, videos, photos, and social media posts. To create effective content, you’ll need to identify your target audience and consider what they want to see from you. Then, you’ll want to think about how you can provide them with information or entertainment that will be valuable to them.
Benefits of Content Marketing:
- Highly effective and long-lasting results
- Helpful to create buzz for your start-up
- Cost-effective compared to paid ads
- Helps build trust & authority for your brand
There are many more places you can market your start-up online. It’s important to evaluate them based on your target audience. As you go about working on your start-up’s digital marketing strategy, keep the following in mind:
- Know your customer
- Write unique content
- Optimize and test
- Use paid ads
- Don’t neglect mobile
- Measure and analyze your results
- Develop an editorial calendar
- Test and measure your SEO efforts
- Share value through social media
- Create compelling videos
Conclusion
Trying to get your name out there as an entrepreneur can be daunting, and it’s always best to have a plan before you launch.
Knowing what digital marketing strategy is right for your start-up company is crucial. Choosing one of the many tactics described above can be challenging, as you will want to analyze your specific target market and their online behaviors and preferences.
As we said before, it’s important to be strategic and plan your digital marketing activities to achieve maximum results. While this might seem like a lot of work at the beginning, once you get the ball rolling, it will be easier to keep things running smoothly. It all begins with looking for a digital marketing partner with the right expertise and experience.
