New businesses need to be marketed just as much and sometimes even more than ones that are already well established in their respective markets. In this marketing guide for start-ups, you’ll be left armed with the knowledge and know-how to get your business off the ground.
Starting a business in no easy feat though and there’s seldom time left over to think about marketing strategies and the effectiveness. If you’ve just started a company or venture and have found yourself in this situation, there’s no need to panic as there’s a plethora of tools out there that you can use and an endless wealth of knowledge available to get the job done.
You need to make a name for yourself and get that name out there and an important way to do so is using well established tools and methods that align with your own business goals.
The market
So, when you start out, you need to have a market selected as this is key to finding the right people to target your content to. You probably really love your product, company or service and quite rightly so, but there will only be a small portion of consumers who would be interested in your product. You’ll end up wasting a lot of your precious time trying to market yourself to people who just aren’t interested so it’s incredibly important to try and pinpoint who exactly you’re looking for.
When you’re looking for a target market, make keep in mind some key figures:
- The size of the market – It’s key to know how many potential customers are in your target market as this plays a huge part in the size of your efforts.
- Market Competition – Is there a lot of competition? Is the market saturated?
- Market Wealth – Does the market you’ve chosen have the money to spend on your product?
- Value Proposition – Is your value proposition unique enough to cut through the noise?
Determine your budget
The budget for marketing your start-up will be affected by several factors, including operational costs and revenue forecasts. Regardless how much money you’re able to set aside for marketing, it’s important to make sure you’re being sensible with your spending. You need to pin point and think about your goals and focus your budget on the channels that will help you spread your message and achieve your goal most efficiently.
It’s also important not to stick to the same old thing so don’t be afraid to change things up. If something isn’t working as well as you’d like, choose a different channel and rearrange your priorities.
Social Media
Social media is an invaluable tool for all companies, even start-ups, but you need to make sure you’re picking the correct one for your target market. A common mistake is to try and master every network because you’ve seen other companies do it. Whilst it may work for them, that’s not the case for everyone.
When picking your social media channel, make sure the channel you’ve chosen works well with your brand. For example, Facebook is mostly powered by existing customers who enjoy seeing visual posts whereas Twitter is powered by potential customers who respond well to link and text-based messages.
Also Read: How TikTok is changing marketing for small businesses
Demographic is another important aspect when it comes to picking your social network. Whereas networks such as Tumblr cater to younger laid-back audiences who mainly post quotes and funny pictures, networks like LinkedIn are purely professional and garner a whole separate audience.
Keywords
Search engine optimisation is one of the most important tools when trying to get your message and product out there. Keywords allow your market to find your brand using the words that are best associated with your product or service. Making sure you have a keyword list that defines the key points you want to get across increases the overall reach of your start-up and, in turn, profits.
Utilising keywords with your social media posts is a perfect partnership and enhances your overall awareness. Make sure you’re picking keywords with a high traffic whilst also providing low competition.
Create a website or blog
Marketing your start-up also includes keeping your consumer base up to date with the comings and goings of your business. An online presence is important for almost every business but it’s effectiveness is dependent on your chosen market and business industry.
Maintaining a relevant website or blog is a valuable tool that can be used to establish your start-up as a credible organisation. Keep the content fresh and consistent by creating a posting schedule that works for your audience and focus on pushing out valuable content.
Influencers
Depending on what your start-up is for, influencers can be as important as your customers. As much marketing as you can do yourself, it always helps to have people with an established community to reach out to your target audience be that by social media, television, or radio. Remember, budget is key for this and it’s good not to overspend.
Reach out to potential influencers and offer them free or discounted products or services. A mention from a high-profile individual can raise brand awareness and propel your start-up by being partnered and associated with a credible and legitimate force.
Emails
Once you’ve already got a consumer base and customers for your start-up, you can start to utilise email marketing. Email marketing is an effective way to build and maintain a relationship with your audience and ensure that they’re engaged with over time. Add options to your website, be it in a form or landing page, to collect email addresses from visitors and use that to share updates about your start-up.
Also Read: Why email newsletters are so valuable to your audience
If you want to further your relationship with your consumers, take the extra step and ask for further information. Taking details such as date of birth, interests or location can ensure that any ads or posts you push out are more personalised and relevant to them.
Our summary
Taking everything we’ve discussed into account, the best strategies use a combination of ideas and tactics. A lot of methods, such as keywords, emails and social media, can be used in conjunction with each other to make them all more successful individually.
Whilst there are a huge amount of possibilities and different ways to achieve your goals, you always need to keep your budget in mind and make sure to utilise the methods with high-impact whilst remaining cost effective.
If you need some advice, just a chat or some help in marketing your start-up then be sure to contact us to see what we can do for you!
