Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. Please read our disclosure for more info.
Last Updated on September 25, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
Starting a business is by no means an easy task and entrepreneurs quickly learn that every dollar matters. Developing and maintaining a brand means you have to compete with thousands of other businesses who have dedicated budgets for advertising and are already bombarding consumers with their marketing messages. Competing with such companies can be a tricky business, but it is by no means impossible.
Fortunately, digital marketing is far cheaper than traditional, real word advertising and gives startups and small business a fighting chance against even the largest of competitors. That said, let’s go over five different marketing tips you can use to grow your startup and turn it into a real business.
In This Post:
Focus on your target audience
It’s a fairly common occurrence for startups to get overly excited about their products and services and try to reach as many people as possible. Doing may result in your message reaching a larger audience, but this does not mean that your products and services are actually relevant to all those people. A far better and more efficient move is to segment your target customers based on factors such as age, gender, physical location, etc. This allows you to specifically target people who are likely to engage your brand and convert into paying customers.
Use graphic and video content
Text is an excellent medium for marketing, as it can be fitted with targeted keywords that drive traffic to your website. However, the average customer engagement duration is becoming increasingly shorter, which is why marketers have started using graphic content, such as images, infographics, videos and even live streaming. Facebook has recently reported that their live videos are watched three times longer when compared to their regular video content. You can use live streaming to engage your customers, showcase a new product or a service or simply to keep your followers updated on the latest news regarding your business.
Personalized social media advertising is an important part of any well thought-out marketing strategy. Whether it’s something simple such as using customer’s first name when talking to them or something more complex, like targeting specific individuals working for a certain company that you would like to sell your products and services to using LinkedIn and Facebook ads. Social media websites have significantly improved their marketing platforms over the last couple of years, allowing marketers to be awfully specific regarding who gets to see your ads.
Set a proper e-mail campaign
Some marketers avoid using e-mail marketing due to the rapid expansion of various social media platforms. However, what they fail to realize is that every single person using a social media had to create their account using an e-mail address. This means that all those people using social media have active e-mail accounts which can be used to engage them with content, guides, news and even product promotions. The most important aspect of a successful e-mail marketing strategy is to avoid harassing your audience to buy your products and services. Instead, you should focus on engaging them with informative content that provides them with insights that align with their personal interests.
Don’t forget about SEO
SEO or search engine optimization is the practice of tweaking content, as well as various website and page elements in order to appear at the top of the search engine results page. The reason businesses use SEO is fairly simple: people use search engines all the time, whether it’s to look up a piece of information, do a little research on a specific product or find the nearest coffee shop.
SEO allows small business to rank their pages at the very top of the results for a specific search query and drive much-needed traffic to their website. However, a poorly executed SEO campaign can result in your website getting demoted, or ever worse, completely removed from the search results. If you have little to no practical knowledge regarding website optimization, search engine optimisation experts recommend that you avoid doing it by yourself at all costs and instead, hire a professional company to do it for you.
These five tips are just a part of a larger digital marketing scheme every startup should incorporate into their advertising efforts. There are more tips available online and the majority of them is fairly simple to implement. However, there are some techniques that require some degree of knowledge in order to be implemented properly. Be careful, don’t rush anything and don’t be afraid to call in the professional if you start experiencing any difficulties. It’s better to admit that you’re in over your head than it is to risk targeting a wrong audience or getting your website removed from the search engines.
Great post. While B2B social media is not a direct sales tool (and shouldn’t be used as such), it can be a valuable touch point in your prospect’s journey. It’s important to make sure all your internal teams are on the same page (& working towards the same goals). Work together to create an integrated strategy that helps moves the needle and nurtures prospects toward a conversion.