One of the most exciting experiences is planning your own venture and seeing it come to fruition. After you have gotten it off the ground, you recognize the importance of marketing. At which point, you may begin to wonder about the best way to reach the masses, drive results in your business, make your business resonate and being wildly successful, fulfilling your dreams on a very small budget?
Consider why start-ups need to be marketed. Start-ups are designed to create solutions to problems their users face. In order to connect with the right users, those who want to utilize your services or products, you need to market personally to them.A start-up needs its own brand identity in this competitive and fast-pacedworld sooner rather than lateras slow growth can prove damaging.
Then too there is traditional marketing. You may be wondering why we recommend usingdigital marketing as opposed to traditional marketing methods. The first and most important factor at this point is cost. You are able to have a wider reach and focus on those who are most likely to use your services without spending large amounts. This targeting prevents wastage and you are able to make digital marketing work on almost any budget.
How though can digital marketing be of assistance to you? Digital marketing helps increase awareness of and positions your business and brand. You are able to build a steady stream of trafficand get the first few users. Marketing digitally also drivesonline salesandleads.
Although there are budget and possibly time constraints within a start-up, they must have a few tools or techniques that can be leveraged at a minimal cost. Here are a few of these tools and how your business cango about making use of them.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is cost-effective and provides a way to measure benefits that are for the long-term. The organic traffic (that is visitors to your site that are not directed there through paid means) and overall visibility of your site increases, the higher your SEO ranking is. A high SEO ranking builds your business’ credibility, is free branding and is able to work for you 24/7.
To increase your SEO ranking
*Design your site to be responsive (mobile friendly) and secure. This is of utmost necessity if you are engaging in e-commerce on the site.
* Make sure that all your pages are functional.
* Ensure that you use appropriate tags, headers, and descriptions. You may also want to do this so it is easier for users with special needs to make use of your site.
* Design your pages to load quickly. Pages to focus on would beyour contact page and any others which you anticipate high traffic for.
* Ensure that your site content is relevant, memorable and a talking point. That way users will talk about your site.
Content marketing – Creating and sharing materialthat stimulates interest in your products and services increases traffic, gets you more leads, and increases awareness of your brand. It also gives a good first impression and forms the basis for great relationships with potentialand current clients.
To make your content marketing more effective
*Publish relevant, informative and engaging content regularly.
* Come up with original ways to make your sales propositions.
* Start a blog, write stories, and collaborate with other publishersto publish your content and increase your market.
* Include user stories in your write-ups.
Social media marketing – Social media marketing is a very dynamic form of marketing. It can pull users in and engage them. It provides you with statistics and even detailed feedback straight from your customers in real time. It is cost-effective and helps give your start-up a voice. Not every social media platform is suited to every business or at least what you want to accomplish. Choose a platform in line with your business and your desired outcome. You can choose from Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest,Tumblr, andTwitter.
What to do on social media platforms
* Think of why someone would join your community or want to follow you and post along that line.
* Don’t be anxious to put lots of content on at once. Post your first few pieces of content and watch the feedback.
* Respond to chat in a timely manner.
* Use features such as groups and add-ons effectively.
Email marketing – Email marketing is simple. It offers a cost-effective,and personal strategy that can be tailor madeand measured. It has been proven to generate high returns on investment (ROI). Email facilitatescommunication with any size audience. Thereareabout three email user accounts for allTwitter andFacebook user accounts combined.
Getting emailmarketing started
* Choose an email marketing service provider. You could try a do-it-yourself platform. Amazon SES,Aweber, Constant Contact andMailChimp are a few.
* Set up a calendar.
*Ensure that you are not always selling. Try to make most of the emails about free services.
Growth hacking – This is an innovative, low cost and relatively new alternative to marketingtraditionally. Your sole focus will be growth and everything you do will be geared towards that.
How to go about it
* Set up referral programs.
* Go with exclusivity.
* Offer a free service or product.
* Offer something that makes your product go viral.
Get the handle on these tools and techniques and not only experience the excitement of starting right but also the exhilaration of soaring successfully.
