Digital and social media marketing campaigns are always a lot easier to plan when you have something to build on.
For start-ups looking to dip a toe into the world of online marketing, the totally blank sheet of paper you’re faced with can be overwhelming. When you’re just getting started, developing a strategy and choosing a direction to go in, as well as which tools you’ll use to achieve your goals, is definitely daunting.
It’s important to take a deep breath, don’t try to do everything at once and have realistic expectations of what you can achieve and when. It doesn’t make sense to try to copy big established brands – instead, you should be looking at businesses that are in the same position as you and see what they’re doing with their digital marketing campaigns.
Here the 5 key characteristics of successful start-up campaigns, which could well form the basis of your first digital marketing strategy:
- Get the website right first. Your website is your HQ, the base and centre of all your online marketing activities. The aim of all your work on social media and beyond is to push traffic to your website, so make sure it looks great, works properly, loads quickly, is optimised for mobile and delivers a strong message.
- Establish a social media presence. To make the best use of your time, select a handful of channels based on what your target market uses. Then, post, engage, start discussions and get involved in the social community – it’s all essential to cementing and building your online presence.
- Be relevant. All content you include on your website, social media channels and marketing emails should be relevant – this makes you relevant by association, and that’s what’ll get you noticed. Be timely, on top of the latest trends and talking points and offer your viewers, subscribers and customers content that is useful and of value to them.
- Focus on organic SEO. SEO can be pretty intimidating for start-ups, but it would be a mistake to spend thousands calling in a specialist company. Do some reading on the key concepts and develop an SEO plan, focusing on doing things organically.
- Make sure visuals are high quality. This is an example of forward-thinking, as content is increasingly moving towards the high-end visual. As long as it doesn’t compromise loading speeds on your website, incorporate images to increase your appeal, post images regularly on social media and make them the focus of email marketing campaigns. Just make sure they are relevant and always bear copyright issues in mind.
If you’ve recently started a business and are in the process of launching your first digital marketing campaigns, what advice do you have for others in the same position? What are the keys to success when developing an online marketing strategy from scratch? Please feel free to share your thoughts and experience.
