Startups face many challenges, but nearly all of them stem from a lack of resources. There just isn’t the money to do everything you’d like to when you’re a brand new business.
Digital marketing is one of those areas that can leave startup owners feeling bewildered – with only a little time and money available, what should they be focusing their energies on? Here are a few essential tips for startups, to help you get the best bang for their buck when marketing online.
Establishing a strategy
You can’t do anything and do it well unless you have a proper marketing strategy in place. It’s well worth setting aside the time to ask yourself some vital questions:
- Who is your target market?
- What is your ideal customer persona?
- What are your USPs as a brand?
- What do you want to inspire people to do with your campaigns?
- What do you want digital marketing to achieve for your brand – more visits to your website, sales, awareness, subscriptions or something else?
Set yourself some achievable goals for your digital campaigns and figure out a way to track them. Now you can get started.
Perfect your website
Every other part of your online presence will point to your website, so make sure it’s on point. It needs to look good, be user-friendly, have logical navigation and load quickly. It should accurately represent your brand and make a statement about who you are. Crucially for your goals, it should funnel the visitor down a particular route – i.e. take them seamlessly from clicking on a product all the way through to making a purchase.
Streamline your social
Setting up and managing profiles on every single social network will take up so much of your time that every other part of your business will suffer. Instead, focus your energies on establishing a strong, engaging presence on just one or two social media platforms. Create an informative, dynamic profile and use scheduling tools to manage the content you post, but be ready to respond if a customer engages with the brand. Bytestart, the small business portal, has lots of handy tips for small businesses starting up on social media for the first time.
Plan your first campaign
Start with just one key campaign and execute it perfectly. For example, a campaign to mark the launch of your brand. You can then synchronise the content and branding across all the platforms you’ve set up to create one loud, clear message – your brand is here. If you’re happy with the social, set up an email subscriber list and make a strong email marketing campaign your next big goal.
If you’re just starting out, what have been your biggest digital marketing challenges so far? For those further down the road, please feel free to share what you’ve learned about social and online marketing success as a now-established startup.
