Powerful and Cost Effective Marketing Strategies for Startups
A bright business idea or a game-changing product is of little worth if you can't attract customers, and this is the sticking point for many startups: getting the word out before you have a solid income to spend on advertising and other marketing efforts. Even if you have funds, it is difficult to set up an effective and profitable marketing campaign if you have no business history on which to base important metrics like the value of customer acquisition and so on. Given this background, what are the best ways to market startups?
Define Your Message and Brand
Before you begin any marketing effort, you need to nail down who your target market is and how to speak to them in a way that will convert. It may be tempting to ape a competitor's approach, and so profit from the research they have already done, but in anything approaching a crowded market a unique selling point is essential if you want to stand out from the crowd. A good way to approach this is to come up with two or three angles, and set up restricted budget advertising campaigns using variations on these basic themes. By closely monitoring the results, you can determine not only the message that works to bring in visitors, but also the one that converts visitors into actual paying customers. By strictly limiting the budget, you can quickly see what works and what doesn't without losing too much money, and then scale the more successful approaches by allotting extra funds to them once the experiment is over.
Viral Marketing
This is a very effective marketing strategy which many people have got the wrong impression of. It doesn't have to mean producing videos of cute animals that get shared across social media (although this can indeed work), it's simply a way to describe creating a buzz about your product or service and to get the word out, either online or offline. Anything you can do to get people talking about your product in a positive way is desirable, and if you truly offer something of worth then your reputation and awareness will spread naturally. Consider giving out free samples or trials to prominent bloggers or trade magazines in your sector, in the hope that they'll write about your service. If they do so, you'll effectively be leveraging their own reputation for your benefit. Take care not to 'spam' prominent influencers who might take offence and spread a negative image, but a review copy of a quality product to a carefully chosen, relevant magazine or writer can be like gold dust if it's successful in sparking positive publicity.
Gain an Offline Reputation
Even if your venture is completely digital, there's a lot to be gained by marketing in the offline world. This doesn't have to mean simply advertising in local newspapers or trade journals, as person to person networking can also be vital. Try and seek out any conferences, meetings, or enthusiast societies relevant to your business, and try and join in without pushing a commercial message. If you make yourself known as an active and valuable part of the community, then the network of relationships you build up can lead to sales, positive commentary, or lucrative collaborations depending on your niche. Don't be afraid to speak to competitors, you could learn a lot off each other.
Coupon Marketing
One of the most important parts of marketing for new businesses is gaining customers, especially if one sale is likely to result in recurring business. To this end, it doesn't really matter if the first sale makes you a much of a profit, so long as it breaks even and gives you the chance to impress a new customer who will hopefully become loyal. A great way to do this is to issue discount vouchers for your service to sites like couporando.co.uk or vouchercodes.co.uk who will in turn promote your business to their own customer base, which is a powerful way of creating new business with little extra outlay or effort.
Define Your Message and Brand
Before you begin any marketing effort, you need to nail down who your target market is and how to speak to them in a way that will convert. It may be tempting to ape a competitor's approach, and so profit from the research they have already done, but in anything approaching a crowded market a unique selling point is essential if you want to stand out from the crowd. A good way to approach this is to come up with two or three angles, and set up restricted budget advertising campaigns using variations on these basic themes. By closely monitoring the results, you can determine not only the message that works to bring in visitors, but also the one that converts visitors into actual paying customers. By strictly limiting the budget, you can quickly see what works and what doesn't without losing too much money, and then scale the more successful approaches by allotting extra funds to them once the experiment is over.
Viral Marketing
This is a very effective marketing strategy which many people have got the wrong impression of. It doesn't have to mean producing videos of cute animals that get shared across social media (although this can indeed work), it's simply a way to describe creating a buzz about your product or service and to get the word out, either online or offline. Anything you can do to get people talking about your product in a positive way is desirable, and if you truly offer something of worth then your reputation and awareness will spread naturally. Consider giving out free samples or trials to prominent bloggers or trade magazines in your sector, in the hope that they'll write about your service. If they do so, you'll effectively be leveraging their own reputation for your benefit. Take care not to 'spam' prominent influencers who might take offence and spread a negative image, but a review copy of a quality product to a carefully chosen, relevant magazine or writer can be like gold dust if it's successful in sparking positive publicity.
Gain an Offline Reputation
Even if your venture is completely digital, there's a lot to be gained by marketing in the offline world. This doesn't have to mean simply advertising in local newspapers or trade journals, as person to person networking can also be vital. Try and seek out any conferences, meetings, or enthusiast societies relevant to your business, and try and join in without pushing a commercial message. If you make yourself known as an active and valuable part of the community, then the network of relationships you build up can lead to sales, positive commentary, or lucrative collaborations depending on your niche. Don't be afraid to speak to competitors, you could learn a lot off each other.
Coupon Marketing
One of the most important parts of marketing for new businesses is gaining customers, especially if one sale is likely to result in recurring business. To this end, it doesn't really matter if the first sale makes you a much of a profit, so long as it breaks even and gives you the chance to impress a new customer who will hopefully become loyal. A great way to do this is to issue discount vouchers for your service to sites like couporando.co.uk or vouchercodes.co.uk who will in turn promote your business to their own customer base, which is a powerful way of creating new business with little extra outlay or effort.
