There are so many benefits to running your own successful startup, from being your own boss to making your own money. However, actually making your business successful in the first place won’t be an easy thing to accomplish.
You will inevitably face trials, tribulations, and challenges along the way, particularly if you’re shouldering the responsibility alone.
To help you avoid common pitfalls, here are some key things you need to know about startup marketing that will get you off the ground.
Where to start with startup marketing
Before you begin setting up your business in earnest, it’s important to build a good foundation. Here’s how to do just that.
1. Choose the right market
Your first port of call should be to figure out who exactly will want your product. Remember that not everyone is going to be interested in what you have to offer. As such, you’ll need to pinpoint more specific demographics and direct your marketing efforts at them.
Attempt to appeal to everybody, and chances are you’ll catch the attention of very few people. Prove to your ideal customers that they are your top priority by doing your research. Figure out where you can find them, how much money they have, and what problems they have that you can help solve.
2. Set realistic goals
In order to keep yourself on track, it will be necessary for you to set performance targets. These can include how much money you want to make each quarter, how much talent you want to hire within six months, or how many clients you would ideally like to have on your books after the first year.
However, knowing how to make your goals realistic can be a challenge in itself, especially if you’ve never run a business before. It can be difficult to know what to expect. As such, you’ll have to carry out regular reviews and potentially adjust the goalposts as you come to understand more about your business.
3. Set a budget
As well as setting goals, you’ll also have to set out a clear budget. Calculate how much you’ll need to spend to get your business up and running, and figure out how much your overheads are going to cost you.
Then, build a budget that you can stick to, making sure that your marketing spend does not exceed that budget. And, if possible, try to keep some additional funds behind you. You never know when you might need a safety net, to help you avoid having to restructure further down the line.
The best budget marketing tools
Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot left in your budget to invest in marketing for your startup, because some of the most successful marketing strategies require an investment of time rather than money.
1. Social media
Marketing blogger Antoine Bechara says, “Social media marketing can be a godsend for startups because people from all demographics are on at least one platform. With the right approach to posting and engaging with other users, you should be able to corner your target market.”
Just make sure you choose the platform that will resonate most with your demographic, whether that be Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, and you could up your leads by the thousands.
2. Content writing
Ideally, content should form a somewhat significant portion of your marketing strategy. For one thing, content in the form of blog posts, articles, as well as audiovisual content is very often free or cheap to produce.
In addition, content plays an absolutely crucial role in SEO. With keyword-optimised writing posted to your website and other platforms, you’re likely to bring in far more leads from Google than you would by simply uploading product ranges and throwing money at advertising.
Plus, you can offer your prospects value with your engaging, informative content, which will help to strengthen the positive association they have with your brand.
3. Public relations
Better known as PR, public relations can be a highly effective way of boosting your brand’s profile and managing people’s opinions of it. And, while there may be fees attached to getting your business in industry-leading publications, it is also possible to find journalists and platforms that will promote you for free.
Just take your time to figure out an action plan. Find the publications that your audience respond best to, and do what you can to get featured on their websites.
