Startup Marketing – Cost-Effective Strategies for Rapid Growth
There is often a requirement for startups to grow quickly and deliver results for investors, who tend to reward companies that achieve milestones that validate their bets. Marketing done right not only helps achieve this growth but also serves as a major force in creating true brand recognition.
Unlike established brands, which target a prepared market with an established competence, startups must quickly pivot in response to consumer feedback and with a constant eye on user acquisition while making efficient use of resources.
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising can be a crucial part of startup marketing strategies for brand recognition, traffic and lead generation, but startup marketers must be careful not to spend money on ads with no payoff, and even timing can make a difference.
While promotion of customer-driven acquisition promotes the bottom line of the startup, as well as build customer loyalty, but also requires keen focus on customer experience and commitment to constant improvement, both of which may be obstacles for small business startups. CRM software that allows companies to track their customers’ journey and find opportunities for growth – such as Close – is an effective a tool that can overcome these obstacles.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an invaluable way for startups to showcase their products and services as well as enhance brand loyalty among audiences. Market research involving predicting demography through online reputation can assist startups in tracking probable customers. By tailoring emails to suit customer preferences, ROI can be maximised. With the increasing popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, startups can make use of a new channel for driving traffic and engagement.
Using public relations and blogging startups can raise awareness of their products and services. Thanks to clever use of marketing techniques startups can scale very quickly and do so as is appropriate for their budgets. Metrics such as key performance indicators need to be used as part of an every day operational routine to keep track of the success and failure of campaigns. This helps startups understand what works best for them.
Content Marketing
Content marketing can be a great way for startups to enhance their voice among consumers, build trust and improve their rankings in search engine results. Use content to establish yourself as an authority on your topic – as the SEO software company Moz has done by slinging education through blog posts and whiteboard videos.
Community-led growth strategies such as relying on existing community hubs to spread the word and rewarding users to share their feedback can help new startups refine their product to cater to what consumers actually want, ultimately increasing ‘stickiness’ and long-term user loyalty.
Positive press tips can lead to more social media, and sales – startups must know how to reach the right journalists.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing utilises a broad set of online interfaces to build buzz, sharing content, interacting with audience members and potentially achieving business goals such as lead generation, brand building or conversions.
This process affords businesses a keen insight into how customers feel, giving them feedback that can be used to improve products and approaches – for example, if they discover a lot of customers complaining about shipping times or product quality, they can tweak delivery logistics and quality controls to reduce those constraints on the product.
Social media marketing offers multiple advantages for businesses, one of the most important being its unparalleled reach and audience engagement, and precision advertising opportunities. Social media platforms also give businesses access to a multitude of content formats, such as blogs, photos, videos, TikTok messaging services such as Snapchat or even ephemeral messaging services like TikTok to engage with their target market on a more personal level and with greater impact.
Tracking
So what should a fast-growing startup measure? For starters, ARPU is the critical metric.
Second, marketers should keep an eye on social media metrics and begin to really understand what’s working – and what isn’t. And thirdly, marketers should – pay attention for new marketing tactics and trends; and focus upon evergreen tactics – these are the ones that have stood the test of time.
Most successful startups have exploited existing networks to promote their products: Steve Jobs and Wozniak introduced the first Apple computer to members of the technological tinkerer’s club Homebrew Computer Club; Dropbox made its file storage service an online social recommendation system through a ‘refer a friend’ campaign.