The first year is critical for the long-term success of your startup. Finding customers for your budding business is an uphill battle without a solid startup marketing plan.
If you’re new to the world of digital marketing, all the strategies like PPC ads, influencer marketing, and SEM may seem overwhelming. That’s not just because of the complexities associated with these strategies but also the eye-popping expenses
1. Use social networks your target audience prefer
Establishing a social media presence is a must-have strategy for marketing your startup. According to statistics, the Millennial market is 247% more likely to be influenced by blogs and social media pages than other content marketing channels.
Social media is the perfect place to win the trust of new customers, especially those who have never heard of your brand before. Not to mention that well-planned social media marketing campaigns can produce quick wins—able to generate exposure and interest in your brand from day one.
Make your social media marketing efforts count by targeting the platforms preferred by your target audience. For example, if your startup targets the B2B audience, create a professional profile and business page on LinkedIn. If you’re promoting your graphic design skills, show off your best designs on Instagram.
Observing your top competitors is a surefire way to determine the best social media platforms for your startup. Simply answer the question: Which social network do your top competitors get the most followers, likes, and comments from?
2. Use short-form videos to spur engagement
Speaking of social media marketing, short-form videos currently dominate as the most sought-after social media content today. These are clips up to 60 seconds long and typically published on social networks like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Statistics show that short-form video has the highest ROI out of all social media marketing strategies. Despite their immense marketing potential, short-form videos are incredibly cheap to make.
All you need is any modern smartphone with high-resolution video recording capabilities. Social media networks like TikTok and Instagram have you covered software-wise.
Some of the video editing features these networks provide are:
- Survey and poll stickers
- Video filters
- Video trimming
- Playback speed adjustments
- Voiceovers
- Background music
- Text overlays
In addition, short-form video platforms include marketing features that can supercharge your content’s discoverability. You can get discovered through trending challenges, video effects, and popular hashtags for Instagram Reels and TikTok posts.
3. Launch a company blog to generate organic traffic
You knew this was coming—and it’s about time to take blogging seriously. Social media marketing can provide you with quick exposure and sales. But if you want sustainable, long-term results for your startup, building a company blog is the way to go.
Writing top-notch content will build your credibility as an information source. You can also focus on “link magnets” that get natural, high-quality links over time.
These backlinks play a crucial role in generating referral traffic and increasing your search engine rankings. And once you reach Google’s first page, you’re in a position to get hundreds—if not thousands—of free organic traffic over time.
Some examples of cost-effective lead magnets are:
- Skyscraper content (content that’s a better version of an existing, high-ranking post)
- Industry reports
- Infographics
- Surveys
- Statistics listicles
- News articles
4. Leverage content syndication to widen your reach
Squeeze the most value out of your content by re-publishing posts on content syndication sites, like Medium, Scoop.it, and LinkedIn articles. You can also use niche-specific content syndication sites to promote your startup.
Content syndication increases your brand’s reach and authority, especially if you re-publish on sites with a large audience base. Re-published posts and your author page on content syndication sites may also include a link to your website.
This will help you gain more referral traffic and boost your overall search engine rankings. Lastly, don’t worry about duplicate content penalties with content syndication. With proper link canonicalization, you can point Google to the URL of the original post.
5. Submit guest blog posts to establish your expertise
Similar to content syndication, guest blogging also involves publishing content on other sites. The difference is content submissions on guest blogging sites must be original.
Search for websites that accept guest posts with a simple search query. Just type in a relevant keyword and add “footprints” like:
- [Keyword] + “guest post by”
- [Keyword] + “submit guest post”
- [Keyword] + “write for us”
Once you find such sites, remember to read their guest post guidelines and ensure your content style fits their readers well.
6. Outsource experts to fill skill gaps
Rather than hiring a full-time marketing team, outsourcing a fractional chief marketing officer, contractors and on-demand service providers is a much more cost-effective way to scale your marketing.
For example, you can hire SEO writers to keep your content production in full swing as you focus on other aspects of your startup. If you need graphics for social media posts, you can hire a freelance designer for cheap.
You don’t have to worry about utility expenses, monthly salaries, and taxes. You need to manage their productivity well with marketing project management platforms like Monday.com, Trello, and ClickUp. These project management platforms let you visually manage tasks, share feedback, set deadlines, and communicate with your outsourced team.
The flexibility of project management platforms is virtually endless, so be sure to check out other Monday.com alternatives to find a platform that suits your needs.
7. Prioritize marketing channels that work
In startup marketing, not all content pieces are winners. That’s why you need to implement a content performance tracking system to figure out which strategies work best for your startup.
Google Analytics, for example, tracks your top traffic sources—be it social media, direct traffic, or search. It also identifies your top-performing content pieces, allowing you to prioritize marketing strategies that are proven to get results.
Conclusion
Startup marketing is crucial to the long-term success of your business. It’s not easy, but it’s more than doable with some resilience, focus, and the right guidance. Use the strategies above to position your thriving startup for big, sustainable results.
