5 Marketing Strategy Tips for Startup Entrepreneurs
How to create buzz around your startup and get loyal customers
Every startup entrepreneur knows how it’s challenging to generate a unique idea that can win the hearts and minds.
But sometimes it’s not enough to create just a good product or a revolutionizing service.
Why?
Without a well-structured marketing campaign, there is a risk that your brilliant idea won’t receive enough support from your target market.
Let me walk you through some marketing strategy tips that are quite helpful for creating buzz around your one-of-a-kind startup project.
Gain free online exposure
Free publicity is what every startup definitely needs to enhance its credibility, grow organic traffic to its website, and increase sales.
If 30–50 years ago, it was more about traditional media like newspapers or TV channels, now it’s usually about getting mentions on social media.
Earning attention from a national or international publication is still important, but in the digital era, every voice matters even if it’s a short twit or a review on Google. Word of mouth still works, and social media prove that.
There is a belief that any publicity is good publicity. I disagree with that approach since it’s quite challenging to restore e-reputation. Building a community of loyal customers, fans, and influencers takes a lot of time, but their support might evaporate in the blink of an eye after a negative review provoked by poor customer experience.
So, create something exceptional in your industry, take every customer seriously, pay attention to what people say on the Internet, and positive online feedback is guaranteed.
Create effective own media channels
Creating a blog can also help a startup build a loyal community by providing insightful and useful content addressing customers’ pain points.
Owned media are also valuable marketing instruments for distributing information about your brand for free. Thousands of followers or website visitors can help you make it viral and grab the attention of traditional mass media.
Do your best to create pages with engaging content on social media where your potential clients or customers prefer to spend most of their time. If your offering services for B2B clients, then go to LinkedIn and Facebook. Have a lot of visual content — Instagram rules.
For example, LeadIQ, a startup aimed at revolutionizing the sales industry through data science, apart from a blog, has its own podcast show. This format is getting quite popular in the last several years. As we can see, the company distributes its episodes on LinkedIn as well to get the attention of business professionals.
Apart from that, own media channels are quite helpful during a crisis. They allow startups to react fast by providing its target audience with detailed and verified statements about the incident. A vacuum of information doesn’t bring any good to startups, as people tend to fill it with speculation and false information.
Take owned media seriously because they can be quite useful for the promotion and protection of your brand.
Improve your website’s Google ranking
Millions of people ask Google thousands of questions every day. It’d be a big mistake to avoid all these queries because some of them can bring you a lot of leads. Good search engine optimization can help startups acquire relevant organic traffic as well as attract prospects to their websites.
So, it’s quite essential to create a user-friendly online platform with content built around popular search queries related to the services your startup offers. Try to produce pieces reflecting your customers’ pain points.
Owned and earned media play crucial roles in improving your Google rankings by providing more opportunities for distributing the content and building valuable backlinks.
It’s quite challenging to generate inbound links to a website’s home page as it has limited information and might look promotional. But if your company produces a lot of useful blog posts like these startups helping clients manage money better, it’s easier for influencers, journalists, professionals, your followers, and customers to share or cite the pieces.
Also, don’t forget about URL optimization, alt texts, meta descriptions, mobile friendliness, page speed, domain authority, content uniqueness, and many other SEO requirements.
Initiate win-win co-branding partnerships
Building a strong partnership with a brand or an influencer is very beneficial for the startups which are taking the first steps. It’s difficult to create fast a community and attract prospects to your app or website if you’re a newbie.
The right collaboration with an established company that has a similar target market can make your life easier. It might be either a product co-development or a win-win promo campaign.
One of the best co-branding partnerships was the Uber-Spotify collaboration. In 2014, the companies launched a campaign offering a unique service to the premium users of the Swedish music app. They got a chance to synchronize the mobile platforms and customize their experience by selecting a favourable playlist during a taxi ride.
That encouraged millions of Spotify users to upgrade their subscriptions to make their Uber trips much better.
Set some measurable objectives, brainstorm breath-taking co-branding ideas, and pitch companies with a similar target market.
Get support from early adopters
Drawing the attention of a wide audience might be a difficulty for startups offering new and revolutionizing services. People don’t tend to leave their comfort zone and try something completely new.
That’s why it’s vital to win the hearts and minds of early adopters who are usually open-minded and willing to take some risk.
Start with the promotion of your products or services among opinion leaders. For example, bloggers, social media influencers, experts, or celebrities. They usually set new trends and collaborate a lot with various brands and companies.
Before reaching out to influencers, check their social media profiles, the number of followers, target market, engagement rates, and the values they promote. Nothing could be worse than the reputation spoiled by a celebrity’s racist or sexist post or behaviour.
Do some research, promote your product among opinion leaders, and enjoy mass support.
