Launching a business is exhilarating and without digital marketing ideas it can be a nightmare, a recent blog at Forbes states that virtually every Forbes Global 2000 company has faced digital transformation, some got it right but the majority had to struggle. Many of tech startups fail just because they lack knowledge about digital marketing or do not have sufficient budget for it, whereas companies like Amazon are spending billions of dollars on digital marketing every year and generating noticeable revenue out of it. Yes! you read it right “billions of dollars” every year on digital marketing.
So if you are not prepared for suitably marketing it with intuitive digital marketing ideas, you might feel daunting in doing this task. Your digital marketing idea for your startup should be to grab as much attention as possible to make it viable. Nevertheless, you may be building your startup from scratch or it is an advanced one, you need digital marketing ideas for your startup. Create a mission statement, identify your audience, promote, etc., you probably have heard this advice a million times. But there’s definitely more to it than that. Your startup really needs some good digital marketing ideas that will help you stay ahead of the competitors and bring more customers.
So, without doing further ado, let’s dive in and see how digital marketing can help you grow.
Plan what could be right for your startup
Digital marketing is not a small world to explore. So you might get confused while choosing the best possible means that could be suitable for your startup. Not every digital platform is for your startup and gathering analytics about your potential customer online behavior can be a tricky thing. Thus, if you think it’s not your cup of tea, you should simply type “digital marketing company near me” in Google search bar and hit enter. The result, i.e. a digital marketing company which appears on the top of Google search results would be the most credible one even in Google’s eyes. This company will be able to do an effective market research required and create a strategy that is apt for your business success.
Leverage the power of content marketing
Content marketing is the most neglected assets during the launch of any startup. Most of the startups fail to understand the importance of content. It is important for them to understand that content marketing is a platform which will tell the context of your brand to the digital world.
Content is not just text anymore. It is a mix of videos, graphics, animations, presentations and documents etc,. So, build a brand story with all these types of contents and explain interactively to your potential customers that what your startup is all about and why they should place an order with you?
You can write the content of your own if you have technical people on board who knows basics of digital marketing, Since there are many free online tools available in marketing to do this job without spending a fortune. For example, Canva is most widely used tool to create striking creatives for your online posts. You can even hire a freelancer to do this job at a very cheap price on websites like Freelancers and Upwork.
Utilize all marketing foundations
With this, I mean try and analyze everything. Be it on-page, off-page SEO, social media, paid advertising, product branding, content marketing, you should use all the marketing foundations. You can ride this buzz from a trending topic by creating a video or blog post. Make sure you are not overlooking any marketing foundation, big or small.
Did I forgot to mention importance of online PR Websites? don’t underestimate the power of press release websites, as they can get you good traffic. If you know some influential bloggers then do share your product with them. As they can better review and provide you quality content which will soon become an asset for your startup.
Digital marketing ideas for social media
Social media is an easy platform to market your startup. And out of the all digital marketing ideas for startups, this is the most invaluable one. According to Statista, by 2022, there will be around 370.77 million social media users in India. This figure is almost double the 196.02 million figure last year. So, it should be a medium for your startup to interact and engage with existing and future customers.
The best way to keep your customers engaged is by inviting them to join your company or product page. And once they join, set an auto-responder to connect directly with them. Apart from an auto-responder, there are many other features and tools on social media that help businesses connect with new customers right away. You can also increase your social media engagement with various activities. These activities can be sharing some regular posts about your startup endeavors, creating relevant groups and inviting your prospective customers to join in the discussion. Most noteworthy one is to respond to questions and comments on social media.
Hence, you should reply to even negative responses. Because if left unaddressable, it can damage your brand’s reputation. This will also lead to decline in product sales and your startup success as well. The simplest way to manage negative comments is to use a 24/7 moderation service. This moderation service has trained human moderators on your behalf to spot the dangers quickly. Whether that is hiding the content or blocking the account, a good social media risk management will help you stay aware and get involved quickly when you need to.
Note: If needed boost a post on your Facebook business page to reach just the right niche audience. Because, it can turn out to be a smart, strategic and budget-conscious way to maximize your reach.
Build your online presence and credibility
Online presence and credibility is the must for your sustainability. So to build both, you need a sophisticated and well-designed website with relevant images. This will help improve your startup visibility not just as an informative one. But multi-functional one. Additionally, you will need to have a blog, a Facebook account, business profiles on popular social media portals like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram etc. You can also try sharing your expertise on Quora. It’s because this platform has thousands of budding entrepreneurs who look questions for the pros to answer. This cost-effective way will ensure that your startup small budget does not refrain you from carving its own niche.
Focus on your targeted customers
Don’t reach out to anyone out excitement. You should only focus on the targeted audience segment that is more likely to give you more business. Therefore, narrow down your market according to your niche. This will help spread your message to the relevant audience, which ultimately meets your intended goals. You can segment your audience on the basis of age, demographics, gender, region, etc.
Think about your customers first
After you’ve segmented your audience, you need to choose the ones against which you’ll be directing your marketing resources. As it can be the segment with the biggest potential for growth. So before you begin, you need to see that your present available strengths should be in place to succeed in that segment. And then you must identify your target segment needs with your strengths to make more informed choices. You also need to conceptualize and execute a successful positioning strategy. This way you can come out with a positioning that’s unique and ownable over a long-term. But, always remember to keep your target audience in mind before you start with anything. Be only aware of our key point of differentiation and the competitive picture in which you operate.
Follow the 80/20 principle
You don’t need to spread out very thin just to maximize your revenues. Even a few of the marketing activities can help you reap high returns. So first figure out your current digital marketing ideas & activities and then focus on the effectiveness of different channels. The channels which drive the majority of customer engagement, online leads or sales. This will help you invest in the channels that are more impactful than the others. Be it SEO, SMM or SEM, this principle will help you focus on what is more important. Hence, 80/20 rule is one of the useful digital marketing ideas for startups to think differently about improving their growth.
Use the best conversion marketing tools
Some digital marketing tools are definitely worth if you want a success for your startup. Below is a list of some free tools that are useful in the implementation of the given digital marketing ideas for startups.
Google Analytics: It is undeniably the world’s most recognized free web analytics service. It will record about everything, from the moment your website goes live.
Keyword Planner: This is a more precise version of a combination of the Google AdWords Estimator tool and Keyword tool. It helps focus on keywords traffic volume, competitiveness and creating a combination of new keywords.
SimilarWeb: It is an online digital intelligence marketing tool that gives a quick overview of the site’s ranking, reach and user engagement.
SEMrush, Boomerang, Canva and Hotjar, Rapportive, SimplyMeasured are some other marketing tools that can considerably improve your marketing capabilities and productivity of your startup.
Test and iterate
It is impossible to get everything perfect on the first shot. And this is where test and iteration come into play. For this, you need to keep two things in mind. First is setting up analytical tools and second is measuring against benchmarks. Considering the first one, you should use the Google Analytics tool, which I’ve already discussed in the above point. It will show you the basics, and by the time you’ll become the master in understanding the complicated behind the schemes mechanics of it. While measuring the benchmarks needs comparing your core metrics each week to the week before. Because if you can’t measure, you can’t manage. Don’t just measure the metrics or data, but also act on it.
Also read: Obsolete digital marketing strategies that you should get rid of