Are you starting a business with an idea? But did you know that 90% of Indian startups shut down within 5 years after their first few years of operation? You are mistaken if you believe that they stopped operating because they ran out of money or fresh ideas.
Due to a lack of originality, creativity, and experience, many well-funded firms with original concepts have failed in the past. Examples of this include AskMe.com, Auto Raja, Cab Auto, and FrankleMe.
To build your startup and make it stable and lucrative, you need more than just a fantastic, original idea, a team, and resources. To expand it, you need to increase sales, revenues, and customers. Startup marketing can help with this.
Marketing for startups is an entirely new science. You must pick the best marketing channels, integrate them, and develop an unbeatable plan. The same old standard marketing techniques don’t always work.
The internet and smartphones are prevalent in today’s world. According to current figures, 270 million Indians access the internet, and 374 million individuals own smartphones. Additionally, marketing has evolved over time. Businesses of all sizes, from corporations to start-ups, rely on digital marketing to expand their markets and clientele.
You can employ a variety of digital marketing platforms for your firm. However, not all digital marketing tactics are created equal and yield the same profits. While some digital marketing techniques produce fantastic results, some don’t.
In order to achieve optimum results, you need to pick the appropriate digital marketing methods for your startup. The best strategy for your firm will depend on a variety of criteria, including your target market and niche.
However, I’ll outline ten digital marketing tactics in this book that you may utilize to expand your startup. You’ll be well-informed about digital marketing tactics that can help your firm flourish.
Use of Social Media
One of the most effective strategies to promote your startup and attract clients is through social media marketing. It is among the best low-cost marketing strategies you may employ for your company.
If you know how to use social media marketing for your company, it can help your startup grow into a successful brand.
Social media networks abound, but you must pick the best ones for your business promotion. Several well-liked platforms are listed below:
- Facebook – With more than 2 billion members, Facebook is the most widely used social media site. Facebook can be used to advertise practically any kind of product or niche. It is the least expensive social media channel for business promotion. However, several aspects, such as the targeted country, the specialty, the ad kind, etc., affect the actual cost. However, it costs me roughly 4 INR to reach 1000 people, whereas our client’s campaigns have an average CPC of 1.4 INR.
- Twitter – Twitter can help your startup expand. Although it may also be used by B2C enterprises, it is the greatest platform for B2-B firms. It is more pricey than Facebook, though. However, it enables you to run numerous ad types for distinct goals.
- Instagram – If you are in the modeling, fashion, beauty, fitness, or photography industries, Instagram is the greatest platform for you. Although Instagram may be the greatest option for such niches, it may also be used for any other specialty business.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking site. It is ideal for b2b firms because of this. Try LinkedIn if you’ve just started a business-to-business venture.
- Snapchat: If you want to target young people or are in the fashion, beauty, or health industries, Snapchat is the greatest platform.
Best Practices For Social Media Marketing Success
- Fill up all of the information, logos, and images on your social media profiles and pages.
- Regularly publish informative information and interact with your audience through polls, Q&A, etc.
- Join groups in your niche to naturally reach more people.
- Target the appropriate demographic
- Offer free eBooks, trials, studies, demos, and other such items to get people to subscribe to your email list.
- Respond to every message and comment that is made.
- Utilize pixels to retarget potential customers and turn them into paying clients.
Even if they produce the same things, every company is distinct and diverse. Because of this, there is no assurance that you will experience the same level of success on social media as another business.
To succeed with social media marketing, you must create a social media strategy. You may establish a solid social media strategy for your startup and improve your campaigns with the aid of a professional social media marketing company.
Email Marketing
One of the most crucial and cost-efficient methods for accelerating startup growth is email marketing. Email marketing has the highest ROI (Return-On-Investment), which is about 40 times, according to a study. It means that for every 1 rupee you invest, you will receive a return of 40 rupee. However, failing to use email marketing means you are losing out on customers.
Email marketing is not a common startup emphasis. But one of the few marketing strategies that you may begin using before launching your actual product or business is email marketing.
For your startup, consider these email marketing suggestions:
- Use the coming soon or launching soon template on your website and collect the emails of interested users to let them know when your startup (or product) launches.
- Promote beta testing for your tools or goods while growing your email list.
- To increase the size of your email list, provide a free trial, demo, report, pdf, or ebook.
Best Practices For Email Marketing Success
- Increase your email open rate by using titles that are appealing, catchy, and compelling.
- Keep your email brief and basic in language.
- To make the text more readable, divide it into manageable paragraphs and add subheadings and bullets.
- Describe the advantages of your offer. And explain how it can benefit them. Don’t attempt to sell them straight up.
- To increase conversions, create funnels.
- Share relevant information with your email subscribers to keep them interested in your communications. However, avoid sending too many emails. In a week, 2-3 emails are plenty.
Search Engine Marketing
One of the best digital marketing techniques for your firm to see quick results is SEM (Search Engine Marketing). For your startup, you can use search engine advertising to increase awareness and sales.
Here’s how to get your advertisements to appear on search engines like Google:
- Major advantages of search engine marketing include:
- You can expect immediate outcomes.
- Your intended audience is simple to reach.
- High return on investment; you only pay if someone clicks on your advertisement.
- You can start with a low budget, such as $10 per day, and stop at any moment.
- To enhance your SEM campaigns and other marketing initiatives, you will have complete data and insights.
Guidelines For Success With SEM
- Make an excellent landing page with distinct call-to-actions.
- To avoid overcharging, pick the proper keywords to target and set a budget and bid cap.
- Using Google Pixel for SEM retargeting advertisements can quickly deplete your budget. To execute effective SEM campaigns and obtain the best results for your startup, you need to have some skill and experience.
Search Engine Optimization
One of the most economical marketing channels, SEO (search engine optimization) offers a higher return on investment than other types of advertising.
SEO should be a startup’s primary goal. It is the process of receiving free organic traffic from search engines. Therefore, SEO enables you to continuously bring in new clients for your startup at no expense. To generate organic traffic from search engines, you can start a blog and improve your services pages, the home page, and landing sites.
Advantages Of SEO For Your Startup
- Better ROI at a lower cost
- Long-term outcomes
- Expand your audience naturally
- Get confidence and power immediately.
Being a respected brand in SEO is a difficult game. To produce outcomes, you need expertise and experience. You can get assistance with this from an experienced SEO company.
Influencer Marketing
One of the hottest marketing strategies now being used is influencer marketing. It is a simple and affordable strategy to expand your startup.
Advantages of influencer marketing
- Your startup could receive a tonne of exposure.
- aids you in gaining credibility and clients for your beginning
- inexpensive marketing approach
- Simple to use
To market your brand, you might employ well-known influencers as well as some micro-influencers.
Content Marketing
A hugely successful startup growth strategy is content marketing. 90 percent of enterprises actively use content marketing for their operations, according to recent research by the Content Marketing Institute.
According to certain studies, content marketing produces three times as many leads as paid search. It is a more economical and successful strategy for your company.
Additionally useful are SMO and SEO. Although it can take some time to see benefits, content marketing produces results that last.
With the help of content marketing, many major companies have had phenomenal startup success, including HubSpot, Buffer, Blue Apron, Mint, and Kissmetrics.
Advantages of content marketing
- Extremely powerful and persistent effects
- Useful for generating buzz about your startup
- Cheaper than paid advertisements
- Increases your brand’s credibility and authority
YouTube Marketing
The second most used search engine in the world is YouTube. In India, YouTube has more than 265 million active users. Because of this, a lot of brands use YouTube to connect with their intended market.
However, startups do not take YouTube into account while planning their startup marketing. However, startup marketing can produce some incredible results. YouTube marketing has helped companies like Flipkart, Hyundai, Asian Paints, Pepsi, and Coupon Dunia expand their brands.
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is the best strategy if you want to drive big traffic, make a lot of purchases, and generate online buzz for your firm.
If you can produce content that has the potential to become viral, viral marketing can help you achieve success quickly.
You must develop original material (articles, explainer videos, etc.) and have a solid marketing strategy to market it.
Affiliate Marketing
Referral or Affiliate marketing is the best strategy if you want to build a sizable customer base or fan base.
Your customers become your sellers when you use referral marketing. They recommend your goods to others. A survey found that 92 percent of consumers believe in personal recommendations. Referral marketing can increase your business automatically because of this.
There are a variety of tactics you can use to get others to suggest you. However, most of the time people will suggest something to someone else.
- They are content, contented, and delighted about it.
- They are eligible for a gift.
Facebook is a good illustration of this. Users of Facebook are urged to “Invite Friends” to sign up for the social network. As a result, Facebook currently has more than two billion active users.
Top-Tier Publications Published
Last but not least, you should aim to get included in a well-known publication if you want a lot of exposure and traffic. Any well-known journal, such as Forbes, HuffPost, India Times, The Hindu, etc., can bring in a tonne of traffic and publicity for your startup.
This approach has helped I Done This (A Project Management Software; idonethis.com) expand its clientele. When they were featured on LifeHacker, they received a tonne of traffic and a tonne of new clients. These new clients contributed to the company’s continued expansion.
As a Result
There are many different methods and strategies you may use to advertise your startup. However, you must comprehend your target market, their behavior, and the nature of your industry.
Startup marketing is not impossible, but due to the restricted resources, you must be certain before taking any action. To succeed, you must think differently from others and exercise creativity. A business that specializes in startup marketing is another option.
