A great deal of time and effort is necessary before your startup is ready for a solid marketing strategy. Once that’s out of the way, however, it’s time to get the word out about who you are and what you do. Here are a few tips and tricks to keep in mind when planning your startup’s marketing strategy to get the best results.
1. Research Niche SEO Techniques
Whether you decide to attempt in-house marketing or hire it out to a firm, you need to know some basics. Thankfully there are multiple ways to understand the basics of various aspects of marketing and advertising. From webinars to books to college courses, you can choose which resources would work best for your purposes.
There are certainly savings to be had by waiting to hire a marketing firm. If your intention is to initially begin a marketing campaign internally, it’s important to know what techniques are best suited toward your industry.
For example, information on search engine optimization (SEO) exists in abundance. There are certain general terms and rules that can be put into effect for nearly any startup. However, some details vary by business type. If you have a startup in the legal field, for instance, a book like Law Firm SEO might be a useful resource. In this example, Hennessey Digital has taken general SEO knowledge and focused it on a niche industry.
No matter if your startup is in healthcare, logistics, or hospitality, there are certain industry-specific nuances and standards for marketing. Knowing the differences between the fields can be immensely beneficial.
Knowledge can get you cost savings even if you engage with a marketing firm. Without having a base understanding of metrics, pricing, and success markers, you risk overpaying or settling for underwhelming results. So instead of letting a marketing firm overwhelm you with jargon, do the research to ask intelligent questions and understand the answers. It’s the first step toward being able to hold a third party accountable and ascertain if your money is being well spent.
2. Social Media Management Apps for Branding
Branding is one of those terms that seems like a privilege of established companies that can afford to be choosy. As you’re getting your startup up and running, it’s often all too tempting to take a shotgun blast approach to marketing.
In other words, you might find yourself worrying about convincing clients, any clients, to open up their wallets. And if you’re using social media to get your brand into the public eye, this can be especially problematic. As we’ve seen time and time again with the film industry, movies that try to appeal to everyone typically appeal to no one. And since social media content tends to be delivered in very small snippets, you must focus on your audience and ensnare them quickly.
And as social media has become more pivotal in branding and marketing, apps have caught up to help manage campaigns. One type that is extremely helpful is a social media management app. Some popular options include Hootsuite, Sprout (News - Alert) Social, Buffer, Loomly, and Agorapulse. Any of these apps allow you to manage multiple social media platforms and schedule content postings from one location. No longer do you need to log in to Twitter (News - Alert), FaceBook, and Instagram separately and compare your posting schedules.
Not only do these apps allow you to utilize a comprehensive dashboard for multiple platforms, but most have built-in analytics. That way, you can see how your content is performing as you adjust your strategy. Prices and plans for these management apps vary, so make sure you choose the best one for your business.
Before you throw content on social media, you need to figure out how your startup presents itself and who it should appeal to. It’s not something to figure out as you go, either. While branding can always be adjusted throughout your business’s life, you should have the basics solidified before marketing begins.
Even if you hire a marketing firm to manage your social media, you should be able to tell them certain things upon initial contact. Company values, messaging, differentiation from competitors, and vision are just a few of the categories you should have a solid grasp on. Doing so will give you and your marketing partner the focus necessary to steer your startup in the preferred direction. By using this laserlike approach, your marketing dollars can work harder toward attracting your target clientele.
3. Have Long-Term and Short-Term Tech Strategies
Certain things evolve throughout the life of a business. Branding and target markets are categories that might change more than once, and marketing needs to adapt accordingly.
For example, maybe your startup is mainly operating at a local level but has a five-year-goal for national expansion. If that is the case, you might want to consider the timeline of your marketing shift. Putting notable funding toward nationwide name recognition can be a waste if your local efforts are struggling. The trick is knowing at what time to refocus your marketing budget toward more long-term goals and having a plan in place prior to the switch.
For example, maybe your early approach to marketing focuses on local SEO techniques and regional outreach. If expansion is in your long-term plans, you should become familiar with tech tools available for this portion of your marketing and begin prepping content. That way, when you’re about to scale your business, you have the knowledge and content ready to launch.
Tech that you should become familiar with includes graphics software such as Canva and email campaign tools such as Mailchimp. And knowing how to interpret analytics is key to judging the success of your marketing endeavors. It is highly recommended to research and become comfortable with both Ahrefs and Google (News - Alert) Analytics. These tools have an enormous amount of data to interpret, so becoming familiar with them long before you need to is essential.
