Starting your own business as an entrepreneur can be extremely challenging, but it is also one of the most gratifying experiences an individual can pursue. If you’re about to begin your journey as an entrepreneur or have already kicked off your startup, you may need to rely on the marketing efforts to grow your business in to a brand that you have always dreamt of.
However, marketing is not exactly a piece of cake, especially for the startups. And if you want to turn your startup into a successful business, you may need to make smarter decisions throughout the entire process. Perhaps, these following tips may help ease the pressure off your shoulder.
- Have a clear marketing message
Marketing efforts are basically ineffective if they don’t bear any valuable message regarding your brand. Create a message that reflects your company’s purpose and announce it boldly to everyone. Design your brand’s logo accordingly and make sure the brand message is tailored for the audience you want to pursue.
- Use social media platforms to propagate your message
Right now, everyone knows how effective social-media marketing is. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube – these are some of the favorite platforms for the marketers to engage existing customers and generate new leads. As a small-business owner, your initial objective should be to convey your brand message to the online community through various avenues.
- Know when the time is right
With time, consumers have become more selective about the brands. So it has become difficult to engage them effectively by performing the marketing activity at any given platform at a random hour.
A number of studies suggest that email marketing is effective only when it is sent to the right people at the right time. Similarly, social media marketing is also effective when the efforts are put at the right moment. Personalized content works, but the timing has to be perfect.
- Time to be smarter with content marketing
Over the past few years, content marketing has produced some enviable results for the large enterprises as well as the startups, but in order to conduct a successful content marketing campaign, the businesses need to comply with the latest trends, which tend to change every now and then.
Previously, putting right kinds of keywords in the content was enough to reach the target audience through search results, but now marketers need to prepare content that serves the user intent as well.
- Focus on video productions
Videos have been used over the years for advertising various products and services by the businesses, and their relevance has not dipped a bit in 2018. In fact, videos are gaining more popularity as a tool for content marketing than the images or blog posts.
Survey reports suggest that 55 percent of the internet users watch videos online on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, Facebook videos fetch 135 percent more organic reach than images. And the best part – you no longer need high-end equipment to shoot videos for your brand. Even mobile videos are going viral on the internet.
- Alter your marketing strategy for the mobile users
Whether it’s your company’s website, the blogs or even the emails – everything needs to be optimized for mobile users today. According to Statista, more than 62 percent of the internet users prefer mobile devices to access the internet on a daily basis. It means the social media posts, emails, blogs and other pieces of content, and even your website – all need to work seamlessly on the mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) to engage a maximum number of users.
- Try to rope in the influencers
Influential people can help you lead a successful marketing campaign if you have a proper strategy for influencer marketing. A report suggests that 90 percent of the consumers are more likely to buy a product or service if an influencer recommends it.
For a startup like yours, the influencer marketing can be quite effective in getting into the minds of the consumers in a lesser amount of time. The real struggle, however, will be to convince the influential people to speak for your brand.
- Use your capital in a smarter way:
Majority of the startups fail to make a cut in the market as they burn out all their resources before fulfilling their objectives. Since you are also running a small business on a limited amount of resources, you need to ensure that you put all the resources in the right place
Investing in something that has very slim chances of providing results may not be the wisest thing to do when your budget is limited. Keep the unconventional marketing strategies for the next stage when you clear another round of funding.
Since you are just starting out, you don’t have the luxury to make several futile attempts before earning your name in the market. All you got is one shot, and you have to make it count.
