Startup Genome estimates that the global startup industry is worth nearly 3 trillion dollars. In recent years, the startup industry has grown rapidly, increasing competition and the need for more effective, innovative and defined marketing strategies.
Marketing strategies can make startups household names. Spotify, for example, was a UK-based startup with little presence in the United States. With its innovative marketing campaign, Spotify expanded its user base beyond the UK and went global. It now has more than 100 millions users all over the world.
As a result, the majority of marketing strategies for startup companies require a larger budget because they are launching with an unknown. Marketing costs are one of the greatest challenges for startups. However, partnering with a Digital Marketing Agency in Australia can help startups optimize their budgets and achieve effective results. It is a myth that startup businesses need to incur high marketing costs in order to get their business off the ground.
1. Referral Marketing
We place blind trust in family members and friends. You may decide to believe a stranger over an unknown startup’s advertisements. We are heavily influenced, at the end of it all, by things like reviews, recommendations, and testimonials.
Through word-of mouth marketing, customers can carry out their own marketing campaigns and target a particular company.
Do you not trust us? Take a look at these facts if you don’t trust us:
- Referral Candy reports that customers who are referred tend to spend two times as much money and make 2x the number of referrals.
- Referrals can facilitate 5x as many sales as paid advertising.
- Referrals generate leads with a higher lifetime value compared to those obtained through other sources.
Referral marketing can be up to four times more successful than traditional marketing techniques, as people will purchase products when they are recommended by friends or family members.
Personal suggestions are not expensive for a business and in some cases can be free. Customer loyalty can fuel this marketing program. A company can gain the loyalty of their customers by offering them discounts, cashbacks and other bonuses. The same can be offered to existing customers who make successful referrals. Referrals are successful if the product referred is purchased by a customer.
Hawkers is an example of a company that has adopted this marketing approach. They sell sunglasses around the world. Hawkers used micro-influencers to promote their brand on social media. They launched a referral program for these influencers as well as their followers. Hawkers were able to increase their sales as a result.
2. Social Media Marketing
Every day, social networking sites are visited by billions of users worldwide. Startup companies can create accounts on social media platforms for free. This is a great opportunity for new and upcoming businesses to increase brand awareness, build their company’s presence and connect with larger businesses and similar-sized businesses.
If you are a B2C company, you will want to focus on increasing your brand’s presence on social media sites like Facebook and Insta. The company will be able to attract many customers by using these websites. If a company has a B2B model, it should focus on developing its LinkedIn presence. This social network website can help companies to increase their sales by allowing them to network.
Companies can benefit from a schedule for posting content, as this will ensure that it is posted at the best time and place. This will increase engagement.
3. SMS Marketing
Text messaging is used to promote a brand, attract existing customers, gain new ones, and increase sales. This type of marketing is primarily used for alerts, updates and time-sensitive offers about the goods and services offered by a business. This technique has the advantage of helping a business focus on and target specific customers.
In order to effectively use this technique, an organization must provide customers with new information in order to avoid repetition and attract their attention. These messages should be sent only to customers who consent to receiving them.
4. Newspaper/Magazine Features
One might think that in today’s technology-driven society, traditional media like newspaper and magazine articles are no longer relevant and do not have a place in marketing strategies for startups. Print media (newspapers and magazines) continue to be a valuable marketing tool, even though there are many new options. Marketing through print media is still a worthwhile and successful technique. News is appealing to a wide range of audiences. Today, 51% prefer printed news over digitalized news (news available on desktop computers, mobile devices, etc.).
This form of marketing involves the inclusion of advertising alongside regular editorial content. Print media has the advantage that our attention spans are longer and better when we read newspapers or magazines, compared to surfing online where it is only 8 seconds. This allows readers to absorb more information than when reading online.
5. Advertise Less Expensive Products
Owners of online businesses/e-commerce sites can benefit from advertising less expensive products in comparison to more expensive ones. This will increase traffic to their website/app. This strategy is based on the psychology of consumers. Customers are more likely to be persuaded by a costly product. When it comes to cheaper products, the main factor that influences purchasing decisions is impulse.
6. Earn Backlinks
Backlinks refer to links on external websites that lead back to your website. The reader sees them as a vote of confidence from the external site to yours. Google and other search engine rank websites better when the number of backlinks increase, as long as they are coming from reliable and recognized websites. SEO Backlink Strategy is a powerful tool to market a new business or startup. It can drive traffic and attract customers from other websites.
Guest blog posts are a great way to get backlinks. Guest blog posts are articles that have been written by an individual or company and then posted on another website/blog. You can also earn backlinks by creating skyscraper content, i.e. high-quality and link-worthy content for your website.
7. Create a GoogleMyBusiness Account
Google Business profile postings are a free and effective marketing strategy for new businesses. This is especially true in regional areas. Google will highlight the closest, most-rated and currently-open restaurants on a SERP if, for example, you search “restaurants nearby”.
If a business appears at the top, it will automatically gain more attention. In order to take advantage of this marketing technique, you must verify the ownership of your Business Profile. This can be done through a GMB Account.
8. Tag Companies/Brands on Social Media
Tag companies who have similar goals and cater to a target market similar to yours. They can also be big players in the same field. This will help you reach the target market. It also helps your business network and make it stand out from the competition. Encourage your loyal customers/followers to tag your business in their posts. This can help you market your company.
9. Use Hashtags
Remember the hashtag era of Instagram captions? Guess what? This tactic is old but still works for many reasons. Use of hashtags in your company’s posts on LinkedIn and other social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter will help increase your posts’ visibility.
Here are a few benefits of hashtags.
- They can help you create a niche and label your posts.
- You can easily find your content on the ‘for you pages’.
- They attract social media users who are specifically targeted because they focus on themes or interests.
Use of trending hashtags can help you attract more traffic to your post and reinforce your brand identity in the eyes your customers. Local businesses must use location-based hashtags. It is easy and cost-effective to promote your business by using a variety hashtags.
10. Email Marketing
Want to interact with your customers on a regular basis? Email Marketing Strategy can be the answer. Emailing consenting customers is one of the best ways to get a good return on investment. It only works if each email contains a valid incentive or offer that engages the reader.
Quality blog outreach is one way to use email marketing. In this outbound email method, you will be able to display your product in front relevant bloggers and journalists through sending them personalized emails. This process allows you to reach out to a wide audience to convince them to promote your company or product.
What Are the Best Marketing Strategies for Startups?
A startup’s success cannot be guaranteed by a single marketing technique, no matter how low-cost or expensive it is. Being able to integrate a variety of different techniques will help a new startup get closer to success.
This article aims to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune on marketing to achieve the best results. This article discussed a number of low-cost strategies that startups can use to reach their target market, and meet both short-term as well as long-term goals.