If you travel back a couple of years to the first wave of digital transformation, you’ll see that start-ups led the way to the path we are walking on creative agency.
So, it will not be presumptuous to say that start-ups possess the power to bring about a radical change.
But, what happens when these start-ups face digital challenges upon entry?
In fact, are there any start-ups that have crashed and burned due to negligence?
Yes!
The critical areas of focus, as start-ups, are attaining generous funding, pitching their product or service to a variety of people, and climbing to the top with the others. Amidst these KRAs, digital marketing seems to take a back seat.
Here’s something that’ll prove my point!
According to a report by Statista, start-ups do not spend enough time enhancing their digital marketing strategies. Such negligence could result in poor marketing, causing the crash. Not only digital marketing but web design and SEO packages also seem to take a hit.
Given that Digital Darwinism is already making businesses run around the arena headless chickens, not investing in your digital marketing strategies could be the last thing – actually, I’d say it shouldn’t be a thing! Because at the end of the day, investing in your web design and SEO is the right way to invite organic traffic to your website.
But the question remains, How should you, as start-ups, define your digital marketing strategy? And which channel should you focus on?
Here’s a cheat-sheet!
To define your digital marketing strategy, you must first determine the buyers’ persona! It’s not as tricky as it sounds, believe me!
The buyers’ persona is a fictional character that contains all the desirable details of the perfect buyer for your product or service. Everything from location, gender, likes-and-dislikes, and much other information combine to form the persona.
Now, the buyers’ persona acts as a guide for all your digital marketing strategies. It also serves as an unpaid consultant to help you identify and solve queries a lot faster.
Through the hypothetical persona you’ve created, you’ll identify your targeted niche’s major digital channels. And that is your chance to decide the digital marketing channels.
Read on to get a detailed insight into the various digital channels for start-ups!
1) Social Media Marketing
You have to agree when I say that Social Media is mushrooming to be a multi-faceted platform.
You’ve got the option to network, pitch, advertise, and share & receive information via each of these platforms.
It is now the rule of thumb that parallel to having a website representing your brand, having a social media presence is of utmost importance. These platforms allow you to establish a personal relationship with your niche without reaching out to them personally.
So, out of the billions of people scrolling through posts and making multiple transactions, an appearance of your posts will transform your prospective buyers through the funnel.
But, the question that arises is;
What is the right social media mix for your startup?
The answer to this lies in the constitution of your business. Depending upon the niche that your wish to serve and their availability on each platform, you create the mix.
Let’s assume you’re a B2B IT service startup; then your niches will be majorly on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
That doesn’t mean you don’t utilize the power of Instagram and other social media platforms. The idea is to divide your resources into rational percentages amongst the platforms.
In addition to setting S-M-A-R-T goals for your business, you must also try to strike a balance between paid social media marketing and organic (unpaid).
2) Search Engine Optimization
I’ll let you in on a secret here – SEO is the crux of digital marketing! But it can never function alone effectively, not unless web design and SEO packages are paired together.
As startups, rational and strict spending of money is a given! And for that reason, SEO is your friend for that duration and the time after that.
Getting in business is a tricky subject, given that there is a better solution popping-in over-night! But you can always ace on the SERPs to invite more business your way.
In an ideal set-up, crawlers (or bots) crawl, index, and help your website rank on the SERPs. But given that it is the era of Digital Darwinism, attempting to run ahead of the search engine should be your way to rank. So, there are a plethora of optimization processes that you must follow to have your gain rank on the SERPs.
3) Email Marketing
A large number of users trust emails to carry-out professionals conversations. And marketers have found it to be a potent form of content marketing. But, more often than not, emails are left unread or redirected to the spam folder.
If you’re sending out mass emails to your Rolodex, you’ve got a problem!
Because it is the era of personalization!
As a part of email marketing, segmenting your customers based on the buyers’ persona, their position in the sales funnel, and their frequency in making purchases will allow you to ace your content marketing game!
Pro Tip: Sometimes, customers may shift through groups due to changing income levels or external factors. And as vigilant marketers, you must be quick to identify the shift.
4) Content Marketing
Believe it or not, content marketing is the way to up your SEO game and invite more traffic on your website and store. Curating a content strategy will allow you to carefully distribute the content where it penetrates through to your niches effortlessly. 90% of organizations use content marketing as a way of generating leads and increasing their sales. Content marketing along with web design and SEO packages is perhaps an effective way to marketing your products and services.
While curating a content strategy, you must include the content that will go out on your social media handle. Since digital marketing has camouflaged the line of demarcation between various activities, embracing the change is the only way to market your products efficiently.
5) The Perfect Combination!
As startups, it is challenging to set aside money for all the business operations. And sometimes, we have to bear the brunt of opportunity cost. But, given that the digital era has introduced a plethora of pocket-friendly solutions to help you plot your digital marketing strategy.
Wrapping-up!
Through this blog, I’ve tried to enlist the basics of creating a digital marketing strategy because it is sometimes essential to begin from the basics than shooting for the stars. We have also laid emphasis on web design and SEO packages because your website is incomplete without these strategies. You can always explore the various options that digital marketing provides or just make your own rules!