Digital marketing tips for start-ups

Digital marketing to grow your start-up

By: Shannon Correira

The world’s COVID-19 induced lockdown has left its mark on businesses throughout the globe, both big and small. The pandemic seems to have dealt blow after blow on already struggling businesses, especially when international and domestic travel was shut down across the world, completely halting the opportunity for import and export, and putting the brakes on a lot of lucrative business dealings. Now, as some parts of the world begin to open up, others are facing a second lockdown and it is this inconsistency and uncertainty that has left many start-ups and small - medium sized companies fearful for the future.

According to a study by Data for Good 58% of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) have reported a reduction in sales compared to the same month last year, while 33% reported a reduced employment in response to the pandemic. The problem with start-ups and small businesses during this time is that they have limited resources to cope with the financial pressures the lockdown has imposed and the short-term impacts could have longer term impacts, however, it is not all doom and gloom.

Digital marketing offers a way for these businesses to solidify a place in their market, and this type of marketing is highly accessible to businesses of all shapes, budgets and sizes. However, when it comes to digital marketing, start-up business owners can quickly become overwhelmed with the amount of services offered by digital agencies and it is easy to become lost in the noise.

As it stands, most start-ups already use a variety of digital marketing tactics but some of these tactics are not designed to reach their specific goals - to put it simply: not all digital marketing tactics are equal. So, which digital marketing strategy should you adopt to help grow your business in the “new normal”? In this article we take a look at the most effective digital marketing best practices for start-up businesses, and unpack how you can strategically implement these tactics to increase your customer base, survive and even thrive at this difficult time.

Email marketing

Many people are under the impression that email marketing is “dead” but according to statistics released at Inbound, HubSpot’s annual marketing conference, which was held in September 2020, email marketing is on the rise. The study presented at the conference outlined the rise of email marketing between March 2020 and August 2020.

The study stated that during this period:

Email inbox activity went up by 22% B2B Open Rates went up by 16% B2C open rates went up by 25% Email newsletter open rates went up by 19% Email sign up open rates went up by a staggering 40%.

Another survey conducted by Demand Metric and the Data & Marketing Association concluded that email marketing offers an impressive 122% Return on Investment. This number is 4 times higher than the other marketing channels that were analysed in this study - and any start-up would be happy with that kind of return.

So email is far from dead, if anything, email marketing is thriving. What is important to note is that email marketing campaigns are not copy and paste jobs that can be sent out to a generic mailing list.

Every campaign requires personalisation, strategy and should be tailored to speak to the receiver in a way that suits where they are at in the buyer’s journey.

3 Tips for a successful email marketing

Subject Line: Make your subject line engaging, catchy and benefit-rich. If the subject line does not immediately grab attention, the receiver will move on to the next message in their inbox even if the main body of an email contains information they may find valuable.

Tailor your message: An important aspect of email marketing is to tailor your message and subject line to target specific segments of your leads database .The simple things make a difference, for example: avoid addressing your recipients with ’Dear All’ or another generalisation. Keep it personal, using the recipient’s name both in the Subject line and in the intro line of text. If you know the recipient’s company name, add this too but be sure to keep these inclusions within the context or your email. As it is today, marketing automation is a great method to assist marketers in sending highly targeted emails to potential clients.

Create a strong call to action: Always finish your emails off with a ‘Call to Action’, something that will prompt an action from the user. This click-through is the ultimate goal to your email marketing campaign. It gets the user to your website where they can get more information and hopefully this action ends in a purchase.

Email marketing has been around for years, and every year, it becomes smarter. It is a powerful tool that when used correctly, can reach prospects or up-sell to current customers, the perfect marketing platform for any start-up looking for a cost-effective marketing solution that offers a great return on investment.

Social media marketing

Social media is one of the most powerful and cost-effective marketing strategies available today. A Social Media Examiner report has stated that 90% of marketers confirm that social media is important for business and 89% of marketers stated that their social media campaigns have generated increased brand exposure for businesses.

What makes social media so powerful is that it can be used to target a niche audience based on a set of specific criteria including behaviours, age, gender, interests, location, income and more.

The benefits of social media for start-ups are powerful, and if implemented correctly these include:

Increased brand exposure and website traffic Quality social media content and engagement develops strong customer relationships and builds trust Can improve search rankings Generate quality leads Increase sales

So, how can you grow your startup on social media and reap the rewards?

3 Tips for successful social media marketing

Every campaign requires personalisation, strategy and should be tailored to speak to the receiver in a way that suits where they are at in the buyer’s journey.

Market research: When you are using social media marketing for your start-up, you need to have a nuanced approach and you need to conduct extensive research about your target market. Any start-up has probably already outlined their buyer persona, and now it is time to look at these personas with social media in mind. That is: where is your audience active online and what social media platforms do they engage with the most. Instead of signing up to every platform you can think of, spend your time on the platforms your customers will use the most - this saves you time and ensures your resources are put to greater use.

Quality and consistent content: Make sure your brand image and brand message is consistent across your social platforms. To build your social media authority, you need to create highquality content regularly. This does not mean that you simply post images of your products or services with a catchy caption, you need to create content that is informative, shareable and benefits your audience in one way or another.

Social media advertising: Platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn are two of the best social media platforms for lead generation as they offer specific ad options that are created for this specific purpose. The number one tip we have for start-ups that decide to use social media for lead generation would be to make sure that you do not simply “boost” your content - make sure to have direction and purpose so that you can maximise the results of your spend. Also make sure to measure and track your campaigns once they are up and running, there is a lot of data that can be derived and analysed to show your return on investment and ways to improve your future campaigns for even more return.

Social media is a cost-effective marketing strategy and if implemented and monitored correctly, will increase your sales and help your start-up grow during these trying times.

Search engine optimisation

You have created and launched your website and have worked hard on creating helpful and informative product and services pages, and now your audience will find you…

That is not how it works

There are hundreds, if not thousands of websites in your sector, so how can your new website come up at the top of the search engine results for the keywords and keyphrases related to your business? This is when Search Engine Optimisation comes into play.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is designed to increase traffic to your website and help your website rank higher in the Search Engine Results Pages. And if your page ranks higher than your competitors, you will become a major player in your industry. So, how does this work? To put it as simply as possible, you need to increase the technical quality of your website as well as the quality and volume of the content contained on your website in order to be placed at the top of the results.

What makes up SEO

Technical Quality of your Website: The main goal of technical SEO is to optimise the infrastructure of your website, making it appealing to search engines. This is done by making sure your website is indexed correctly so that search engines can access it without any issues, providing search engine «crawlers» with the right signals to understand the structure of your website, and giving search engine algorithms a reason to trust your website.

Content Quality and Volume: Google and other search engines are searching for pages that contain relevant, meaningful, helpful, and high quality information related to the searcher›s query. These search engines want to make sure they are directing a user to a website that can help them and offer them exactly what they are looking for.

3 Tips for successful search engine optimisation

Content is king: Make sure that your website content is informative, more useful and valuable than what is on your competitors sites, and is unique.

Have patience: SEO is a long-term strategy and through professional implementation, your website will begin to rise up the ranks in time. However, once your site rises up the ranks and gets ahead of your competitors, it becomes incredibly difficult for them to rise above your business if you continue to create relevant content and keep your website technically sound. This lack of instant gratification may sound frustrating for start-ups but it is absolutely worth it in the long run. There are quick ways to get to the top of the search engine results such as Pay-PerClick campaigns, but these can become expensive and only last a short amount of time. You want to make sure your spend is aimed at long-term success, not short term gratification.

Partner with a professional: SEO is not a simple process and requires technical know-how and quality content creation in order to be successful. The average customer will always turn to a search engine such as Google whenever they have an immediate requirement for a product or service or are in the process of researching their next supplier. It›s therefore important for your start-up business to be visible at the very moment a potential customer is searching for a business such as yours.

Time to build your start-up!

Building a successful start-up company is difficult, especially in the current climate. However, by investing in the right digital marketing tools, you will be able to stand out from the crowd and build a trusted and respected online presence. Throw your trepidation aside and begin building your dream by going digital.