Weekly News Insight: Startup Marketing
The new and up-and-coming startups need to have an effective marketing strategy that works.
Over the years, the startup culture has blossomed all over the world. Uber and Airbnb were part of an early generation of tech start-ups, but for future generations, the potential of startup success will be very different. As startup ecosystem matures, the easy opportunities for disrupting old-line industries are drying up. So to succeed, new and up-and-coming startups need to have an effective marketing strategy that works.
Startup marketing is a completely different science. You need to choose and combine the right marketing channels and come up with an unbeatable strategy. Same old traditional marketing strategies don’t work well every time.
Inspired to create the next great startup? Viral Access has compiled the latest startup marketing-related news just for you.
Marketing for Asian Startups: Luxury or Necessity
Startup marketing decision is happening more in Asia Pacific, thanks to its growing ecosystem. More than 1,500 startups being founded in Malaysia alone in 2018. The drawback? It’s predicted that 70% of them will fail.
The top two reasons why startups fail are running out of cash and poor marketing. So this brings us to the question at hand: Since startups have a limited budget to operate with, how much should they invest in marketing?
According to Entrepreneur, many startups make a common mistake of allocating what’s left of their budget — after cutting a large chunk to operation, technology, and research — to marketing. What they should realize is, marketing is without a doubt a business necessity, and this is even more so for startups. Most startups begin as virtual unknowns in today’s increasingly crowded landscape. Without a concrete marketing plan and sufficient investment in paid advertising, there is simply no way for potential customers to even know of a startup’s presence, let alone what it has to offer. Most startups invest in an awareness campaign at launch, but not follow up with an overall strategy backed with budgets.
Marketing and advertising have become essential in this day and digital age. With digital advertising, marketing is no longer a luxury. Small yet dedicated teams and targeted adverts can do wonders for startups in the long run, but they do need business backing to make it possible.
Business is a long-term game and marketing is a long-term tool. A startup without marketing is simply not good business sense.
Five Things to Consider when Hiring a Startup Marketing Team
Before the internet, marketing was a piece of cake. Today though, analytics, performance, content, design, digital, social, influencer, email, commerce, retail, experiential, direct, advertising, communications and more all play a hand in landing your brand a chance.
Here are five tips, according to Forbes, to consider before you decide to recruit a marketing mob and add flashing lights to headcount on the profit and loss.
Marketing is NOT one department
Marketing in itself hosts some diverse personas within its different dimensions: creative, digital, retail, events, PR and others. Each requires very different skill sets, proven experiences and personality traits. Prioritize these by opportunity and focus on hiring someone who has hands-on experience in the area that offers you the biggest and quickest return.
Marketing is sales
Impressions, opens, clicks and attendees are nice, but sales mean success. For now, find a marketer who swears by conversions.
Look for an executor
Startup life is all about problem-solving and enjoying the daily thrill of it. As you grow, the problems become bigger and you’ll need more thrill-seekers by your side. Hire someone who can answer “What would you do?” questions with testimonies of executing it.
Define and distinguish your marketing role
Many founders find themselves building a brand that naturally reflects their lives or needs in some way. If you have the right hire, cater the marketing professional role to your level of integration, clearly communicate your terms, then stay the course.
Look for resourceful creative
You’ll want a marketer with a go-to list of reliable software, content, stock image, subscriptions and freelancers ready to design stuff and deliver all sorts of assets. Every marketing dimension involves curating and plugging in design elements, so you’ll want someone who views playing art director as an enjoyable escape from converting and not a burden. As for resourceful? You need an anticipator, fixer and communicator with sound judgment.
10 Digital Marketing Strategies for Startups
Many startups with unique ideas have failed in the past, due to the lack of innovation, creativity, and experience. Having a great-unique idea, team, and funds are not enough to grow your startup and make it stable and profitable. You need to get more customers, sales, and profits to grow it, which can be possible with startup marketing.
Today is the age of the internet. Many startups are focusing on digital marketing and are growing their businesses and customer base. Choosing the right digital marketing strategies for your startup to get maximum output depends upon your niche, target audience, and many other factors. Here are ten digital marketing strategies which you can use to grow your startup via inc42.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is one of the best ways to get exposure and customers for your startup. It is one of the best low-cost marketing techniques to use for your business.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing is one of the most important and cost-effective techniques to grow startups.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is one of the best digital marketing strategies to get instant results for your startup. You can advertise on search engines for your startup and can get more exposure and sales.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most cost-effective channels that deliver higher ROI than other marketing methods. Every startup should focus on SEO to get organic traffic from search engines without any added cost.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing is one of the trendiest marketing techniques these days. It is a highly effective and inexpensive technique to grow your startup.
Content Marketing
Content marketing generates three times more leads than paid search, according to some researches. It a cheaper and effective strategy for your business.
YouTube Marketing
YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world. That’s why many brands are using YouTube to reach out to their target audience.
Viral Marketing
If you want to generate massive traffic, sales, and create online buzz for your startup then nothing is better than viral marketing. You need to create content (articles, explainer videos etc.) from a unique angle and should have a strong marketing plan to promote it.
Referral Marketing
If you want to develop a huge customer base or fan-following then nothing can be as good as referral marketing. In referral marketing, your customers become your sellers.
Top-Tier Publication
If you want massive exposure and traffic then you should try to get featured on a popular publication.
