Marketing Strategies to Help Get Your Startup Noticed

You can’t overstate the importance of marketing for startups. 

It’s like oxygen. You need it for your business to survive by getting noticed and increasing sales.

However, as a startup, you need to be careful with your marketing efforts and money. Since you’re operating on limited funds, it’s important to get the most bang for your buck.

And that’s what we’ll help you with, in this post.

Let’s take a look at practical marketing strategies for startups that will help you grow in 2022. 

The Best Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Startup

Print a brochure, develop a website or go advertising on billboards. There are many ways to make your startup stand out in a competitive market.

But the question is - which one will create the best outcomes for you? 

To answer this question, you need to:

• Analyze your startup
• Study your target audience
• Choose a suitable marketing approach
• Work with a combination of these approaches
• Test your marketing strategy
• Change or continue your campaigns

In this way, you’ll generate more leads, sales, and boost revenue. Now, take your pick from the marketing approaches presented below.

1. Create a Brand Presence on Social Media 

Social media has a large user base. According to Statista, 4.26 billion people were using social media. 

Making the best use of social media can take your startup to the next level by make it visible and building a following around your brand.

To make social media marketing work for you, you need to be active on these platforms. Here are some of the things you need to do if you want to gain attention through social media. 

You need to post promotional content on a regular basis

Post interesting non-promotional content as well

Create different format types such as gifs, photos, text, links, polls, and more

To get your startup noticed, post various forms of content. And to create awesome content, you can depend on various content marketing tools. Work with different tools and content formats and you’ll see your social media presence explode. 

Remember, another advantage of social media marketing - it’ll go easy on your wallet.

2. Sponsor an Event

Sponsoring a local event is a result-yielding marketing approach. 

It will build a good image in your target audience’s eyes. Also, it’s an excellent way to promote your brand name and product, and services simultaneously.

For this marketing approach, find an event that’s relevant to you. Make sure that the participants consist of your target audience. 

One way to find a relevant event is to follow news from forums, media houses, associations, and conferences in your audience’s industry. For example, if your product is for salon owners, check out online and offline beauty events where you can be a sponsor. 

Collaborate with the event organizer to promote your startup during the event. Set up your startup's banner, poster, and signs on the event day and let the public know about your startup's existence.

You can also leverage online means like creating a live stream or having an online giveaway connected to the event. 

You can also distribute brochures, samples, cards, and even fun, creative brand stickers. Giving out samples and stickers is very effective in creating recognition. Invest in a sticker printers are available that print stickers in bulk. You can use such a tool and many others to create a strong brand image at an event. 

3. Grow with Email Marketing

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly way to grow your brand, then email marketing is the best shot for your startup. It’s an easy and time-saving campaign to help your startup connect with people. 

It also has the highest ROI or return on investment rate of any marketing campaign. 

Source: Smart Insights

For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you make $40 in return. 

Email marketing is where you gather email IDs of prospects and send them emails. You do this to connect with your audience directly. And to nurture them into potential customers.

Make sure that your email content isn’t constantly selling your products and brands. Vary your email content by creating and sending manuals, reviews, case studies, stories, infographics, and videos. Over time, you’ll build trust with your audience and see better engagement. And even sales. 

4. Start a Referral Program

For startups, one of the most effective marketing approaches is initiating a referral program. This means encouraging your customers to promote your brand name to other potential customers.

No other marketing approach has as much influencing power as a referral scheme.

Studies show that almost 92% of consumers rely on referrals made by people they know. Word-of-mouth marketing can work like magic for start-ups.

To begin, get reviews from your existing customer base and feature them on your website. Make your customers happy with offers, rewards, and discounts. And offer them special rewards for referrals. If you can make your customers fond of your brand, you’ll gain their loyalty and they will do the marketing for you.

5. Opt for Paid Search Advertising

In this marketing approach, you’ll gain traffic from laser-target audiences from search engines like Google and Bing.

It works like this: you need to bid on certain keywords that are related to their business or product and services. When a user types in these keywords, your ad appears on the screen.

You need to pay the search networks based on the number of clicks received by your ad. Google AdWords and Bing Ad are the best-out-of-rest in the paid search network domain.

This Cost-Per-Click model is useful for startups to get initial traction. You can have thousands of people seeing your ads but you won’t get charged unless there is a click on your ad.

Be sure to target the right audience when you opt for paid search advertising. And set a budget limit so that your ad spend doesn’t go overboard. 

And most importantly, make sure that you test your ad performance. How many clicks do you get? How many sales? Do people sign up for your newsletter form? And so on. As you make changes to your ad and compare the results, you’ll see positive results.

Back to You

Marketing is a never-ending affair and changes rapidly with time. What worked today might not work tomorrow.

Constantly update yourself with the ongoing and upcoming marketing trends. Combine and add several new marketing strategies to the ones discussed above. As different schemes work for different start-ups.

Do this and you’ll always remain a step ahead in this cut-throat competitive world of marketing and business.

And lastly, don't give up. Marketing is a slow and gradual process. But as you get the hang of it, you’ll see growth and turn your startup into an established business.