Whatever your business offers, there are always more ways you could be making better use of the internet. It’s a cost-effective resource that allows you to connect with businesses, customers and clients all over the world – so don’t ignore it or take it for granted. It’s a particularly great resource for startups, and if you’re smart with your marketing you can level out the playing field between you and your more established competitors. Increasing traffic is something our Search Engine Optimisation West Midlands team specialise in, so either call our landline on 02476 55 22 22 or follow these are effective online marketing strategies for startups.
Social Media
Social media a particularly useful platform that allows you to market in a cost-effective way. Get your business visible across different social media platforms so that you can communicate with your customers. It’s a great way to offer deals and promotions, but it’s also a great way to evaluate your progress. How many likes do you have? How quickly are your likes building up? You can also use the ‘like data’ to see which posts are more popular, so you can see which promotions resonate with people, and which are not as successful. You can also sponsor popular social media contributors to raise awareness of your startup, but if you’re not at that stage yet, and you’re still relying on friends and family, it’s still an effective way to get your brand to be visible and out there.
Blogs
It would be ideal if you could get your product or service marketed in newspapers and on the TV, but it is likely your startup is not yet ready for that kind of coverage. However, it is relatively easy to get your brand talked about on blogs and light-news sites – and it’s well worth it, since this will improve your search engine ranking. The only drawback is that it can be quite time consuming, but there are SEO companies that you could make use of if you’re ready to invest.
Network
You should already be doing your best to network – this might include attending local events and trade fairs – but you might find that you can network much more effectively online. Talk to non-competitive businesses on sites like LinkedIn, and see if there are any mutually beneficial marketing ideas that you could both get involved in. For example, you could collaborate with local businesses to sponsor a concert or sporting event, or you could simply share each other’s content. Once you’re working together, you should be able to find various ways to scratch each other’s backs – and that means saving each other money.
Create Content
You can release your content to your customers through your social media page, through bloggers, or you could make your content relevant to your network of mutually beneficial businesses on LinkedIn; but the important thing is that you are releasing content. You could post pictures and videos, but you could also post jokes and humorous content if it suits your brand. When you’re in charge of a start up, you want to engage as many of your customers as you can with your marketing – so make it useful, interesting or amusing for them.