online marketing

7 Killer Digital Marketing Strategy For Start-Ups

Start-ups are the budding companies run by entrepreneurs with minimal team size, struggling to expand it with their tight budgets.
Before heading towards the marketing strategies, let us know “why digital marketing strategies for start-ups?”
Almost all the start-ups are not at all ready to market or advertise about their company on billboards, radio announcements, newspapers, or television ads. Such types of announcements will clean up all their reserves by encouraging them to clear up their other requirements in line with their budget breakdowns to establish themselves as a start-up in the market.
Moreover, start-up owners should execute some brilliant marketing strategies to expand the start-up in an extremely dominant and competitive world, whether the product or service is b2b or b2c.

“MARKETING IS NO LONGER ABOUT THE STUFF THAT YOU MAKE, BUT ABOUT THE STORIES, YOU TELL.”

– Seth Godin

If you have a creative and unique marketing strategy, then you can easily reach your business goals much early than you expect.

Check out the 7 killer marketing strategies for start-ups in 2020

1.User experience (UX):

Create and design a satisfying customer experience because all you need is a happy customer. A user-friendly website should have a better loading time and that should be under 5 seconds. 40% of the users leave the website if the loading speed is more than 3 seconds. The website should have accelerated mobile page (amp) I.E., a website should have a mobile and tab version as more than 50% of traffic comes from mobiles. Never ignore the user experience as 88% of users never visits the website with a poor experience. Ensure you have a user-friendly UX website design.

2. Content marketing:

It is the key function in digital marketing because the content is the only way to convey what your company is about, and helps to communicate with users. If the content is convincing and relevant then, the conversion of the user as your customer is more likely to be successful. More relevant and trending the content would be more engaging.

3. Influencer marketing:

To reach a tremendous set of audience, you need to promote on most popular spots where your target audience is present. Choosing the most popular or famous influencer who can promote your business is often termed as influencer marketing. As most people are well aware, if they recommend then most of them are likely to convert or choose the business because they believe and trust the influencer. The medium that influencers promote your business can be social media platforms such as Instagram and other online community websites like quora.

4. Video marketing:

Start making videos on what you do and how it will benefit your target audience as videos are the best way to create a huge impact. For huge reach and interaction, make use of social media channels such as youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Youtube is the best for video marketing as it is the second largest search engine. You can either create and upload videos for free or can pay to run your video as ads to promote your business.

5. SEO:

Almost every person uses smartphones and searches in the web search engine mostly on a Google search engine to finds information. So, it’s obvious that your business presence on the search engine results would naturally deliver more sales to your company if a customer searches for a related query. As soon as you start your business, try to implement this strategy. The results for this work may take time but you should be patient and the result will be always mind-blowing in case of SEO. SEO is always organic results I.E. You don’t have to pay per click.

6. SEM/PPC Ads:

SEM/PPC is slightly different from SEO and the differences are you need to pay as per the click. PPC does not take time as SEO does. PPC is instant and it gives instant results. Here you have to bid for the best or top searched keywords and the PPC Ad earns the top position in SERP. The higher you bid, the chances of gaining 1st place on SERPs would be greater.

7. Social media:

Social media is mostly to do branding for your business and helps to be in touch with your audience directly. Better social media management makes you connected with your potential audience. This is the best place to raise your customers’ range and helps drive traffic to your website. As a start-up, it is necessary for reaching out to your audience to know more about audience interests and requirements. It can be possible only by social media marketing.
Therefore, by using these digital marketing tactics, you can expand your start-up and make it an established enterprise since these are pretty fair to middling compared to traditional marketing.

Check Out: 7 Foolproof Digital Marketing Tips for SMEs Amid COVID-19

7 Foolproof Digital Marketing Tips for SMEs

Digital marketing tips

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most affected businesses due to this COVID-19. Federation of Indian chambers of commerce & industry (FICCI), India recently surveyed start-ups, incubators, investors, and stated that nearly 70% of start-ups businesses are impacted by a coronavirus, approximately 60% are running under disruptions and 12% have shut down their operations.

But many SMEs are bouncing back using digital marketing as it is the most cost-effective technique which helps to communicate with potential consumers without breaking the bank.

Here are the 7 digital marketing tips for SMEs

⚫ Local marketing

⚫. Develop or update your online shop

⚫. Curated content

⚫. Social media

⚫. E-mail marketing

⚫. Paid ads

⚫. Have an eye on competitors

Let’s dig into the topic

1. Local marketing:

This is the best online marketing method for small businesses as they are operated regionally and the main objective is to target the locals. Whenever a user searches for a service or product, search engines fetch nearby stores according to his/her location. 

For the better local SEO, try to add a GPS location or maps of your business in the contact page if you own a website or try to make use of one of Google products for a business named google my business (GMB). GMB has the most effective results on a search engine that anyone can find the address, phone number, opening hours, and most importantly the reviews for that particular store whenever they search about their query.

2. Develop or update your online shop:

If your business doesn’t have any online store, try to invest in a good website with a better user experience for your business with the help of web designing and web development agencies. You can also hire a web designer and web developer to build an attractive user-friendly website.

Try to optimize the website every now and then. If you already own a website, try to update the website frequently.

Whether it’s a new or an old one, the website should include all your changes on products, services, offers, or about your delivery system due to COVID-19.

3. Curated content:

Assist customers with your site content by creating content that attracts the customers. Have a blog section on your website with the content important to them which may help them as a guide. Make blog posts on the trending topics which are relevant to your niche.

4. Social media:

Make sure your business is on social media which helps you to engage with the existing and find new customers for your business. Let them know you are always available to answer their queries. Create weekly 2-3 posts on sharing some entertaining, interesting information to make them engage with the posts on your social media profile pages to promote your business organically which may result in website traffic and lead generation. Doing this can build trust in your business. But don’t forget to have a post once in a while to promote your business.

5. E-mail and SMS marketing:

Updating the changes in the products, services, and offers on the website is not enough. Existing customers should know about the changes. Email marketing and SMS marketing are the best ways to be in touch with your existing customers and let them know about your sale offers exclusively for them and also about the changes in the website.

6. Paid ads:

To create brand awareness and get new customers for your business, then you can opt for paid ads. Using paid ads, one can reach your immediate goals within a short span. According to new stats, the cost per result has come down due to the COVID-19 when compared to normal days. Cost per result can be a link click, lead, or impression.

7. Have an eye on competitors:

It’s always important to know what our competitors are doing to get more business. Competitor analysis can help your business to develop and perform even better. Also, aids to be ahead of them.

Now, update your digital marketing plans accordingly using these digital marketing tips to gain market presence even in these tough times.

Check this out : How Instagram Can Be Used For Promoting a Business [9 Proven Formula]

How Instagram Can Be Used For Promoting a Business [9 Proven Formula]

How to use Instagram to promote a business?

The first and foremost thing is to ask yourself that, whether your business should have an Instagram business account or not? Well, you can find the answer from the below stats.

Here are a few jaw-dropping stats you should know about Instagram in 2020:The total number of monthly active users is 1 billion+

⚫ There are 500 million+ active users per day

⚫ Over 50 billion+ posts are being shared to date.

⚫ The average least and most time spent on Instagram ranges between 28 – 53 minutes per day.

⚫ About 70% of hashtags are brand hashtags on Instagram.

Now, you have got the answer to the question of having an Instagram business account or not. The answer is yes, if and only if you would like to promote your business online in this fast-moving technological world.

“THE ONLY STRATEGY THAT IS GUARANTEED TO FAIL IS NOT TAKING RISKS.”

-Mark Zuckerberg, founder, Facebook

If you do not have an Instagram business account yet, then create one and join the 25+ million businesses on Instagram. Try to be that one business profile and start your first step in promoting a business on Instagram, as over 200 million users view at least one business profile per day.

Now, let’s directly dive into: how Instagram can be used for promoting a business: 9 proven formulas

⚫ Formula 1. Optimized business account

⚫ Formula 2. Post-high-quality content regularly

⚫ Formula 3. Add link in bio

⚫ Formula 4. Reach the right audience using hashtags

⚫ Formula 5. Build an interactive session

⚫ Formula 6. Host an online event

⚫ Formula 7. Make shoppable posts for your products

⚫ Formula 8. Post stories daily

⚫ Formula 9. Promotion via Instagram celebrities

Formula 1. Optimized business account

Build a profile that you never miss to mention clearly who you are, what you do & the business category. Add your business website if you have one, official address & contact details like email address, phone number. Also, make use of the action button to your business profile based on your niche. For example, if you are running a restaurant, then the action button can be “Book a table”.

Formula 2. Post-high-quality content regularly

Always post on the latest and trending topic around your business as Instagram has a 4 – 5% higher conversion rate from the user-generated content. Try to create and post IGTV (Instagram tv) videos which can be longer to 10 minutes and an hour for a verified account for better user engagement as video posts have two times more engagements than image posts on Instagram. The best-recommended video time should be under 5 minutes for better performance.

Formula 3. Add link in bio

It’s a bit surprising that adding a link is only possible once that too in bio. Everyone likes to have a specific URL for a specific post. You can add a caption and link for the posts but the link is not clickable. Now, the question is how to drive traffic to the different URLs of a website for your different posts on Instagram at any point in time. It can be possible by using some third-party websites or apps like later.

Formula 4. Reach the right audience using hashtags

Make your posts more noticeable, using proper hashtags for your posts based on the type of content that’s relevant to the post as posts with at least one hashtag have better engagement I.E., about 13% when compared to a normal text post.

Formula 5. Build an interactive session

Ask open-ended questions like what’s their opinion about a product or service which can create a great connection with the audience and can help build your business correctly with their feedback. Always find and engage with trending content.

Formula 6. Host an online event

Hosting an event on Instagram according to your business seasonal sales. For example, for businesses like clothing, fashion accessories or any apparel business can ask users to participate in the event by sharing their looks using your products with their event hashtag on their post and get a chance to feature on their page or anything similar to it that you can repost user post on your page.

Formula 7. Make shoppable posts for your products

More than 100 million Instagram users per month tap on shopping posts to learn about products. Instagram is the best review platform for shopping freaks to discover a product. About 70% of them check products on Instagram. So, set up a shop section for products and create a product tag in your posts. It is more helpful for e-commerce businesses to boost sales using Instagram.

Formula 8. Post stories daily

Of all the most-viewed stories on Instagram, about 1/3rd is from businesses IG stories. So, make use of the Instagram story feature which lasts for 24 hours from the time of posting. Here also, you have a chance to interact with the users. In this, you can have a poll which helps for a survey, quiz on your products or services, questions where any users can ask their queries and much more interesting things. There is also an option of adding a link to the story and indicate it by “See more” or “Swipe up” emojis to redirect to the website (option available only to the business accounts with 10k+ followers).

Formula 9. Promotion via Instagram celebrities

90% indicated that for influencer marketing, Instagram plays a vital role in all social media platforms. Approximately 25k users posted their posts using #ad hashtag. So, it’s proof of influencer marketing on Instagram. 500k active influencers are on Instagram who are helping SMEs and other big brands to promote products online on their feed and stories. Nearly 50% of influencers’ stories are for the sponsored posts. For this, you should be ready to pay them, the amount can be varied according to their Instagram followers because higher the reach higher the amount. Most importantly, choose the right influencer. It is better to choose an influencer who is related to your business products or services.

All of the above are proven formulae that can surely help your brand to shine among all. Many established brands have been using the above tactics to promote their Instagram business accounts. So, start using these skyscraper techniques to grow your website traffic, boost your sales, and improve branding for your business on Instagram.

Check this out : How Social Media Lift Sales For Your FMCG/Fashion Accessories Brands?