Venturing into a startup business is not easy. There are a lot of things you do have to consider to make sure that your business will not fold and will reach its essential goals. One of the many challenges a startup company can face is building its own brand identity. Budget wise, time constraint, and employee count are among the reasons why a startup finds it hard to establish its brand.
Technology has made it possible for many startups and other small-scale business to have a chance to compete with more established corporations. Through digital marketing, anyone can take advantage of technological development available online. The internet has become an avenue for everybody to grow their brand, and it created an equal platform to be visible online no matter what the size of the business is.
However, despite the reach and number of users the internet has, there are of companies also trying to send their product’s voice online. Given this competitive atmosphere, how can startups maximize the potential of online marketing for brand building? Here are some ways a startup company can leverage on different online marketing tactics to build the name and their brand.
1. The Use of Social Media Marketing
When you create a product or build your startup, you do not expect people to just stumble upon it. You need to determine your target market and find where they are. Some of the best places to look for your niche audience are the different social media channels.
Social media is one of the most reliable tools in digital marketing these days. Statistics show that
45% of the world’s population has an active social media account, which equates to around 3.5 billion users. People spend an average of 3 hours per day on different platforms which make it ideal for businesses to reach out to their audience.
When you initiate your business startup, it is a must to leverage this platform to build your brand. You can reach your potential clients, build a strong following and start creating a connection with your prospect leads in social media. Sharing of valuable information, posting of interactive contents and being consistent when it comes to posting schedule can help your startup company to grow and build a brand. Because of its broad reach, social media is a great avenue to place your online advertising which can drive incremental in your sales.
2. SEO
Having a website for your startup business is a must, but having it built for SEO is a prerequisite for your underlying success. Making your website, SEO-friendly means integrating ways to help you site crawl in search engine results and land on the top spot. Being on the top makes it easier for people to find you and more chances that they will click on your link.
Apply SEO tactics when
building your website. In this way, you do have to waste time and effort to redo your site to make it SEO-friendly. Use keywords that will help in your search engine rankings. Provide valuable information on your website. Avoid thin contents. When you have optimized your website for search engine results, and you get the top spots, it will spread brand awareness and build your brand identity.
3. Email Marketing
It may be one of the oldest strategies in digital marketing; however, email marketing still proves that it can always deliver amazing results.
As a startup company, you must interact with your target audience. Aside from your social media platforms, another great way to connect with them is through email marketing. It is cost-effective yet to have a high chance of open rates. It is cost-effective yet promises to deliver a
4400% in ROI.
Send introductory emails about your products and the services that you offer. Engage your customers with contents embedded in your email body. Make sure that you do proper email segmentation and you personalize your email to make sure that it will get the attention of your recipients. Email marketing is also another great option to build rapport and deepen your relationship with your audience that can turn them into loyal customers.
4. Video Marketing
While scrolling at your feed, your attention is most likely to get caught when you see a video content that may have sparked your interest. Same goes when you decide to put up a startup business, and you want to make it known in the world. You want people to stop on their tracks, pay attention to your brand and spark their curiosity. Implementing video in your digital marketing strategy can spruce up your game. As more people interact with your video and share it on their profile, people will start talking about you. Video marketing will then increase your reach and build your identity.
5. Collaboration with The Right Influencers
Influencer marketing is not new, and many big corporations are leveraging on this strategy. As a startup company, working with influencers can do wonders in your marketing campaign, but many find it difficult to
Find the right influencer for you and your startup company. As the landscape for influencer marketing has also evolved, micro and Nano influencers are becoming a trend these days. People are looking for authenticity, and those big named influencers fail to deliver these to their audience. Micro and Nano influencers are deemed to be more realistic and can provide more authentic content for you. Since their followers are targeted, they seemed to share an intimate bond with them given with just a smaller quantity.
Collaborating with this niche of influencers can help you with your brand building campaign and can improve your engagement. Since your audience is those within your target market, your brand awareness will grow that will lead to more sales conversion.
6. Paid Ads
Building a startup company usually takes time and typically have a lot of challenges faced, including budget difficulties. You want your use budget wisely and make sure that it will make a big difference in your growing company.
However, if you have a budget to spare, you can always go ahead and try on some paid advertisements. Doing paid ads online is still relatively cheap compared to those traditional ads like TV placements, billboards, posters and leaflets. Even with a tight budget, online marketing allows you to customize your ads depending on your need. Paid advertisements like Pay Per Click (PPC), social media ads and banner ads, can give you analytical results, so you will know if your efforts are practical. Results are fast, accurate and reliable.
Final Thoughts
If you have established your startups back in time, let us say, 40 years ago, it would be hard for you to compete with large corporations who do not have any budget constraints when it comes to marketing their products or brand. Luckily for you and for everyone else, who are struggling to get their products onboard where everyone can see and appreciate it has been made possible by the innovation of technology.
Online marketing has given everyone a fair chance to build their brand and reach their maximum potential. As a startup entrepreneur, it is essential to know how technology can become your ally and how you can leverage it to bring what you offer to the pedestal. Know your strength, find a method that works for you, stick to it, do you best and for sure what will follow will be a resounding success.
AUTHOR’S BIO
Maricar Morga
Maricar Morga worked as a marketing professional for almost a decade. She became part of the biggest real estate company/mall operator in the Philippines and handled concerts, events and community service-related activities. One of her activities became a nominee in the ICSC Asia-Pacific Shopping Center Awards 2018. Leaving her corporate job for good to pursue her dreams, she has now ventured in the path of content writing and currently writes for
Softvire Australia and
Softvire New Zealand. A Harry Potter fan, she loves to watch animated series and movies during her spare time.
