Let’s kick things off by looking at your online strategy.
Digital marketing strategy 101
All start-ups are different, so they will need different strategies; however, every successful digital marketing campaign has four elements: goals, audience, research, and budget.
Let’s start with your goals. These are probably raising brand awareness and attracting customers. To do that, you must find a way to:
- Show people who you are, what you do, and why you do it
- Build a recognisable brand name and logo
- Encourage people to become active users of your products
- Convert leads into paying customers
And you can achieve this through effective design, content, and attention-grabbing calls to action.
Next comes finding your place in the market. You will only succeed if there is a call for your product or service. Is there likely to be enough demand? Are you too niche? What makes your offering unique? The only way to find this out is through researching your competitors and gauging interest from potential customers.
That brings us neatly on to the next step – understanding your ideal customer; who are they? Where do they hang out? What problem do they have? If you’re a B2B supplier, what size businesses are you looking for?
Finally, your digital marketing strategy’s size and scope will come down to the size of your budget. It is likely to be small at the outset, which is why you must spend wisely. Focus your efforts on the channels where your potential customers hang out. As you grow, your marketing budget will expand, and so will your marketing strategy.
Your digital marketing strategy touchpoints
Every start-up needs to master the following four digital channels:
- Website
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Content marketing
A website is your multipurpose marketing tool. Available 24/7, it’s a fully-functioning sales team always ready to sell for you. Of course, you will need some SEO (search engine optimisation) magic going on to help boost your online visibility and possibly a PPC (Google ads) campaign to kick start your sales.
You can also direct people to your website through email marketing campaigns. Getting customers to sign up for your newsletter is a great way to keep your name at the forefront of their minds.
Then there’s social media marketing to think about. Whether it’s keeping a Facebook or Instagram presence, sending out regular tweets, or using LinkedIn to drive interest, they all need content.
That brings us neatly onto the final element, your content marketing. This encompasses blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, and articles. A regular stream of relevant content that’s valuable to your audience will cost-effectively boost customer engagement. You may be interested in our post Why a Consistent Flow of Content is Essential for Your Business.
You don’t have to go it alone
Has your mind been blown yet?
There’s a lot to get your head around when starting a business. Although you’re an expert in your field, you’ll probably need help with the digital side of things. We’re not just talking about creating a website; we’re talking about your entire digital marketing strategy.
Working with a digital marketing agency that understands web design, SEO, social media engagement, PPC and content creation is a valuable partner to have on your team.
Rather than basing your digital strategy on best guesses, it will be founded on research, experience and expertise that will see your start-up hit the ground running, leaving you to get on with what you do best – sell.
Thirty Six Digital is a digital marketing agency delivering a combination of creativity, experience, and technical know-how to help start-ups succeed. Call the team on 0203 291 1021 and get your business noticed.
