Everyone wants strategic positioning of their product or service in the minds of their consumers. To have a vast audience that trusts you to be their number one choice is every businessperson’s deepest desire.
But how to do that when you have a tight budget or when you are struggling to remain cash positive?
The answer is pretty simple if you think about it. You don’t have to outspend everyone to reach your audience. You have to be smart and think outside of the traditional marketing box.
If you are a startup looking for better marketing strategies with the least monetary investment, then this is the place for you. We have shortlisted the top five proven marketing strategies that guarantee the best results and massive success for your startup.
Top 5 Marketing Strategies
1. Referral Programs
People trust personal recommendations. It’s as simple as that. The most effective way to market your product is not to market it at all. Instead, create a system that lets your customers promote it for you.
It can’t get much more cost-effective than this. Highlight what your business has to offer and create promotions on it for your current customers to share with their friends and family with a reward promised at the end.
To do this effectively, you don’t need to develop a referral program from the start but can smartly follow one that is already trending. Referral programs create excitement among your customers and help you get a huge following very quickly.
2. Social Media Marketing
You will hardly find a person in today’s age that hasn’t heard of social media. With so many social media platforms and a variety of techniques, it is understandable how it gets confusing or overwhelming.
There are low-cost strategies that can give your business explosive growth, like hosting a contest, running a challenge, or collaborating with a social media influencer.
You can also use social media to wedge in different angles to your campaign by contributing or aiding a social cause or reaching out to a community to help promote your product.
Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube offer the most engaging and effective marketing strategies for startups.
3. Content Marketing and SEO
You can drive a successful marketing strategy by managing your on-site blog and adding engaging and SEO-rich content to your website that delivers value. If done right, content marketing and SEO can improve your brand reputation and increase inbound traffic.
4. Get Published
People read the news daily. A press release is another cost-effective way to get your brand recognized. If you do all the work of hunting and emailing the journalist, then it could also be a free-of-cost method to promote your brand. You can also pay a minimum fee to get featured in any major publication.
5. Email Marketing
Email marketing has to be one of the most effective methods of reaching out to your audience in the most personalized manner. Is this statement just a way to promote email marketing? Certainly not! Statista reports nearly 4.4 billion active email users around the world by 2023. That just shows you the size of the market you can target with emails. More importantly, a DMA 2018 report estimates an average ROI of $32 for every $1 businesses spend on their email marketing campaigns.
However, you have to spend some time figuring out effective methods of collecting your customer emails. On-ground surveys, lead magnets on the official website, newsletter invites on blogs, etc. are some ways to collect email account information of your potential customers.
Final Thoughts
As a startup, you have to focus on cutting your costs just as much as you focus on marketing. Successful marketing is not about spending more money. Instead, it is about spending your money wisely.
