In most cases, having an effective marketing strategy is the most crucial aspect of running a successful startup. Before coming up with your marketing plan, make sure you’ve become an expert in your target market. Ask yourself who they are and how best to reach them. Figure out which marketing tools and channels will be the most effective in reaching out to and having a strong impact on potential customers. From there, plan your marketing strategy and develop rich, relevant content that will best serve their needs.
There are many hurdles that startups face when determining their marketing strategies. With the rapid change of technology, marketing is constantly evolving with it. It is important that you also continue to evolve with your market.
Challenge 1: Lack of focus and resources
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by marketing while on a tight budget and when not enough time is allotted to brainstorming, planning, and execution. Whether you decide to develop campaigns on your own or hire marketers, it is important that every startup stays true to its brand and focuses on its customer base. Prioritize the marketing aspect of your business, as it is one of the most determining factors of running a successful startup.
Solution:
I. Preplan your Marketing Strategy
There are several ways in which you can implement marketing campaigns without going over budget. Ask yourself various questions regarding what you hope to achieve after executing your marketing campaigns. Then, plan and prioritize your short and long-term goals.
There are several free or inexpensive ways to develop effective marketing campaigns. Developing creative, resourceful, and impactful content is key to building brand awareness and driving traffic to your site.
II. Stay Focused On Your Target Market
You don’t need to use every available marketing channel or tool. It’s important to just focus on the most relevant platforms and then maximize your creative energy into posting meaningful content. Become an expert in your market. How can they be reached? You can create market research by running your own survey of your target demographic. According to a consumer survey of 3000 people by Hubspot, content preferences differ among various demographics. When asked “what kind of content would you prefer from a business”, emails and newsletters were highly favored among people who were 55 or older while people ages 18 to 24 drastically did not prefer them. Important to note, videos were highly favored among each demographic.
III. Measure the Effectiveness of Your Campaign
Measuring your marketing ROI may be difficult to do, but using various analytic tools can help determine the usefulness of your campaigns. After determining the right media outlet for you, you can use Google Analytics to measure the success of your campaigns and the level of engagement on your site.
Challenge 2: Competition
Some startups have to overcome an over-saturation of the market. The market is constantly evolving, therefore, staying focused on your customer base is crucial in overcoming the hurdles of a competitive landscape.
Solution:
Create a competitive analysis. Ask the following questions to understand your competition:
- Who is their target market?
- Are they the same as yours?
- How do you differ from them?
- What could they improve on?
- How can you capitalize on their weaknesses?
Review their social media, customer reviews, and other marketing strategies.
If you’re a business person, you should know how important it is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Consumers always do their research before buying, therefore, making sure that you are seen as trustworthy and reputable is necessary for obtaining customers. Trust and credibility can be attained through various means, such as:
- Web design & SEO: Having an interactive and engaging website can draw potential customers to your business. If used correctly, leveraging important SEO tools and techniques will increase the visibility of your site.
- Customer Reviews: This is a powerful means that not only lends credibility to your business but can fully decide whether a consumer wants to purchase your product or service.
- Content Creation: Develop rich and engaging content that specifically focuses on your market on a regular basis via blogs, videos, email campaigns, and social media. The more content you have, the chances of increased traffic gets higher.
Challenge 3: Generating traffic to your website
According to Hubspot’s research, this is the biggest and most common challenge that marketers face. A competitive landscape and the vast field of marketing can cloud your vision unless you remain focused on your consumer and quickly adapt to the ever-changing environment.
Solution:
Lending your focus on customer needs and effectively marketing your business are surefire ways to grab their attention. Through various outlets, you can increase the chances of generating traffic hits and making sure you acquire customers.
I. Strengthen and Measure Your Online Presence
Quality and quantity of content are important in generating users to your site.
- Weekly blog and social media posts, videos, and emails help draw people to your page over a long period of time.
- Leveraging certain SEO tools will also be incredibly important when creating and updating your web page.
- Analyze your data via Google Analytics and figure out what content draws in and engages users to your site.
II. Strengthen And Build Your Connections
Networking and building relationships are also great ways to attract people to your site. Reach out to relevant, high-profile bloggers and influencers. Offering them promo codes, samples, giveaways, or free trials of your service in return for promotion can not only generate traffic but build trust and credibility.
Although there are many marketing challenges that startups face, there are also several resources, platforms, and opportunities to benefit from and ensure you are doing everything you can to overcome them. By doing your research, being goal-oriented, and implementing best practices as outlined above, your chances of running a successful startup increase dramatically.
