2023-08-24
Digital marketing is important for any kind of business, but it's especially crucial for startups. With so many different digital marketing strategies out there, it can be difficult to choose which ones will benefit your startup the most. Here are some digital marketing strategies that will help grow your business:
Branding is an important part of any successful business. It’s more than just a logo and it’s something every startup should take seriously. Branding is a promise to your customers that you stand for something, that you can be trusted and relied upon, and that you will deliver on your promises.
If you don’t have a clear idea of what your brand looks like yet, now is the time to start defining it! The most important thing about branding is this: don't get too hung up on having everything perfect from day one; focus on creating a strong foundation for your brand instead.
The first step to enabling data-driven marketing is collecting data. If you don't have any, start by creating a Google Analytics account and installing their tracking code on your website. By doing so, you'll be able to track how many visitors come to your site and how they interact with it (how long they stay there, what pages they visit).
Once you've got that set up, the next step is using that data in order to improve future efforts. For example: if you notice that users are leaving because of some error message or other problem with the site design, then work on fixing those issues. Or perhaps certain features aren't working as well as expected—you can figure out ways to improve them based on the information available from analytics tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel (more about those below).
Domain expertise is a digital marketing strategy that has been around for decades. It’s also something that many people with little to no experience in the digital world might not think about as a way to help their business grow. However, domain expertise impacts your digital marketing strategy in several ways:
Your domain knowledge helps you understand your customers better through their use of the internet and social media channels.
You can use this information to improve your website and other online properties by providing content that speaks directly to them.
You can create specific campaigns based on what you know about your audience's interests and needs, which will lead them back again and again because they feel like they're getting something valuable each time they visit your site or interact with one of the other channels mentioned above (like email marketing).
Customer experience is a key factor for startups, especially in the early days. The journey your customers take from discovery to paying you can make or break your business, so it's important that you understand where they're coming from and what they want.
While there are many tools for customer journey mapping out there, we've found that the free version of Journey Mapping by Intercom works well enough for most startups' needs. With this tool, you'll be able to map out your customers' entire path through your website and apps—from when they first discover your product to when they finally convert into paying customers—as well as see how other SaaS companies are doing the same thing on their sites. This gives a great overview of what the competition is doing right (and wrong) while helping you identify important areas where changes need to be made throughout the customer experience process if you hope to compete with these leaders in digital marketing strategies!
Long-term strategy: SEO is a long game, but it can be one of the most effective marketing strategies for startups. It’s also an important way to build your brand and get free traffic and leads over time. While you may not see immediate results from your SEO efforts, it’s important to remain patient as it takes some time for search engines like Google to index new content on your blog or website (and even longer for that new content to rank highly).
If you want to start trying out some basic SEO tactics today, check out Moz's Beginner's Guide To SEO or get some help from our friends at HubSpot Academy with their guides on keyword research and link building!
Email marketing is the most cost-effective way to build your brand and drive sales. The best digital marketing strategies are ones that are easy to set up, maintain, and measure. Email marketing fits this bill perfectly because it's built on a foundation of personalization and measurement.
Start off by identifying your primary goals for email marketing: conversions? Lead generation? Building an engaged audience? You can also set up different email campaigns based on those goals—so if you have a goal of building an audience, send out periodic updates about new content or events you're hosting; if lead generation is more important to you, use the same emails as part of a welcome sequence that targets potential customers from the start with offers relevant to their interests; if conversions are what matters most (and let's face it—they usually do), offer up something valuable in exchange for their email address (e.g., free how-to videos).
Whatever strategy works best for your business should be reflected in these emails so they're personalized enough so each one feels like an invitation into someone else's life rather than just another piece of spam clogging up someone’s inbox (which is why companies like MailChimp offer free templates). As long as they feel like they belong there rather than being pushed onto someone willy-nilly without their permission first!
Social media marketing is an important part of any digital marketing strategy, particularly for startups. If you haven't already, consider setting up accounts on all the major platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
The best way to use social media for branding is through your own website. You can accomplish this by creating a strong presence on these platforms or by publishing content from your website on them.
You should also keep in mind that social media is a great way to reach your target audience—and it's free! However, if you're going with this strategy then it's important that you're consistent with what information you share across all channels (i.e., don't post about something different each day). This will help build relationships with customers who follow along with what's happening within your company and brand as well as attract new customers who might be interested in learning more about how products or services offered work firsthand via social media posts/videos/etcetera
Content marketing is a powerful way to build trust and credibility, while also attracting new customers. Content marketing involves creating and publishing valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts and retains a clearly defined audience. It's a great way to build relationships with your customers—and it can also help you increase brand awareness!
Mobile is the future. And by the looks of it, that future is now.
In 2016 there were an estimated 2.77 billion smartphone users worldwide and this number is expected to reach 4.14 billion by 2020 — a 31.7% increase over four years! Furthermore, mobile users spend more time on their phones than desktop or laptop users do: they spend 3 times as much time on their smartphones as they do online via laptops or desktops (source). They’re also more likely to convert than desktop users and are more likely to be loyal customers in general (source). These stats don't even consider the fact that mobile-first design tends to encourage social sharing (which can also be beneficial for SEO) or that people tend to have higher lifetime values when they're actively engaged on social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter (source).
Programmatic advertising is an approach to digital advertising that uses software to buy and sell advertising. It allows advertisers to target specific users with specific ads, making it a great option for startups who want to reach their target audience as efficiently as possible.
For example, if your startup has a product that can help people deal with their financial issues, you might want to advertise on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where those users are most likely to see your ad.
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential individuals who have the ability to affect purchasing decisions of a group of people. Influencers are people who have a significant impact on the purchasing decisions of a group of people.
Influencers can be thought leaders, celebrities, bloggers, other social media personalities, or even regular customers who have built up trust with their audience. This makes them attractive conduits for your brand's message because they already have influence within the community you're targeting and they know how to connect with those customers through their authentic voices.
Digital marketing is a critical component of every startup’s success. Startups need to invest in digital marketing; however, most founders don't know where to begin.
To ensure that you're on the right track with your digital marketing strategy, follow these four steps:
Focus on the customer
Understand how your customers buy and use your product or service
Create an effective funnel for acquiring leads and converting them into paying customers (e.g., email sign-up form)
Ensure each step in your funnel aligns with the next by creating user journeys that are intuitively designed
So, what does the future hold for digital marketing? The answer is a mix of the old and new. It's clear that businesses need to stay attuned to these changing times and keep up with their customers' expectations. But even though this means embracing new technologies like AI, there's no need to panic—we're still human beings at heart. And when it comes down to it, this means that our most important assets will always be ourselves: our creativity, empathy, and intelligence.