4 Simple Marketing Tricks for Startups

4 Simple Marketing Tricks for Startups As a relatively young business, it’s important to be seen by the right kind of people so that you have a chance of getting ahead as early as possible. While you may think about marketing as something that’s campaign-driven and rather costly, you need to consider all types of communication you have with your customers as marketing. Even how you treat the individual customer can become a form of marketing as they might share their positive experience with others who again may become potential customers. Here is a list of easy ways you can get the most out of your business’ marketing and make sure it’s getting the exposure it deserves. It doesn’t even have to cost you too much to get started right away and reap the benefits later. #1 Team up with social media influencers A marketing strategy should be exactly what it sounds like; a strategy to reach a wider market and keep your current customers happy. Start by logging into your company’s social media account and shift the focus from the number of likes your posts are receiving to who actually likes your posts. While a thousand likes may be able to expand the reach of your posts slightly, a share from the right person may boost it significantly and it will continue to snowball from there. It’s not as easy as simply getting in touch with social media influencers, though, as they already have more than enough people reaching out to them and trying to take advantage of their network. Start by engaging with their content instead; meet them in their own arena, send them a sample of your products, and make it worth their time. If you’re able to make them fall in love with your product, you might see the kind of marketing success you’ve been hoping for and the social media influencers may send even more visitors to your startup’s website. It’s the kind of stuff that you’ll be able to live off for years to come. #2 Invest in your website Just like social media is key to reaching a wider audience, your website is key to appearing as professional and authoritative as possible. Way too many small businesses neglect their website and forget to maintain it it’s not enough to give it a makeover and let it be for the next couple of years. Your business is, of course, trendy and up to date on everything current so you should make sure your website reflects this. Have a look at around the web to read up on the latest design trends, consider hiring someone who can implement creative web design and allow the site to give potential customers the right kind of impression of your business. You should think about it as your company’s storefront and there is simply no room for messy landing pages, outdated fonts or a complete lack of white space. Remember to make it as easy as possible to navigate on as well, by the way, and make it compatible with mobile devices to keep up with the latest technology. Having a proper website can do more for you than just communicating the brand of your business and help you to keep a professional appearance although this is also important. When someone spends no more than a couple of seconds on your page before they’re frustrated by its design or lack of information and leave, Google will rank your site a bit lower as it failed to give the visitors what they wanted. You know very well that SEO is vital today so don’t punish your business by neglecting its website. It should rank up there together with the other successful ones; invest a bit of time and effort into it and it will pay you back in spades. #3 Remember content marketing While we have mentioned the importance of SEO, content marketing is about more than just implementing the right kind of keywords so that Google can sort you out. At its core, your content marketing should focus on trying to help your customers and answer their various questions. You might want to hire someone professional to take care of this for you or you can attempt to do it on your own. Try to think about what your target audience may need help with. If you’re in the auto industry, it’s easy enough to identify a few issues they may experience from time to time; what they should remember before selling their vehicles, how to make sure it lasts as long as possible, what they must think about before purchasing a second-hand car, etc. Your expert advice will undoubtedly be helpful to them and they will pass your content on to their friends and family if they found it helpful. It’s boosting your ranking on the search engines while simultaneously helping to spread the word about your business. That’s the kind of stuff that helps it to take off a bit faster. #4 Work on strengthening your brand Last but certainly not least, you want to ensure that you’re offering products of the highest possible quality. The reputation of your brand depends on the quality of your products and you simply won’t be able to build the kind of business you have in mind unless you invest in it and understand that, regardless of how much you believe in it, your products are not necessarily perfect. Focus on receiving feedback from your customers, encourage them to tell you about their experience with your business, and make an honest attempt at fixing whatever they dislike about it. It’s not an easy task at all but it will benefit you tremendously, in the long run. When this is over with, you should show these customers that you have taken their feedback to heart and attempted to improve. Send them a sample of your new and improved product and wait for the next round of feedback to help your business grow and prosper. Too many business owners seem to think that, as long as they build it and spread the word, customers will line up. In reality, you will constantly need to improve your products as well as the relationship you have with your customers; keep these tips in mind, though, and you’ll be well on your way.