Digital Marketing strategies for startups are currently very viable, due to their flexibility and the low level of investment required to start.
The main challenge for companies that are starting in the market is knowing how to launch and scale their company in the most effective way possible.
In particular, because it has a range of strategies that support development and growth in an economical, agile and, best of all, measurable way – everything that companies need when they are taking their first steps.
But, before reading the strategies that you should implement in your startup this year, I will tell you what are the singularities that make Digital Marketing such a valid option.
What are the particularities of Digital Marketing for startups?
Digital Marketing, in essence, allows you to obtain visibility on the Internet through actions in the various online channels that exist, such as search engines, social networks, email marketing, among others.
Visibility is essential for all types of business, but for startups it is even more important.
Internet promotion makes a brilliant business idea or well-planned product and service development reach the target audience, establishing a strong digital presence and consistent brand recognition .
Digital Marketing actions, therefore, allow the company to grow enough to start its sales and generate income, with a consumer base already familiar with the product or service.
Another reason to consider Digital Marketing Strategies for startups is its cost-benefit ratio.
All the shares available to you are much cheaper than those used in Traditional Marketing.
Its economic advantages are, among others:
- variety of actions: you can choose the action most economically compatible with the current moment of your business.
- Cost control: even in paid media, you can choose a specific value to start your disclosure strategy and increase it over time.
- Segmentation: personalized and targeted strategies to impact a certain audience avoid unnecessary expenses with wide audiences and without any effect.
- Agility and flexibility: you can make instant advertisements and publish them in the same day, and even change and improve them during the period that they are available without wasting time or money.
- High ROI (Return on Investment): stocks provide a better ROI compared to Traditional Marketing due to their high capacity for segmentation and investment control , among other benefits.
9 Digital Marketing strategies for startups in 2021
In all companies it is necessary that Digital Marketing actions are carried out correctly so that the business achieves the visibility and expected success.
But, in the case of startups, these actions must focus, especially, on an efficient return on investment, in addition to being economical and presenting metrics that contribute to accelerated business growth.
So that the resources are used properly, we have brought the main strategies that present special advantages for this business model. Find out what they are below.
1. Content Marketing
It consists of offering relevant and valuable content to the business public , with the aim of engaging them throughout their buying journey and generating a positive perception of the brand.
These contents are produced and offered in the most diverse formats, such as blogs, social networks, emails, videos, ebooks, infographics, webinars, podcasts and more.
To start a Content Marketing strategy , planning is essential. This process mainly involves the definition of objectives and KPIs, for example:
- Generate brand awareness.
- Increase engagement with the brand.
- Educate the market.
- Generate sales.
- Reduce cost per sale.
- Increase the lifetime-value.
And also the creation of a Buyer Persona , a semi-fictitious profile to represent the ideal business customer in the most detailed way possible.
In the case of startups, it happens that many times they stand out for bringing original products or business models to the market, which the majority of the public has not seen at other times.
This feature opens up a great opportunity for a content strategy to be implemented, because it allows its own space to transmit relevant information about what the company offers.
In addition, the possibility of producing relevant materials, which are related to the doubts of the users and the problems they need to solve, favors the attraction of the correct potential clients for the business objectives.
But, Content Marketing also requires the support of more technical strategies, oriented towards search engine optimization. Here SEO is present.
2. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a set of optimization techniques for sites, web pages and blogs.
These efforts are aimed at achieving good organic rankings that will drive traffic and authority to the business channels.
The strategy is essential for the company to gain prominence and visibility in the digital world and, consequently, more leads, customers and income.
SEO works with factors that Google algorithms and other search engines identify to position a website.
The most important principles are:
- The use of keywords in the content (terms or phrases used by users to do a search on the Internet).
- Use of friendly URLs and adaption to responsive web design
- Link building techniques and external links.
- Dissemination of the content produced.
- Use of visual content.
- A fast , secure website that has a good technical performance , offering a good user experience.
Naturally SEO is one of the pillars of Content Marketing and cannot be isolated, but search engine optimizations are also extremely valuable for the structure of the website as such.
In other words, there are a series of technical factors that a website must comply with in order for it to become an efficient and permanent machine for generating traffic or, indirectly, for business opportunities.
This is because a solid website is a proper base of operations for the company, in which it can establish direct communication with its potential clients and other stakeholders.
3. SEM
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a Marketing strategy within search engines, such as Google, and includes paid advertising (sponsored links) and organic (SEO).
In both cases, the brand appears to the user every time they are actively looking for the content that the business offers, therefore, this is one of the main strategies to be found.
Sponsored links are part of the most popular paid media strategy. They refer to the ads that appear at the top of Google searches, identified by the word “Ad”.
But, in addition to search engines, they can also appear on social networks, blogs, portals, among others.
The tool used to advertise sponsored links is Google Ads, Google’s ad platform, which has various investment options that can be adapted to the reality of different companies.
For startups, advertising actions on the Internet will be more viable for specific situations and needs, because basing all digital positioning on this alternative will be quite expensive. And the Growth Hacking methodology is quite suitable for new tech businesses.
In this context, it may be interesting to invest in the promotion of events that the startup carries out or the landing page of an e-book that was produced with the direct objective of generating qualified leads.
4. Email Marketing
Email Marketing is, perhaps, the oldest Marketing strategy since the emergence of the Internet. However, it remains consolidated as the most assertive and economical technique for companies.
The strategy works by sending content and offers via email, with the aim of getting closer to the consumer, directing them to the website, and guiding them throughout their buying journey.
To start an Email Marketing strategy, only 3 elements are needed:
- A domain.
- Email Marketing automation tool (there are many options, even free ones, like MailChimp ).
- And a person to execute the strategy.
For this reason, email is the Digital Marketing channel that brings the best ROI, not being necessary to invest too much initially to generate a large volume of contacts.
It is also a great space to conquer the user with an attractive and stimulating language, which generates an emotional connection from newsletters and nutrition flows.
In the end, if you constantly share relevant content for your contacts, you gradually bring them closer to your brand and allow them to verify the authority you have on a certain topic.
5. Influence Marketing
The Marketing of Influence, or Influencer Marketing, refers to advertising a product or service through the cooperation of independent content producers who influence large audiences and are highly engaged.
The objective of working with content producers, known as digital influencers, is to create a bridge between the brand and the influence audience, positively impacting the digital marketing strategies for startups.
The main advantage of Influence Marketing is its accessibility, since it does not require large investments to achieve a link with influencers, mainly those with a medium audience.
This is because there are producers from different niches, a number of followers, and who work with different forms of negotiation.
In the B2B market, startups can explore this initiative a lot, since there are well-known figures in more specific segments that stand out for the quality of the content they produce and attract a fairly hooked audience.
6. Interactive Content
Interactive Content emerged as a new force in content marketing. It is a type of dynamic material that encourages user participation to transmit their information, offering an original experience when consuming the content.
It is not necessarily used only in the digital field, but it was on the Internet that this type of content reached a diversity of formats, such as calculators, questionnaires, and interactive infographics, for example, among other new possibilities of interaction.
Interactive Content makes alliances between relevant content and entertainment, turning the consumer experience into something more dynamic and fun.
As a result, you can spark consumers’ desire, grab their attention, and guide them on their journey to conversion.
In addition, it is a great opportunity to collect primary data (first-party-data), that is, users provide their information directly on your pages.
There is no better way to accurately know the behavior of your audience, because every interaction that the user makes can be monitored.
For example: suppose that in your value proposition you identify that your business can solve 4 main customer problems. You can then create a quiz in which you ask the user which of these 4 problems is the one that hurts the most. By analyzing the answers you will make much more accurate decisions!
7. Social Media Marketing
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the 4 most used social networks today. And if consumers are in them, brands must too.
Through social media, companies can:
- inform : disclose products or services, articles, offers, actions, events and more;
- observe : analyze user behavior and what they are saying about your brand and competitors;
- interact : approach the public and find ways to create a connection between the brand and the users.
In addition to being an organic relational environment, social networks also offer advertising platforms that allow you to reach consumers more precisely through highly targeted ads.
And the best, without the need for large investments, since it is possible to start advertising with a minimum value.
8. Product Marketing
Product Marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on connecting the company’s products with people.
Your goal is to find the right consumers for a particular product and create a way to sell it that is interesting to buyers. This type of marketing is essential for startups that are launching a new product and entering a new market.
Do you want to inspire a large number of people with it without the need to spend a lot of money? To do this, you just have to create product demo videos.
Thus, the importance of Product Marketing is related to understanding the customer and the market and seeks to ensure that:
- the product is properly positioned for market demands;
- both the marketing and sales teams know the product adequately to develop efficient actions for new customers;
- the product meets the needs of the buyer-person;
- the product remains relevant as the market evolves.
In addition, in recent years Product Marketing has evolved to give rise to the concept of Product-led-Growth (product-oriented growth).
This methodology proposes that the same software or program offered by the company be a source of customer acquisition, conversion and retention, as it is constantly evolving for the user.
9. Co-marketing
Also called Cross Marketing, it is the alliance between two companies to create and promote a product, service, or content, making it reach a common audience, so that both benefit from the strategy.
This format of Digital Marketing can be very interesting for companies that do not have a consistent resource base for investment in advertising.
This is because the total cost of creating an advertising strategy is divided between the two parties, and some of them are even “absorbed” through the use of internal labor.
In the case of startups, this alternative can be very interesting, because a nascent company tends to have close contacts with others that are contemporary or operate in related markets. That proximity can generate a win-win relationship for your business and others!
