3 Cost-Effective Marketing Ideas Your Start-up Needs
Startups have an uphill battle at the best of times. With the wealth of competition you’ll have – regardless of your industry – you’ll need to stand out to survive and thrive. Multiple elements go into this to make sure your startup has a chance. Having a marketing strategy is one of the more notable parts of this.
Growing your business may prove impossible otherwise. Despite how vital marketing can be to your company, many entrepreneurs don’t know how to nail their marketing. Choosing the right ones for them can be complicated, especially when you’re on a tight budget.
Thankfully, there are more than a few cost-effective marketing ideas for startups you can choose from. While you’ll still need to put the work into adapting them for your specific customer demographic, you should see greater visibility and increased sales because of it.
Why Is A Marketing Strategy Important For Startups?
Every business needs customers to survive. Without them, you don’t have a revenue source. To get this, you’ll need to get your company’s name out there, which means spending time advertising to potential customers. Taking a scattershot approach isn’t recommended, however.
The average person sees thousands of ads every day and ignores most of them. They’ll typically click on a small percentage of them and buy in a fraction of these cases. With the advent of ad blockers, the chances of many of these ads being seen by potential customers is increasingly unlikely.
Having a marketing strategy lets you position your company to be one of the ads potential customers click on. It not only lets you find a way around hurdles and obstacles, but gets your name out and maximises your return on investment from marketing.
Cost-Effective Marketing Ideas For Startups: 3 Top Options
1. Email Marketing
It’s projected that there’ll be 4.3 billion email users by the end of 2023. That’s a significant number of people you could be advertising to. Using email marketing is one of the most effective ways of doing so, with the process having a significant number of benefits.
Perhaps the most notable is how affordable it can be. Once you’ve built your email list and designed your templates, there are relatively few costs associated with email marketing. It also serves as an effective way to build a relationship with your customers.
Email marketing feels more one-on-one and personal. By taking advantage of this, you encourage brand loyalty and customer retention. Though it’ll take time to develop your email list, it’ll have more of an impact than you could think.
2. Social Media Marketing
While paid social media marketing requires an ongoing cost, there’s also the free option. Though this takes longer to show the results you want, organic traffic and engagement can be an effective way of growing. By adding a small investment into this at the start, you could kickstart that growth and see results faster.
You have various platforms to choose from, based on your target demographic, including:
- TikTok
By researching where your target demographic is, you shouldn’t have a problem choosing the platforms to advertise on. Once you have this, you can start building more of a relationship with your customers.
3. Search Engine Optimisation
Designing and building a high-quality website goes beyond making sure it looks nice and functions well. You’ll need to use search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to make sure you get visitors. The process involves creating your website around specific keywords related to your business.
These keywords are phrases that people search when looking for products or services like yours. By ranking well for them, you ensure your website is seen by people who are actually interested in what you sell. It’s a way of improving brand visibility while increasing sales.
Quite a few startups don’t have the manpower to nail this, making outsourcing to another firm – like BigSurf – a recommended one. You’ll see all of the benefits of SEO with relatively few of the costs.
Cost-Effective Marketing Ideas For Startups: Wrapping Up
Implementing a few cost-effective marketing ideas for startups can help make sure your company not only survives in the market, but thrives. When you’re on a tight budget, you’ll need to make sure every penny you spend is spent well.
Once you do, you can rest assured you’ll see a positive return on investment. With each of the above strategies, you should feel confident that’s the case. Though they need some work and patience, they’re some of the most effective ways to help your startup grow.
