Adopting the right marketing strategy can make a huge difference. It is often one of the things that may determine the future of your business, as well as the success of your startup project. Whenever you are dealing with a new startup, be it in Pakistan or anywhere in the world, you should remember that spending enough time on developing the right marketing strategy is one of the first things you need to do. Everyone wants more signups, users, and subscribers. But the problem lies in how to get them quickly and without paying too much.

Instead, you need to get creative with your marketing and make a big impact with some different ideas and creative thinking. This kind of creative, unexpected growth is often termed growth hacking. It’s a way to promote your business not just through marketing, but through all channels of your business. This will provide you with bigger results than huge spending will ever be able to do. In fact, even the simplest solutions may prove to be very efficient marketing strategies that will help you get your business to the next level.

We have complied 6 Marketing tips for Startups:

1. Target the Correct Audience

Reaching all the masses can cost a lot of money, and it may not deliver the desired results. However, reaching the right audience will have a much better results in terms of success and attention. You can’t expect to have a positive impact on everyone you try to reach. That’s why marketing campaigns, especially those for startups, should target a particular audience. Once you’ve prepared your product or service, you must decide what criteria you should use when it comes to targeting your audience.

2. Research Your Target Market Thoroughly

This seems obvious but it’s something that 42% of small businesses get wrong. They don’t assess the needs of their target market correctly. They build products that the market doesn’t need or appreciate. While you may be excited about your new product or service, it may not click as well with your consumers. Every new product or marketing campaign should be planned with the intended audience in mind.

All great products helped people overcome some pain points or challenges. For instance, ride-sharing apps like Uber recognised that commuters want the comfort of on-demand cabs that they can book via an app. People also wanted affordability, cleanliness, and safety. They designed and marketed their service according to customer needs and were successful.

3. Never Underestimate Social Media

Social media is the biggest thing in the marketing field nowadays, and every successful marketing strategy involves a whole lot of social media interaction. Register a page for your business with Google+, Facebook and Twitter, and start building an audience. Of course, you shouldn’t forget to interact with your followers on a regular basis in order to keep their attention and interest.

Social media has become a potent marketing and selling channel. Startups can’t really afford to neglect social media marketing any more. But you need to identify the networks that are relevant to you instead of wasting resources for marketing everywhere.

For example, Stories are becoming a mainstay of marketing on social media. In a survey of 1800 marketers, it was found that social stories are especially effective in driving organic sales.

Encourage existing and past customers to share their favourable experiences with your brand and tag you.  You can also collaborate with influencers to spread the word about your brand. Influencers have a deeply-invested community of followers who trust their recommendations. If an influencer promotes your products, you get buy-in from their followers. The key is to select influencers who have the same niche and audience as yours.

4. Sell First, Build Later

How can you sell something that doesn’t exist? Naturally, you need to have a well-defined vision about what your product will look like and what it will accomplish. But you need not go into overdrive trying to launch it.

If you are able to sell your vision to investors or customers, you’d have locked in seed capital that can be used for manufacturing. There’s one more benefit of marketing a product which is still on the drawing board. You can gauge how it will be taken by your customers.

In fact, you can make amends to the product design and functionality based on popular demand. This can help you minimise major risks in your product.

Many new entrepreneurs think that the best way to progress is to invest lots of money in one big marketing campaign. However, spending your entire budget on one single campaign may have a very negative impact on your finances, and the worst part is that there is no guarantee that you’ll achieve the desired results. Make sure to build campaigns that are reasonable.

Expensive isn’t always better, and it is much better to implement tricky and intriguing marketing campaigns that will awaken the interest of users. For example, hosting events and contests is a neat and cheap way to reach a huge audience.

5. Focus on Customer Experience

A startup should be obsessed with providing the best experience to its customers. Startups are competing with established brands who have earned a good reputation. Positive feedback from customers can help them make inroads in the competitive environment.

Startups also have an advantage. Since they have a narrow user base, they can serve each customer better. And they don’t have to spend a ton doing so.

Your customers are your brand advocates. They can market your products even better than experienced sales representatives. Their testimonials can help you attract new customers. So, make sure that you reward your loyal customers amply. Startups typically don’t have deep pockets. So, giving away lavish freebies may not be an option. But you can extend priority customer service and exclusive deals to them.  Having a rewards system is also a great way to foster loyalty in customers. It’s important to promote your customer loyalty program extensively so that it doesn’t become mere lip service. Let customers know how they can redeem the reward points they collect.

6. Build Partnerships

Succeeding on your own won’t be easy, especially if you are new in the field. However, by building the right partnerships and forming strong relationships with some of the big names in the field may significantly help you deploy your marketing strategies. Determine who the industry leaders in your field are, and make sure to get closer with them. Strategic & sturdy partnerships can get you a long way, and the best part is that they don’t require any investment.

Your company isn’t the only thing you should market. Marketing yourself is also important, so take the necessary measures to look professional in the eyes of your competitors and potential followers. Wear the right clothes, say the right words, go to the right places, and you will easily turn yourself into one of the trusted entities in your field of business.

Conclusion:

Hence, to conclude, there are many small tricks of the trade for startups to market themselves. Using the right ones at the right time can help do wonders for an individual startup. However, you must know at which stage what step or tip must be implied. We can help you deliver this at Startup.pk.