Top 15 Tips for Marketing Startup in 2020

The whole idea of startup revolves around serving customers with an out-of-the-box solution that solves a problem they face. So, marketing plays an essential role in the entire process. If done right, the startup witnessing overnight success becomes a plausible outcome. On the contrary, an excellent idea unable to reach out to the masses ends on a sour note.

India may double startup base by 2020. To get you off to a start, here are fifteen Startup marketing ideas worth trying out.

15 Ways of Marketing Your Startup

SEO Propels Your Marketing

Nowadays, the kind of business doesn’t matter but having an internet presence does wonder. So, it’s common to have a website, be it a startup, medium-size business or a large scale organization.

Search Engine Optimization is essential to get the product or service the required attention. Investing in professional SEO services means reliable results and the probability that your website ends up in the first or second page of the search engine’s results. But you can also do it on your own just by learning a few new techniques and the guidelines.

If you are serious about your business and want to grow then you should start building quality content. Post those quality content regularly on your website and try to give value as much as possible. This way you will be able to get your SEO success soon.

Posting On Popular Blogs

A lot of blogs are out there, some with huge traffic and some without such kind of presence. Identify the blogs frequented by the startup’s target audience and reach out to them. Results may not be immediately visible but they will eventually show up.

If you already have a blog then it will be a great opportunity for you. Try to find some blogs similar to yours and comment genuinely, it will help you to build a relationship with other bloggers and also can give you some quality back-links.

Public Relations (PR) Strategy

With a correct PR strategy, you can convey your message to the right audience. A successful PR strategy can bring you a lot of loyal customers.

While making a PR strategy your first step would be deciding your target audience first. After that make sure you know what your goal and objective are. This will help you to run a successful PR strategy.

Also read:

• Low-Cost Marketing Strategies For Startups
• Getting The Much-Needed Initial Traction For Your Startup

Discounts And Freebies

“There ain’t no such thing as free products” but you can get one at a discount. Offering exclusive discounts based on demography can entice people into buying your product. Complement it with some sort of freebies and publicity increased many folds.

The trick here is to organize giveaways using some kind of segregation—the buyers need to feel special as if the discount is specifically tailor-made for them.

Advertisements

Use billboards, pamphlets and flyers. Add creative visualizations to make the information an interesting read. Don’t give extended details; it bores the reader. But before that, go through a repeated cycle of design-feedback-review. This should be done before the pamphlets, etc. are distributed. Getting feedback on the prototype allows you to check the missing points that go into making a great printed distribution material.

Email Marketing

This method is old but no less than gold. The advent of spam filters has made email marketing a bit difficult. But it still is an effective strategy, to be honest. Create a database of potential buyers, send them quality content regularly.

You can also send your posts in the form of emails, it will help you not only to re-purpose your old content but also provide value to your audience.

Recommendations And Referrals

No matter how attractive or enticing the technical review of the product/service is, people still ask relatives and friends for review. A simple example: before buying a high-end smartphone, you enquire about the same from those who own the same model. The same goes for any product. Focus on ‘word of mouth’ publicity.

Offer referral commission to the users. This way your old customers will be engaged with you for a long time and even for a lifetime.

Use Community Events As A Platform

Make the best out of flea markets, a local get-together for they offer a pedestal to demonstrate the startup’s product. The event attendance fee is minimal (and even free in some cases), in such events a good crowd’s gather, you can spend the entire day in conversing with them. In case people don’t take notice of your product, leverage the opportunity to enhance your network.

Industry Partnership

All startups can’t afford to spend a lot of money on marketing. Partnering with a more established company can provide the required capital and insights. The terms of negotiation possess the biggest challenge; the industry veteran would likely ask for a stake in the startup. In such cases, cons are going to be there for sure along with the pros. The focus should be on the latter outweighing the former.

Promote the Product as a User

If you don’t take pride in what you sell, expecting others to react positively is a distant dream. If the founder endorses his product both as a promoter and user, the target audience sees him from a different perspective. It enables the startup to gain traction with the clients, since both evaluate the product as a user.

Use of Referral Programs

Another way of successfully launching your startup is to make the customers help you to promote your product. This will make promotions of your brand to a more distant area. Using 'Brand Ambassador' programmes can help you to ask your customers to promote your product among people. The more ambassador you have, the more promotion you can have of your product.

You can approach small YouTubers to be your Brand Ambassador as they already have a fan base. It will be easy for you to grow your brand faster.

Use of "Beta Version"

So, what we always crave for, the things we don't have and exclusive things. Hence, the creation of a beta version will help you get more people engaged in your startup as they will be getting a chance to get an exclusive version of your product. The more sign-ups, more exposure to your company.

Social Media Promotion

Social media is the key to why brands are getting popular and selling out in seconds. So focus on building a great and empowering social media platform for your product. The more popularity in your social media, the more popular you will get in the actual marketing scenario. Also, that will surely lead to an increase in sales.

So don't hesitate from creating a strong and attractive social media platform for your company and make a good investment in your social media marketing.

Also read:

• How To Use Instagram For Business
• How To Use LinkedIn For Marketing

Charity and Other Such Events

This sounds a bit weird but this surely works as events like Charity, auction are the hub of a variety of customers which you can target.

Either sponsor such events or be a part of it, so that your brand is shown in the sponsor list or present yourself there in front of the crowd along with your brand. This will surely help you to grow your brand more. It sounds weird but this can be a Trump card to your success if you can work it.

Host Contests And Giveaway Offers

As it says "old is gold ", this trick has been used by biggest to smallest, all kinds of startups because of its efficiency. Host various contests which are going to engage customers focus on your startup.

Also, do give offers or gifts with your product. This works like honey, as your customers will get stick to you more and you will get more customers also. For a new startup, it is efficient to get some regular customers, so this can be a cue to get some regular customers.

Also read:

• 10 Ways To Market On Pinterest | Pinterest Marketing
• 7 Best Growth Hacking Techniques for Startups

Conclusion

The most important marketing suggestion is "you", the owner. It all depends on how you work and how creative you can be when it comes to marketing and promotion of your startup. So be more creative and come up with innovation, so that helps you make your startup different from others and focus on the customers' behaviour related to your product.

Do give value to your customers' feedback, and focus on making your startup a customer-friendly worthy.