Running and managing your own startup is not an easy thing. However, you never know if it’s worth the risk until you start your own business.
Brand positioning and generating awareness around it can be the most challenging tasks for young startups. That’s right, in order to create a buzz with regard to the product or service startups offer, they should be aware of various rules and secrets and have a strong grip.
One of the typical restrictions they may have is trying to promote themselves with a limited marketing budget. The reality is: if do not have enough resources to promote your startup, this requires a bit of creativity and flexibility.
In this post, we are glad to share some effective strategies to market your startup. Let’s get to the point.
Best ways to promote a startup
Of course, you must care about online presence and develop a functional and informative website. Your target audience will also appreciate if you publish relevant and insightful blog posts regularly.
Besides, pay attention to the following:
Listing services and free platforms
Registering your startup with Google Places lets it be easily found on Google searches. Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing have a similar service that’s easy to sign up for.
Use popular startup platforms where you can take advantage of and get more exposure – Product Hunt, AngelList, CrunchBase and Reddit.
Own blog and content
Content marketing is one of the best starting points for startups. Successful and well-managed blogs help companies to get their names out through followers and connect with consumers more directly.
Proposing relevant and trustful info, keeping the stream updated as frequently as you can are the main secrets of effective blogs.
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is about link building. It brings traffic from different websites to your site. You can easily find sites that are related to your business and offer guest posting for them.
Relevant social media
It’s a natural thing for startups today to have a permanent presence on social media. All popular networks require consistency: wherever you choose to be presented, be there. Many researchers have proved the fact that being active on social media accounts allows startups to engage customers better.
Question-and-answer sites and forums
There are powerful platforms that allow the professional community to interact with each other using questions and answers. For example, Quora, Answers.com, Askville, Spring.me, All Experts, etc. Different marketing forums also seem helpful. You can answer questions related to your business and industry or post your own doubts for free.
Local events
Offline tools are also effective. Association with local events may help to display the product or service and generate public buzz.
You may also hold different contests (offline or online) and offer the discounts to use your product or service for the winners.
Personal connections
It’s about cooperation with brand advocates and influencers. Perhaps it not so challenging to find those who are talking about your area of expertise. Get to know them offline or strike up a conversation online. Strive to build a relationship with those who post and spread the word about startups and products like yours.
Creative video or smart infographic
These types of content are always sharable. Investing your efforts and time into a fun and popular visual can be a successful marketing solution.
Email marketing
Email marketing activities will also help to promote your startup and share news concerning updates, special pricing offers, and discounts – all that will be interesting for customers.
Press releases
This classical PR form is a short announcement written for the media that may contain some updates of your startup, company reorganization, upcoming events, or whatever it is. Press releases are aimed to immediately get attention and boost your traffic.
SEO strategy
Search engine optimization is worth to be added here as well. Head over to a how-to-guide on SEO and make sure your site is primed for performance on search engines.
Final words
Often startups cannot boast of extra resources. They are limited and it can be a real challenge to work on business and marketing simultaneously.
You should definitely try to use some or all the ideas mentioned above to position and promote your startup effectively.
Do you know other ways to market a startup? Please share your ideas.