As a marketer, you’re constantly being bombarded by everything you should be doing and keeping up with to be successful.
“It’s all about content! It’s all about mobile! It’s all about video! No! It’s about social media!”
(Actually, it’s really about all of the above and more.)
If you’re working at a well established company perhaps all these new demands of marketing are somewhat manageable, but if you’re working with a startup that’s just trying to get on its feet - you’re strapped for resources and need to learn how to prioritize to make the most of your efforts. While it’s essential to read up daily (if that’s not possible, then at least weekly) on new data and trends affecting marketing and your industry, you should be pragmatic in what to apply instantaneously to your endeavors and what you should hold off on until you’re better suited to utilize its full potential.
Most successful brands have accepted and now fully embraced the notion that “success depends on their ability to build rich relationships with consumers hungry for engaging content and personalized experience”. However, for a startup that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath all of that lies the need for a solid and unique product or service that almost naturally lends itself to the viral marketing that everyone strives for today. If the actual quality of the product doesn’t hold a light to its marketing hype, then you could just pack up now. In the digital world, traditional “word-of-mouth” has been amplified by social media so conspicuously that in order to stay afloat, your foundation needs to be essentially unshakeable.
Since you’re hopefully marketing something that has true value for its target consumer audience, you need to allocate your time and resources to produce engagements, experiences, and relationships that your customers crave. The first logical place to start is with branding and positioning. Get that website (you obviously have a website, right?) into tip-top shape, make sure the user experience is optimal, and that your various marketing personas can easily find any information they may be seeking.
Now determine which social media channels best suit your company (Hint: It should at least be three to four) and set up those pages without delay. To actually begin using your website and social media presence to your advantage you need to formulate a plan with relevant content and posts. This article from HubSpot can help you get started on creating a plan for your content marketing. Some pieces of content may simply be used for informational and branding purposes on social media, while others can be made into CTAs that will help you gather information about potential leads. Consistently blogging or perhaps vlogging, if you’re not much of a writer or simply love being on camera, and establishing your brand as a regular and influential voice in the field will attract readers and viewers to help share your message. Using lead information, expanding your email marketing campaigns will help you continue to distribute your content and keep customers engaged with your offering.
Hopefully after you’ve established your first few marketing channels and start to see them gain traction, you’ll begin to research various promising advertising options that your brand could utilize with their resources to complement and enhance your organic marketing efforts. Always planning, staying consistent, measuring, and enhancing your campaigns will help create the momentum you need to move your startup forward. If you’re resourceful and creative, while marketing a great product or service, you’ll undoubtedly achieve success.
