A lot of startups come up with great ideas, but they fail to become a brand. The US has been the leading country when it comes to the number of startups founded in a year, hence it is essential to take measures that make you stand out amongst all your competitors in the market. With the right marketing and branding strategies, you can create a unique identity and make a lasting impression on your customers.
If you are confused about how to make your startup big, here are some ideas that can make it easier for you.
Marketing via Ads
Through content marketing, it will take longer to achieve the desired results. While it can be extremely rewarding for your business, it is less likely to see quick results. As you create content, you will need leads to generate revenue in the short term, and that’s where ads will come into play.
Ads are pay-to-play so you cannot scale it like content marketing, but once you turn on the campaign, the ads will start showing to targeted users.
There are various types of ads from which you can do ad marketing depending upon your marketing strategy, but some of the recommended ways are:
Google Ads
Google search ads are best used when people are already aware of the products or services they want and are searching Google to find the best provider of that product or service. Google ads appear at the top of the search results if you search for any product you want.
Social Media Ads
Using social media for advertising is a smart tactic because people don’t use social media for shopping but to socialize and watch content, and while browsing or watching random videos these ads appear on their feed or in between their videos. In this way, you can catch the attention of your potential customers and engage with them.
Display/ Banner Ads
Display ads are used for advertisement while users are browsing the internet. The display ads are ad banners that appear on various sites including news pages, blogs, or articles. Display ads are the best for re-targeting customers.
Source: www.qs.com
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is perhaps the most budget-friendly medium for marketing. It can be used for better customer interaction and for growing your audience. One great example of social media marketing is Starbucks, a coffee company with stellar Facebook and Instagram pages:
source: www.instagram.com/starbucks
Facebook and Instagram both offer to create a business page for free, so you can run a business page for your brand for better customer engagement. Starbucks has a very strong presence on social media. They engage with customers with almost every post they put on their page, for example responding to customers’ comments actively, listening to their concerns, and reposting their loyal customers’ posts. In this way, they keep their customers happy and engaged.
A social media page for a business that remains active and encourages customer participation is a great strategy to expand reach, drive traffic to your website, and stand out in the market.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great way of attracting customers to your business for a very low cost. Once you have a list of email addresses of potential customers, you can start sending emails to promote your business. Email marketing is used to make customers in your email list aware of your products or services or any promotions.
Another way of getting customers signed up for your emails is to place a newsletter signup button on your website so customers can sign up for your email newsletter and don’t miss any updates about your business.
For email marketing, a lot of different tools are available in the market like Mailchimp. It helps you manage and design custom emails to potential leads.
Logo Design
Just having an innovative idea, completing its development, and then entering the market is not enough to be a successful business. You need to work on a number of things to effectively communicate the value of what you are bringing to the table for your target audience. When we talk about communication, the logo is the most important communication tool that a business should work on.
It’s the face of your business; the first thing to grab people’s attention is your logo. Through an attractive logo, you can make a lasting first impression and create your identity in the mind of your customers. Hence your logo should be such that it symbolises the characteristics and the idea behind your business for customers to recognize and remember it.
Let’s take an example of Airbnb, an online rental marketplace:
Source: www.twitter.com/myebcard/status/1159630371014811650
The Airbnb logo is a combination of 4 symbols – A head represents people, a pin icon represents places, a heart represents love, and an ‘A’ represents the company Airbnb. This is all Airbnb is about.
Designing a logo for your business should not be complicated with online tools such as PosterMyWall logo maker, where you can easily create an attractive and meaningful logo for your business without any hassle.
Publish Content on Website
Publishing content on your website is a great way to grow brand awareness. You don’t need to invest money for it, but it will cost you time. The content should be optimised with Google so that whenever a potential customer searches about a particular product or service, your content is visible on top of the google search results. Moreover, it will build your credibility in the market and establish your business as a thought leader. You can drive your potential customers to your social media channels through your content.
Source: www.blog.hubspot.com
Business Cards
Despite online marketing strategies, business cards are an efficient way to connect with your customers. With business cards, you can quickly make an impression on your potential customers. Most businesspersons keep their business cards in handy to promote their business while attending any conference or any business event. You never know when that card you hand out to a person will lead you to a new potential customer.
Business cards usually contain details like your name, designation, contact, and website, but digital marketers have turned these cards into an effective tool to drive customers with advanced and modern designs. There are a lot of tools available easily online for creating and designing professional business cards like PosterMyWall business card creator, where you can easily create business cards for your business effortlessly.
Conclusion
Marketing and branding may take many forms, but the key to a successful strategy is to know what suits your business the best and goes with your brand ideology. Your startup can become a successful brand and a go-to place for people if you execute the right marketing strategy at the right time.