20 Apr What are the Best Ways to Market a Startup on a Budget?

It would be safe to assume that 2017 is going to be a startup friendly year. After all, the world of modern business looks kindly on young enterprises. There are so many options to get your funding, so many networks to connect with people from your niche, and globalization has made it easier than ever to take your business worldwide.

Unfortunately, even with all of this, 9 out of 10 startups result in failure. Why? Well there are several reasons, one of them being lack of devotion to marketing. Some try to come up with excuses that they didn’t have enough money for a proper marketing campaign, but the truth is that this can easily be done on a budget. So, here are few things you can do to promote your startup that you won’t have to pay a small fortune for.

Setting up a Blog

How much does it cost to set up a blog? Well, in theory it could cost you literally nothing. You can go with Medium and write your own content. Unfortunately, this is usually not the most effective way to handle things. By adding a blog on your website, you get numerous privileges which will give it a much greater autonomy in terms of design. Though you should check out Medium as well, since it is a massive community full of opportunities.
As for the part that includes you doing all the writing and posting, this too is something you would be wise to reconsider.

You see, the audience will expect you to make frequent updates on your blog, which means you will have to come up with new content once or twice a week. This includes getting an inspiration, doing the research, writing an article and proofreading it. All of this, while trying to get your startup through a rough first year.

This is why you may want to consider having guest bloggers or regular contributors. Sure, you can always allocate a member of your staff to deal with this, but this would mean distracting them from their primary duties. However, it would be good to give a personal input to your customers via a blog post from time to time.

Schedule Your Content Wisely

Another thing you need to keep in mind is that how you schedule your content matters as well. As we already mentioned in the social media section, there are some parts of the week where people are simply more likely to visit your website. Furthermore, every industry has its important dates, so if there is an important release or a major event that may interest your clients, you will need to cover/review it properly. Finally, for major holidays your clients will expect you to offer topical content and failing to do so may result in no small amount of disappointment. All of this doesn’t come easy and there are so many things to take into consideration, but a bit of strategic thinking can go a long way.

Social Media Marketing

Sure, there are those that invest quite a bit in a social media marketing, but it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, most of the social media marketing you can handle on your own, as soon as you learn few tricks. First of all, you need to know when to post your prime content so that it has a chance to get the greatest response. For example, it is known that Saturdays are by far the best days for Facebook promotion, since most people are home behind their computers instead of being stuck at work, even though 90 percent of regular Facebook users access it from mobile devices regularly.

Email Marketing

Despite what most people believe, email marketing is definitely not dead. However, it is true that people have become extremely suspicious towards spam-like content. They say that 8 out of 10 people don’t read newspapers past headlines and the same goes for emails. In order to make people read what you wrote them, you will need to give them a compelling subject line. Don’t go too broad, and don’t overburden it with unnecessary information. Be direct, to the point, and make every word count.

Additionally, seeing how roughly 34 percent of people read emails exclusively on their phones, make sure that any email you send out is mobile friendly. In an ideal scenario, if a person receives an email, opens it on their phone and can’t read it, they will simply postpone it for when they come home. On the other hand, this best-case scenario is highly unlikely and people will probably just give up at the first sign of the trouble.

Analytics Tools

The real hunter always studies their pray and no matter how inappropriate of a comparison this may be for you and your clients, it is a highly accurate one. One of the ways to study their patterns of behavior is through an analytics tool. Luckily for those without a serious marketing budget, there are a lot of great free platforms out there.

As you can see, the price of marketing is not always measured in money. Instead, it can be paid in effort. By researching this topic on your own, you will find a myriad of ways to relieve your budget. While most of these savings will be minor, there are those that can really make a difference in your company’s funds. At the end of the day, it all comes down to a simple principle – the more you learn, the less you pay.