Marketing your company on a shoestring is one of the most common topics that people tweet about in the world of startups. Without a big marketing budget, you don’t have the options of your larger competitors. This doesn’t have to stop you from succeeding.
You are going to learn about five smart strategies that are going to help you market your startup on a shoestring.
1. Concentrate on the User Experience
Nothing differentiates you from the crowd like providing a great customer experience. The user experience tends to decline in quality the larger a company gets. This is just a fact because their resources are stretched so they can’t dedicate the same amount of time to each individual customer.
The best way to build customer relationships is to leave everyone who deals with your business feeling good. The number one reason why salespeople fail is that they are unable to engage their audience. They become pests, rather than people your target market actually wants to hear from.
A great user experience will also encourage more people to share their information because, as it stands, 95% will not even share their email address.
2. Cross Promotion
You need to target people in as many different capacities as possible. Segment the different areas of your customer base and think about how you can bring them together online and offline.
You may know a site that they can be introduced to. Sometimes you can target them in the places they congregate, such as in coffee shops and other local businesses. Handing out leaflets at a place where your target audience is likely to be is still an effective tactic. Don’t discount the value of more traditional marketing strategies entirely.
Cross promotion via guest posting is still an open as well. Team up with other businesses in order to make yourself more visible.
3. Develop a Content Strategy
You don’t need to hear it again, but it’s still just as important. Content is king and it always will be. You need to have a refined content strategy that will hit your target audience in all the right places. Your content strategy should define who your target market is and the sort of content they enjoy the most.
There’s a reason why nobody seemed to care about your blog detailing your philanthropic efforts. You targeted it at the wrong audience, rather than just because the content itself wasn’t interesting enough.
Today, video content is by far the most popular type. You should invest in it, but make sure that you have split it up sufficiently enough. Don’t focus on one type of content. Divide your content strategy into different content types.
Build Shareability into Your Content
Everything you post should have the best case scenario in mind. With every piece of content, you publish, assume that it has the potential to go viral. Give the general public the tools they need to easily share content. Invite engagement through answering questions and foster conversations between different users.
Anything you can come up with that will lead to some natural sharing is great.
4. Media Exposure
If you’re lucky enough to gain some media exposure, this can still be a major benefit to your company. Create a business and consumer story that the wider public would want to hear about. This is where great storytelling comes in handy.
With so much noise and competition, businesses are hard pressed to stand out from the crowd. Give people a reason to care about your business by creating something compelling that people can really identify with.
How do you start getting media exposure?
Your only option is to try to build your business naturally. Unless you happen to be part of Turner Broadcasting, you are going to have build yourself from the bottom up. That means you need to go out of your way to build up your story and grow your customer base slowly.
5. Building up Your Business on Nothing
As you can see, these strategies cost almost nothing to implement. You are using what’s already there to grow your business. Through clever use of social media and understanding your target audience, you are adding value without spending a single cent.
That type of business building can turn you into a juggernaut in a matter of months. What tips do you have for building your business on a low budget?