The business landscape today is fast and competitive. Do you know how to market your startup in 2022 successfully? Check out this how-to guide to building strong startup marketing strategies.
As a startup, knowing where, when, and how to invest your marketing efforts is critical. Why? There is a lot at stake in marketing, especially in regards to staying in line with your budget, and on point with your brand messaging. So, it is absolutely imperative that you carefully plan how to market your startup.
In this entry, we will take a peek into the broad topic of startup marketing. And later on, we will lay out specific strategies and trends to look out for if you’re planning to show off your business this year.
What is Startup Marketing?
Startup marketing fundamentally encompasses any promotional activity you undertake to spotlight your startup business. This includes traditional and digital forms of marketing strategies.
Due to its startup nature, budgets and time spent committed to marketing are usually on a smaller scale, especially in the early days. Regardless, the goal is to leverage those efforts to make big impacts.
In fact, a startup marketing strategy is also a plan for growth. And traditionally, in order to achieve business growth, you need a sound marketing plan. Below are the 5 essential elements your startup marketing plan should include:
Research Data and Analysis
The first thing to do when curating your startup marketing plan is to gather data and situational analysis. What does the current market look like? Do you have a target audience or buyer persona? Is there data surrounding customers in that market? Who are your competitors and how does your company compare?
These questions need factual information you can leverage in your marketing efforts. Learning specifics on the target market, for example, would be useful in answering how you will execute your marketing plan. That will also answer what type of marketing format you should use—traditional, digital, or both.
Marketing Goals
Your marketing plan should contain what you want to achieve in the short and long term. The goals will set the direction for any strategy that you will implement. To start, you can ask the following questions:
- What do we want to achieve in X time?
- Is this a short-term or a long-term goal?
- What results would we expect from the strategies we make?
- Define the milestones of the marketing plan.
Take note that goals are different from milestones. Goals are the end of a means. On the other hand, milestones are the measurable accomplishments needed to advance towards the goals.
Marketing Strategy and Formats
In this part, answer “HOW” to achieve your goals. Outline the steps needing to be achieved in order to move closer to accomplishing your objectives.
At the same time, also define the method or channel where you will broadcast your marketing activities. Will you use traditional formats like print publishing, physical events, television and radio broadcasting, etc.? Or does digital marketing make more sense to achieve your goal? Perhaps both approaches apply.
Actionable Items and their Implementation
The action items will detail the actual execution steps of your marketing plans. This portion of the plan would involve the task breakdown and delegation to the respective team members.
Ensure you set reasonable and measurable expectations. You also need to set a clear timeline for the goals, whether they are short or long-term. Regularly monitoring your milestones will help keep track of the achievements being made.
Results and Feedback Data
From the previous steps, you will gain insight into the results of your marketing strategies. Make sure you have recorded everything that went into and out of the activities you’ve implemented. Here are the common metrics to track:
- Budget
- Engagement
- Sales or Conversions
- Insights (for Social Media Marketing)
- Expectation vs. Actual results (for different metrics), etc.
By having these metrics, you’ll be able to measure the success of your strategies and better decide how to continue moving forward. And even if your Startup Marketing Plan doesn’t work out, you can and should leverage your data to pivot and re-strategize.
Market Your Startup in 2022: Trends and Best Practices
The startup marketing plan is a basic foundation for promoting your early-stage company. But in today’s landscape, some factors could significantly elevate your efforts. Listed below are the best practices and trends in startup marketing in 2022 for you to consider.
Of course, you must use relevant tools and strategies that would adapt to the current market. Regardless of a solid marketing plan, your chances of success are greater when you tailor your plan to today’s dynamics. Here are some current best practices and trends to incorporate into your startup marketing plan:
1. Create a Clear Brand and Message
A good brand message strengthens the customer’s grip on your brand. This element is essential to properly establish who you are and what you offer in the market.
Moreover, creating a clear brand identity makes it easier for you to identify your target audience. It also allows the consumers to distinguish your brand from your competitors in the same target market. As such, the best startup marketing practice is to first solidify your messaging.
2. Use Digital Marketing
Marketing has evolved into reaching the digital devices we use daily. While traditional marketing, such as print and broadcast media, still exists exist, digital marketing is pushing that format to the side.
In fact, 58.4% of the entire population are using social media so most content and information consumption takes place digitally. This is an opportunity for companies to leverage different types of digital marketing strategies. Some digital marketing examples include
3. Invest in a Content Production Team
If marketing is not in your wheelhouse, you can hire professionals to elevate your marketing strategies. For example, it’s good to start with a content writer. Writers are experts in SEO, writing copies, blog articles, blurbs, and basic images. Make sure to hire a content writer who can understand your brand. In doing so, they could effectively write and promote your brand message.
4. Develop Quality Content
Whether you have a small or a huge content team, producing high-quality content is key.
In addition, keep in mind that the content development process does not end once the team publishes a campaign. Knowing where your target consumers go to access marketing material is also key.
Do you have a well-curated social media feed? Is your website responsive and not buggy if you publish through your website? These little things can impact how your customers engage with your content and brand. And ultimately, when they buy into it, you have successfully gained their attention.
5. Put Customers at the Center
With your marketing plan, remember to put your customers at the center of your strategies. Before deployment, ensure you have identified their problem, built the product to solve it, and the messaging to properly relay it all
The Full Scale team believes a good problem is one you can find a viable solution to. Leverage the problem your company solves as a pain point that should, in theory, gain the attention of your target customer. When you market your product in a way that resonates with them, you successfully hit your target audience.
6. Utilize Customer Experience/Relationship Management Tools
Customer engagement is also a key component to a better understanding of how to market your startup. And, consumer management isn’t finished when they purchase your product.
In software, for example, there has to be a feedback system users can access when issues arise. This system is within the domain of customer management which is also experiencing a digital transformation. Today, many companies are investing in Customer Experience Management (CXM) systems to bridge the gap between customers and the business.
These tools focus on customer engagement and relationships to ensure a satisfactory product experience from start to end.
7. Leverage Data and Trends
Data-driven marketing is set to yield the most results in this digital era. For startups with a limited budget, it’s especially important to keep track of key metrics to influence future marketing decisions.
In the previous section, we’ve highlighted the fact that results and data are integral to a marketing plan. It is even more critical for businesses that are just starting to gain customer traction. The insights and customer feedback will be key in providing high-quality services as you progress.
Grow Your Startup Today!
More than creating a great startup marketing strategy, your efforts’ success depends on your product’s quality and viability.
You may check all the marks in crafting a campaign, but if your product falls short, everything else fails. So to market your startup well, invest in building a strong product right out the gate.
Full Scale can help you build quality software
We are a software development company headquartered in Kansas City. At Full Scale, we provide our clients with software talent from our offshore arm in the Philippines. For more than four years, we have rendered more than 2 million hours to our clients from around the globe.
Aside from software development, we also offer QA testing, project management, content writing, copywriting, SEO, and graphic design services. It’s product development and marketing in one!
