Effective & Budget-friendly Digital Marketing Strategies for Every Startup

Giving birth to 2–3 startups every day, India has the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world. On the flip side, it also witnesses a high number of startup failures; with a majority of ventures shutting down within just 2 to 5 years of starting up. Though lack of innovation is said to contribute to their failures, the paucity of funds due to bad or no income generation is said to contribute more. Can you guess what would be the main reason behind this drying up of funds and negative cash flows? It is the absence of effective Digital Marketing Services strategies.

Yes, despite the founders trying to be smart and ingenious with their ideas, it is their abandonment of marketing plans which leads to the reduced pour in of income and diminished raise of fresh funds after seeding.
Using minimal resources for optimum impact is the key to the survival of any startup venture. So, what are the budget-friendly yet effective Marketing Strategies that will help one invest the least amount of resources available and obtain the greatest amount of benefits possible? Read on to find out!

Post on social media

The world of social media has taken a huge upturn in recent years, with statistics uncovering that number of monthly ‘active’ users is 2.6 billion on Facebook, 330 million on Twitter, 1 billion on Instagram, 310 million on LinkedIn. With such huge numbers, social networks have become the main instrument of communication between the customer and the brand and also a strong sales tool for many companies. Not all social networks are the same, and not all of them offer the same kind of opportunities. For instance, Instagram works well for image-oriented businesses, Facebook for video-oriented businesses, Twitter for text, etc. So, understanding what type of content performs well on which platform is the key to success in social media marketing. When it comes to businesses with a social media presence, regardless of their size, whether they are selling products or providing services, it is quick, easy, and inexpensive to do so. It is important to note, however, that these days, even the startups that don’t deal with social networks are now located in the past. So, what’s your favorite?

Social media content can be created using simple approaches, such as the following.

Smartphone cameras today are powerful enough to snap incredible photos, shoot interesting videos, edit them quickly, add a variety of effects, and incorporate some music. Here’s an idea. If you have a smartphone, snap some photos of your product or your company’s offerings and then use free, copyright-free music to create a video with product demos, How-to guides, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business.
In addition to your videos, get creative with hashtags to help your business rise in popularity. Here are some basic guidelines for using hashtags: Choose hashtags that are relevant and specific to your brand, use them sparingly, and avoid writing too many words in a single hashtag.

Live videos are your best bet. When you’re creating content for live streaming, there are several content types to consider, including interviews and Q&As, events, brand updates, product tutorials, demos, and more. Before hitting the “Live” button, make sure your connection is good, your lighting is adequate, and you have a solid plan for how you’ll present your work. This way, your end result won’t be compromised.

Publishing additional content that is tangential to the primary goal is appropriate. Content that is tangential to, but not necessarily relevant to, your brand is referred to as tangential content. In addition, you can use a video to provide advice on “How to dress” or “What to wear for different occasions”. Lets define the word “tangential” in a single sentence: Tangential content is all that is informative, educational, and fun.

Testimonials make great content, and in connecting with people on an emotional level, they help earn trust. Encourage your customers who are happy with their purchase to create videos or photos showcasing their positive experiences and brand recognition. Incorporating customers’ stories helps people to see themselves accomplishing the same things that others have when they start using your product or service. This causes customers to develop an emotional connection to your product and motivates them to give it a try.

Launch referral programs to draw more people to your product or service.
According to a study published in the International Journal of Advertising, 90% of customers trust recommendations from friends, family, colleagues, and industry peers over any other form of marketing. Existing customers are the most valuable marketing asset any business can have. Referral marketing revolves around the power of the user base and turning each satisfied customer into an unpaid brand ambassador for your startup. You might be able to get customers to refer you naturally through word of mouth, but it will require some marketing initiatives, web development company incentives, or rewards to get customers to spread the word about your brand.

Publish a lot of useful information

Creative wording that claims that content marketing creates three times as many leads as any other type of marketing. That is correct. The ultimate success comes when you have a smart content marketing strategy in place. Benefits like giving an idea, solving a problem, or clarifying a doubt don’t always focus on selling, but instead on delivering something of value to the reader. Selling is most often an aftereffect of this. How will your content be presented? Anyone who could use information in an easy way, like through blogs, videos, podcasts, or infographics, should consider using one of these forms.

Grow your online visibility through SEO

It might take you a number of days and nights to produce noteworthy content, and then you would just have to publish it in the right way. In fact, even though there are no clicks, signups, or subscribers, there are still no results? For what reason? Your lack of visibility in the search engine results is the reason for this. Boosting your rankings through SEO Services can greatly improve your visibility and put you on your target customers’ radar. For a newcomer, the term “SEO” might seem impenetrable and difficult to understand. In order to help search engines to better understand your site, you must make changes to your website’s design, include keywords that are relevant to your niche, consistently produce high-quality content, obtain relevant links, and much more.

Give it a shot with the releases and features in the newsroom.

No matter how big or small your business is, news releases and press releases help your company get the word out and tell its story far and wide. Although a breaking news headline from BBC or CNN can be quite valuable, not every story needs such a prominent source to get picked up in media outlets; even newsworthy and noteworthy stories will appear in trade journals, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and industry-specific journals. When a startup turns to a press release, some of the most common reasons include announcing upcoming events, releasing product updates, responding to an issue specific to their industry, or responding to a crisis.

Use pay-per-click (PPC) ads

In this pay-per-click (PPC) model, you create custom ads for your startup and pay each time when a user clicks on the ad. You can allocate your own budget and specify the maximum amount that you are ready to pay for each click. Setting up a successful PPC ad is a lot of work, and starts with research and keyword selection. The better you create the relevant and engaging ads, the higher the return on investment.

Send E-mails

People always have a high level of interaction with their emails. So, making email marketing as a part of your marketing strategy can help reach your business goals more easily, often with some extraordinary results. First start collecting your prospects’ email addresses by placing a newsletter signup form or through some form of a call to action on your website. Then send targeted messages by personalizing it for individuals and optimizing it for multiple devices. Diversify your emails with various contents like free eBooks, trials, reports, demos, guides, how-to articles, videos and infographics rather than only commercial advertorial contents, so that your subscribers do not lose interest and opt out of receiving your emails.

Promote yourself through personal branding

The term “branding” is not only reserved for corporate businesses, but also for individuals. Your personal branding builds trust with your prospective clients, which enables you to connect with people and to open many doors for you in the future. Also, it has a number of other benefits, and as a result, it empowers you to differentiate yourself from your competitors, thereby fostering an excellent business. The process of personal branding is as simple as using social media platforms (like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and various websites) to distribute your work and to let the world know about you.
engage with forums and communities
Using online communities such as forums and groups to find the community that is right for your business can help your startup realise its vision and engage with your customers in a completely different way. If you would like to learn about how to join the appropriate forum, here are a few tips for you.
If you know something about your niche, do a search on the keyword “forum” your topic. For example: Search for “Software Forum” if your business is software-related. The next step is to search forums with at least 1,000 members.
You should join a forum before you join it if the forum gets at least ten new posts each day.
You should stay away from forums that are plagued with too many spam posts.