8 Steps to Create a Digital Marketing Strategy for Startups

Promoting a startup is one of the most difficult yet important tasks. Important because

you need to spread the words to give your startup business some exposure, and difficult

because you have to start everything from the scratch. Apparently, you need an effective

digital marketing strategy for startups. We will discuss about the same in this post.

Digital Marketing Strategy for Startups:

Before you start publishing over social media or start creating links, you need to bring the

action plan on your table. Your digital marketing plan for startup should be divided

into small segments to enable proper tracking. The strategy could include many phases

and actions based upon your choice and type of your startup, but we’ll break it in 8 steps:

1. Identify the nature of your startup:

Not every business is same in nature, thus, you need a tailored digital marketing plan

for startup of yours. And appropriate techniques and strategies are needed to be

implementing to promote it. For instance, if your startup provides services to clients from

all parts of the globe, digital marketing for startups is the only rescue since it enables

you to reach the customers living thousands of miles away from you.

On the other hand, if you supply some products or services to your local customer, you

should focus on local SEO and local branding.

2. Identify your target customers:

Who you want to benefit with your startup business? Are they professionals working in

organizations, or kids, or housewives or elder people? Where do your target customers

belong to? Are they technology users or not? The digital marketing plan for startup

varies according to your target customers, thus, creating a customer acquisition plan is

highly important.

This is important because identifying your customers will allow you to pick the

appropriate marketing channel. If you want to target working professionals, focus on

ranking high on search engines. If you want to target kids, promote over social media and

YouTube. If you want to target housewives, spend some money on advertising over TV.

3. Identify the suitable marketing channel:

Finding the marketing channel is the most important part of the digital marketing

strategy for startups. As said before, not every channel is suitable for every business. So

spend some time in analyzing your business nature and targeted audience to pick the

perfect channel.

Here is a brief idea on how you may pick your suitable channel:

Working Professionals – LinkedIn, Twitter, Google

Housewives – Facebook, TV Commercials

Kids – Facebook, TV Commercials

Old People – Newspaper advertisements, TV Commercials

Many more factors are needed to be analyzed before investing your efforts and money in

promoting your startup. Analyze all of them carefully.

One effective method is wearing the shoes of your target customers. Where would you

spend most of the time if you were in their place? How would you search for a service or

product if you were in their place? Answer these questions and you will get a better idea.

4. Create your budget:

Money is the biggest obstacle for startups. They always remain short of budget. And

then, it comes to decide the priorities on how to spend your money. Generally, marketing

is overlooked in such harsh conditions because all you want is spending your money on

something that gives you immediate results, like website development for startups, and

ignore things that give long-term benefits.

But wait, this is perhaps the biggest mistake you could make. No matter how much, but

you must keep a part of your budget reserved for digital marketing. Promoting your

startup is the only way you can sustain in the marketplace.

So how much money you have in your pocket? Keep 10 percent of it for marketing

purpose. And out of this 10 percent, reserve half for digital marketing. Now plan out how

you would like to spend your money. Pick all possibilities and divide your budget

accordingly.

5. Hire a digital marketing agency for startups:

I would not suggest you to hire a full-time SEO manager if you are a startup because this

is a costly venture. Better way is hiring a freelancer or a company. And again I would

suggest you to hire a company since it guarantees professional and quality services.

There are hundreds or even thousands of companies out there providing digital marketing

services. But you should focus on finding one that specializes in promoting startups.

Choose the best company amongst them, tell them about your business and your

expectations, and ask them what they can do for you.

6. Create a digital marketing plan for Startups:

You may leave this on the digital marketing company you have hired, but don’t forget to

get the strategy they are going to follow. Alternatively, you may create your own strategy

and may ask your company to follow that. In either case, make sure the strategy is

effective and is properly implemented.

7. Track Results:

This should be done after some time, at least a month or two after the SEO work starts

because it takes some time to show the results. Don’t be impatient, but keep a close eye

on whether or not the strategies are properly implemented and you are moving into the

right direction.

8. Make adjustments:

If you see nothing good is happening, there might be something wrong with your action

plan. Or your digital marketing company is moving into wrong direction. Then this is the

time to make some necessary changes. Start with changing your strategies first and see if

this makes some difference. If not, you may need to take some hard decisions.

Now when you know how important it is to promote your startup, more important is

creating digital marketing strategy for startups. Keep above mentioned factors in mind

and follow these steps. This has helped thousands of startups gain great exposure and

results, and it will surely help you.

Arthonsys is a digital marketing agency for startups helping entrepreneurs gain

success in their businesses. If you want to see your startup idea converting into a

successful business, contact us today. We will be happy to help you.