What Startups Need to Know About Digital Marketing
If you’re working in the startup space, you know first-hand that just being in it presents a set of unique challenges as well as some wonderful opportunities when it comes to digital marketing. This isn’t the place for a one size fits all cookie-cutter approach to customer value optimization, funnel development, or retargeting strategies.
Make sure you understand where you stand, what you need to do now, what needs to be done next, and what your marketing team should be focused on in order to get you to your next stage in development. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Develop a Marketing Strategy Now
Even if you aren’t able to execute on the plan right now, it’s important for you to know where you want to go so you’re ready when opportunity knocks. Your next hire may have some hidden skills which can help you put your plan into action and move you further down the field towards your desired goal.
Use your marketing strategy to shop agencies to see what kind of budget you need to set your plan. You may find you don’t need as much as you thought at this point in the game and a few minor adjustments to your budget could make it very realistic. You’ll also be ready for future investors who may ask “why do you need capital or what do you plan on doing with it?” Be ready with a well thought-out and clear plan of action.
Collaboration With Other Startups
There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel or invest your limited resources into discovering what many others in your area already know about digital marketing. Obviously, none of your direct competitors are going to share their marketing strategies with you, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone else targeting a completely different segment of the market who would be willing to collaborate for a win-win marketing effort.
Ask others in your coworking space if they would be interested in exchanging resources, tips, and even strategies to help build each other up. You know first hand how vital your network can be to your success at this stage as well as the ones in your future. Start to explore them at the next event.
Stock Options and Equity Stakes Can Be Very Attractive
Your innovation and development may not have produced a profit yet, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have some value which can be exchanged for services from a forward-thinking digital agency interesting in adding some upside potential to their investment portfolio.
Don’t be afraid to bring this option to the table as you’re negotiating services. This can be a serve as a huge incentive for them to bring their A Game, realizing when you win, they will ultimately win as well… and often that’s a much bigger win than they would have had if they did a straight fee-for-service arrangement.
Brand Awareness or Customer Acquisition
At this stage in your business development, it may not be best for you to focus on customer acquisition. Your infrastructure or even your product itself may not be ready at this point. Instead, you need to develop the brand awareness which will lead to greater funding during your next round, helping you to build a more solid foundation for your product development.
Make sure you’re talking to an agency which understands these intricacies of the startup world. For many of them, all they know how to do use arbitrage to convert leads into customers. That will be great when the time comes but right now you’ll need a strategy which brings your brand in front of the right people who can address your current needs of funding, development, or even partnership.
Content Marketing and Social Media Growth
Having a successful content marketing strategy requires you to generate fresh and compelling content on a frequent and, most importantly, regular schedule. Couple this with a solid and strategic social media marketing plan and you have the launch pad for this stage of your development.
A good number of agencies are incredibly skilled at marketing your content but leave a lot to be desired when it comes to creating the content for you. Copywriting for an ad campaign is much different than writing a great article for your niche market. Ask to see examples of their work in both areas; Hopefully, they have both sets of skills and will be able to create your content and spread it as far and wide as possible.
Get The Information You Need Today So You Can Win Tomorrow
Here at Vx3 Digital, we’ve had the good fortune of working with some incredible startups that are bringing amazing products and services to so many different spaces. From cutting edge social media platforms and apps to modern takes on food services, and even finding peace in the hustle of life, we’ve helped many reach the next level in the process, at a much quicker rate and with greater stability now and into the future.