Building a company is an exciting venture, but creating and sustaining demand for what you are selling can be challenging. This is where marketing comes in.
There are many marketing options available to help a startup grow revenues. In this blog post I’m going to review the key ones:
- Advertising—the goal of advertising is to attract new customers. After all, no matter how awesome your company’s product or service is, if you don’t advertise, nobody will know about it. Although there are many forms of online advertising, some of the most effective methods are search engine ads, banner ads and social media ads. Click here to read more about these three different types of advertising: http://bit.ly/1R8P1PM.
- Branding—a powerful brand increases the probability of your company’s success. A strong identity builds awareness, evangelizes your company’s story and, ultimately, increases return on your investment. A brand is much more than a name or a logo—it’s the sum of all the creative touch points of your company. And a strong identity gives you an edge over your competitors. Here’s a blog post describing how we developed the Alphabet brand: http://bit.ly/1SmXtf6.
- Content marketing—content marketing alters the way you sell by shifting the focus from hyping your products to adding value to prospects’ decision making. Content marketing is about creating relevant, informative and unbiased content that attracts buyers and converts them to loyal customers. Click here for our white paper on content marketing: http://bit.ly/1GHDSxB.
- Go-to-market strategy—good marketing seldom occurs by chance. Developing a marketing plan is priceless because it sharpens your awareness of what makes your business unique and how to evangelize it effectively. A well-crafted marketing plan explains the benefits of your product, evangelizes how you are better than your competitors, describes the channels you will use to reach your target audience and how you intend to price your product. Click here for an article describing why marketing planning is priceless: http://bit.ly/1Vq8xI0.
- Messaging—a comprehensive and carefully-crafted marketing messaging architecture should underpin all your evangelism, from your sales collateral to your media interactions. This architecture informs how you talk about who you are and why you exist; it communicates key points you consistently make when you reach out to your target audiences. See this article for an explanation as to why vendor personas are an important consideration in messaging: http://bit.ly/1IEtA7X.
- Public relations—good PR is about building and sustaining a groundswell of brand support, incrementally changing buyer behaviors via a steady stream of relevant and candid communication to both media and consumers. A well-constructed PR campaign ensures your company is seen in the right places and remembered for the right reasons—and, perhaps most importantly, at the right time. Click here to learn what startups can accomplish with good PR: http://bit.ly/1NgJJ5g.
- SEO—search engine optimization can have a dramatic effect on the success of any business regardless of its size. And, while some people may want you to think that it takes years of dedicated study to understand SEO, the truth is that you can learn the fundamentals in hours. Moreover, SEO is steadily becoming more intuitive and less technical. Check out this article for seven tips on how your company can leverage SEO and increase sales: http://bit.ly/1lW3GC7.
- Sales enablement—your success maps directly to the proficiency of your company’s sales team. How does sales enablement help? The goal of sales enablement is to ensure that every one of your sales reps has the training, tools and metrics needed to optimize each interaction with buyers. Click on this link for our white paper on sales enablement: http://bit.ly/1Lbl1z7.
- Social media marketing—why should you utilize social media marketing? When used correctly, social media can be an effective tool for growing your business—it can send traffic to your website and convert visitors into leads and customers. The benefit of using social media to market your business is that no matter how specific your business is there is an audience for you on social media. Here’s a description of how social media can help any company grow revenues: http://bit.ly/1lfDliw.
- Video marketing—video is one of the most effective forms of marketing. It is a powerful way to connect with your audience on an emotional level and increase consumer engagement. It can also give people a reason to talk about you—video is shared more than any other source of content. And, once in a while, a video goes viral. What’s more, research shows that over half of buyers feel more confident about buying a product or service after watching a video. Read this blog post to learn more: http://bit.ly/1VqdBMv.
- Website design—a website is one of the most important investments you can make. You want a website that captures interest, holds it and brings you sales. If your site looks professional, your potential clients will think you’re a professional who has enough clients and enough income to have a site built for you. If potential clients visit your site and it looks half-assed and home-built that’s how they’ll perceive you. Click here for five secrets that website designers don’t tell you: http://bit.ly/1ZCfKXP.
- Word-of-mouth marketing— Word-of-mouth marketing helps create and sustain demand for what you are selling by nurturing a passionate community that speaks positively about you. At a minimum, this community should consist of your customers, who can serve as references, participate in webinars and speak at conferences. It should also include media and analysts who provide favorable coverage of your company and product. And can also include influencers such as industry luminaries and bloggers. Click here for our white paper on WOM marketing: http://bit.ly/1jAM2Ct.
Thanks for reading.
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