10 Marketing Lessons Every Startup Needs to Learn to Be Successful

“Business has only two functions - Innovation and Marketing.”

-Peter Druker

Let’s say you’ve nailed the first part. Your product is innovative, disruptive, and has great market potential. However, no one will buy your product if they’re unaware of its existence.

This is where marketing comes into the picture.

Establishing your startup and its products is only the first step. You need marketing to attract customers t.

Think of marketing as a way to transfer your passion and enthusiasm for your product to your customer. Wouldn’t it be great to have customers love your product as much as you do?

Here are some of the most important marketing lessons that will help you build a successful startup.

10 Marketing Hacks for SMEs

Create great content

Nearly 70% of people prefer knowing a company through online content rather than advertisements. This is why over 90% of B2B marketers use content marketing in their overall marketing strategies.

Quality content can help you hit several birds with one stone. It can also enhance your brand awareness, share your story, and increase your sales.

Besides, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads. This is why It’s important to streamline your content creation process.

Startups generally prefer creating content in-house to control costs. However, unless you are brilliant at it, you need to consider outsourcing this aspect to content marketing experts.

Find a brandable domain name

When it comes to thriving in a competitive market, attention to detail makes a lot of difference. Getting a relevant and brandable domain name for your website is a great marketing strategy that can do wonders for your brand.

With new domain extensions such as .store, .online, .tech, .site, etc. you have the opportunity to get a keyword-rich domain name that not only helps your brand stand out but also boosts your website’s SEO game.

For example, if you are an EdTech startup, your domain name can be on the lines of www.upskill.tech or www.selfeducate.tech. If you have an online food store, your domain name can be www.freshproduce.store or www.allfoods.store.

Similarly, you can find creative domain names for your brand on new domain extensions.

Use social media to enhance visibility

Good content can increase your visibility and grow your business which is particularly true for social media marketing. The more you post on your social channels, the better your visibility.

An excellent example of this is Garry Vaynerchuck who is famous for posting content on his social media channels every 3-6 hours. By doing so, he has built a huge audience.

While you don’t necessarily have to post this often, you need to make sure that you share valuable content frequently and consistently.

Create product and brand videos

Videos are a great way to engage with your customers. They are the most popular form of content marketing, overtaking blogs, and infographics and there’s a solid reason for that.

Nearly 87% of video marketers say that videos have increased their website traffic and that it has directly impacted sales. This is mainly because nearly 2 billion users visit Youtube each month and stream over a billion hours of video content every day.

According to a report by Wyzowl, people are twice as likely to share video content with their friends as compared to any other content which grows their customer base.

Therefore, no matter what your goals are, videos can help you get there faster.

However, you need to make sure that your videos help customers get more information. It’s great to have videos that are popular and fun but nothing beats content that adds value.

Harness the power of storytelling

Stories are powerful. They can influence, teach, and inspire a community. Stories can also make you laugh, cry, jump with joy, or scream with anger. But above all, stories help forge connections.

Big brands have been harnessing the power of storytelling to convey their message for a long time. As a marketer, you should also tell your product’s story. It’s one of the most effective ways of making your brand relevant to your customers.

Through your story, you can tell your customers what you stand for. If your story hits the right chords, you will definitely make more sales.

Use hashtags

In a world where there’s so much information to consume, hashtags help you cut through the noise and reach your target audience easily. They also bring together people with common interests.

Let’s take the example of the women’s brand ‘Always’. They started a campaign called #LikeAGirl which positioned themselves as a brand that stands for women empowerment and against female oppression.

The hashtag caught fire and was shared across social media platforms. Since their target audience was sharing their content, they became a brand their audience could trust. Such is the power of a good hashtag.

Giveaway goodies

There’s a lot of science behind the power of free goodies. Psychologists believe that the word “free” triggers a response in our brain that is different from any other transaction. Our brains love the feeling of getting something for nothing.

You must be thinking giving away free stuff is the opposite of what you’re trying to do i.e. get people to buy your product. Well, giving away free stuff is an amazing marketing strategy.

In general, people have low expectations of free products. If your product is useful, expectations are exceeded and perceptions become positive.

To sum it up, if you give people free stuff, they’re more likely to share your product and spread the word about it.

Host cool contests

While we are on the topic of giving away free products, contests work well too. With the advent of technology and the rise of social media, hosting contests has become fairly easy. They don’t even need to cost a lot of money.

You can take the example of Dove’s “Real Beauty Should Be Shared” contest. As part of this, people had to fill in a blank about what makes people in their life beautiful along with a picture. The winner got featured on Dove’s website.

Contests allow you to build brand awareness. Also, your customers get to try out your product for free. It’s a win-win!

Build a community

A very important reason why people buy certain products is that they’ve always bought them. It became their habit.

The goal is to create such habits around your product. This is where community building comes in.

Building a community around your brand helps deepen your relationship with your customers. It allows you to understand their needs and create amazing experiences for them.

By helping your customers connect, you allow them to experience a powerful feeling — a sense of community. This feeling of being a part of something bigger than themselves makes them loyal to your brand.

Invest in influencer marketing

If you want to get the attention of your target audience, look for someone who already has their eyes and ears.

Influencer marketing allows you to leverage the power of someone who has high credibility, a strong brand, and a dedicated follower base that is similar to your target group.

The power of influencer marketing is such that over 40% of people have reportedly bought a product after seeing an influencer use it on social media.

Keep innovating

The average attention span of a customer is 8 seconds, and you need to grab their attention within this time.

The only way to achieve this is through creativity. You must keep innovating, trying different things, and not be afraid of taking risks.

If you’re enjoying your journey, your customers will enjoy it with you. Eventually, you need to make sure you do your best to transfer your enthusiasm to your customers.

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .ONLINE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.