You don’t need to be well-researched to know that marketing is critical for any business’s long-term success. As an entrepreneur, you must acknowledge the opportunities that exist in the digital era revolving around marketing approaches and their effectiveness.
Scaling up your startup, and reaching the growth and profitability objectives you desire means you should create an optimal marketing plan. Thanks to the power of the digital, enlarging your audience can be possible nowadays faster and easier than ever.
Because each action you take will directly impact your brand, and how your clientele range perceives it, you need to make appropriate decisions. For starters, you should find out which exactly are the top trends at the moment, the ones you need to follow in order to keep up with the competition.
Digital strategies of marketing are more versatile and promising than ever, but here are the trends that you should be focusing on first here:
#1 Social media
You couldn’t discuss the topic of digital marketing without assessing the power of social media. This has become one of the most solid tools used by marketers and businesses to generate exposure, and it should be part of your marketing plan as well.
With over two billion Facebook users , an 800 million audience on Instagram, and over 300 million Twitter followers, you can clearly see why so many startups are turning to social channels to trigger a buzz around their concept.
However, to actually leverage the power of social media, you need to adopt the right practices here
Identify the best channels for your business
Because you can’t be equally active across all platforms, identify the channels that come with most potential for your specific business profile. While an online presence on Facebook and Instagram is critical for all startups, you could look into niche-specific options as well, depending on your industry – LinkedIn, Ravelry, Inbounds, etc.
Focus on your target market
Identify your exact audience and gather data on them, starting from age and location and up to interests. Focusing on your target market will help you create posts and implement social media strategies that actually bring the results you want.
Prioritize engagement
Just drawing an appealing number of followers won’t be enough. Engagement stands at the core of social media marketing success. Respond to comments, post regularly, use relevant hashtags, do everything you can to stabilize user engagement.
Tap into influencer marketing opportunities
Influencer marketing is a trend in itself, but one that is directly linked to social media. Collaborating with your industry’s leading social media influencers can skyrocket your ROI and contribute to your online visibility. Influencer marketing opportunities can provide you with the brand recognition you are targeting, so direct some of your efforts towards this strategy.
Localization
You’re aiming to scale your startup. That means reaching international audiences is a priority that you will soon have. Social media localization can help your startup go global. Engaging with users in their native language is essential here. However, if you do go through with a social media content localization plan, handle translations properly. As pros at PickWriters suggest, get creative with translations, and don’t neglect pop culture references, slang, and idiomatic speech, or cultural values.
#2 Content marketing
Business from both B2B and B2C sectors depend on content to get ahead in the industry and achieve great marketing results. Content is still king in the marketing world and that means you should use this type of strategy to your startup’s advantage as well.
Increasing brand visibility, fostering strong relationships with customers, boosting brand recognition and awareness, building authority and credibility – these are a few examples of possible outcomes you could obtain by following this digital trend.
Content Marketing
A great starting point here could be adding a blog section to your website and adding posts regularly. This will help you in the SEO department as well. A few tips for an optimal content marketing campaign would be:
- Decide on the type of content that would appeal to your audience. Brainstorm ideas and pick out the right topics.
- Create an editorial calendar so you stay organized with content creation and publishing processes throughout the year.
- Invest in content marketing tools – plenty of apps and software programs are available.
- Distribute your posts on social media, and add a call-to-action to your blog section.
#3 Personalization
Generic marketing won’t longer bring you satisfying results in 2019, considering today’s consumers expect a more personal approach from businesses. Personalization has become a go-to solution for companies looking to solidify their relationship with customers, and it does, in fact, make a significant difference in lead generation.
Personalized products, services, messages, emails, etc. have been trending since 2017 and continue to make an impact in the world of marketing. Some surveys clearly illustrate that consumers are likely to choose a business that provides a personalized experience over one that sticks to generic option – somewhere around 80% of them actually.
A personalized experience will help your startup inspire trust, will foster authority in your brand, and will leave a long-lasting impression on your clientele. But how exactly can you wow your audience through personalization. A few suggestions are:
- Using the customer’s name when you’re sending out messages
- Personalizing your website’s popups to be relevant for what visitors are enjoying on the platform – this action will boost conversion rates
- Implement a reward program for loyal customers
- Add personalization to your PPC campaigns
#4 Email Marketing
Despite the many lows and highs this digital marketing approach has gone through, and the predictions made regarding its disappearance in the marketing world, emails are still used by businesses of different profiles and continue to deliver quite an impressive return on investment.
With ROI figures being so appealing, your startup should make use of this strategy from the beginning. How should you put together the perfect email marketing campaign? There are a few important steps you’ll need to take:
- Build your mailing list organically. From existing customers to prospects and investors, try to attract as many people to your mailing list as you can. However, don’t access data wrongfully, such as buying a mailing list. Considering the latest spam laws and regulations, you could face issues here. Grow your list organically.
- Use subscription forms. To get new email subscribers, use forms on your website or other landing pages. You can juggle between pop-up forms, fixed, floating, or embedded forms.
- Magnetize your audience. Draw new subscribers by offering them something in exchange for their contact info. It could be anything from a webinar to a discount.
- Set up a referral program.
#5 Video Marketing
Multimedia content is known to drive the interest of a wide audience across the globe, consisting of people of different ages. Video has proven along these last few years to be an incredibly powerful marketing instrument. It’s easier to reach out to customers through videos than it is through text alone, that’s why you should incorporate this solution in your action plan.
- Create a video that suits your startup’s profile, whether it’s a how-to series on YouTube or a short video story.
- Promote the video content on your social channels. If your project appeals to the digital user, going viral on social media is a possibility.
- Optimize the video for search engines
- Monitor performance and track results
Bottom line
During such competitive times, even the success of a less common startup concept can be put at risk, if you don’t implement a well-thought-through marketing plan. Your approach should follow the latest and most promising trends, and while options are plenty, the suggestions highlighted here remain the most popular ones. From social media marketing to personalization and email marketing, each one of these strategies can bring tot e table impressive results. Growing and developing your business is possible, as long as you know how to generate awareness around your brand and how to create the right image in front of prospective customers. Being informed on the topic and choosing the specifics of your action plan wisely will influence your position in the industry. Look over these tips and use them to your full advantage.
Guest BIO:
At a relatively young age, Donald Fomby has already amassed impressive experience as a freelance writer. Donald studied Computer Science at Texas A& M. He has a passion for technology, social media, and travel.
