Marketing is the lifeblood of any business, regardless of what industry they’re involved in — including your startup. In a market that is only getting more and more competitive each day, it’s surely hard to get your name out there.
Especially when you’re on a shoestring budget and bootstrapping. Ouch! The struggle is real, way too real.
Well, with such a fairly limited budget and resources you still have to keep your feet on the ground to attract the prospects and convert them into loyal customers. Luckily, there are tons of affordable startup marketing ideas that help you grow your business without burning a hole in your pocket — all thanks to the internet!
Today, more than half of startups (57%) have invested in startup marketing strategy by having a marketing team. And I’m sure you don’t want to be left behind.
To help you out, we’ve listed some budget-friendly marketing ideas for any startup so you can start shaking things up and reap all the benefits you deserve without spending a fortune.
Marketing Your Startup: What You Need to Know
All your startup marketing campaigns are going to boil down to one thing: to make more people use your products or services (under conditions of extreme uncertainty) and hope that it will help them in some ways.
That should be your ultimate goal, right?
So, at this point, it’s obvious that you need to boost your brand awareness in the first place. That’s why most startup marketing ideas focused on helping you get your name out there, making your company stand out from the crowd.
Once you succeed in building a solid presence, it’d be much easier for you to become a favorite. Thus, you can generate more trust and convince more people to use your products.
In order to achieve success, you may have several marketing objectives to give you a fighting chance in today’s commercial landscape.
Add we’re going to tell you how you can do it with growth-hacking startup marketing ideas below.
Startup Marketing Ideas Without a Big Budget
Yes. Now you don’t have to spend a fortune or break the bank to kickstart your startup. These five essential startup marketing ideas will help you to get the recognition you deserve and convince more people to buy your product or service.
Let’s dive in!
1. Start a Blog
Let’s start with the most basic yet important one: creating a blog or website.
Your blog acts as a virtual storefront for your business. It shows off your products, services, and your brand on your website, making it more visible to your prospects. In other words, it’s your online catalog.
First of all, before you spend any effort in creating a blog website, you need to define your niche first, It makes it easier for you to get a picture of what content you can put on it as well as the tone of your copies.
You can create a blog website hassle-free with little-to-no-budget tools like Weebly, Squarespace, Wix or Shopify, and more.
They also provide you with pre-built templates so you can create a professional-looking startup website. Another option is to start your website with a reliable offshore hosting provider that has a flexible content policy and ensures privacy and data security.
2. Go Social
If you want to go the extra mile, you have to go beyond your blog website — that is social media.
After all, who’s not on social media today? Those always-crowded platforms are such an ideal place to market your startup, letting people know about your product or service.
There are at least 3.4 billion people using social media right now. So, it doesn’t matter if your startup is in fintech, blockchain, electronics, marketing resumes, or any other sector. The chances are a fair chunk of your target market is going to be active on social media.
You can jump into popular social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
3. Invest in Content Marketing
Remember the old adage “content is king”? That phrase is still relevant today. In the fight for eyeballs, content can be a powerful tool to get potential customers’ attention and engage them in minutes.
Well, what kind of business exists today without a vibrant Instagram page, shareable videos, and a few influencer campaigns?
Well-crafted and engaging content can be a reason why your customers stick around your brand. It should come as no surprise that almost all marketers use content marketing – 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C.
From explainer videos to infographics to ebooks, you can create a variety of content to evolve what your potential customers expect from your brand. Great content, especially the dynamic and relatable ones, are showing your customers that they deserve more than your hard-selling advertisement.
You may also want to investigate Google Virtual Tours to improve your search engine rankings
4. Grow Your Email & Lead List
Email marketing is still alive and kicking. This type of marketing is incredibly valuable in terms of growing your list of interested and loyal users. In this case, collecting and growing your email list is one of the most important steps before you can start with your email campaign.
You can create banner ads, add opt-in forms on your website, coupons, or gated content to entice your potential customers to submit their email addresses and other important information. The key to building a long-term email list here is you need to offer great value and incentives in exchange for their personal data.
Let’s take a look at how Walmart is achieving this. They have a simple opt-in landing page designed to capture user emails. On this page, they mention that subscribers will be the first to know about new items, receive Walmart exclusive coupon codes, benefit from everyday low prices, stay updated on top trends, and much more. Walmart has kept the approach straightforward and aligned with its brand tone.
With those quality leads, you can create a click-worthy newsletter. You can also provide information about your paid services or products, or you might even give customers the opportunity to convert from unpaid to paid.
This way, it’d be much easier for you to make potential customers understand more about your startup and why they should consider using or investing in it.
5. Offer Product Trials or a Free Version
One of the quickest ways to get your potential customers to use your products or services is by offering them a free version or trial. Who doesn’t love a free sample of a product, a free trial of a service, or company themed shirts anyway? It’s just a reality that people like free stuff.
A trial and a free version is a risk-free method that can be a great way for prospects to try what they have to offer without having to make a solid commitment. It also helps your potential customers understand what makes your startup products or services different from your competitors.
When your potential customers enjoy their experience using your products or services and think that it helped them in some ways, then they should have no problem in signing up for the paid or premium version since they want more.
Final Thoughts: Start Your Marketing Campaigns Today
Startup marketing is quite challenging. Today’s customers have more variety and options than ever before to spend their money on, and competition is obviously everywhere. Those five startup marketing ideas above can be your first stepping stone in kick-starting your business in no time.
Of course, boosting your startup brand awareness and building customers’ trust isn’t the easiest thing to do. But, once you crack the code by trying out the ideas below, the results will well worth the effort, budget, and patience you’ve spent along the way.
