Which Digital Marketing Techniques Are Best For Startups

Which Digital Marketing Techniques Are Best For Startups

It’s a classic problem – you’ve got a small company, and to make it a bigger company, you need to sink some money into your marketing budget. But, of course, to be able to afford some high-powered channels, you need to grow your revenue base.

That’s the old startup catch-22.

As crucial as it is to get early digital media platforms cranking for a new company, it’s very difficult to do it on a shoestring. Consequently, startups must seek out channels with a mind toward ROI. Some are better, some are worse, and some, you just can’t do without.

Social Media

Startup or no, this is probably most companies’ digital priority. Social media offers a level of flexibility and potential that very few other platforms can. The beauty of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and similar communities is that literally anyone can sign on, and do it for free.

“Free” is an amazing word to hear if you happen to be bootstrapping the development of a hot new app. Of course, it also means that the actual return you’ll get on social media varies wildly. The complexity and unpredictability of social platforms have spawned social media experts left and right, and it may be a good idea to bring a devoted employee on, even at cost, to make the most of opportunities.

But if that’s not in the cards, don’t despair. The best social media managers I’ve known are largely self-educated. Given how fast the field changes, they have to be. Find some steady sources of good advice, and try to model a few early campaigns off of what you learn.

Blogs

The beating heart of a content marketing platform. Blogs are marketing gold, and they’ve been better and better utilized of late. These articles serve several purposes: they give you some early SEO cred, they’re highly shareable over social media, and by writing on a topic you know and understand, they give you the opportunity to establish yourself as an industry expert and thought leader.

Even setting one up is incredibly simple. WordPress has long been the old standby for most companies looking to set up a blog on a budget, and the site creation tools included with a subscription place an enormous amount of design power in your hands.

More recently, other competitors including Tumblr and Medium have also made themselves known. These may not have quite the same versatility as WordPress, but they’re fantastically visual, easy to use, and have their own built-in communities. Check over each, and pick one to focus on.

Earned Media

Sometimes, you don’t even have to write anything to get exposure. Try to earn some wider coverage from existing channels, such as blogs or e-magazines. It’s a perfect choice for ambitious startups; your company presumably is doing something interesting and fresh in a given industry.

Even if you’re in a classically “boring” topic, don’t despair. No matter what you do, there’s a major publication that covers it. Make yourself known to them by any means necessary. Email a pitch, call them, tweet at them – heck, run them down at a conference and buy them a beer; big media contacts are worth their weight in gold, and even a single mention in the right pages can instantly catapult your company to a new level of success.

Get Creative

The three above options are my top calls for startup marketers, but don’t feel constrained by them. Early-stage marketing is all about thinking outside the box. My best advice is to research, research, and research some more. Educate yourself on the community and scene that your company inhabits, and learn how to reach them. Just remember, keep an eye on ROI!

Charles Dearing writes, blogs, and has experience as a digital marketer. He writes for patientsites and frequently contributes work to other blogs and publications.

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