Building a product is tough, taking it to market is tougher. Even if you have built an amazing product it’s sometimes near impossible to get anyone to take notice, let alone make a profit. Once you have a product one of the first questions you ask yourself is “How do I market my startup business?”
To start with let’s ask when should I start to market it. Luckily this question is the easiest to answer. You should’ve started to market it about a year ago, probably earlier. Start marketing it before it’s even remotely built. Why? Marketing takes time, so so so much time. It can take a year to get any traction in the crowded market space. So start now.
In terms of how you should market your business and get your first revenue in the door, that’s another ball game altogether.
Having a badly timed or badly conceived marketing strategy can make growth challenging no matter how good your product is. Frustration, squandered marketing budget, and few or no leads are possible outcomes that might result from inadequate planning of your marketing efforts. Even if you obtain leads, there is no guarantee that they will buy!
Your sales process will be accelerated and you will incur less expense if you use a marketing plan that has been proven effective. This blog will outline some of the basics of how to start marketing my brand-new business.
The first thing you need to do is identify the locations where your ideal customers hang out. The next step is to do an analysis of the data and think of marketing strategies that will appeal to the target audience. Your marketing strategies must give valuable information, such as white papers and webinars, rather than simply pushy sales pitches, to be successful. Have a look at this guide if you want more information on how to market your new startup business online.
SEO Basics
SEO means Search Engine Optimization and is the process used to optimize a website’s technical configuration, content relevance, and link popularity so its pages can become easily findable, more relevant, and popular towards user search queries, as a consequence, search engines rank them better.
Search engines recommend SEO efforts that benefit both the user search experience and the page’s ranking, by featuring content that fulfills user search needs. This includes the use of relevant keywords in titles, meta descriptions, and headlines (H1), featuring descriptive URLs with keywords rather than strings of numbers, and schema markup to specify the page’s content meaning, among other SEO best practices.
What is website domain authority and how do I get it?
Domain authority is a scale that goes from 1 to 100. The system was made to make it easier to guess how well a website will perform on Google. The way the system works is kind of like how Google ranks websites.
The only difference between domain authority and page authority is that page authority is about a single page on a website. As a website owner, you want to get a high score on the scoring system and have a good domain authority.
How do I get it?
You’re probably ready and eager to start increasing your domain authority score. But what is your current domain authority score? You need a domain authority checker. Go to Moz.com and use their link explorer tool that you can use for free. It’ll show you your domain authority, page authority for various pages on your website, and even backlinks.
Once you have a benchmark you need to start building your domain authority. Although it’s a bit of a black box as to how it’s calculated, the general structure of building a good DA is built on four pillars of SEO, technical SEO, backlinks, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.
Here’s a rundown of each
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Technical SEO – page load speed, page structured data, XML sitemaps, and many more things
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On-page SEO – site content, internal links, image optimization, title tags and meta tags, and many more
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Off-page SEO – backlinks, reviews, podcasts, social media
Backlinks are one of the most powerful ways to increase your DA. If you’re looking for a more detailed rundown on off-page SEO you can find a great guide here.
What are the different types of links I can get for my website?
On the internet, a link is a word, phrase, or image that can be clicked on to navigate to another online page. This type of content is also referred to as a hyperlink.
In general, there are three types of links that you need for your website, and they are as follows:
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Internal hyperlinks: These are hyperlinks found on your website that lead from one page to another.
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External links: If you have links on your website that take readers to additional relevant online resources,
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Backlinks to market my startup business: Through the use of hyperlinks, you can find links on other websites that connect to your own.
Your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) will benefit greatly from each of these links.
How do I write good blogs?
Blog entries can be a useful promotional tool for business owners, and they can also be a useful supplement to branding and calls to action. As a result, the effort you put into learning how to write a blog post can be considered an investment in your growth.
As a founder, it is your responsibility to look for tools that will help you maintain a high level of writing quality and ensure the continued success of your site. Here are some tips that can help you make your blog posts better.
Speak about what your audience needs
The posts that are most successful address an engaging topic that will appeal to the readers you are trying to reach. As soon as you have decided on a subject that is appropriate for the subject matter of your blog, it is time to put your writing abilities to use and start drafting the blog post that is associated with that subject.
Create a catchy title for your blog post
When it comes to drawing readers to your blog and increasing the number of page views your posts receive, titles are quite crucial. A good blog post can languish in obscurity if it does not have an eye-catching title. This is one of the most important things to practice when you’re thinking about how to market your startup business. You need to think of an attention-grabbing title that will entice people to read your post and get them interested in it.
Create a post outline
It is essential to create an outline for your post before you start writing it. When you write on a blog, you have the freedom to experiment with structure and form. Decide how you want to organize your ideas and make an outline for your post. The goal is to show readers how you came to your conclusions and help them understand your point of view.
Describe how your product relates to the discussion
Blogging is a key way to address pain points in what your target audience is experiencing. Think about all the pieces of content that you read on the internet. How many times have you looked up a recipe only to be given 1000 words on the person’s life story first? Get to the point, what does your writing offer the reader?
Make use of a well-organized layout
The most popular blogs typically feature concise paragraphs that are organized around specific topics. When blogging, it’s common practice to utilize bullet points to lay out thoughts that support the main ideas. If you want your readers to be able to follow along with your thoughts, make sure the layout of your content is organized in a way that is clear and visually clean.
Write for your readers’ pain point
Bloggers experience writer’s block just like any other type of writer, and this is something that should not be surprising. The single most important thing you can do to get beyond roadblocks in your work is to generate ideas for blog posts that are focused on real-world pain points. The act of writing blog posts ought to be done out of solving a problem for the reader.
Offer solutions
When writing blog articles, it is essential to have a distinct point of view and to conclude each post with a distinct conclusion or a solution to an issue that you have concentrated on. It is not sufficient to merely provide a high-level summary of a subject; the readers depend on you to guide them through an issue in a manner that is well-informed. Instead of providing your audience with flimsy anecdotal examples, provide them with a case study that is relevant to the issue at hand and is supported by credible sources.
Make sure your website is SEO up
Ensure that your page’s search engine optimization is up to par to increase the number of people who click on your posts and gain new readers for your page. Do some research on the latest SEO trends and SEO key terms, and then evaluate your blog post based on how it compares to the top-ranking results for relevant search terms for your topic. It is in your best interest to work toward the goal of having your content appear at the top of search engine results.
Check for typos
After you have completed the initial draft of a blog article, it is necessary to read it over multiple times to check for errors and modify problematic sentences. People who are just starting out as bloggers and are in the process of creating their first blog frequently skip over this step of the process and go straight to publishing their new entries. It is not enough to focus on search engine optimization or build a fancy infographic for your homepage; professional bloggers should take great pains to ensure that their postings are free from typos and other unintentional errors.
Get the word out
When you have a sufficient number of entries on your blog, it is time to begin advertising your work and networking with other people. If your blog is related to your company in any way, promotion is extremely vital to its success. As a strategy to market your work, you might want to think about participating in a podcast, developing an email list, or guest posting on a blog that is related to your field. When it comes to becoming a successful blogger, content marketing is one of the most critical aspects. Make sure you tweet and post about your work on social media, pointing out blog posts that are especially good examples of the kind of writing people can find on your site.
Events
How do I find events that are in my industry?
Business gatherings are like amusement park vacations. They’re expensive, time-consuming, and packed with individuals trying to salvage the experience. After expending time, energy, and money, you must justify going. Pressure! Like a theme park trip, an industry event’s value depends on your perspective and approach.
Putting in significant research before putting on or attending events is extremely important. Don’t just research what the top events are in your industry, also research whether or not each of them is worthwhile going to. Here are some tips to do so:
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Ask if you get a list of attendees contact details after the event for email campaigns
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Reach out to past attendees on LinkedIn and ask if they found value in the event
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If you’re looking to run your own event the budget will be something you need to focus on a lot.
How do I budget for events to market my startup business?
Determine your event and an overall budget: To get started, you need to make sure that the type of event that you are arranging is crystal clear, as well as the total budget that you have allotted for the event. It is usually ideal to begin building an event around your existing resources rather than vice versa. In other words, start with the resources you have available.
Do you intend to spend $10,000 on the cocktail reception that you are hosting? A convention for users with a budget of two hundred thousand dollars? A gathering of the team with a spending limit of $2,000? The first thing you should do, regardless of what the occasion is, is figure out how much money you have available to spend.
This general budget may have been handed down to you by management, or the finance department, or it could have been your budget that you oversee. Even if there are many different ways to determine a budget, one thing remains constant: the significance of this phase.
1. Evaluate past events
Your previous events can provide you with a plethora of data and information that you can use to create a budget for the event you will be hosting in the future. Analyze your previous activities to determine the areas in which you either spent too much or too little money. Have you significantly exceeded your budget for printing? You may wish to revise your spending plan or look for alternative suppliers.
You can go into your high-level plan with a better grasp of how you will need to change your budget, for instance, if after assessing your previous event you found that you overspent on food. In this case, you can head into your high-level plan with this knowledge.
Research to comprehend the sector: If you go over budget on a certain line item like venue or staffing, there is a good chance that you will experience the same charges as others. You could do some research to identify common trends. For example, if you overspent on AV costs more than you anticipated, you should conduct some research on the going rate in the industry. You might learn things like “the going industry rate is cheaper than what I paid” or “I under-budgeted and need to boost my AV budget.” Both of these are valuable pieces of information to take away from the experience.
It is hard to be an expert and know the prices charged by every vendor, but if you start your studies early on, you will have a better idea of the charges that are considered to be common in the industry.
2. Develop a strategy for the big picture to market my startup business
Your high-level event plan should provide an overview of the event’s aims as well as its fundamental logistics. In addition, once you have begun the process of sketching out your logistics, you may begin to incorporate basic estimations of your budget. You can get started by making a list of the necessary things, such as the location and the food. Let’s begin with some common high-level spending categories, which are as follows: Venue, Speakers, Staffing, Marking and identifying signage, Provision of food and drink, Attendee Experience, Marketing, The technology behind events, Transportation, Furnishings and Equipment.
Start calculating the cost of each of your high-level necessities as you work through the process of identifying them. When you are planning the event, you will have a better idea of the total costs if you use these high-level items and estimates to make your event program.
Get buy-in from stakeholders: It is now time to present the predicted budget to the stakeholders in your organization. It is essential to ensure that they are aware of the budget, that they are in agreement with it, and that they give it their approval so that they can be held accountable. The earlier you can express your overall strategy, the better since this will ensure that there is neither uncertainty nor unpleasant shocks further down the road.
Detail the line items that make up the total and secure the suppliers: After you have obtained all of the high-level items you need, it is time to move on to the more basic items. The more comprehensive you are with your budget, the more ordered and precise it will be, regardless of how much you might wish to combine different types of spending into a single category. Getting more specific about the line items. In this section, you will need to examine all of your high-level expenses and break them down further. For instance, begin with a high-level category and then list the line items:
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Marketing
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Social media
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Online Ads
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Email marketing
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Photography
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Design agency
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Event materials to market my startup business
Bring your expected costs up to date: While you are developing your complete list of line items, you should keep contacting vendors to get price quotations. If you use this technique, you will be able to work through your list of suppliers over a longer period as opposed to performing all of your vendor outreach at once — just before the deadline for your final budget. Both the vendor’s proposals and the estimates that they provide should include your estimated line item expenses. You should now be signing official contracts and agreements for the event and looking for the right vendors for each part of your budget.
If you’re new to the world of events, it’s important to take the time to create connections with the vendors you work with. These connections might assist you in making certain that you are collaborating with the most qualified vendors for your events. Because of this, it is important to conduct studies early on so that you can locate individuals and organizations that are compatible with your requirements and objectives.
Market my startup business: Social media
Social media is a great way to get started when you’re asking yourself how to market your startup business. Social media platforms are quick and easy to get a presence on but can take time to build up a following.
Is social media good for marketing my business?
YEAH! And also NO!
Social media makes it simple and easy to build a brand. Social media is better than traditional media because it makes it easier and faster to get your brand in front of people. Also, it makes people look at your brand even when they’re not thinking about it or your product.
But there are circumstances in which social media is just an utter waste of time. Want to create an Instagram for your technical product? Please don’t.
How do I grow my followers on social media?
If you want followers on social media, use the appropriate channels:
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Optimize your social media profiles
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Determine what the optimum moment is for you to post
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Maintain a regular posting schedule while maintaining focus
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Interact in a meaningful way with the people watching you
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Follow the relevant brand profiles
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Collaborate with the people who have a micro-influence
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Acquaint yourself with the act of telling stories, and do so frequently
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Utilize the strength that comes from using influencer marketing
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Repurpose material across social media
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Create a team to handle your social
Market my startup business: Outbound sales
Outbound sales are the outcome of outreach to prospective clients who have not yet shown interest in a good or service that the company provides. Incoming sales are generated by the marketing department and worked by account executives.
How do SaaS companies use outbound to market their startup?
Outbound sales are hard. They are hard because they depend on your ability to clearly define who will need your product, get their contact details, and have a reason for someone who wasn’t looking to buy to respond. This is why they are one of the most difficult channels when you start thinking about how to market your startup business.
To make outbound sales of software as a service (SaaS), you will need to recruit Sales Development Representatives (SDRs). SDRs are focused on qualifying leads but when they have the time and resources they can also focus on outbound sales. So what do they need?
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A clear way to target what your buyers should look like
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A method to get their contact details (ZoomInfo for example)
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A reason for them to reply to an email or call that they did not want
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Patience
In the end, outbound sales are very much a numbers game. You’re effectively doing virtual door-to-door sales hoping that you’ll find someone who needs what you’re selling. It’s rough but if you have a good product that solves a genuine issue, outbound can sometimes be scalable. It’s at least a good way to get your brand in front of a lot of people.
If you work hard at all the above you’ll have your first SaaS signed contract in no time.
