4 Useful Marketing Tools for Start-Ups

Every business needs strong marketing to improve their visibility and see success. It might seem that marketing is an easy task to complete, but it is an ongoing effort and can prove more challenging than you may first think. A good marketing strategy must be memorable and eye-catching, drawing in the target audience and perhaps even reaching a secondary demographic. It represents the company’s ethos and promotes these values as well as the products and services the business provides.

A further challenge for start-up businesses is creating these brilliant campaigns but on a small budget. Marketing can be expensive, but most small businesses can’t afford the rates of hiring a billboard for a month or creating a TV advertisement. If you’re concerned about how you will afford your marketing for your start-up venture, here are some useful and affordable tools for you to use.

Understand SEO tactics

Search Engine Optimization, in essence, is boosting your company’s website up to higher rankings in search engine results pages. This is important as there are many, many businesses all around the world that provide the same services and products yours does and as such, it is easy to get lost in the listings and lose visibility. To ensure that your business website appears on the first page of results you will need to apply SEO tactics, such as carefully written blogs and mentions in articles on other websites.

Social Media

The use of social media has become a dominant method in marketing over the last two decades. Many ‘influencers’ have made careers out of being spokespeople for brands via their social media platforms. Although you might not be able to afford the cost of hiring a popular individual to promote your company just yet, you can still utilize social media to build your following and start to share information with your customers, and best of all, most of these platforms are free to use!

Printed Materials and Signs

A more traditional method of marketing is printing leaflets, booklets, and posters as promotional materials. This is still a useful practice, especially if you’re attending an event such as an industry convention. If your company has a booth it’s worth having a bespoke sign made to attract passers-by. For example, this company that specializes in custom signs Orlando, could help you increase your visibility and make sure your sign is unique to your business.

Podcasts

Podcasts have steadily grown in popularity and could be a very useful tool for your start-up. A podcast will take more time to prepare and could end up being more expensive to produce, but it would be worth it if you have the budget and the resources to do so. Similar to a blog, your business podcast could include interviews with special guests from the industry, discuss new ideas and developments, and allow listeners to write in and have their say.

Promoting your business and your products is essential to keep it going. It can be difficult to manage marketing when you’re a start-up, especially if you’re an individual or a small team with many other things to focus on. However, you mustn’t neglect your marketing, use these suggestions to help you get started.