9 Best Digital Marketing Strategies for Startups

Ever since the 1990s, the influence of digital landscape, better known as ‘cyberspace,’ has been growing steadily. Fast forward to this day, cyberspace has become a thriving entity, thanks to the rapid proliferation of smart digital devices and the growing accessibility of the Internet. Since the majority of people on the planet are living ‘online’ now, digital marketing cannot be ignored anymore. In fact, the increasing adoption of social media and digital devices across the globe has transformed marketing in many ways. This is why more and more young aspirants are seeking to launch their career in digital marketing by taking up digital marketing courses.

The marketing domain has witnessed more changes in the past five years than in the last 50 years. As new technology keeps surfacing, it is pushing digital marketers to tweak their digital marketing strategies in sync with such digital innovations. In this scenario, businesses cannot help but evolve their digital marketing strategies from time to time to keep pace with the current trends in the marketing industry. Over the years, digital marketing has evolved to incorporate concepts like:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) & search engine marketing (SEM)
• Social media marketing
• Influencer marketing
• Content marketing
• Video marketing
• Social media stories
• Micro-moments
• Personalization
• Voice search
• Visual search 
• User-generated content

However, digital marketing is not limited to just these. Nowadays, marketers are leveraging intelligent technologies like AI and ML, Augmented Reality (AR) and Immersive Technologies, Predictive & Augmented Analytics, Programming Advertising, and Chatbots, among other things. Naturally, the domain of marketing is transforming as we speak – what may have been relevant two years ago, may not work now.

The Importance of Digital Marketing for Companies of Every Size

Digital marketing is the number one choice for marketers today. Given that the present business ecosystem is driven by increasing Internet and digital connectedness, digital marketing seems to be an excellent choice. It is flexible, reliable, and most importantly, affordable. It allows companies, irrespective of their size, to enhance their marketing strategies to obtain better results. This is why digital marketing is the perfect choice for startups that suffer from one major problem – finance constraints. 

Although different businesses of varying sizes have different business goals, all have one goal in common – expanding their reach to potential customers and turning leads into loyal customers. Here are some other significant benefits of digital marketing:

• Digital marketing channels are less costly and are more accessible than marketing channels (TV, radio, flyers, etc.) 
• It offers the benefit of reaching out to those customers who only rely on their mobile phones for online purposes (shopping, finding information, etc.)
• It allows you to connect and partner with affiliate brands and influencers to expand your brand reach
• It offers insights into valuable website and customer metrics to help you measure the success of your marketing efforts and products/services
• It helps enhance customer satisfaction quotient by real-time redressal of customer queries, requests, and complaints

9 Wonderful Digital Marketing Strategies for Startups

1. Social media marketing

Today, social media is an omnipresent and omnipotent tool – if you are not using it, you are missing out on tons of opportunities. By leveraging the social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat), you can increase brand awareness, website traffic, sales, while simultaneously improving search engine ranking and creating more leads.

2. Content marketing

Content is the king in the marketing domain. The more high-quality and relevant content you put out, the more people will come pouring on your website. Through content like blog posts, articles, listicles, audio scripts, and video presentations, you can keep your target audience engaged and informed.

3. Email marketing

According to a 2016 survey of US marketers, the average ROI of email marketing was a whopping 122%.

Through email listing, you can send out relevant offers, discounts, information, etc., to both your existing customers as well as potential customers. The best part is that you can send personalized emails to different customer segments to keep them coming back to you.

4. PPC marketing

Just as organic searches drive traffic to your website for free, pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is the paid version of the same. It is a robust marketing tool that helps you generate sales-ready leads, and when used correctly, PPC can boost your site traffic considerably within a short period.

5. Influencer marketing

Thanks to the growing popularity of social media channels, social media influencers have become the real deal now. Since these influencers offer honest reviews and opinions about various products/services and other trending topics, both youngsters and adults rely on their opinion. By partnering up with such influencers, you could take advantage of their network and promote your products/services to the right audience.

6. Affiliate marketing

Like influencer marketing, affiliate marketing also relies on the influence of other people. You choose affiliates for your brand that work on a commission basis and bring in the leads for you. These affiliates then share customized affiliate links to expand your brand awareness.

7. SEO

If you aren’t investing your time and effort in SEO, no amount of marketing techniques mentioned above will benefit you. SEO practices focus on increasing your website visibility and accessibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). By optimizing your site for both PC and mobile, using the right keywords, using backlinks, and creating quality content, you can ensure your website’s position among the top ranks on the result pages.

8. Guest blogs

Guest blogging is a proven and powerful traffic generation and linking technique. When you write guest blogs for another brand/website, you can backlink your website on the blogs. This allows you to expand your brand reach to the audience of other websites or brands. 

9. Live video marketing

Live videos are the latest fad in social media. You can use live video streaming to promote your products/services and connect with your target audience in real-time. Since videos are very popular among netizens, live video marketing can become an excellent tool for brand promotion and audience engagement.

Now that you are aware of the nine most wonderful digital marketing strategies, it is time to start implementing them to create new avenues for your startup!