Marketing for startups

Marketing is a fundamental tool for Success of a startup: making a product or service visible, attracting customers and selling more is the key to any business. Today we share some marketing strategies to attract customers on and off the Internet.I already have a business model, now what?Once our business plan has been defined with a differential value proposition, the next step is to develop a marketing plan which in turn contains a communication plan. In this area, there is a certain tendency to think that everything boils down to an online strategy, but the truth is that we have to establish a single message for different channels, both inside and outside the digital environment. Below we propose several points that we consider essential.

1. Get to know our user well

It is essential to do a market study and define our target effectively: who they are, where they are from, what their habits and interests are, how they behave, what they like, what content they follow... All this information about our target audience will help us save time and money and gain enormous competitive advantages.

2. Study the competition

Doing an analysis of the competition, if we have one, is essential. It's about researching what their marketing and communication strategy is, what works for them and what doesn't. In addition, to detect what our differential value is compared to competitors and, if appropriate, what aspects we need to improve.

3. Set specific objectives

As a startup, we must ask ourselves what we want to achieve and what are the objectives we want to achieve: to create engagement, attract customers, increase the number of followers... Having a clear and detailed idea of these objectives will help us create a specific marketing plan and define the actions we want to carry out. Let's remember that objectives must be measurable, relevant, attainable and on time, and they will be an essential guide for company growth.

4. Establish a budget

Once the market study has been carried out and the objectives have been defined, another important step is to assign a budget or Budget well planned for the marketing start of our startup. To do this, it is necessary to individually break down each of the expenses that we have to cover, whether printed material, event expenses, logistics and distribution, etc.

5. Plan

Without planning, there is no strategy. It is important to detail in a document and as specifically as possible the deadlines or Timing of the actions, channels and campaigns that are going to be carried out. In this way, we will make better use of time and resources and avoid falling into improvisation.

6. Communicate what we do

Within a marketing strategy, communication is key. Therefore, we need to establish a good communication plan before we embark on the adventure of communicating. This plan can be online and offline and must be unique and specific to each company. To do this, we will create an editorial calendar that reflects on a monthly basis the contents and publications that we are going to communicate and on which channels (website, blog, social networks, newsletter, press...), in addition to adapting the style and language to our target audience.

7. Involve the whole team

It is necessary to communicate internally to the entire team about our marketing and communication plan. The point is that we all know the product well and have all the necessary information about what is going to be done. The objectives will determine the priorities and functions of each one, and doing so as a team will facilitate better coordination, as well as savings in time, money and misunderstandings.

8. Measure results and evaluate

Without metrics, there are no results. If we want to know if our strategy and the proposed actions are working, we need to keep track of the relevant KPIs for our company, which are performance indicators and a key part of any marketing strategy. Some basic KPIs are the conversion rate, the bounce rate, the time spent on the web or the number of followers, among others. Only then will we have data and results in our hands to be able to incorporate improvements or variations in our marketing strategy.And you, are you ready to incorporate the marketing strategy into your startup?