Best Marketing Tips for Startups

by Buana Sari Digital Marketer

For a startup, marketing its business is key to growth — and how it will set itself apart from competition. Startup marketing experts have reviewed all kinds of businesses. They are of the opinion that all businesses aim for growth, but none are more hungry for rapid growth than the startups. Most startups are busy in developing digital marketing plans to boost the visibility of their startup businesses, establishing digital marketing presence through strategic positioning and promoting business.

Driven by overwhelming economic uncertainty due to the pandemic and Ukraine war with mounting investor skepticism, venture funding continues to plummet. Studies show that global funding to startups fell 23% quarter-over-quarter to $108.5B in second quarter of 2022 — the largest quarterly percentage drop in funding in nearly a decade (Source : CB Insights)

A startup digital marketing strategy that fits its limited budget has been a game changer and turnaround opportunity for several global startups. It promises rapid growth amidst dismal conditions than traditional marketing strategies. This digital strategy can either include some digital marketing technologies, depending on whether they need quick results or a solid base to build business on. No matter how many investors the startup has or how solid its source background, no startups are flourishing without marketing technologies.

Without marketing technologies, startup businesses cannot market their ground-breaking, industry-transforming products and services. They can never have the chance to reach the target customers. As a result, their sales may not achieve the set targets and they are likely to find it more difficult to achieve high margin revenues.

No two startups are exactly the same, which means digital marketing varies, too. But all successful startups have followed the below marketing tips registering phenomenal growth :

1. Raise Brand Awareness

When commencing a new business, it's important for a startup business to introduce itself to potential customers. The startups need to tell potential customers who they are, what they do, and what sets them apart from everyone else. If a startup brand chooses to prioritize brand awareness, their goals — and their digital marketing strategy — usually revolve around getting customers to recognize their brand name, logo, or products & services. Precision in branding is essential now as most startups struggle to grow due the recent changes in the customer’s decision journey.

Research shows that a focused brand awareness drive is the first stepping stone for a startup business’s revenue generation. They can easily create awareness and make their brand stand out of the clutter using innovative brand awareness campaigns powered by Facebook, moLotus, Google, Taboola, Adroll and many more digital platforms. moLotus specializes in creation of a compelling brand identity in all stages of the customer journey via rich media mobile advertising campaigns. By tracking and quantifying brand awareness campaigns, startup businesses can better gauge which campaign works and which does not towards brand visibility and also what action they need to take to improve it.

2. Acquire New Customers

Acquiring new customers is a priority for all startups. Their customer acquisition goals might be vivid - getting new customers to sign up, encouraging them to become active users of their products or services, or converting leads into paying customers. To reach these goals in a cost-effective manner is the key to marketing success. But unfortunately, on average it costs eight times the amount of money to get new customers as it does to retain an existing customer.

The startup brands need to embrace the right digital marketing technologies and tools that grab customer attention for them and make them want to engage with their business - all at an affordable cost.

moLotus is one such digital marketing technology which offers innovative customer acquisition campaigns that are helping startup businesses in getting new customers at low cost, strengthening their customer base, and finally increasing return on investment.

Some startups used tools like HubSpot, Marketo, etc. for acquiring new customers however at significantly higher costs. High cost of running acquisition campaigns have contributed to major financial losses for several startup brands across the world.

3. Retain Loyal Customers

Most startups fail to retain customers, which is even more crucial for them as the cost of acquiring is a huge burden for financially starving startups. According to Marketing Metrics, startups are 3 to 14 times more likely to convince existing customers to make a repeat purchase than to convince totally new customers to make their first purchase.

Several startup businesses have witnessed success in customer retention by introducing new loyalty marketing tools like moLotus. The advertising platform ensures high customer retention rates for startups with the majority of customers repeatedly choosing to purchase their products or services, deepening their relationship with customers.

Recent studies reveal that moLotus delivered loyalty campaigns are fueling startup revenue growth by delivering personalized messages to customers for special events like festivals, birthdays, anniversaries, reminders, etc. The campaigns are custom-branded with options for name, reward, greeting, CTA (call-to-action) for customers. Startups are sending various reward-based coupons and vouchers directly to customer’s mobile messaging inboxes.

Some startups are using customer loyalty & rewards programs delivered via mobile apps like Spendgo, Smile.io, Shopkick, etc. but with unsatisfactory outcomes.

4. Scale Businesses Globally

According to a survey initiated by CB Insights, lack of demand generation in the evolving marketplace is the number one reason startups fail. Maybe the product or service being offered isn’t uniquely promoted to set itself apart from the competition. Maybe the scale of marketing campaigns is too narrow. The pool of potential customers is not big enough.

Startups should be avoiding these common pitfalls, and take time to thoroughly research digital marketing platforms successful brands are using in the market to upscale their campaigns to potential customers preferably across the globe.

Fortunately, new digital marketing tools like moLotus, Expandi.io, HubSpot, InMobi, etc. are assisting growth-oriented startups quickly adapt to increasing customer demand, reaching out on golden opportunities to scale globally and diversify business.

Startups can now directly reach an unlimited number of customers quickly via mobile advertising platforms like moLotus. The platform stands out in reaching millions of customers daily just in single go on their mobile devices irrespective of phone model or phone type - be it a smartphone, i-phone or feature phone. moLotus campaigns offer diverse targeting options based on business criteria, interests, age, demographics, interaction, etc. helping the startups to not only reach unlimited customers but also the right customers in real time.

5. Enhance Customer Communication

Customer communication deeply impacts how customers perceive a startup brand. Studies have shown that consistent personalized communication along with convenient interactions result in a positive perception in the minds of customers. A lion’s share of startup marketing ROI depends on personalized and interactive brand-customer communication. Therefore, investing in personalization and better customer builds stronger customer relationships, creating better experiences and marketing ROI for startup businesses.

Successful startups have already been working on hyper-personalized and interactive campaigns using powerful digital advertising platforms like moLotus offering multiple easy interaction options like Call back, SMS, USSD, Click URL, and more. Also, the amalgamation of multimedia formats including videos, dynamic greetings, slideshow, brochure, and showcase with interactive elements improves customer communication.

moLotus offered hyper-personalized campaigns tailor messages for startups using customer name and relevant customer data. Most startups across the globe are using moLotus to target customers via personalized offers, tailored product recommendations, and other forms of hyper-personalized content bringing more revenues and ROI.

6. Automate Marketing Processes

Startups always want to run their business as lean, agile and efficient as possible. After all, their funds are limited, and the risk of failure is quite high. The current buzzword for startups nowadays is digital transformation. It is lauded as the best way to enhance a startup’s efficiency and profitability.

Digital transformation of marketing and sales processes has become one of the top priorities for startups across the globe. They are allocating their scarce funds to digital marketing technologies that will position them for better marketing ROI. Efficient startups are digitizing repetitive tasks, organizing customer data, segmenting customer base, sending automated messages to databases, and much more.

Marketing experts believe that marketing automation technologies including moLotus, Customer.io, AdRoll, Pardot, etc. are best suited for scaling digital marketing ROI for startups via transformation. moLotus is a good choice for the startups automating the entire customer journey right from lead generation, new customer onboarding, renewals, reminders, support, loyalty cards, outbound calls, mobile commerce, and much more leading to superior customer engagement and rapid revenue generation.

7. Reduce Cost

Startups have been dependent on digital marketing channels like Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Google for promoting themselves over a period. However, keeping in view the amount of investment such tools require, they are hesitant to pour-in funds on such tools without assurances.

There is a silver-lining! The marketing landscape has been disrupted by cost-effective mobile marketing tools like moLotus to further attract customers to startup business. After the onset of the global pandemic and mounting recessionary pressures, cost minimization has become the top agenda for startups. They are creating cost-effective campaigns on a small budget contributing to high return on investment.

Startups can now reach customers' mobile inbox directly and keep them engaged at minimum cost without requiring any mobile app download or customers spending unnecessarily on data charges.

More and more startups are unleashing the cost-minimizing potential of moLotus by bringing down the headcounts, together with training, printing and delivery costs by automating various customer-related processes.

8. Rapid Lead Generation and Conversions

For start-ups, the lead generation process has been complicated and expensive. The startup brands focused on marketing ROI have been desperately looking for better lead generation tools helping them in generating more leads at low cost. Research shows that digital marketing platforms serve more leads and that too cost-effectively.

For example, lead generation ad campaigns offered by tools like Facebook, moLotus, Instagram, Google Ads, Taboola Ads create eye-catching adverts that draw the attention of customers, influencing them to share contact details.

moLotus lead generation campaigns are highly optimized and spam-free, assisting startup businesses to generate more leads than any other technology. If recent surveys are to be believed, the technology is generating more leads for innovative startups at less cost per lead.

9. Emphasis on Upselling & Cross-selling

Undoubtedly, it is cheaper for startups to sell to existing customers than to new ones. They should take advantage of their existing customer base by providing them related products or add-ons to products they have already purchased. Upselling and cross-selling have proved to be one of the most important marketing methods for startups to scale their average order value and boost sales volume (Source: Groove).

Several startups have perceived considerable selling opportunities under recessionary pressures and are fast embracing mobile advertising platforms like moLotus to enhance their revenues via unique upselling and cross-selling campaigns. Many startup brands are designing related/high ticket products and promoting them via moLotus upselling and cross-selling campaigns using HQ videos up to 40 sec. They are bound to increase sales and average profit per customer.

10. Rely On Deep Customer Insights

Data is seen as the key to unlocking customer insights. Startups are collecting customer data but the real concern is optimizing this data for in depth analysis that drives the business forward. They are finding ways to translate the raw customer data into deep insights across various customer touchpoints.

Popular mobile marketing technologies like moLotus are assisting startups in data management and run targeted marketing campaigns. moLotus provides superior data curation and big data analytics capabilities, making data management, and analysis relatively simpler for startups.

Startup entrepreneurs can easily compile campaign data into crisp and comprehensive reports, enabling quick decision-making. They get a fair understanding of customers and their needs, create business strategies that are even more customer-centric.

Conclusion

Startup challenges in terms of marketing and revenue generation are common and inevitable, so businesses should not spotlight every time something bubbles to the surface. Instead, they should use the above marketing tactics to eliminate the root causes. A quick solution for the entire startup ecosystem is to embrace breakthrough marketing technologies like moLotus. Successful startups are the ones who use the right marketing technology to grow a larger customer base; build highly engaged customers, reduce churn, as well as increase the customer lifetime value of each individual customer, boosting ARPU.