You still have a lot to go however, if you really want clients to reach out to you. Especially that, at startup phase, both time and money are valuable resources. The common marketing goal of most startups is to reach out to potential clients at the lowest cost possible.
Not only is this goal important as a business concept, but it’s also crucial if your startup wants to prove that the business has potential to survive and scale.
Digital marketing is an effective tool, can add strongly to your on-line presence, as well as positively impact your profits. Everything you do to build your digital existence counts toward your market presence. But if you don’t do it with the right strategy in mind, you can easily get lost in an endless list of things you need to tick off over and over again. This type of approach can lead to nothing but frustration and confusion over time. We’ve seen this in practice many times.
That’s why we decided to describe in this article some digital marketing tips we have learned from practice. These are digital marketing tips that will really count in the long run.
We learned them the hard way, and have seen them working towards really fantastic results. We name them “basic principles” in digital marketing strategy, and here they are:
Digital marketing tips for your startup
1. Ensure mobile responsiveness is king
There is no more surprise in the fact that mobile users outranked desktop users on the internet. Moreover, according to latest studies, it seems that mobile traffic increased with more than 200% during last 5 years. That is a HUGE increase, and it shows clearly that the trend will only continue during next years.
With mobile devices already used worldwide by over 2.5 billion people, there is no other option for marketers, but to go mobile. Just to exemplify on the trend, we have inserted below a screenshot from one of our client’s Analytics account. You can easily see that over 50% of their website’s traffic is from mobile users.
Now, just imagine they would decide to give up their mobile usability, and would build their website for desktop users only. In figures, this means they would slash over 50% of their current website traffic. This would be real madness, isn’t it?
But wait, this is not all! There is another huge impact, much more important, and which business owners cannot neglect in their digital marketing strategies: Google’s search algorithms. More exactly, starting with 2015, Google made a significant change to their search algorithms, which put a website’s mobile responsiveness in top factors counting towards a website’s ranking score.
So, now Google would always display a mobile friendly website in the search results, instead of a non-mobile friendly website. This means that if you build a website which is mobile responsive and very easy to navigate on any mobile device, just by that alone you will have a HUGE advantage over your market competitors.
So, keep this in mind and make sure it is in top five of your digital marketing tactics!
2. Make sure you rank for the right keywords
Most of our clients were living with the impression that traffic increase on their website equals increase of their revenue. Until they met us 🙂 We have seen so many cases in practice when increase in website traffic did not automatically create any revenue. Why was that? In most of the cases, because the website wasn’t getting the right kind of traffic. And that is quite frustrating, isn’t it? To put a lot of time and energy into building your content, and still not being able to monetize it.
One of the basic principles that Google applies when generating search results is the principle of Relevance. This translates in having the right keywords in place for which your website will be found in Google searches. It’s like making sure you always fish in the right pond, and using the right bait. This is vital to your strategy on the long term, as it ensures you build the audience that is most likely to buy your products.
How do you do that?
The answer is a thorough research for the most relevant keywords you want your website to rank for. The keyword research can be conducted in many ways. But the thing you must do right from the start to ensure success is building up a list of keywords that are most relevant to your business. Meaning they are closely related to what you want to sell.
For example, if you are an online car spare parts seller, some examples of relevant keywords for your business may be:
On the other side, you would want to avoid irrelevant keywords, which may be:
We’re not saying these are not OK keywords. But these are the kind of keywords that have the weakest potential of driving you any real revenue. Unless of course, you offer online marketing or affiliate marketing services. The first example list of keywords is much more likely to land on your site clients who are already looking to buy from you. Rather than the ones listed immediately above.
So, keeping the relevance factor in mind, we encourage you to build up a core list of the most relevant keyword combinations, which you can afterwards verify for estimated traffic in Google.
Our advice on the keyword research:
Start from a brainstorming session first. Put yourself in clients’ shoes, and simply write down all the keywords you would use in Google. If you were to search for the products or services your business sells, what relevant keywords would you use?
Another way could be using online tools specialized on keywords analysis. While some of them may prove pretty useful, they could also come with a cost attached. Two of them we used and found pretty useful are: Ahrefs and Keyword Density Checker. Using any of these tools, you can hunt for lists of keywords with highest levels of traffic. Even more than that, you can check on keywords your competitors are using, and so much more useful intel.
So, if you want a sparkling start in your digital marketing journey, a meticulous keyword research is important. And don’t forget: keep Relevance in mind!
3. Structure a clean and user friendly website
There are many ways in which you can design a website. But whatever you do, our advice is: try to make it simple to be used!
We see many websites forcing users to watch an intro presentation or a survey before they can even access the home page. That is cute. But just think about this: many of your potential clients are looking to buy your services or products just because they don’t have the time to do it on their own, isn’t it?
If you look around you, products that many businesses are selling have a “time saving” component. In some of them this may not be obvious, but it is there. From the hypermarkets to kindergardens, or smartphones, they all have it. Then, why would you want to have a website that spends users’ precious time?
They have yet to know your services or products, but you force them spending their time watching your intro movies? Just think twice before you do that!
Instead, we would stick to a simple and clean structure. A structure that makes things simple to navigate, and doesn’t take long to understand. Besides, simple structures and simplistic designs never get outdated. This means you don’t have to waste money on redesigning your website so often.
And a truth that no one tells you is that Google crawling spiders also like websites that they can easily understand and… crawl. Thus, if you make it easy for them, you make it easy for you.
Remember: you can always grow your online presence just by optimizing your website’s speed.
4. Post new resources on a regular basis
One of the most powerful digital marketing tips for your startup strategy is adding useful, unique and fresh content. And you should do it on a regular basis.
You would be surprised at how many new businesses talk about starting posting content, but never get to do it. That is too bad, because regular posting of fresh content generates regular increase in your website’s ranking.
In addition, valuable resources that create engagement with your audience also boost loyalty with the type of clients you want.
Share not only content, but really valuable resources that users are inclined to share online. Google will notice this, and will surely appreciate your website.
Moreover, engaging and valuable content fosters a loyal audience, cultivating a community around your brand. However, the challenge often lies in maintaining a consistent posting schedule and ensuring the content is not only frequent but also of high quality.
Types of content to consider
- Educational articles and blogs: these should inform and provide value to your readers, helping them solve problems or improve their knowledge in your industry.
- Interactive tools and resources: from calculators to quizzes, interactive content can significantly increase user engagement and time spent on your site.
- Video content: with the rise of video marketing, creating tutorials, behind-the-scenes looks, or even customer testimonials can capture the audience’s attention more effectively than text alone.
- Infographics and visual data: presenting data or guides in a visual format can make complex information more accessible and shareable.
- E-books and whitepapers: for deeper dives into subjects, these resources can be offered in exchange for email subscriptions, helping build your mailing list.
Strategies for consistent posting
Content calendar: plan your content in advance. A content calendar helps you keep track of what to post and when, ensuring a steady stream of material.
Batch content creation: allocate specific times for content creation, allowing you to produce several pieces of content in one go, which can then be scheduled for later dates.
Leverage user-generated content: encourage your audience to contribute stories, photos, or videos. This not only provides you with free content but also increases community engagement.
Outsource when necessary: if you’re struggling to keep up with content creation, consider hiring freelance writers, designers, or videographers to help maintain your posting schedule without sacrificing quality.
Repurpose existing content: turn your most popular posts into videos, infographics, or even podcasts to reach a broader audience without starting from scratch.
5. Use social media to drive traffic
Once you ensure your strategy sticks to the above digital marketing tips, then you can start spreading your presence across social media channels. Correctly leveraging social media presence is a must have, there is no doubt about it.
Create shareable content: Make all efforts to develop content that is engaging, informative, and shareable. This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, and other types of content that your audience will find valuable.
Use visuals: Visual content is more likely to be shared on social media than text-only content. Use high-quality images, videos, and infographics to make your content more appealing and shareable by users.
Use hashtags: Some social media channels still use hashtags as a mean for users to follow content of interest. Use relevant hashtags to help your content get discovered by people who are interested in your niche or industry.
Engage with your followers: Respond to comments and messages, and participate in conversations to build relationships with your followers and encourage them to visit your website.
Just make sure that whenever you post new content on your website, you also do it on each of your social media channels. Make sure you also sponsor your content from time to time. This ensures you double your exposure and increase your followers base. In time, this will translate into reaching out to more and more segments of potential customers.
Use our above tips, and you will benefit of a good head start in your online presence. And if you need more advice for sparking up your digital marketing strategy, feel free to reach out to us.
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