4 simple marketing techniques for start-up businesses

Marketing should be a number one priority for literally ANY business. It’s important to put your brand’s name out there for whatever your business’ goal is, whether it’s to be seen by a large audience or to gain a high number of sales, the only way that you can do this is through marketing!

It’s also crucial that you use the correct methods and techniques that suit your industry, you want to be able to hit the nail on the head first time, so here are 4 simple marketing techniques for start-up businesses.

Use social media

A vast majority of businesses use social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to connect and engage with their customers as well as generating possible leads. An increase in customer reach can be measured by your increase in content views and engagement and the number of fans or followers you have on each platform.

You will have heard this phrase over a thousand times used by us but content is king and that can’t be exclaimed any more than it is! You need to share a variety of useful content that your followers can either resonate with or find useful.

The more content you share, the higher your chances are of being seen and having more people engage with you. Promotion of social pages on your website is key so you can be seen by potential customers who have only seen your website and not realised that you’re on social media. Engaging with customers/followers is important and social media makes it simple.

Referral marketing

This is a method of promoting your products/services to new customers through referrals. Usually, this is done by word of mouth and it happens spontaneously, but many companies can help influence and increase referrals through certain strategies.

In order to gain referrals, your business needs to give customers perfect customer service, this can prompt any recommendations as customers are more likely to recommend you if you’ve given good service and the quality of your product/service meets their expectations.

According to GetAmbassador.com, 71% of customers who have had good engagement and a good customer service experience are likely to recommend the company.

Offer free trials/give away freebies

Every human being loves freebies and free giveaways with no strings attached, such as free products/gifts, discounts or free trials. Offering these sorts of offers to potential customers can improve relationships and turn them into loyal customers.

You shouldn’t just giveaway freebies in the hopes that your brand name is being seen by a large number of people, so give people a condition that they have to follow e.g. to share their experience with your product/service on a social media platform and to spread the news about your company.

Even with channels such as Twitter and Instagram, part of the condition could include a hashtag of your business’ name so more people that share on social can use this hashtag.

This way, anybody who takes your free offer can guarantee you that their followers or close circle will hear about you from them. Again, this links to referral marketing and social media. All of which are key in 21st-century marketing.

Send out newsletters

Although email marketing is old, it should still be at the top of your list of priorities when it comes to marketing techniques because it still works.

Sending customers/subscribers a weekly update via a newsletter means more eyes on the email first than on your website, thus making it a quick and easy method of reminding people about your products or services.

More often than not, if you have a specific campaign running, most of your subscribers will click through to your offer and some may even make a purchase. Customers are busy people and don’t always have time to think of your brand, so sending out newsletters encourages customers to think about you more often than they normally would. Your goal is to remind your subscribers about your business. By providing value through your newsletter, you can convert your subscribers into customers.

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