I’ve seen a number of marketing tips for start-ups over the years and while some have provided actionable advice, many are repeating the same tiered branding tactics everyone else uses.

Look, there’s nothing easy about marketing your start-up business. With trillions of websites online and thousands of start-up companies entering the market daily, many webmasters and company owners can feel extremely lost in the massive online world.

Many start-up companies can have great services, great products, great aps and customer service. They can have a solid business plan, feeding a market with millions of potential customers. You can have all the cards stacked in your deck. Although you will cross many obstacles during your run, one huge obstacle that you most overcome is marketing.

In this article, we’re going to explore different marketing tips for start-ups and locally owned start-ups. You’ll be able to use these marketing techniques to help your company grow pre-launch and after-launch.

Marketing Defined

What is the definition of marketing? According to trusty Google, marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. Simple in terms of defiance but marketing is one of the most vital skills of any business. If you can’t market your start-up business correctly, you won’t succeed.

Marketing Types

Believe it or not, there’s easily over 100 different marketing strategies that can be used to promote your business. While I won’t discuss them all, we’ll take a look at some of the most important marketing techniques used to promote your business online.

• Affiliate Marketing
• B2B Marketing
• Brand Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Contextual Marketing
• Digital Marketing
• Ecommerce Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Facebook Marketing
• Inbound Marketing
• Local Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Pay-Per-Click Marketing
• Search Marketing
• Social Marketing

These are just a few of the many marketing types available to you. You may choose one, two or many of these marketing techniques to use for your start-up business. The key is planning which marketing types will be best for you and your business. You’ll have to consider your budget, staff and the time involved to perform in your plan. I always suggest A/B testing, start-up or not. If your not testing and running analytics on your marketing results, your making a mistake. Record and track everything.

Marketing Your Start-Up Business Pre-Launch

I’ve seen a number of companies, both online and offline, fail to market their business before the company launches. While for some, this may not be such a big deal, but you should always market and promote your business before your launch. There’s a number of different ways that you can do this successfully. One common way companies are promoting their business before launch is through social media marketing. You may want to consider using Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms to reach your potential audience. Likely, you already have a Facebook page. If you don’t, go ahead and build a page for your business.

Another great way to promote your start-up business during pre-launch is through email. Hopefully, you already have a decent-sized email list. Write up an email about the launch of your business and send it out. Now, if you don’t have an email list, you may want to build one. Yes, this can be time consuming but it can also be well worth while. Networking is important to any business. Take the time to research authority names in your niche. We use this same technique in SEO and link building. Look up their emails and send them out. If you can get a phone number, take the time to call. You’ll be surprised how many friends, associates and clients I’ve gained by doing this. Everybody needs somebody.

If you have money to spend pre-launch of your start-up, this is going to give you many more options for marketing and promoting. You could run Facebook ads, Google Ads, pay for press releases or advertise on a related website. You need to plan and think this out, don’t just throw money here and there because you have it. All of these are the same techniques that can be used pre-launch and after your launch.

If you are planning to launch products and special services with your pre-launch, there’s several ways that you can gain interest. Free giveaways and drawings are a great way to build interest in your brand, products and services. Think about giving discounts to the first 20 people that buy your product or service. You may want to give some things away for free to draw in interest. Anything you can do to create engagement and have people talking about your brand is great. You can do this pre-launch and after-launch.

Marketing Techniques After You Launch Your Business

There’s also a number of marketing techniques that can be used after you launch your business. Again, we’ve briefly discussed Facebook ads and Google ads. With Facebook, you can set up ads that will be displayed all over Facebook. You’ll be able to promote in your city, state, country or around the world. You get to target your audience as well. The same can be said about Google ads. I would suggest that you know your customer profile before you do this, also the demographic you are targeting.

One of the best ways to market your start-up business I with a website of course. Websites are usually part of the launch but I wanted to include this just in case you’re launching your business without a website. We’ll discuss some marketing strategies for those of you that are opening a local business later in the article.

Content marketing is another common marketing technique to promote your start-up website. I would suggest including a blog with your website. Some people believe blogs are dead since more people are moving toward social media. While this may be true, blogging is not dead, not at this time. You can write articles about your business, about your niche. Showcase your skills and experience by writing helpful articles and content related to your business. This is a great way to promote your start-up business and showcase your experience as an expert in your field.

Email marketing is a great way to make sales. We’ve been using it for years and others have been using email marketing for decades. To be successful, you do need a website to capture emails. You can use what we call opt-in forms to capture names and emails. If your having a giveaway, you can promote the giveaway on your website and have people sign up to have a chance to win. Email marketing can get complicated for those that don’t understand it completely. You need a great auto responder email series to close sales. I would recommend Aweber but there’s several similar services online.

Marketing Tips For Start-Ups Promoting Locally

For those of you that are promoting a start-up business locally, the same marketing tips for start-ups above should be considered. You should take the time to get a website built. Even if it’s just a 5 page website, it does serve a purpose. I know web design services can cost a lot but not with Hale Web Development, we’d be more then happy to help.

You should also take the time to build a Facebook page and use other social media platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram. If you can do your social media marketing yourself, this is free advertising. There’s also a number of local websites and directories that you can list your business for free on. This is crucial for any business, locally and online. Google recently made changes and local rankings benefited. More now then ever, local citations count. You can use Yellow Pages, Google+, Super Pages, Manta, Yelp and many other local citation websites to list your business for free.

There’s also various marketing techniques you can use that doesn’t involve working online. You can take the time to make business cards, make flyers, make signs or make shirts with your logo. You could also put your logo and business number on your car or company vehicle. You could also pass out bumper stickers. Go to other companies and ask them if you can partner and help one another promote. As long as it’s not your competition, this could be a great technique to use. Reach out to your family and friends for help. You can even get a mascot to stand by the road and hold signs.

Marketing Is Crucial To EVERY BUSINESS

These marketing tips for start-ups are just a few of many techniques that can be used to market and promote your business successfully. Marketing is crucial for every business, start-up or not. Don’t be afraid to step outside the box and try something new. I always recommend tracking your marketing efforts. You probably should invest in software. At the least, you should include your website in Google Analytics if your marketing online.

Every brand needs an identity. Marketing is big for branding your business. You should be planning your marketing efforts from day one. Keep learning. I’ve been in web development for over 7 years and I’m still learning skills that help me today. Become a student of marketing, there’s a lot of great resources online that can help you. I truly do wish you the best with your business and I hope you were able to walk away from this article with new ideas and confidence. If I you ever have questions or need advice, feel free to contact us. If you enjoyed this article, please take the time to follow us on Facebook, Twitter.