Recognizing the importance and value of building your brand and marketing your products is an essential step for technology startups. Many startups pour resources into product development and infrastructure, and although both are important, marketing cannot be ignored. Lean budgets can be a hindrance when developing marketing campaigns, so it’s essential to know which tactics will be most effective in growing your brand.
Events
Whether you’re attending, sponsoring or hosting, events offer a host of benefits for startup organizations. If you have a highly visual product, hosting an event is a great way to put your technology on display and interact with potential customers. Attending and sponsoring events also gives you access to a myriad of networking opportunities as well as a chance to sell. With brand awareness and visibility being a major challenge for new companies, events are an invaluable tool for the startup community.
Email marketing, when done correctly, is still an extremely effective tool in communicating with potential clients and current customers. Leads acquired through content marketing and other inbound marketing tactics can be retargeted through email marketing campaigns. Be sure to segment your contact lists to ensure you deliver relevant messages. Email personalization and the creative use of subject lines are a heavy factor in click and open rates.
Blogging
Content marketing has become one of the most effective ways for technology companies to generate website traffic, leads, and contact databases. A true content marketing strategy should include creation, scheduling, and distribution plans. Blogs should be used to draw traffic and gated premium content such as eBooks, white papers, and case studies to convert them into leads. Capturing your visitor’s information will help you nurture them through the buying process and give you insights into their needs and interests. News releases and social media posts also play an important role in public relations and brand awareness.
Social Media
Social media has become an important content distribution center for technology companies. “How To” blogs, product demonstration videos, and infographics are key for an industry that requires clearly communicated ideas. Social media also allows you to converse with potential clients in real time. This can help build relationships and trust, both essential in the sales process. The reach of social media is worldwide, and each platform has made an effort to cater to businesses. Organic reach has become more difficult as algorithms have changed to entice marketers towards paid advertising. Paid ads can be effective as long as you have content that is based on a clearly developed buyer persona.
Teleprospecting
Teleprospecting plays a critical role in startup marketing. It can be used to generate and nurture leads, identify key decision makers and influencers, gain business intelligence, apply triggers in messaging (based upon company and buyer personas) and to establish and develop relationships with your target audience. It is also very effective in event promotion as well as lead qualification. A personal touch is needed in any marketing campaign, and teleprospecting is the next best thing to a face to face meeting.
