Recognizing valuable lessons from people who’ve tried to achieve similar goals to yours is the key to running a successful startup. And everyone knows that the survival of all businesses relies heavily on the success of their digital marketing campaigns. This is why studying effective marketing strategies that have worked for other entrepreneurs should be an integral part of your daily routine. The important thing to remember is that no matter how successful a tech company has become, it most probably got started from similar conditions to yours.
So to help you get a great start with your startup’s marketing, and reach all the success you want, let’s take a closer look at 9 best marketing lessons for online startups in 2021. Ready?
1. Start Creating the Product Together With Your Customers
Believe it or not, but there are plenty of tech startups who enter the market without even the Minimal Viable Product (MVP). Instead, they only have a PowerPoint presentation to start creating a tangible product together with the audience. The thing is that you can get some truly interesting marketing lessons from listening to the honest feedback of your product’s users.
2. Don’t Market a Bad Product
If you’re only starting out as a marketer, you need to hear this: there is no way to build a great marketing campaign around a bad product. Yes, you may make some initial sales, but if the product does not live up to the hype, it can damage your brand irreversibly. So make sure you do put some genuine effort into creating your product before beginning with the marketing.
3. Increase Your Visibility With Content
Look, the simple truth is that the more content you put out online, the more chances you have of getting noticed by your audience. If you look at Gary Vaynerchuk, for example, you can see how producing copious amounts of content brands him as an authority on the field of entrepreneurship. You might wonder how is it possible for him to produce a new piece of content every four hours? It’s simple. He records everything from conversations to conferences and interviews that revolve around the topic of entrepreneurship. Anyone with a smartphone camera can do the same in their own niche.
4. Video Content is the Most Powerful One
Users love videos because they’re easier to consume than text. But don’t just aim at making the next most popular video on the Internet. Make sure that your content informs the viewers’ buying decisions. Because here’s the thing: over 40% of people make a purchase only after seeing a video of the product. This means that without a video you’ll be losing the sale in nearly half of the cases. That’s a lot. So make sure that creating videos is an important part of your marketing strategy.
5. Stories Sell
Every successful brand is built around a story. When you look at the best marketing lessons online, they are all talking about the selling power of stories. And the best teachers have numerous stories around their own personal brand. Because simply put, storytelling is the ultimate sales tool. And here’s the secret: a powerful selling story should make promises to your customers. If we look at an online game like valley of the gods, it promises us exciting gameplay with a chance to win money. What is the story here? It’s telling the players that their luck is at their own hands by playing these games.
So try to find little stories that make a promise to the customer around your own products. It’s one of those digital marketing lessons that are excellent in building a strong brand image around your products.
6. Building Relationships Is Essential
It’s quite usual for a young startup to approach journalists at any time they need some coverage. It usually doesn’t work that way. The thing is that journalists need a specific angle to every story they write. And it’s your job to provide the angle or at least help to shape it. Marketing lessons for beginners often mention the concept of leading with value. The same applies here. Before asking anyone for anything, make sure you come from a good place.
7. Build a Community
Social media marketing online lessons are all about creating a habit in your customers of buying your products. It’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram that enable you to create this habit by building a community around your brand. If you sell, for example, fitness products, you can create various Facebook groups where people come together to share workout tips and motivate each other. You will be building your brand around people staying fit and healthy.
8. It’s Time to Get Creative
If you’re selling English lessons and do all the same as your competitors, like run ads on Facebook, send out emails to your list, etc., then you’re simply another language coach online. To stand out, you need to think more creatively. Maybe you can make a fun Christmas card and send it out on holidays. By doing your marketing unlike anyone else’s, you’re communicating to your customers that you care enough about them to put some extra effort into your messages.
9. Marketing Lessons for Gaming Startups
E-marketing lessons also apply to game startups. But at a global phenomenon like Fortnite, we can see that one of the main reasons behind its success is inclusivity. They are welcoming everybody to take part in gaming. That might sound counterintuitive to most marketers, who are used to go niche, but Fortnite has been able to use this friendly approach to build more trust with the players.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you got enough inspiration from this article to start putting together more effective marketing strategies for your startups. Remember, these video marketing lessons are based on the experiences of previous entrepreneurs who have tried and tested them all. And guess what? They work. So learn from the successes and failures of others, and make your startup the next big success.
What are the best marketing lessons you’ve learned along your path as an entrepreneur? Write them down in the comments section, and let’s help each other succeed.
Author’s Bio: Thomas Glare is a marketing analyst and enthusiastic business blogger from Greater Manchester. He has done marketing work for several large industry brands and for smaller companies like Cluedo. He also runs workshops and works independently with small start-ups to help them build their brands and realize their business potential.