Are you trying to create a successful startup? Then you are likely very busy tackling many details and technicalities, from putting together the right team to creating a business entity, signing contracts, arranging for mentorship and investors. You will have to find effective ways to network and showcase your ideas, and source everything from your exhibition stand equipment to your marketing plan and business website.
Just remember you also have to invest heavily in digital marketing, if you hope to succeed in this fast-paced information age. In case you haven’t put much thought into this matter yet, here are the essential aspects to keep in mind.
Start by developing an effective content strategy
Before you even start talking looking for designers who will flesh out your business website, you should first work on developing a solid content strategy. It’s not enough to just fill your website with vaguely relevant content if you are looking to make an impact; you will have to think of the best angles to express the value of your ideas in a way that is captivating and engaging. While you will likely hire content writers to put the words together, it’s up to you to establish the vision and the guidelines that will structure all the content to be published within your website as well as to be used in your outreach campaigns.
User Experience will make or break your website
Not too long ago, it was enough to simply set up a website if you wanted to attract readers. These days, your focus should be aimed towards creating a valuable user experience (UX). Simply put, it means you have to find creative ways to make visitors spend time in your website - as your content hopefully attracts their attention, piques their interest, sparks their desire to become clients and eventually makes them take a specific action. To achieve this goal, many considerations are in order; from making sure the website has fast loading times and flawless uptimes, to making its navigation very intuitive, and making sure all communication channels are operational and neatly connected to the main website.
SEO has changed, but it’s not dead
Search Engine Optimization used to be a roaring industry, back in the early days of the Internet. It used to be the main toolset for achieving visibility online - in a way that more or less involved manipulating search engines. This became harder and harder to pull off as the search algorithms grew more sophisticated, and eventually, webmasters started throwing their hands in the air and saying “we’re not getting results, which must mean that SEO is dead”. This couldn’t be farther from the truth; search engine optimization is actually alive and kicking, but trying to manipulate search engines is effectively detrimental to your success.
The right approach to make your pages climb the search engine page result now boils down to making visitors happy by catering to their wants and needs. You do this by having a magnetic content strategy in place, optimizing the user experience and… are you starting to see a pattern, here? Let’s see what comes next.
.jpeg)
Social Media is no longer optional
Whether you love it or hate it, you have to think of social media as THE modern communication tool, rather than a toy. Having a strong social media presence is no longer optional, and “presence” is the operational word, here: it’s not enough to just set up your social media channels and hope people will follow you. It’s paramount to think of your social media channels as satellites pointing right back to your websites. This involves putting a lot of time, energy and effort to really grow audiences around your ideas, since only by doing so can you achieve the right positioning that will add to the trustworthiness of your start-up and effectively generate business leads.
Get involved in Video Marketing
You may have heard that video marketing is the next big thing… but it’s the biggest thing right now! Millennials are visually oriented, and will often prefer watching videos rather than reading articles… if given the choice. This presents both a challenge as an opportunity: it means you should think of ways to convert all your relevant content into engaging videos, but it also means you have massive new audiences out there that you can easily tap into. For the sake of having a successful start-up, you should get involved in video marketing, and it can’t be a simple afterthought – video must be a strong pillar in your digital marketing strategy.
Tomas Smith is a production process specialist at Sewport - an online marketplace connecting brands and manufacturers, former advisor to various clothing manufacturing businesses. He is passionate about process optimisation and all things related to garment manufacturing, writing and sharing his knowledge with the world.
