In our LoneStar state, there has never been a better time to be a startup! Austin alone distributed over 53 percent of the Venture Capital raised in the city with $493 million in Q1 of 2019! 

Marketing is essential for the success of any company out there, but for startups who are just getting their feet on the ground, digital marketing efforts are essential to get their brand, products and/or service and company in front of their target audience. 

As a startup, one does not need to use half of your Venture Capital earnings to have a successful digital marketing effort.

Here are the top startup marketing ideas for all startups out there! 

1. Branding efforts 

A brand is defined as, “a personality that identifies a product, service or company including a name, term, sign, symbol or design.” Yes, you have a company that sells these products or services, but this is not YOUR brand. A brand is cohesive with the company. What morals and values do you uphold and how do these morals and values get executed to your target audience. 

There are three major notions to remember when it comes to branding efforts. 

Be clear and be you. Whether that is funky, fun or buttoned up and professional- just be yourself. A company needs to be authentically themselves and that means from content that is published to tone of voice. 

Once that is settled, double-down on social media marketing efforts. The content that is being published out on social media is what potential clients or consumers are reading on a day-to-day basis. 

The third is to always remember, “it isn’t about you.” It is about the brand and ultimately the audience.

2. You need a website 

This is one of those startup marketing ideas that are kind of a no brainer, but a startup needs more than just any old website out there! Skip the DIY website that only causes hassle and not producing the website that you were dreaming of. Let’s say that your startup is about travel luggage. 

A searcher will type into Google, “travel luggage sets” or “best travel luggage company.” Who will appear? The biggest competitors if there is no website! The example we listed HAS to have a website, but every other startup out there also needs one! 

Another reason why a startup needs a website is that all leads and conversions from SEO, PPC ads and other digital marketing efforts can be tracked and later evaluated to see what is and is not working. 

3. Start digital marketing  

One of the biggest startup marketing ideas is to start digital marketing sooner than later! Digital marketing is a broad umbrella term that encompasses Search Engine Optimization strategies and social media marketing strategies. These two strategies are combined to provide a startup with the optimal marketing strategy to kill it! 

Ahrefs states that, “90.65 percent of content gets no traffic from Google!” There are over 1.5 billion websites out on Google’s search engine alone. This does not count DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo! Or any other alternative search engines!  So, what the heck is happening?

The companies are not making sure their digital marketing is up to par with the other 9 percent of content that is ranking. The other 9 percent is using what is called backlink strategies. A backlink strategy is when a company uses your content to backlink to their website or blogs. 

These links come from other domains that point to a page on your website. The more backlinks that a company has, the more reputable they are in search engines eyes. 

66.3 percent of pages don’t even have a SINGLE backlink!

The second reason why this content is not ranking is that the organic search is no longer there. The thing with SEO specifically in the digital marketing world is that it is always changing. A website can have 700,000 backlinks but the newest pages are not ranking. How? There could be shady backlinks, but more than likely, that the keyword being used is outdated! 

It is estimated that 81 percent of consumers perform an online search that researches a company before purchasing a product or service.  

With this online search, social media profiles typically show within Google’s SERPs. A company needs to be active on social media for two reasons. 

The first reason is that just about EVERYONE in a startups target audience will be on some form of social media platform. There are over three billion and half of them are on social media, so yes, your target audience is on there. Younger generations take into consideration everything a company posts, and in a digital world, a number of consumers will research a startup or company before making their final purchasing decision. 

These are the top three digital marketing essentials for any startup searching for a way to break through in their industry. For more information or help with startup marketing ideas, give our experts a call today!