New businesses and startups have to employ various strategies and develop plans to make their brand a well-established one. One of these includes improving a startup’s digital presence. This is where digital marketing comes into play; it can help small businesses connect with their target audience and clients through various digital channels. While figuring out the perfect digital marketing strategy can take a while, a few tips can help startups establish their online presence.
Determine goals
It is crucial for a startup to first determine its goals. Every digital marketing strategy is devised with a specific purpose. It can be marketing specific products or services, creating brand awareness, or increasing sales. Whatever the plan may be, a startup’s marketing team must have clearly defined goals so they can begin laying the cornerstone of a successful digital marketing strategy.
Know the target audience
Startups must know their target audience for any marketing strategy or tactic, whether digital marketing, cold calling, or hosting events. Without a clear understanding of their target audience, small businesses cannot devise a successful marketing plan. So, for a digital marketing strategy to be successful, they first need to define the target audience. This way, their design campaign will reach and connect with the target market.
Implement SEO practices
Among the various digital marketing strategies and practices a business can implement, search engine optimization (SEO) is the most important. So, startups must pay attention to the SEO practices they employ. The basic idea behind SEO practices is to optimize a website in such a way that it can rank higher in search engine result pages (SERP). This is because the audience and Internet users tend to click or rely more on websites that appear higher in search results on search engines. So, there are various aspects of SEO practices that a startup needs to focus on to ensure they rank higher on the landing page.
1. Keyword research
When startups or small businesses need to optimize their website to rank higher in search results, one of the most important aspects they need to focus on is keyword research. There are several tools that can let them know what specific keywords most Internet users are searching for on search engines. So, startups can use such tools to look up trending keywords that match their products or services. They can then use these keywords in their content so their websites can rank higher on search engines. It is also important to only use relevant keywords to avoid misleading customers.
2. Meta title and description
Meta tags, which comprise the meta title and meta description, must also contain relevant keywords. These will convey to the search engine exactly what the site and the content are about, which will help the link rank higher in SERP.
3. Site speed
A key factor for startups to take into consideration when optimizing their websites is the site speed. Ideally, a website should not take more than two to three seconds to load. If it does, a major chunk of the visitors can leave the site. More importantly, even search engines rank websites based on their loading speeds. Suppose a website loads faster; search engines will rank it higher, as it makes the experience easier for users.
Use social media marketing
Social media platforms offer a great opportunity for businesses to connect with their audience, build their brand, drive traffic to their site, and improve sales. So, startups should focus on social media marketing when planning digital marketing strategies.
Social media marketing strategies mainly involve content creation on social media platforms. This can include image posts, long videos, short videos, and stories. Startups can begin by designing a content calendar to plan which content to post and on what date. The pre-planned calendar allows startups to have their content ready beforehand and stay consistent with their uploads.
Try content marketing
Startups can also create written content in the form of blogs and articles to drive traffic to their website. For content marketing, blogs should be informative and engaging. They should also be relevant to their brand. For instance, a startup that sells shoes can create blogs about ways to style different shoes or the benefits of wearing shoes with cushioned soles. In the same way, it is important to conduct keyword research and implement SEO practices for written content. Plus, startups must ensure that the content is kept simple—so audiences can easily connect with it—and maintain consistency in their uploads.
Conduct a website audit
A good website is like the foundation of digital marketing for any business. Only if a brand has a well-built website that is easy to use and navigate will it be able to connect well with its audience. So, this is another aspect of digital marketing that a startup should focus on. Since many internet users rely on their smartphones to access websites, it is also important for the startup to ensure that their site is mobile-accessible. Startups can rely on free website audit tools to ensure the site meets these factors and is in good shape. These tools can determine if the website has any issues, such as broken links, long loading times, pages that are not mobile-viewable, etc., so the business owner can act upon it as soon as possible.