The Essentials of Advertising and Marketing for Startups

Advertising and marketing have seen a huge change in trend since the emergence of startups. Initially, while startups relied heavily on word of mouth communication to build their brand, the emerging social media provided a free and quintessential platform for reaching a wider audience. 

But why exactly is ideal advertising and marketing important for a startup? We’ve rounded up 5 points on the essence of advertising and marketing in a startup ecosystem apart from the general brand establishment and audience building.

1. Establish and Differentiate your Startup:
It is imperative to not just establish your brand identity but also the personality of your entire company. Why and how does it differ from the competition? What are the benefits of this differentiation, and the ability to effectively sell their unique contribution can bring in a variety of new customers? 

The initial launch of transportation companies Ola and Uber in India were with the ‘First Ride Free’ offers to ‘Refer a Friend,’ which brought people to least try their services and grow from there. 
Groupon used the strategy to add an additional offer or upsell or to ‘Refer a Friend’ to get $10 when a friend makes their first purchase. 

2. Longevity, Loyalty, and Engagement:
Establishing a bond with existing customers is as important as generating new customers. Providing customers/clients a sense of loyalty towards them helps build trust and good will along with improving word of mouth advertising. Engaging people with feedback, addressing their complaints and following up on services goes a long way. 
Pinterest started a campaign called ‘Pin it Forward’ in which bloggers got more invites to the site by spreading the word. 

3. Build it but also sell it:
The age old mantra of “build it and they will come” applies no more. With innovation on the rise, not many people will be interested in your particular brand of product/service unless you sell it well. AirBnB used one of the most popular websites in the world- Craigslist to get maximum distribution for their site. 

Also read: How To Promote Your Startup And Get Paid For It Too. 

4. Marketing generates feedback, feedback helps you grow:
Digital marketing gives you an opportunity to create a robust customer experience by tracking, monitoring, analyzing and interpreting customer patterns and behaviors. This feedback can help you generate better content to target a wider audience spectrum and also refine your product for the present consumer base. 

5. Waste not, want not:
Money is generally an issue with startups. Advertising and marketing will give you a better idea of what precisely a consumer wants. It is very important to keep track of the effectiveness of your product/service to put your funding to appropriate use instead of wasting it on something that does not resonate with your consumers. 

A proper strategic advertising and marketing plan can positively affect new client acquisitions, brand visibility, and revenue generation.