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4 Useful Marketing Tools for Start-Ups

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StrategyDrivenOnline Marketing and Website Development Article |Marketing Tools| 4 Useful Marketing Tools for Start-UpsEvery business needs strong marketing to improve their visibility and see success. It might seem that marketing is an easy task to complete, but it is an ongoing effort and can prove more challenging than you may first think. A good marketing strategy must be memorable and eye-catching, drawing in the target audience and perhaps even reaching a secondary demographic. It represents the company’s ethos and promotes these values as well as the products and services the business provides.

A further challenge for start-up businesses is creating these brilliant campaigns but on a small budget. Marketing can be expensive, but most small businesses can’t afford the rates of hiring a billboard for a month or creating a TV advertisement. If you’re concerned about how you will afford your marketing for your start-up venture, here are some useful and affordable tools for you to use.

Understand SEO tactics

Search Engine Optimization, in essence, is boosting your company’s website up to higher rankings in search engine results pages. This is important as there are many, many businesses all around the world that provide the same services and products yours does and as such, it is easy to get lost in the listings and lose visibility. To ensure that your business website appears on the first page of results you will need to apply SEO tactics, such as carefully written blogs and mentions in articles on other websites.

Social Media

The use of social media has become a dominant method in marketing over the last two decades. Many ‘influencers’ have made careers out of being spokespeople for brands via their social media platforms. Although you might not be able to afford the cost of hiring a popular individual to promote your company just yet, you can still utilize social media to build your following and start to share information with your customers, and best of all, most of these platforms are free to use!

Printed Materials and Signs

A more traditional method of marketing is printing leaflets, booklets, and posters as promotional materials. This is still a useful practice, especially if you’re attending an event such as an industry convention. If your company has a booth it’s worth having a bespoke sign made to attract passers-by. For example, this company that specializes in custom signs Orlando, could help you increase your visibility and make sure your sign is unique to your business.

Podcasts

Podcasts have steadily grown in popularity and could be a very useful tool for your start-up. A podcast will take more time to prepare and could end up being more expensive to produce, but it would be worth it if you have the budget and the resources to do so. Similar to a blog, your business podcast could include interviews with special guests from the industry, discuss new ideas and developments, and allow listeners to write in and have their say.

Promoting your business and your products is essential to keep it going. It can be difficult to manage marketing when you’re a start-up, especially if you’re an individual or a small team with many other things to focus on. However, you mustn’t neglect your marketing, use these suggestions to help you get started.

How To Easily Get More Eyes On Your Brand

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Get More Eyes on Your Brand|How To Easily Get More Eyes On Your BrandBusiness is all about creating a product and/or service, and keeping customers engaged with it/them. In short, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Of course, there are heaps and heaps of aspects that go with that sentiment, but it’s a pretty straightforward concept at the end of the day. One of those aspects that requires lots of work and attention, though, is the marketing side. As a business, you need to attract people and maintain those relationships for as long as you can.

When it comes to keeping the relationship flowing, you need to provide consistent content, show you care and be as reliable as you can – among other things. Attracting them in the first place can prove t be a tricky task, too, though. Making people notice you in such an impulsive and fast-paced world like today isn’t a walk in the park for most budding entrepreneurs. Our computers and apps have made things a little more convenient, but there are still some tricks that we need to pull off. Here are a few fundamental ideas if you’re looking for some inspiration:

Lookup All The Methods!

Before you make any moves in terms of forming strategies, you’ll want to figure out what’s best for you and your business. Some companies will suit certain methods, so it’s only right that you figure out what looks best on you. It’s also right to learn about how to market efficiently. You don’t want to spend hours of life (and quite a bit of money) on a campaign that doesn’t work. For instance, you might feel you want to learn how to advertise in china or something equally significant when all you really needed was a quick social media campaign. There are loads of ways to do it – you’re only bound by your creativity.

Get Your Social Accounts Built!

As we mentioned before, social media works very well. You should absolutely make sure you have the big social media platforms covered. This is because billions of people are operating on them each day, and you don’t want to miss out on any kind of lead. Social media is free and easy to work with, so it’s a real no-brainer.

Work With A Marketing Agency

Marketing agencies are fantastic little firms if you’re looking to boost your exposure and build relationships. Their sole purpose is to make companies a lot bigger and better, so you might want to hop into bed with them if you’re struggling to do so yourself. They’ll be able to help out with SEO, apps, competitions, and all kinds of different facets.

Do The Job Perfectly!

Finally, and very simply: get the job done. Word of mouth is an excellent means of marketing, so you’ll need to impress your customers/clients. If you can build a reputation, and make people want you more and more, then you’ll have the general public executing a marketing strategy for you while you kick your feet up. Free publicity!

What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPC

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO |What You Need to Know About SEO, SEM, and PPCDid you know that a staggering three quarters of internet users don’t click past the first page of search results on Google? This is the reason why search engine optimization, or SEO, has been and still is a dominating force in the world of digital marketing. However, while SEO is arguably the most important factor to consider, it is not the only factor that is going to help you maximize your online sales. SEO can and should be combined with both SEM and PPC for optimal results.

Here is what you need to know about all three.

SEO

SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your company’s website for search engines. In other words, the ultimate goal of a good search engine optimization strategy is to rank higher in search results, something that MackMedia can help you to ascertain. SEO is comprised of both on-page and off-page factors. On page factors refer to those aspects of SEO that you can control on your own website, including metadata, user experience (UX), keywords, alt tags, and internal linking. Off-page SEO refers to the aspects of SEO that happen off of your website, but have a direct effect on your website’s rankings. Off page factors include backlinks, domain authority, and social promotion.

PPC

PPC refers to pay per click advertising via search engines. Essentially, you decide on a budget for your campaign and create ads that display on Google or on various social media platforms (most platforms have their own PPC tools and procedures). You only pay a specified amount if and when someone clicks on your ad. Generally, the ad directs the person to your website and drives a specific CTA, often resulting in a conversion or at least commencing/progressing the buyer’s journey. You have the power to set a specific budget per day and/or per month so that it is impossible to overspend.

Many business owners put more effort into PPC because it promises immediate results and automatically takes their ad to the top of the Google search results. Many also opt to make use of PPC because they believe that it positively affects their organic rankings. However, this is a myth. No matter how much you spend on PPC advertising, it will not alter your organic rankings in any way.

SEM

SEM is short for search engine marketing and it is very similar to PPC. Most experts will tell you that PPC is a large part of SEM, but that SEM extends further than just PPC itself. While PPC is generally more focused on paid advertising via search engines, SEM is focused on paid advertising across the digital board, including on third party websites like online directories, Amazon, and YouTube.

At the end of the day, a great digital marketing strategy will encompass SEO, SEM, and PPC in order to generate maximum results and maximum brand awareness. Not sure how to get started? It is always a good idea to consider hiring a professional digital marketing company for assistance if you do not feel secure enough in your own skills. That way, you can reap all of the rewards without having to put in the extra effort.