HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR STARTUP WITHOUT SHELLING YOUR SAVINGS

Yashasvi Khushu || The CEO Magazine

Startups nowadays face a number of precarious challenges, but not one of these challenges is as petrifying as being positive on capital.

India today is living the era of startups for anything and everything; there is one in every nook and corner of the city. Moreover, making the mass aware of the brand is a task that toils out each bit of the entrepreneurs. Marketing and advertising of a brand that is established or not has its own significant value. The catch remains in how much are you ready to shell out of your pockets to push your brand among the potential consumer, or is there a way that economical.

Let us take a tour of the ways, which can help you save your sweat equity and move the advertising of your brand in the right direction:

–    Seek online influencers for your promotion; building a network that is strong online can be a great online marketing strategy. Collaborating with influencers who have a strong presence on the web can be an incredibly powerful way of reaching out to people.

–    Use online tools like landing pages on your website to grow the list of your subscribers. If you still have not gotten your landing pages processed, use your main page for the meanwhile. Give your subscribers coupons or other incentives to lure more people in the process.

–    One of the best ways to keep the website going and spreading brand awareness is to keep updating relevant and high-quality content. Cover topics that are trending in regards to your startup industry and publish as frequently as you can. There is no need to ace the art of blogging before you actually start doing it; the catch is to start doing it relevantly and learning to the go.

–    In case you're wondering where to start in terms of content, go for downloadable blogs that start with a 'How To', people out there are looking for all nature's of information from the internet and the easiest way is to make this information available in the most kindergarten way of it, exactly how you just landed on this content.

–    Welcome guest posts on your website; this will open the window to better content, more innovative topics and wider reach. Down the road, SEO footprint of the website will amplify with a relative audience with this effort. You can also collaborate with other popular bloggers, offer your guest blogs, and include your website links in it. This nature of collaboration will give you an audience that is restricted a different blogger like a breath of fresh air.

–    Send as many newsletters as you can to keep your subscribers abreast and interested in what is coming up new. However, do not overdo it either; know when to stop before you get unsubscribed. You can keep them alert but not make them feel like you are a crazy stalker. Keep inserting links to useful and informative content that coveys the message.

–    You have to be a 'caveman' who do not have social media accounts, use it to your benefit. The age we are living in, social media is literally everything and the foremost and easiest way to advertise free. However, the art is in knowing which medium to use for what, Instagram may work for fashion but not for technology, so know where to promote what. Amplify the reach of the content you create through social media by being more involved and active.

–    Don't be stuck on Google Ad words, it undoubtedly is an option to consider for its benefits, but that option is for later use in the longer run. The whole Google Ad words business requires a decent amount of capital to make campaigns, do test runs, learn etc.

–    Regardless of what product you launch in the market, it will stand copied at some point of time, what may not be easy or impossible to copy is the nature of the experience you provide to the consumer from your brand. The experience always talks for itself and generates goodwill and publicity. Hence, always give a good customer experience by high-quality services.

–    Learn to respond to complaints by positivity; cringing on customer complaints is the first way to invite badmouthing. So avoid that. Handle complaints and queries well, see what best you can do for your customer and that will determine if they will come back to you or not.

In a business that is still struggling in its infancy stage, these tips and tricks are of a mammoth help. Moreover, as long as you are putting the right amount of effort and strategies to make your brand big, you will achieve a visible growth.