By Mannie Usman
Starting a business is not an easy task. The idea of being your own boss and calling the shots is something many of us desire and long for, but making it a reality is no walk in the park. Being an entrepreneur comes with many risks and challenges.
Marketing is a critical aspect of a new business; however, successfully executing a marketing plan is a challenge faced by many startups. And no matter how great your products and services are, without the right marketing strategy, the chances of reaching your potential customers and generating profits are incredibly low.
Many startups with promising products and services either do not have the knowledge or experience to successfully market their business or lack sufficient funds to invest in marketing. However, no matter what marketing challenges you may face, it is not all gloom and doom. The good news is, there are simple and highly effective low-cost digital marketing tactics you can leverage to market your business without breaking the bank.
Digital marketing for startups and small businesses
Low-cost digital marketing tip #1: Get listed on Google My Business
Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is an excellent, easy-to-use marketing tool that lets you manage and optimize your free business listing on Google. This is the listing that appears when a user searches for your company on Google Search or Google Maps.
However, Google Business Profile is more than just a business listing. For instance, when you search for a specific business on Google that has a Google Business Profile listing, the results contain a lot of useful information, including opening and closing times, address with directions, images, customer reviews, accessibility and amenities information, and much more.
Think about how helpful all that information is to you as a consumer if you're deciding on a company to do business with. A Google Business listing for your business will have the same effect on your potential customers.
Low-cost digital marketing tip #2: Learn SEO best practices for your website
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Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website so it can be discovered, and appear and rank organically on search engines like Google for the relevant keywords to your products and services.
The term "search engine optimization" may sound intimidating, especially to startups that are not familiar with it. The internet is flooded with all types of information on SEO, which can be overwhelming, making it even harder for startups to understand one of the most important marketing channels in digital marketing.
No doubt, the more SEO that is done on your site, the greater likelihood for it to be effective. But every SEO strategy is built upon SEO basics. Without implementing those basics on your site, your website's chances to appear on search engines are as good as expecting a plant to grow without sowing any seeds.
This is why it is highly recommended and essential for startups to integrate SEO basics into their websites. Implementing basic SEO initiates a process in which your website accumulates authority over time, which is needed to improve your site's rankings on search engines. It also acts as a solid foundation for your site, on which it is much easier and quicker to build a much more advanced SEO strategy later on.
Here are the four basics of SEO:
- Content. Creating excellent content is vital for an overall successful marketing strategy, and it is crucial for good SEO. Google's highly sophisticated algorithms do an excellent job of understanding the search intent of its users and providing them with helpful, relevant, and accurate content for their queries.
No wonder the vast majority of Google's users never visit a search result's second page. This is why creating content that is relevant, unique, engaging, helpful, and clear is critical not only for SEO, but also for winning over your potential customers.
- Meta title and meta description. Meta title and meta descriptions are the snippets that appear on search engines after a user clicks on a search for their query. We all know the importance of first impressions in business. Creating meta titles and meta descriptions for your web pages that are compelling and accurately describe your page content increases the chances for web users to click on your page.
- Image alt text. There are many good reasons for using images on web pages. They bring content to life, help web users visualize your products and services, and make the site aesthetically pleasing. Among the many good reasons, there is one that many of us are not aware of and unknowingly leave it out, causing us to miss out on great opportunities. It is adding alt text to the images.
Alt text, also known as alt-attributes and alt description, is an HTML code that describes the image's function and purpose on the web page. It is essential for people with impaired vision who use screen readers. It also allows search engines to better understand your content and index the image according to its relevance.
- Google Search Console. Google Search Console, formerly known as Google Webmasters Tool, is a free tool by Google for webmasters or website owners. It is an excellent tool for measuring your website's performance and traffic; it diagnoses your site for any web errors, sends you warnings, reports issues, and fixes the issues. It will also help you define and measure your SEO efforts.
You don't have to be a webmaster to use this tool. Google has made it very simple to use, but it does take some time to get used to it. There are tutorial videos available created by Google with information for every of its features, in case you get stuck.
Low-cost digital marketing tip #3: Get listed in business and startup directories
Another smart low-cost digital marketing strategy is to get your startup listed in business and startup directories. Two significant benefits are:
- They gives your startup exposure to journalists and investors; many people also use them to find local businesses.
- A listing in a directory also helps a startup's SEO. Link building is one of the SEO ranking factors—think of it as the digital popularity of your website. If multiple websites are mentioning your site, that indicates to search engines that your site is popular. But this only helps if you list your startup on well-known directories that are relevant. Search engines do not like spam links and tend to ignore them.
Low-cost digital marketing tip #4: Use social media to build your brand
No one can argue against the powerful impact of social media, another effective low-cost digital marketing tactic available to your startup. According to Statista, 80% of Americans have a social networking profile. Social media is a great way to get exposure and connect with your target audience to get your message across. It would be completely unreasonable not to use it for launching your startup.
Having your startup footprint on every major social media platform is a good idea. It helps your overall marketing strategy. Setting up clear goals and objectives on what you want to accomplish, whether it be brand awareness or increasing sales of your products and services, and focusing on the platforms that cater to your targeted audience are key factors to making the most of social media marketing.
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