By Duncan McCaslin
Start-up businesses are constantly innovating and becoming globally competitive, particularly when attracting a younger, hungrier workforce. The on-going question for many businesses trying to build a committed workforce is the question of how to stay relevant, competitive and appealing. It’s important to invest your time wisely when marketing your start-up. Whether it’s an approach to strengthening user engagement, customer loyalty, team building and employee wellness, brand awareness, or face-to-face signups, a start-up business has the ability to capture consumers who then relay these fresh ideas through various platforms. How do you promote your start-up to get customers at this point? Where do you start? Here are 6 tips that we use at Kreate.
1. What makes a start-up, a start-up – It’s new! The more you offer unique approaches marketing, the more likely you are to flourish. Companies that have been around for a while may not like change, but this is the opposite approach to your start-up’s foundation. Look to evolve your business, stay relevant, and be simple and transparent in communicating your benefits to your customers will experience from your product.
2. Small is better than no targeted audience at all – It is better to have a small niche of followers because you will have higher engagement than if you have not targeted any specific audience. With no particular audience, it will be very difficult to move forward. Think of your ideal customer and who will want to use your product – the more a target audience is filtered, the more likely you are to be successful.
3. It’s all about connections – Firstly, the more contacts you develop with producers, bloggers, editors, the better. Networking is key to making your name known. Secondly, it is crucial to communicate closely with your followers. After all, they will be the ones who make or break your business’ success. Whether it’s a Facebook page or Twitter feed, make a point of saying thank you to those who reciprocate and engage with you.
4. Incentivize – Apply gamification to your start-up business. This is a relatively recent buzzword that has been flying around the live marketingandevents marketing industry that applies gaming mechanics to a non-game atmosphere like business. Its aim is to increase user engagement in a fun and friendly manner. Use social platforms for contests and rewards to gain loyal customers. For instance, send company stickers to prize-winners, which can go on cars, laptops, and backpacks – a way that users can spread your company’s name with the world.
5. Keep your message simple – The less, the better. It is a simple, yet memorable tagline and logo that gets a business far. With the ability to clearly recognise a business, you will see the effect it has on your target audience. Take McDonald’s tagline, “I’m Lovin’ it.” – it’s simple and easy to remember. If possible, try to incorporate your company into the tagline.
6. Partner Up – Partner with a company that complements rather than competes. For instance, if you work for a start-up catering business (which of course is different from all the rest), partner up with a venue company that targets a similar marketing audience – then, both companies can complement one another. What kind of things can you benefit from partnering? You can use word-of-mouth, share media lists, and host workshops to learn how the companies work. It’s a win win!
This article was written by Duncan McCaslin and the team at Kreate. Duncan is the Director at Kreate, an award winning experiential marketing agency. Clients Duncan and his team have worked for include TK Maxx, Coca Cola, Mattel and AB InBev.