December 26, 2020

5 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups to Try Out in 2024

As a startup, creating a market-worthy product is half the battle. The next half is getting your brand and your product in front of the right customers.

And to do so, you have to not only attract but also delight your target audience.

You need to get the word out there about your fabulous product.

Your brand should also engage and connect with your audience, both online and offline.

5 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups to Try Out in 2024: eAskme
5 Sales and Marketing Tips for Startups to Try Out in 2024: eAskme

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Unfortunately, sales and marketing are some of the weighty challenges for startup businesses.

Given that 75-90 percent of startups fail within the first few years, you need to get your marketing strategy right from the outset.

This article provides 5 tried-and-true sales and marketing tips that startups can try out in 2024 and beyond.

(1) Know your Customer

Before you start marketing, you need to know a whole lot about your target audience.

After all, how can you market if you have no idea about who you’re selling to?

0That’s where market research comes into the picture.

Study your audience.

More specifically, you have to know who they are, what their needs are, what they are looking for in a product, what they like, what they dislike, and how best to serve their needs.

Once you know the ins and outs of your target customers, you can now create buyer personas so that you can tailor your marketing and sales campaigns.

Create a Sales Enablement Practice:

Creating a sales enablement program is essential to any business with a team of salespeople.
If you don’t have sales enablement in your sales process your team is not selling to their maximum potential - without a software like SalesHood there is no unified messaging, no communication between sales and marketing regarding sales enablement content, no routine sales training and pitch practice, and overall a fragmented mess.
 
By implementing a sales enablement process you can get your team on a unified message, get your teams practicing together and get more sales people selling like your rockstar sales person.

(2) Start Marketing before Product Launch

Chances are, you are new to the market.

You are going up against established veterans and perhaps household names.

That’s why it is a big mistake to wait until your product is ready to start selling and marketing.

Timing is of paramount importance when it comes to startup marketing.

As a rule of thumb, marketing communications should start from day 1 and the actual marketing activities should begin at least 6-12 months before the launch of the product.

There are numerous effective ways you can build buzz and hype up your startup before the product is ready:

Create an actionable SEO strategy.

Craft a beautiful website for your startup and product pages.

This way, you can build your brand awareness, increase your online presence, and stay on top of both on-page and off-page SEO.

The idea here is to rank for keywords relevant to your product and area of interest before the launch date.

Go social.

 There are already 2.77 billion active social media users around the globe, which include most of your target audience.

Create social media pages, post captivating content and engage directly with your audience.

It’s all about building bridges, connections, and getting the buzz going for your startup.

Use beta testers.

Getting actionable feedback is crucial.

Gather a group of users to take the early version of your product for a test drive.

Use their insights, critique and feedback to get your product truly ready for the market.

Above all, make sure they get the word out and about -- referral marketing can do wonders for your startup. It’s way better than any other marketing tactic.

Engage the press.

Even if you don’t have a product yet, it is prudent to do a little PR.

Talk to the press about your startup, its mission, and vision.

It’s all about getting the conversion going and potential customers talking about your startup.

(3) Show the Value (and Sell the Benefits) to the Customer

Let’s face it; consumers are bombarded with myriads of new products and services every day.

They are spoilt for choice.

So, what makes your brand and your product different from the rest?

Here’s the truth: consumers aren’t really interested in how well your product compares to the rivals?

They may not even care how good your product or service is.

All they want to know is what you bring to the table in terms of value.

How will your product benefit them?

With that being said, how you market or sell yourself as a startup can make a huge difference.

Instead of talking about your product features, show the customer the benefits that they will gain from buying or using it.

Startups are built from the ground up to offer a particular solution(s).

Tell the customers which immediate problem you are after and then explain to them how your product will help solve it.

Talk not just about your product, but also what’s unique and effective about it.

Don’t forget to create an emotional connection.

When the customer sees your product as a viable solution, that’s when you can win their purchase and loyalty.

In other words, make it clear-cut to the customer that your startup or product is their best option.

(4) Stay on Top of your Marketing Analytics

Once your product is out there, don’t stop learning about your audience, the end user, and how it’s being used. Listen to what customers are saying.

In fact, ignoring customer feedback and behavior is one of the biggest reasons why startups fail, especially in the healthcare sector.

Besides customers, data is another thing startups can ignore at their own peril.

That’s where marketing analytics come into play.

This entails tracking, quantifying and optimizing your marketing and sales activities.

Data analytics tells you how your marketing campaigns are performing.

For instance, if you are startup creating innovative medical devices or software, you have to gather as much as data as possible from early users of your product.

And this data-driven approach to marketing comes with a boatload of benefits.

According to Combo App, marketing analytics can help inform product iteration, provide real-time interactions, as well as help with strategic decision-making.

Moreover, data-driven marketing allows medtech startups to personalize their content marketing campaigns, which takes us to the next tip.

(5) Leverage the Power of Content

No startup has a bottomless marketing budget, which is why content marketing has gained increased traction with most startup marketers.

You should pour all your efforts into creating a solid and data-driven content marketing strategy.

According to a report by Content Marketing Institute, 57 percent of marketers attribute decreased success to not committing enough time to content marketing.

To get your content marketing off the ground, you have to:

Let your sales and marketing teams collaborate.

This is important because according to a recent study, 81 percent of highly successful companies say they have aligned their content marketing with their sales goals.

Document your strategy for content.

60 percent of successful marketers use documented content marketing strategies, as per Digital Authority.

Use content to educate and offer value. Let the sales pitch come after.

Use the right content marketing tools and channels.

From email to social media and everything in between, there plenty of technologies and avenues for boosting your content marketing efforts.

Set proper goals.

Make sure that you have clear and well-defined content marketing goals.

Don’t forget to use metrics to quantify your achievements.

Or work with a marketing agency who can help you sort out through all these complexities.

Conclusion:

It’s often said that 90 percent of startups fail. If you want yours to be among the remaining 10 percent, you have to up your sales and marketing game.

To do so, you have to:
  • Know your audience - your typical customer
  • Start marketing way before the product is ready
  • Market the benefits and sell the value
  • Leverage marketing analytics to better your product, your brand, and listen to your customer
  • Use content marketing as the foundation of your sales and marketing efforts

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