Digital marketing is a skill that every small startup wants to get the hang of but doesn’t necessarily have the time to commit to. Imagine having a business to launch, stock/services to keep track of, sales… Everything. It gets messy, not to mention strenuous. Well, here at Snatch Digital, we want to take the pressure off. We’ve come up with a list of basic digital marketing tools that your business can take advantage of while you’re trying to make ends meet, and keeping your business ticking over.

These five tips will no doubt help your startup leverage digital marking to its full potential.

Before we get into the nitty gritty, you’re going to want to or have done some research about what works in digital marketing for your business. There’s nothing worse nor riskier than not understanding your market’s competitors – specifically those that use digital marketing.

1. CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM/S CAREFULLY

As we said, research the market and see what platforms – albeit social media – are best to use for your business. For example, if you’re in interior design, it’s in your best Pinterest to Pin It or Instagram. Tumblr would work too. The thing you DON’T want to do is oversaturate your brand online. So, in order to invest enough time into your business, just choose a select few that you know work best. Choosing to be on too many platforms (in the beginning) could mean that your brand’s identity is lost. Ideally, you’ll want to have a strong follower/interaction base, and establish the type of content that works before branching out.

2. CONSIDER YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE 

The further you go down this post, or even down Snatch Digital’s site, you’ll realise that research is the most important thing. We use the word ‘research’ in almost every sentence. You need to research, and identify potential customers – the only way to do this is by looking at competitors and seeing who follows them. When you’re trying to establish your target audience, really delve into their interests, personalities, lifestyles etc.

After establishing the ideal market, you’ll want to conduct some studies or strategies/campaigns that can be used for statistics. This’ll help you realise what works and what doesn’t. If you’re using eMarketing as a platform, send personal emails – don’t send mail-outs in the beginning. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes; would you prefer to receive something everyone has gotten or would you rather a personal message addressed to you?

3. UNDERSTAND THE COMPETITION

At this stage, you’d have identified your target market. Although you could’ve found this out from looking at those who buy/use the service of your competitors, you could’ve come up with your own. If you chose to find your own, now would be a good time to consider really understanding and getting to grips with your competitors. Keeping an eye on what other brands are doing, it’ll help you know ‘what to’ or ‘what not to’ do. You’d need to research the brands that inspire your business in order to determine how they utilise digital marketing to build their reputation as industry leaders.

4. RECONNECT WITH PREVIOUS CUSTOMERS

The bigger your business gets, the more likely you are to lose those customers who were buying from you in the beginning… Instead of forgetting about them and moving your attentions to the new customers, try to re-engage them and keep them interested in what you’re doing… You’d never forget where you came from, would you? It’s the same story with your business. Emails are the best for this. If, for example, you own an eCommerce website, send them out discounts or voucher coupons every once in a while… This way, they’ll know for sure that you want to keep their custom. If gyms can do this when we deactivate our memberships, you can do this with your previous customers.

5. KEEP TESTING AND TRYING THINGS OUT

No business has ever succeeded without trying different formats… You need to be open to trying things out, and testing the water before you realise what works and what doesn’t. Also, just because it doesn’t work at the time you first tried it, that doesn’t mean it’ll never work again… Things are ever changing. What might not work once, might work again in a different situation/circumstance… At Snatch Digital, this is the second most vital piece of advice we give our clients.

It’s the easiest but most consistent marketing activity. Whether it’s for emails or for social media, trialling is the only method of figuring out whether an approach works or not.

Provided that you’re regularly evaluating your performance and results via reports, there’s no doubt that your business will inevitably grow.

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