According to NASSCOM, India added 1600 tech startups in 2020, making it the third-largest tech startup country in the world. As per startupindia.gov.in, there are approximately 2-3 tech startups initiated every day.
All these new brands have to compete with large corporates and long-standing companies. Their primary focus is on utilizing digital marketing for startups to become competent and successful. Over the past decade, digital marketing has revolutionized promoting products and services through various platforms like social media, search engines, and other digital media platforms.
Why digital marketing for startups is essential?
The current trend involves customers researching the products or services before making a buying decision. Digital marketing for startups helps them establish their brand and connect with the maximum number of prospects.
Many experts believe that traditional marketing has become obsolete. The survival of a business in the current online world heavily depends on digital marketing. Since there is cut-throat competition, startups need to have an effective digital marketing strategy to help them stand out. Let’s dive straight into the reasons why digital marketing is essential for startups.
1. Cost-effective marketing:
Digital marketing does not require huge investments. As per Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report, “28% of businesses that were studied will switch their advertising budget allocations from traditional marketing to digital marketing channels”.
Startups and small businesses are low on resources and capitalization. Digital marketing provides low-cost strategies to reach a large audience. Digital marketing for startups is like a ray of hope to survive in this cut-throat competition.
2. Provides a level playing field:
Digital marketing provides equal opportunities to startups and small businesses to compete against big multinationals and large corporates. Digital marketing for startups enables them to reach out to a larger audience and engage with them effectively. 3 ways through which digital marketing provides equal opportunities for startups:
- Startups can perform sales and marketing processes that were accessible before only by multinationals
- Digital marketing for startups enable them to engage with multiple customers without the need to spend on a call center
- Conversions are cost-effective
3. Results in higher conversions:
Digital marketing for startups helps in tracking online conversions. It enables startups to understand the percentage of the traffic that turned into subscribers, leads, and deals. The more website traffic a startup has, the more chances it has of getting new customers. There various strategies in digital marketing that helps in increasing the traffic:
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Pay-Per-Click
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
4. Enables engagement with customers:
Digital marketing for startups not only helps in establishing and promoting the brand but also enables the brand to engage with the customers. The startups can start a conversation on social media or in a blog post, can run a survey, and get their target audience’s opinions. This is one of the main reasons why digital marketing has completely taken over traditional marketing channels. Digital marketing for startups utilizes internet marketing tools to interact with the target audience in real-time.
As this interaction increases, startups will have a better understanding of what the customers are looking for and how they can provide solutions to their problems. Engaging with the customers also increases the trust between a brand and a customer.
5. Generates better revenues:
A successful digital marketing strategy yields higher conversions. As a result, the revenue also increases exponentially. Startups that use social media marketing generate 78% more business compared to the companies that do not use social media marketing.
Google confirmed this in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth expectancy from companies using digital marketing strategies. With better revenue and growth expectancy, startups will have 3.3 times better chances of expansion.
6. Helps you target your audience:
Digital marketing for startups is a highly personalized form of marketing technique. It allows a business to understand its customers properly. Through various tools and strategies, digital marketing helps a startup to track, monitor, analyze and interpret the behaviors and preferences of its target audience and enables a business to target a specific audience.
7. Builds brand reputation:
The USP of digital marketing is its ability to attract targeted traffic. This means that the targeted audience is aware of your brand and is interested to learn more about it. They are interested enough in your products/ services to purchase what you have to offer.
Engaging with the customer properly and delivering on what you promised will build your relationship with the target audience and in turn will be beneficial for your brand reputation. Satisfied customers are the biggest positive word-of-mouth spreaders.
8. Increases reach and visibility:
It is all about visibility and reach in this online world. No matter how well-developed or designed a product or service may be, it will be a waste if nobody knows or hears about it. Digital marketing for startups enables them to establish an online presence and increase both reach and visibility.
Digital marketing helps you gain the necessary recognition among your target audience which will eventually drive the success of your business.
9. Helps reach out to mobile customers:
The number of smartphone users in India is estimated to be over 760 million and worldwide this number is estimated to be 3.8 billion. A decade ago, having a basic website would have been enough, but the current users are interacting with companies through their mobile devices. It is of utmost importance for a smart startup to create a mobile optimization strategy.
Mobile devices have grown from just replacements of laptops to something that alters a customer’s buying decision. Digital marketing for startups enables a business to connect with the target audience on mobile devices.
10. Provides better ROI:
Digital marketing can be easily monitored and tracked. The results can be measured and analyzed in real-time. This helps in evaluating performance and making decisions for obtaining a better ROI. Even when a marketing campaign is running, based on the evaluation, it can be tweaked to get better results. Digital marketing for startups opens up a door to not only establish and promote the brand but also increase ROI.
Conclusion:
Startups and small businesses need to invest in digital marketing to compete with big players. The top reasons highlighted in this blog should be enough for startups to make the right decision. According to a survey by CB Insights, “Approximately 17% of startups fail due to poor marketing”. So the time has come for startups to invest in digital marketing.
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