Your Guide to Creating a Marketing Plan for your Startup

Almost 92% of business owners believe a website is the most important element of a digital marketing strategy. While vital, if you want your startup to survive you need to go much further with your marketing. So how do you get the ball rolling?

One way is by effective planning in the early stages. Read on as we discuss how to create a marketing plan for your startup. 

Know Your End Goal

Marketing encompasses a wide range of areas, and as a result, there are a number of outcomes that can be achieved. If you don't know what you are aiming for in your marketing strategy, you cant measure your goals. This means you cant improve or check if the plan is having any impact. 

Start by thinking about the business objectives. What are you hoping to achieve in the first year? Follow this up with the second year, fifth, and even the tenth.

Once you know this you can define your marketing outcomes. Are you looking to increase social media followers, website traffic, email list subscribers, or just boost sales?

Know Your Target Market

In the past, when products were fewer and global competition was less, target audiences did not matter as much. With the advent of the internet and social media, customers now want a personalized experience that speaks to them when they buy from a company. This makes it more important than ever to find your niche and know your target audience. 

Think about what you are providing potential customers. What age group, gender or social group would this appeal to the most? Consider what makes you unique and why people would choose you over the competition. 

Once you have this, it may help to employ a professional company to do some market research for you. It is vital you get this right before starting your marketing plan. 

Research Keywords

Keywords are a vital part of any digital marketing plan. These are the terms people type into search engines when they are looking for information online. When your website has content that includes keywords, it can be in with a chance to rank on the page and get the traffic for that term. 

Many other factors are involved such as your SEO score and which other websites are competing for the terms. Despite this and without going into a full digital marketing breakdown, it is worth noting that keywords can give you a lot of insights into what your customers actually want. 

Many people won't just type in products or services. They may ask questions or look for guides on how to do certain tasks. When you see these, you have the chance to solve the problem for them and convert it into a sale at the same time. 

There are numerous keywords finders available that can provide assistance. If you don't have time to learn how to use them properly, then hire someone to do it for you. 

Set a Budget

Marketing budgets are extremely hard to stick to. They are affected by a number of factors like revenue forecasts and operational costs. As a result, you need to be very astute with your spending. 

One of the joys of modern marketing is that metrics provide instant feedback. This means you can tweak campaigns as they go, reallocating the budget to areas that are working better. Set a budget and stick to it, but don't be afraid to shift it around and alter your marketing strategies.

Create a Website

Even the smallest of businesses will need a website. It is the face of your business in the digital world. Therefore, it needs just as much thought put into it as your physical store or branding. 

Having a website also gives you a degree of credibility. What you choose to put on there totally depends on your product or service. Some companies may be able to get away with a one-page website, while others may need interactive maps and listings. 

The problem with a website is once it has been built, it needs to be continually maintained. Many people choose to hire a company to do this for them if they are not large enough to have their own internal experts. 

Set Up on Social Media

Social media can be both a blessing and a curse. Everyone knows that they should be on there and understands its power as a marketing strategy. Yet few people actually know what to do with it. 

One of the biggest mistakes is signing up for every social media channel. Each is unique and the demographics of the people who use it are different. This means each platform needs its own approach, which can be very time-consuming. 

It is much better to concentrate on one platform. Check which one best relates to your target demographic, then own it. Get to know everything about the content on it, how to use its advertising features, and how to build followers. 

Maintain Consistency in Your Brand and Message

Once you have these setups, you can begin creating the content and advertisements to market your business. Throughout you need to stick with one golden rule. That is to maintain your brand and its message. 

If you are not sure what these are, then create a mission statement. This should tell people who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Perhaps you are ecologically focused or at the driving point of innovative technologies. 

By maintaining this brand and message, you instill confidence in customers. It will build the trust needed for a long-term successful relationship. 

Create a Marketing Plan

These initial concepts should allow you to create a marketing plan that works. Don't be afraid to adapt as you go, but always measure and check how successful these changes are. 

Iron City Media is here to help with all of your digital marketing needs. From building websites to creating content, we can do it all. Contact us here to discuss your needs and let us get your startup off the ground. You