Everyone knows the basic recipe for promoting a startup online. You have content as the main ingredient, a pinch of paid advertising for additional exposure, some SEO for authority, and a cup of influencer marketing for credibility. Top with social media and email marketing for closer customer relationships and your startup is off to a good start.
The only problem with relying on these fundamentals is that everyone else is doing it. With countless other companies competing for the same audience, you need to be extra creative if you want your brand to get noticed. Fortunately, this list of five out-of-the-box ideas will help you promote your online startup in 2017.
Broadcast Your Startup Live
Official Facebook statistics show that live videos are viewed three times more than regular videos uploaded by users. To capture the attention of social media users, broadcast a Facebook Live video during key events for your startup.
Things like an office warming party or the first team-building activity will do a lot to establish the story of your startup while engaging your customers on social media.
Offer Digital Coupons
Offering coupons early on is a great way to give your startup a quick boost. According to statistics, 58 percent of shoppers look for coupons first before heading to the store. 70 percent are even willing to sign up to newsletters just to obtain coupons that offer valuable deals to them.
To launch a coupon marketing campaign, you can use a platform like TwtQpon.com that leverages digital touch points like email, Facebook, and Twitter. For e-commerce startups built on Wix, you can take advantage of the built-in coupons feature in the Store Manager.
Create VR Content
According to content marketing experts, 2017 is the year when content marketing will be harder than ever. If you want your marketing efforts to stand out, you need to be more unique with the type of content you create and promote.
Fortunately, VR technology also gained ground in the marketing scene this year. The simplest way to utilize it in your strategy is to create 360 videos that deliver immersive experiences to your social media followers.
Run a Hashtag Contest
Running social media contests can help you immediately raise brand awareness on social media. When it comes to the contest mechanics, one of the simplest strategies is to launch a hashtag contest on image-sharing platforms like Instagram.
A hashtag contest also enables you to leverage user-generated content that can win the trust of more social media users. To get started with your contest, you can take a look at these hashtag contest examples.
Go Fully Visual
For a lot of online brands and small businesses, visual content marketing is the key to competing with big names that have plenty of budget for advertising. With sites like Canva, Venngage, and Visual.ly, you don’t need deep pockets to incorporate different types of visual content in your promotion strategy.
A popular visual content type that can help you convey data-rich and actionable information in visual form is the infographic. It combines various data visualizations such as charts, graphs, timelines, and diagrams to communicate your brand’s message faster and more efficiently.