Your startup needs to be advertised in order to sell products and land those first sales. The problem is that banner blindness is rampant, particularly among the younger generation, with click-through rates of 0.06%. This means that they are not going to spend any time on straight advertisements.
For many older entrepreneurs, this is something that they can neither comprehend nor understand. Today’s startups have to think of ways to promote their services on the Internet without actually sending out straight advertising. It can be done if you do it intelligently, and this guide is going to show you how.
Begin With Content Marketing
Your greatest ally in startup marketing is content marketing. It’s by far the most effective way of driving traffic to your website, and subsequently sales. The old style of content marketing was simple. You would write on a generic topic and promote your product or service at the bottom of it.
That’s not going to fly any longer. People want long form content and they want their questions answered. Whenever you are writing a new piece of content, think whether that piece of content is actually doing anything to enhance the lives of others.
In the vast majority of content, you produce, there won’t be a single mention of your product or service.
Social Media Marketing Is Now About Relationships
One of the most noticeable changes in recent years is the removal of advertising on social media, in terms of what you normally post on your social media feeds. This content has firmly gone into the realms of pay to play platforms, such as Facebook’s Power Editor.
On a day to day basis, most of your interactions on your social media feeds will be about building relationships. The idea is that if you build a relationship based on trust not selling people are going to come across you naturally. They will find your products and services without the need to be told about them.
This is a different route you have to take, and it’s not just representative of social media; it’s representative of the needs and demands of the audiences you will be interacting with today.
Telling Your Story
Through email marketing, social media, and general blogs the goal will be to tell a story. People want to know about who you are and what you stand for. None of this means you have to tell a story where you are a great hero slaying vile foes across your sector.
It’s about letting people know what’s going on behind the scenes and why you are doing what you are doing. If you can do this for your startup in a successful manner, you are going to get people asking more. The goal of telling a story is not only to get people interested in products and services. It’s about encouraging them to care about your brand. Presumably, they will then begin to interact with you.
When Is Straight Selling Acceptable?
There are not many scenarios where straight selling is something you can get away with. As already mentioned, banner blindness puts a stop to this. Ignoring the paid advertising options on offer for a moment, straight selling has to wait until people are already interested in what you have to offer.
Once someone hits your landing page then you can rave about your product or service. They are going to listen at this point because that’s what they want to know about.
You can also use email marketing for this purpose. Build up your email list and talk about some of your products to your customers who have already shown considerable interest in what you have to offer in the past.
Content Formatting
You should use a mix of content when marketing your startup. Move away from your reliance on written content. At least half of all your customers are going to be using mobile devices. Long form content on a mobile device is not ideal, so you need to use images and video content instead.
Using a mix of different content pieces will win the day here.
Last Word – Advertising Without Advertising
Advertising without advertising may seem like a difficult content, but all it requires is some creativity. Think about building human relationships, rather than anything else. The sales will come naturally and you’ll gain more loyal customers in the process because they will already know what you stand for.
