Digital Marketing is an altogether different ballgame for startups, unlike how it goes for the traditional businesses. According to an eye-opening survey of USA based startups, there are quite a few challenges, your startup business needs to overcome to achieve success with its online marketing. This article focuses on these challenges and what are the best ways in which your startup can overcome these and keep pace with the competition in the face of an ever-growing competition and changing technological landscape.
1) Highly competitive market
The fact that more than 50 percent of startups or small businesses fail in their initial 4 years itself can be an indicative of the tough market competition the startups get to face, before establishing themselves into successful brands. In the fiercely competitive online market-space, while your startup gets a level-playing field alongside the biggest players in the industry, making your presence felt despite their powerful aura – with your limited marketing budget is quite a challenge.
How a digital marketing agency can help– A digital marketing agency puts its market experience and domain expertise into creating your strong brand identity by means of right branding message, right kind of content and its appropriate distribution across right kind of marketing channels.
2) Lack of clear-cut marketing strategy
While most the startups do have a broader idea on what the key goals of their internet marketing are, most them do not have a digital strategy in place. The research indicated that about 71% of the startup businesses lacked a documented digital strategy. According to the research almost 59% of startups responded that they are looking for brand awareness from their digital marketing, however, in absence of a clear strategy, it can be tricky to target their efforts to achieve this.
How a digital marketing agency can help– About 69% of startups use free analytical tools to track their digital marketing success which means that they are strongly interested in achieving a control over the direction in which their digital marketing is working. A digital marketing agency complements the startup’s efforts with a strategic approach backed by their extensive industry experience. This helps them adopt a targeted approach to their marketing efforts and be a lot more efficient with their already limited resources.
3) Execution with focused & consistent efforts & resources
The survey also revealed that at least 37% of the US based startups handle their own marketing despite the absence of any background experience. However, if the startup needs to take care of its marketing efforts along with its business -critical operations, it can lack focus and consistency in its efforts and resource which are very important for successful execution. And without consistent efforts and focus, even the best plans can fail.
How a digital marketing agency can help– The survey revealed that the startup businesses agreed that Content Marketing, Social Media and SEO are not only the important areas to focus on in the coming years, but these are also the areas wherein they feel the need of expert help. An expert digital agency can add significant value with their expertise at operating the social media and SEO tools and techniques in addition to the business insight they put into their marketing success.
4) Limited budget for marketing & in general
The survey uncovered the fact that about 58% of the startups accepted that they assign more than 75% of their yearly marketing budget to Digital Marketing. Yet, with their limited capital investment it is usually difficult for them to decide what would be the best areas of marketing (in terms of ROI) to focus on. While 65% of the startups admitted that they have never considered formal training in digital marketing, yet, 37% also mentioned that they handle their own digital marketing own their own despite the lack of any background experience.
How a digital marketing agency can help– Due to the limited funds, the startups neither consider hiring the services of a digital agency nor they opt for a formal training program in digital marketing and decide to invest their resources on making online marketing efforts without the required experience and direction. This gives them little to no control over their success despite investing their resources, so, it can eventually prove to be even more expensive for them due to the risk involved. With their clear strategic approach, a digital marketing agency, on the other hand, helps them plan their marketing budget properly to ensure success in the online market-place.
5) Doubt that it will bring returns
Despite all these advantages, startups seem to have serious doubts that investing a part of their marketing budget in a digital marketing agency can bring any significant returns. This is the reason why, a mere 8% of the startups outsource their digital marketing to a consultant or an agency.
How a digital marketing agency can help– The digital marketing agencies hold the experience to adopt a result-oriented approach to every marketing project they undertake. With a command over sophisticated tools and techniques along with the analytical expertise, they cannot only steer your online marketing in the right direction but also to track your business success effectively.
So, if the startups need to take their business to the next level in terms of online visibility and they are serious about doing business in the long term, allocating a part of their marketing budget for expert help is the way to go. At the end of the day, they will need to take this leap of faith and follow a long-term digital strategy to establish their brand in the market, at the end of the day. The strategic, consistent and focused efforts backed by market insight and experience are what only the industry experts can offer. So, what is stopping your startup to make it big in the market? Contact Us now or Checkout our Startup Consulting Services specifically designed to achieve digital excellence.
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