One of the major challenges that startups face is a lack of financing. Most of the money goes into setting up the core aspects of the business. It leaves little if nothing for marketing activities.
Yet, it is important to find avenues to create visibility. A startup company will be competing with the more established businesses. They must find a way to break through the clutter.
The online space has a lot of potential for your marketing. You can find free and even inexpensive ways to generate visibility for your company.
Our article will show you 5 budget options to use.
1. Start Creating Visibility with a Website
A website is a fantastic avenue to start creating visibility for your startup. You have two options when setting up a website.
The first is to use website builders you will find on the online space. Many of them promise that you do not need any coding knowledge. They have templates and themes you can customize to what you desire.
But, it helps to be realistic about the whole process. You may need to have basic knowledge of website design and coding language. You may find it more challenging than the developers promise.
Hiring a web designer is the second option. They have the knowledge and expertise to start you off on the right foot. You get the best advice on factors that may impact your ranking on the search engines. Such include page loading speed and ease of navigation.
They will advise you on the best web hosting provider. You need one who can give you sufficient bandwidth to manage the traffic that will come to your website. Consider it an investment to set aside some of your budget to hire a designer.
2. Build Visibility with the Right Content
Relevant content on your website has so many benefits. It helps with engagement and interaction on your platform. Start by understanding your audiences and what they need. Identify gaps that you can provide solutions to. When thinking about your content, focus on:
- Relevance — Does the content provide value to your audiences?
- Consistency — Schedule the posts so that the audience always know when to look forward to new material
- Factual requiring that you do proper research, before sharing any content.
Here is what you can achieve with awesome content.
- It positions you as an industry expert. It helps build credibility and trust with the audiences.
- Proper keyword use will make you more visible to the search engines.
- You can use it for link building. You increase the possibility of high authority websites linking to yours.
- You have options of images (there are free and paid stock photos available online) and infographics (there are courses on how to create captivating infographics and there are professionals that can create unique ones for you are well) to create engaging presentations. Audiences love to share such, resulting in greater visibility for you.
- Consider including other media files on your site besides images and videos. You can try adding background music and even slideshows on your site.
The background music may not directly help improve your site’s visibility. But it can surely create a good experience for your site for your visitors. As for slideshows, these may help improve visibility if you can make them shareable. Creating one won’t cost you too much as there are slide templates that you can find online. There are paid and free template options with various designs that will fit your content.
3. Implement Budget-friendly PR Activities
Do you know what makes PR so effective? You get third-party endorsements for your brands or product.
Up to 85% of shoppers will rely on reviews or opinions before buying a product. The thinking is that such reviews are free of bias. The company has no control over the opinion of the audiences. This is unlike advertising, where they get to say what they want.
A startup company may not have money to hire a PR agency. However, there are so many budget-friendly things you can do.
Create relationships with media relevant to your industry. Become their go-to source for information and newsworthy stories. Share with them press releases and editorials.
Media are always looking for stories as part of their job description. If you are a credible source, you can get a lot of mileage from them.
Brand mentions and links to your website are just some of the advantages. Also, sign onto platforms like help a reporter out (HARO).
Take part in community activities. You don’t have to spend significant amounts of cash. to do this. Your company can volunteer time in soup kitchens, for example. You could organize a community cleanup.
Provide mentorship for local schools and colleges, to name a few. Send out press and picture releases to the media. Also, request linkages to your website from other participating groups or organizations.
4. Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media is free, and setting up accounts is easy. You have total control over what you place on the different sites.
Even if you want to spend some money on advertising, it will not be as expensive as analog Media. Boosting posts on Facebook, for example, is cost-effective.
You end up getting a lot of visibility without taking a huge chunk out of your budget. Do not start anything without a social media strategy. Do not spread yourself thin by signing up to all the platforms. It will be challenging to develop relevant content for all of them.
Avoid copy and paste tactics in a way to increase efficiency. Different audiences consume content in different formats. Pick one or two platforms that will work for your brand.
Link all your platforms to your website. You will generate traffic to your site and build organic audiences.
5. Budget-friendly Influencers Do Exist
You may be thinking that using influencers for marketing is expensive. You may very well be right if you decide to use a celebrity.
However, there is a new crop of influences who are becoming quite popular. These are the micro-influencers, who are celebrities in their own right.
Micro-influencers are ordinary individuals who have a larger-than-usual social media following. Look for a micro-influencer who is relevant to your industry. It helps if they have a good knowledge of your products.
You will find those who are willing to work within your budget. Others are comfortable exchanging their services for products.
Final Thoughts
We have shared five budget tips to improve online visibility for startup businesses. The ones we have shared are budget-friendly and quite effective. A website, relevant content, public relations, and social media can help you create a lot of brand awareness.
Start with the right digital strategy to guide your activities. Take the time to do in-depth research on the tactics above. You can be sure of brand visibility for your new business.
