Three must have strategies and tools for startups to thrive!

In 2021, if you are not actively promoting your business on the Internet you know that you are really restricting your growth. The strategy and tools that startups adopt in the early stages can make or break the project.

The Covid pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital in a dramatic way, and these online shopping behaviors are likely to have lasting effects. So, if you want to compete and thrive as a startup it is even more necessary to embrace the digital transformation happening right now and adopt these three strategies and tools for startups we discuss below.

As a startup one of the core problem that needs to be addressed is - how to promote your product online.

For each startup, the set of tools may be different. Ideally, every startup would work with all the digital marketing channels that they possibly can, and choose the most effective strategies and tools based on their strengths.

Let’s look at the three essential tools and strategies that will be beneficial for every startup.

This article aims to debunk the myth of the complexity of internet marketing and present it in terms of basic strategies and tools. The list includes only those working strategies that have proven to be very effective now and are foundational pieces for any growth oriented company — no tricks or secrets.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social marketing is about getting traffic/audience through social media.

• 3.96 billion people use social media worldwide, according to platform reports on the current number of active users.

• 58.11% of the world's population is active on social media when looking at eligible audiences aged 13+ years, rising to 82% in North America.

So, we can conclude that having a strong social media strategy is quite crucial in the developing stage of the business.

Creating and distributing the content for social media becomes the challenge that needs to be addressed once a company decides they want to have a presence on the many platforms. The tools listed below help with research, content creation and then distribution of your content.

Here is a list of content creation and distribution tools for startups that will help you to grow your audience and generate traffic:

• BuzzSumo
  Allows you to understand your competition and niche market. - With search criteria based on keywords, you can find the most shared content and figure out what's working well in your niche. - It also lets you filter out content based on date and popularity, making this tool even more convenient.

• Canva
  With its help, you can create some excellent visual content for your social media websites using the templates they offer. The tool is so good that even a person without experience in designing can create content like a professional with minimal effort.

• Later
  Visual marketing platform for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It helps streamline your social media strategy so you can set yourself up for more sales and success. Features focus on visual scheduling, media management, marketing, and analytics.

Fun Fact: More than 72% of Instagram users say they’ve bought a product they discovered on the Instagram app.

Another important aspect to remember when doing social media is to remember that people buy from people they like, know and trust. So, when creating social media content, don’t forget to write about the team, and who is standing behind the project!

Even though social marketing is becoming quite an expensive tool for promotion, it has ample opportunities still.

Search Engine Optimization Strategy

SEO is the process of getting traffic from "free," "organic" search engine results.

Like the first strategy, SEO is also related to getting traffic. The only difference is SEO strategy is more long term whereas Social Media strategy is more immediate or near term and content on social has a shorter shelf life.

It is important to prepare your SEO strategy early on!

Like before building your website, as your messaging needs to match your user search behavior.

Writing SEO articles, finding best keywords, building semantic structure - all of these should be done at the very first stages of the company.

As mentioned earlier, proper SEO is a slow and long-term tool that produces natural results. It is essential to work with the technical part: optimizing the site architecture, working with HTML code and links, and content. Content increases your ranking in search results and creates trust in your product and company.

One of the most valuable tool for startup when it comes to SEO is Ahrefs!

Here are some of the areas Ahref helps with:

• Analysis of organic search results.
  Link promotion, content, traffic, and positions. The service has a vast base of 250 million keywords in the United States and about 100 million in other countries.

• Keyword analysis.
  It includes both the search for low-frequency queries and searches suggestions and clustering by semantic groups. An impressive database of 3 billion keywords and search suggestions allows you to find thousands of ideas. Keyword difficulty score is the primary filter for choosing the best keywords for promotion.

• Backlink analysis.
  The service scans from 4 to 6 billion links per day and updates its index every 15 minutes. A more powerful link search tool is unlikely to be found.

• Content analysis.
  Just type in a keyword and find fresh and cited content for that keyword. The tool allows you to simplify the search and analysis of content.

Using this tool, one can better understand the target audience and create content that is targeted and relevant for these users who are actively searching for whatever you are selling.

Customer Centric Strategy

Now, all the traffic landing on your website means nothing if you don’t provide proper service and support. To be competitive, you should treat your customers and visitors better than your competitor and that means instant support.

Fun Fact: Did you know that 52% of customers said they would pay extra for fast and efficient customer experience!

Now what does fast and efficient customer experience mean?

• Faster response times to user queries

• 24/7 Availability as users are worldwide

• And, of course, helpful support

How can you build a customer centric strategy into your Startup?

Livechat! Yes, a livechat option on your website is now an essential strategy for growth with instant replies to your potential customers. More importantly, it can provide your leads and customer with a single channel choice, where he/she wants to communicate. For example, it can be email, phone calls, messengers, or website communication through online chat.

Few chat tools can provide all of these features under one service. 13chats is a marketing automation platform that does provide all these features and more.

Here is a list of features that you can use at 13chats:

• Live chat widget.
  Enhance customer satisfaction and provide instant replies to visitors on the website.

• Triggered messages.
  It is possible to set up triggered messages based on the user's behavior on the website. If a person spends a minute on the website, we can assume that person is interested in our product. So, we can set up a scenario that will pop up a message in the widget with a call to action to contact the support team and get a consultation about the product or service.

• Integrate live chat with Facebook Messenger.
  To provide the best customer support experience for the client, companies should think about various communication channels. 13chats allows connecting Facebook messenger with a live chat widget so that the customer will have an opportunity to choose where to communicate.

• Chatbots.
  It is an essential tool to automate processes, and chatbots will help you. In the chatbot, it is possible to provide information about the company, create a quiz. Chatbots helpful in the first touch with a client, to understand the need and wants. For customer care is a perfect tool to optimize workflow.

Conclusion

When it comes to growing your business, there are many options for startups to consider but these three strategies should help any startup build a solid foundation to drive traffic and then support those visitors with first class customer care.