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The best ways to promote your tech start-up

So, you’ve got your tech start-up ready to go: congratulations! You’ve got an amazing product fully tested and all set to go live. You’ve got a skilled and enthusiastic team together, a vision for the future and solid backing. But maybe there’s one piece missing. How are you going to let the world know that you exist, and more to the point, how are you going to convince them to pay for the new product or service you’re going to be offering?

Contrary to what some people might tell you, great products don’t automatically sell themselves. Whatever field you’re working in, you’ll need a marketing strategy. You’ll need to allocate a reasonable proportion of your overall budget in that direction, but it’ll be worth it. The money you spend on marketing will give you a quantifiable return in terms of sales, and the even better news is that if you play smart it may not cost you as much as you think.

Online marketing

Online marketing has many advantages over traditional advertising channels, especially for a tech company. It has a wider reach and is generally more cost effective, reaching more people for less financial outlay. It’s also possible to target your advertising to a remarkable degree, so that your money is being spent on reaching the people most likely to be interested in your product, rather than being wasted on communicating with those who aren’t likely to buy it anyway.

It may very well be worthwhile contracting the services of a company that specializes in this complex but effective form of marketing. San Diego’s Iconic Industry are one of the brand leaders in online marketing, using a variety of cutting edge strategies to help internet businesses get noticed and become successful. Such firms use data-driven marketing techniques and a keen understanding of behavioral science alongside first-rate coding skills to help their clients sell their products effectively. Learn more about Iconic Industry leading the San Diego tech scene to get a grip on what modern online marketing is all about.

Display ads and social media

The most straightforward form of online marketing is display advertising. This can be initially tested across a variety of different online platforms, including Facebook, Google and so on. You’ll probably find that some work better for you than others, and will want to target your future marketing efforts in that direction.

Social media sites are also excellent marketing tools in their own right. Creating a community around your business and engaging your followers with regular updates is an effective and inexpensive way to build your brand. Remember, however, that social media is a two-way street, and posts that encourage your followers to interact with you are far more effective than ones where you’re just talking at them. Ask questions and set up polls: not only do these engage your potential customers, but they also let you find out information about their tastes, habits and interests, data that is invaluable to your marketing efforts.

Content marketing

Whether it’s on social media or on your own website, treat your marketing as a product in its own right. That is, give people content with intrinsic value that will keep them coming back. Good content that is helpful, interesting or amusing will bring people to your site or social media page and will help to forge a relationship between them and your company. Quality marketing content in the form of video, images or articles engages your followers and encourages them to share it, spreading your reach organically.

Think outside the box

Guerilla marketing is an effective non-traditional way to promote a brand. Basically any kind of publicity stunt that gets people talking about you or your product is effective, so think outside the box and use your imagination. In this regard you don’t need to spend a lot of money and sometimes small start-ups have more flexibility to use these routes than bigger, more established companies.

Similarly, finding a new and interesting angle can help with a traditional PR campaign. If you can get journalists across all media interested in your product then a news story or feature can help you reach a large audience of potential customers without it costing you a cent. Just remember, “New tech start-up launches” is not a newsworthy story as such. There needs to be a unique angle to get the press and media interested.

Marketing is an essential component in making your tech start-up a success. Often this is about good ideas rather than simply throwing money at a problem. Whatever your budget you need to be out there selling your product, and finding the methods that work best for you.