Six mobile marketing tips for businesses and brands

From chatbots to personalisation, here advertising and mobile experts share their tips on how to master mobile marketing.

We type tap and swipe our phones, on average, 2,617 times a day, according to new research by data company dscout. For heavy users that can rise to more than 5,000 “touches”. The figures are stark: mobile is where you find people’s eyes and hands. It means that brands can’t afford to ignore mobile as a marketing platform; it’s now an essential way to attract new customers and build brand awareness.

Telegraph Media & Tech Connect asked some of the top ad agencies and mobile experts to share their tips for marketing on the powerful, pocket-based platform. Here’s what they said:

1. Know your chatbots

“Chatbots provide a great opportunity for brands to engage in a personal and smart way with their audiences. We’re seeing a big shift in traffic from traditional social media platforms to messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.

“With six out of the top 10 most used apps globally being messenger apps, it seems like a really interesting way for brands to exploit having a direct conversation with their customers. This worked well for KLM Royal Dutch airlines, when it launched a chatbot via Facebook Messenger to deliver flight information, itineraries, boarding passes and even delay information. That’s both useful and relevant.”

2. Think about how people travel across devices

“How you advertise across these devices depends on your product. Marketers need to understand how devices fit into the customer journey. There’s often a very complex path when people discover a new product or service: they jump between devices during the research and consideration process (this can be very varied across industries and product types).

“The size of the purchase makes a massive impact; a car purchase will involve a very different path across devices than buying replacement ink for a printer. It’s so easy to buy ink from Amazon on a handheld mobile device, you almost don’t even think about it. But if you are buying an insurance policy, it’s a lengthier process. Understanding how devices fit into your specific customer journey is important.”

3. Stop obsessing over tech and focus on users

“Businesses focus on what application or technology is coming next, but the people using it don’t care about technology – they care about what technology enables. The best technology is seamless, useful and invisible. Rather than focusing on technology or trend, shift your thinking to the user first: to their behaviours (the way the mobile user consumes content in a more snackable way); location (tailoring content depending on whether the user is at home in front of the TV or in a shop); and their need, which tends to be more immediate compared to a desktop user.”

4. Personalisation breeds quality

“Personalisation is the big trend in mobile. As datasets become richer, artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and shapes expectations, brands will be expected to offer more personalized content and better-curated experiences through mobile. Eventually ‘Recommended for you’ will reflect where you are, what you're doing and what your needs are, with no questions asked.

“In particular, it means that good content will find its way to the right people, creating a strong incentive for marketers to place an emphasis on quality rather than quantity when it comes to content.”

5. Sites need to work for mobile; being responsive isn’t enough

“Consumer behavior is different on mobile, which means that site builds must exploit the functionality mobile offers, with click-to-call buttons or GPS store locators to ensure the needs of consumers are met.

“If you have an app, it’s also really important to think about how it works with your site. 

“Having a single user journey – with actions performed on one touchpoint showing up in another – is critical to ensuring that the customer journey is seamless. The key here is they can continue whatever it is they started on the device or touchpoint, they choose.”

6. Ask yourself: where is the right place to advertise?

“Two important areas of mobile content consumption are the social ‘feed’ (Facebook, Twitter and so on) and editorial ‘read’ environments (for example, an article on the MailOnline mobile site). But consumers in the ‘feed’ are in a very different mindset than those in a ‘read’ environment.

“We asked a group of mobile users to spend 15 seconds interacting with a social feed and 15 seconds reading an editorial story. We found that users in the feed scrolled past about three ads, translating to a dwell time of only about 1.5 seconds per ad. In the editorial environment, users scrolled past an average of one ad, with five seconds dwell time – a much better exposure for a brand.

“But it’s not just about speed. Consumers in a feed are searching for something to engage with, but in read mode, they’ve already opted into an article they want to pay attention to – much better exposure for contextually relevant brand messaging.

“There’s one more thing to remember: grabbing an engaged consumer’s attention isn’t enough; if you don’t serve an ad that’s more creative and interactive than a standard static banner, for example, you can’t blame the audience for failing to interact with it.”

 Source : 

10 social media myths to quash.

Though business owners and organizational execs have begun to embrace social media, many misconceptions still exist.

As more and more consumers use online platforms to access information and interact with organizations to purchase, volunteer or support, social media is an increasingly important part of communication efforts.

Many PR and marketing pros are adding social media proficiency to their skill sets to attract employers and clients, so it’s important to dispel falsehoods that can hamper campaigns and branding efforts.

Here are 10 common social media myths—and the truth behind them:

1. I don’t have the resources for social media.

Even though many small and mid-sized businesses have bestowed their social media tasks onto small (or solo) teams, there are many ways to scale your social strategy without missing out on effectiveness.

2. My organization must be on every social platform.

Not every social platform will suit every organization’s needs. Each social platform requires a certain level of attention and curation—and each appeals to a different audience for a different reason.

Find the platforms that can benefit your organization the most and focus your energies (and money) on them. If a platform isn’t working for you, or if you don’t have time to keep up with it, remove the account. Don’t leave dormant accounts in your wake.

3. My customers aren’t on social media.

Professional online activity can vary by industry or job role, but chances are, some (if not most) of your customers are on social media personally. eMarketer estimated that almost 20 million Canadians will be using social platforms by the end of 2015.

Though only some users are active contributors, many more—roughly 90 percent of them—are lurking. These users might not post or interact with content, but they use social platforms for news, research and entertainment, just like the rest of us.

4. My fans are my customers.

It’s fun to have a healthy amount of fans and followers, but numbers are only one piece of the social media pie. The quality of your followers is also important. Are they influencers and opinion leaders? Do they engage with your content? Defining these influencers takes time.

5. Social media is only a promotional tool.

On social media, it’s almost never all about you. Use social posts to overtly promote your brand, but remember to keep the “social” in social media.

This means that you must pay attention to engagement and conversation. One-way communication strategies are better suited to a press release or white paper. As with all good conversations, make sure you respond to users in a timely fashion, especially anyone who seems angry with your company. However, not every user will warrant a response.

6. Hashtag everything.

Although engagement doubles for social posts that include hashtags, don’t go overboard. You don’t want to look like you’re spamming your users, and a post full of hashtags is hard to read.

Instead, use 1-3 hashtags per post.

7. Social media doesn’t generate leads.

As much as social media is about brand enhancement, it’s also a great way to bring people into your marketing and sales funnel. One in 4 businesses saw a revenue increase when they used social media for lead generation.

Need ideas? Sprout Social created a comprehensive guide for generating sales leads on each major social platform.

8. We need content constantly.

It’s important to post consistently on social media, not constantly. Twitter even has rules about spamming, which includes aggressive following and re-tweeting.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the continuous requirements of your social media accounts, but there are many management tools and features that can help you navigate into easy social seas. Focus on being present and consistent, even if that only means a couple of posts each day.

9. Social media analytics aren’t useful.

Measurement has come a long way in PR, and analytics are essential to demonstrating your business value.

To understand social metrics, you first need to wrap your head around terms such as engagement and reach. Each social media platform is equipped with analytics to help you track your likes, re-tweets, click and other forms of interaction. 

10. Social media marketing is free.

Adweek said it best: “Social media is free: Social media marketing is not.”

Like any marketing strategy, social media requires an investment to see significant returns. Social media is most effective when assigned to communicators with good judgment and writing skills. Don’t delegate your social presence to people with the least brand experience.

In addition, results tend to improve when you combine both paid and organic strategies. Rome was not built in a day and neither are your social profiles. With the right time and resources, you’ll can see results.

What other social media myths have you encountered?

 Source : http://bit.ly/1TJ6Dom

5 Biggest Ways Social Media Will Change in 2016

Here's how to stay one step ahead of the social curve.

Death and taxes used to be the only two things we could all rely on. Now we can add a third: that social media will roll out all sorts of weird changes. Entrepreneurs will then scratch their heads, wonder what this is all about, and finally jump on the bandwagon and try to catch up.

So before you scratch your heads, here's a heads-up. Five major changes are currently rumbling away in social media, and they're going to break out in 2016. You need to be ready for them.

1. Live Streaming Goes Mainstream

Live streaming is already out, but it's going to get bigger. Within months of its launch, Twitter's Periscope service already had 15 million registered users who could employ their smartphones to share instant content. Big companies have been quick to spot the opportunity. In July 2015, GE's Droneweek exercise took viewers into the company's factories and showed audiences, including the engineering graduates the company needs to attract, how jet engines, wind turbines, and locomotives are made and tested. The company got to tell its story through a week of live, authentic content.

Other kinds of content that companies can broadcast live include conferences, interviews, customer support, product demonstrations, and special offers. For small businesses, the select audiences who tune in are the most loyal customers. They're the people you want to hug closest, and live streaming brings them about as close as they can get. If you're not broadcasting live yet, expect to push up a Periscope in 2016.

2. On-Platform Content Opens Up

In 2015, Facebook snatched distribution from established content creators. Instead of publishers bringing Facebook users to their own websites, Facebook's Instant Articles program let publishers distribute their content on the social media platform. The content would load up to 10 times faster, more people would see it, and the publisher could earn advertising revenue. But the users would stay on Facebook, reducing the publisher's own brand value.

Despite the risks, 350 publications have now signed up, including The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and Huffington Post. More than 100 publications distribute their content through Instant Articles every day.

The program started on iPhones and expanded to Android devices at the end of 2015. It's still limited to select publishers, but expect registration to roll out more broadly--and force all of us to compare the benefits of showing our content on Facebook with the advantages of bringing users to our webpages.

3. Smarter Use of Snapchat

Of all the head-scratching moves in social media, few have created a greater risk of a bald spot than the rise of Snapchat. You spend time and money creating unique content for a targeted audience only to see that content disappear as soon as it's used. It's the exact opposite of the quick burst and slow burn that a good YouTube video or blog post can achieve.

And yet, companies as big as McDonald's, Acura, and Heineken have all waded in, keen to connect with the platform's young audience--and scared to be left behind.

The quality of the content has improved over the past couple of years, and it's going to get better. There are enough good case studies available now for anyone to be able churn out effective Snapchat content quickly and easily. Now that businesses no longer need to scratch their heads for good ideas, expect companies with youthful customers to start churning out disposable content.

4. Video Will Continue to Beat Static Content

At the start of 2015, the news was that Facebook users were posting 75 percent more videos than they were the previous year. In the U.S., it was closer to 100 percent, and Facebook was pushing 360 percent more video content into people's news feeds. Between April and November 2015, Facebook doubled average daily video views from four billion to eight billion. Even though the company counts a three-second glimpse as a "view," that's still a huge amount of video watching, and it shows how keen Mark Zuckerberg is to eat YouTube's lunch.

Those figures are only going to grow. Facebook has already made clear that it prefers video content to link posts and even images, so to build any kind of successful social media campaign, you will need to pull out a video camera and get shooting this year.

5. Virtual Reality Content Will Make Its First Appearance

When Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion in 2014, even the most savvy social media watchers were left bemused. But the idea is starting to become clear. Just as video is a more engaging form of content than still imagery, so virtual reality will be the next and most engaging step forward for content. The New York Times has already started creating virtual reality content that works with Google's Cardboard virtual reality viewer, and Paul McCartney invited a VR firm to film one of his concerts. It's still early days for virtual reality, but as we approach the end of the year, expect to see more moves toward a new kind of engaging content--and start scratching your head for a way to use it yourself.

Source :  http://bit.ly/1Q64UH5

Quote of the day.

What Can I Learn By Using Marketing Automation Software?

Ideally, marketing automation software allows companies to track, analyze, and nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into brand advocates. Marketing automation software introduces precision and process to both lead generation and lead nurturing campaigns through its ability to track, score, and assign leads efficiently.

To further illustrate these concepts, I’ve taken the liberty of breaking down the knowledge that can be gained from marketing automation software into three major areas of emphasis.

1. Lead Quality

Most prospects visiting your company’s website and consuming your content have not yet entered a purchase-ready mentality. As such, sending and assigning leads near the top of the sales funnel to the sales team annoys prospects and wastes sales representatives’ valuable time. Instead, marketers should offer educational content to advance the prospect down the sales funnel before assigning them to a sales rep. Marketing automation software makes this process easy by utilizing lead scoring.

Lead scoring is a practice of attributing point values to certain attributes or actions taken by leads to measure their fit for your products/services and readiness to make a purchase. Examples include:

• The company they work for
• The industry they work in
• Demographic information
• Volume of website visits
• Specific forms submitted (downloads and/or requests)
• Specific pages visited

When leads reach a certain score, they are automatically shared with a sales rep, and the rep can immediately see the contact’s history of interactions with your brand. In essence, the higher the score, the higher the priority for a sales touchpoint. This allows sales reps to use their time wisely, concentrating their efforts on highly qualified sales leads rather than wasting time on low-quality leads unlikely to convert. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning again this entire process is completely automated.

2. Buyer Journey

Another area of emphasis is the buyer journey. Marketing automation software also gives marketers the ability to understand a buyer’s journey from the very first encounter with the brand to the purchase (and beyond). This knowledge is critical to decreasing the sales cycle by presenting prospects with relevant content that will hasten the path to the purchase.

For example, ABC Company notices, through marketing automation, that 90% of their customers visit the company website at least three times, visit the pricing page, and request a consultation before making a purchase. Wouldn’t it be wise, then, for ABC Company to make it a goal to have every lead go through this journey? I know I would if I were them. Specifically, I would use lead nurturing emails to make sure they make it back to my website at least three times, obviously using the pricing page and consultation landing page as my featured email links. I may even redesign my website with this information in mind; if not my entire website, at least the homepage.

Tip: I would also encourage ABC Company to assign a significant point value to each of the proven high-conversion actions—i.e. three web visits, a visit to the pricing page, and a consultation request—when setting up their lead scoring.

The goal here is to use marketing automation software and tactics to discover trends that will shorten the sales cycle and convert more customers by using information relevant to the purchasing process identified through analytics. Say that five times fast…

3. ROI

Return. On. Investment. Every marketer and business executive seeks a clearer understanding of ROI, and it is not difficult to understand why. In its simplest form, the ROI metric is asking the question “Is it working?” With marketing automation software, that question is easy to answer. You can analyze a particular campaign as a whole and/or by each sub-element (ebook, blog post, social post, ad, etc.) to understand how many leads generated or nurtured by the campaign became customers. You can also determine whether the aggregate customer purchases stemming from the campaign outweighed the price of the campaign’s execution. Easy as pie.

There you have it! I hope this gives you a clearer understanding of the various things you can learn by using marketing automation software.

Source : http://bit.ly/1IcQdQA

6 Ideas to Expand Your Lead Scoring Model Beyond the Basics

Lead scoring is the backbone of many B2B marketing organizations, as they focus on better quality leads instead of just generating more leads. But like many things in marketing, even lead scoring is not a set it and forget activity. Once your lead scoring model is established by combining prospect identity and prospect engagement, look at some of the ideas below to increase its efficiency at identifying better quality leads. The more you understand about your prospects and which ones are likely to become customers, the more efficient both marketing and sales become.

1. Expanding Awareness Of Prospect Influences

As prospects receive more and more messages, information, and education through social media during the buying process, these peer channels will continue to grow in relevance. In fact, awareness of how an individual discovered a message, along with where and from whom, can feature prominently in lead scoring and nurturing routines.

2. Content-Based Scoring

Companies that regularly refine their scoring models begin to notice patterns in lead quality that can be directly tied to the content accessed during the buying process. Advanced organizations creates scoring models that include content type—ilike white papers, product information, and customer testimonials— instead of just the download activity itself.

3. Account-Level Scoring

Because companies market to individuals but sell to companies, marketers must identify micro-trends within a larger set of interests. Consider these trends to pinpoint when a certain role is appearing in the buying cycle.

4. Customer Scoring

To increase customer lifetime value, you need to seize opportunities for up selling and cross-selling. That means you must understand when someone is in the cycle for a new product, and determine when a prospect or existing customer has switched mid-stream and is interested in a different product. Smart marketers can analyze all customer touch points to identify opportunities and risk throughout the lifecycle.

5. Opportunity Scoring

Top marketers analyze behavior of a lead all the way through the middle of the pipeline to predict the likelihood of an opportunity closing.

6. Predicting Changes

Your lead scoring model needs to remain closely aligned to your sales and marketing processes, even as they evolve. With predictive modeling tools, you’ll be able to constantly monitor prospect behavior to understand how your model may have to change.

Source : http://bit.ly/1NxNmlq

The Three Traits of Great Social Entrepreneurs

There's a bad habit in the social entrepreneurship world where we put outstanding social entrepreneurs up on a pedestal -- these incredible demigods who have accomplished something us mere mortals can only dream of. We see it when leading fellowships and incubators raise up the selected few above the passionate -- but unpolished -- masses. And we, as a result, think that these accomplished social entrepreneurs have something inherent in them, some trait, some skill, some knowledge that separates them from everyone else.

And since their achievements often seems so out of reach, we hope that there is some trick or tool we could learn which would be the secret key to unlocking the treasure chest of social entrepreneurial greatness.

 Is it the business model canvas?

 An impact measurement framework? 

 A networking miracle?

I have some good news and some bad news.

Here's the bad news: there is no single tool to learn. No approach to master. No hidden treasure that all great social entrepreneurs have that would make you a star too, if you only had that key.

The good news? It's all about having the right mindset, which enables and empowers one to accomplish great things. And this mindset is accessible to anyone and everyone.

From my time coaching, advising and supporting social entrepreneurs around the world, I've come to believe that there are three things great social entrepreneurs have in common.

Rather than being specific skills to gain, these characteristics are the underlying values and approaches that enable one to learn all the myriad -- and unpredictable -- skills and knowledge one will need to acquire. These are the infrastructure that make everything else possible.

And unlike a tool or framework, these are attitudes that you, uniquely, can choose to adopt right now. There's nothing standing in the way of you beginning to demonstrate these approaches, besides your own desire to do so. So let's get into them!

1. A Learning Mindset

It's the startup version of Carol Dweck's 'growth mindset,' in which one "thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching existing abilities."

If there's one thing that's for sure in running a social venture, it's that you will fail. Constantly. The best social entrepreneurs are those who view their failures as something to be embraced -- rather than feared -- and use their learnings to 'fail forward.'

I've written in the past about how crucial it is for social entrepreneurs to make time to reflect and to learn -- but these routines don't make much difference if the learning mindset is not there.

If we instead embrace Eric Ries' conception of a startup: learning as much as possible as quickly as possible, we see everything we do as an opportunity to learn. The stigma disappears from a mistake or an error (which are inevitable anyway), replaced by a continual desire to learn and improve each day.

2. Trust in Oneself

Let's begin with the synonyms for 'self trust', which this is not: cockiness, conceitedness, egoism or self-importance. Rather it's a quiet confidence in one's abilities to take on whatever may come.

When one starts a social venture, the only certainty is that it will not go exactly as planned. There will be hurdles to overcome, new challenges that pop-up and an incredible array of things you never realised you didn't know until it's too late. When I co-founded StartSomeGood I had no idea that just to get through the first month I would need to learn bookkeeping, how to form an LLC, how to overlay text over an image in photoshop and how to run a developer brainstorming session. Actually that may have just been the first week.

I struggled a lot in trying to learn all of those things -- all while feeling bad about myself that I, seemingly, wasn't learning it all as quickly as I thought I should. It was only after a couple of years that I realized that my team and I could solve nearly any problem that came our way -- but that it was impossible to do if we didn't have trust in ourselves that we actually could. This mindset made all the difference -- instead of fearing the unknown, we developed trust that we could handle whatever challenge might be next.

3. Humility

One of the most important characteristics I look for when considering investing in an entrepreneur at Reach for Change is their humility: being open to other opinions, admitting mistakes, self-reflection and recognising they cannot do everything themselves.

Humility is one of the key traits that Jim Collins argues in 'Good to Great' that the very best 'level 5' leaders have. It's the ability to accept blame (even when it isn't meant for you), and to share praise (even when it is meant for you).

On an individual level it means self-awareness and a desire to serve others -- two mutually-reinforcing traits of great social entrepreneurs.

On a team level it means empowering others. I used to think that the measure of my leadership was how many decisions I could be part of; now I measure myself on how many decisions my team can take without me. It means electing to trust others instead of micromanaging, and to trust that one can go further together than alone.

Why You Need All Three

It's not enough to only develop two out of the three. These approaches are not independent but rather interdependent: development in one spurs development in the others. Look at what happens if you focus on one or two at the expense of the others:

• A learning mindset without trust in oneself: you'll have a better idea of what to do, but no courage to actually do it.
• A learning mindset without humility: you'll only learn from successes, not from failure or disappointment.
• Trust in oneself without a learning mindset: you'll simply follow your own intuition, and when your gut instinct lets you down, you'll have nowhere to turn.
• Trust in oneself without humility: you'll overvalue your own thoughts, ideas and contributions and will try to do everything yourself.
• Humility without a learning mindset: you'll never step into your zone of impact.
• Humility without trusting oneself: you'll be subject to other's thoughts and opinions, always going wherever others take you.

While it may have initially felt like bad news that there is no single skill to master or trick to learn to become a great social entrepreneur, it's actually a positive that these three traits are accessible to everyone. It means that the right mindset is within anyone's grasp. And through embracing these traits, you will accomplish amazing things.

Source : http://huff.to/21BvZGA

7 Budget-Friendly Marketing Tips for Early-Stage Startups

Marketing a startup is not for the meek. There are several challenges to success, and the time, money and resources needed to implement them are often scarce in the early stages. This means it’s crucial to plan ahead and reduce the possibility of making a costly mistake.

As an entrepreneur, you always want to make the best use of your resources. Devising and implementing innovative marketing ideas will set you apart from your competitors and draw more customers to you.

Here are seven low-cost tips to help new startups market themselves effectively.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

As a new startup, it’s extremely important to figure out exactly who your target audience is. Only then can you design your marketing strategy to appeal to the people who will readily pay for your product or service. Think about who is most likely to need, want, or otherwise be interested in what you offer. Based on the answer, you can determine who your target audience should be. Some further tips:

Instead of thinking about who you’d like to sell to, think about who is looking for the kind of products or services you offer. Ask yourself how your offerings can solve their problems. Study your market, competitors, and leads and prospects that you’ve identified. Create customer personas, which should serve as in-depth descriptions of your potential customers’ psychographic and demographic data. You can then tailor your marketing to the specific needs of these personas.

Don’t stop after you’ve identified your audience. Keep the work going to stay on top of current trends in your industry. Create a way to track your sales, networking, customer service, requests for information, etc. so you can continually focus on improvement.

2. Build Strategic Partnerships

It’s easy for startups to get lost in the crowd and go unnoticed. More than 386,400 are founded in the U.S. every year. But by building strategic partnerships with other well-known companies in your field, you can maximize your presence and market your startup more effectively.

One type of partnership involves syndicating your content on other websites, as well as collaborating with relevant sites to create compelling content. To start doing this, identify companies that have users you want to reach, and that could benefit from working with you.

Partnerships have played a key part in helping us build our brand. We’ve developed relationships with popular news and auto websites and work with them frequently to create original, data-driven content that benefits their readers and gives our company more exposure.

3. Share Your Expertise for Free

You’re an expert in your field, so it’s time to share that knowledge with others in a helpful way: a free seminar, webinar, blog, guest post, or even a series of tweets.

One of the ways our company does this is by analyzing millions of data points and discovering interesting, surprising insights about cars. We publish these studies to share what we’ve learned with other people who are interested in cars. This has significantly helped elevate our company’s exposure – more than 100 media outlets, including publications, TV programs, and radio stations have covered our studies!

4. Listen to and Engage Your Social Media Followers

Social media can be used for a lot more than just “advertising” your startup. In addition to communicating with your audience, your social media pages can be used to provide value and genuinely connect with them. Make an effort to find and share useful information to engage your customers. Make them feel like valuable members of your brand’s community. We use our data and content to answer questions and help social media users whenever we think we can add value. If you run into critics, don’t be hostile. Approach complaints with positivity and use them as an opportunity to showcase your startup’s commitment to customer-service and expertise, and you’re sure to win your critics over!

5. Add Value Through Email Marketing

Email marketing is not the same as spamming your customers’ inbox. Joke a side, when used properly to help and provide value to users, email marketing can work wonders for promoting your startup.

Successful email marketing campaigns have a well-planned schedule so that people will know when to expect your emails and can look forward to updates from you. The trick to keeping this going is to focus on your target audience when deciding on the emails’ theme, template and content to ensure what you send them will be helpful.

Our company uses emails to make the process of looking for a car more efficient. Users can sign up for alerts, and we email them whenever we have newly-listed cars that match what they’re looking for. Users who sign up for our alerts are two to three times more likely to contact the sellers of cars on our site than non-alert users.

6. Network, Network and Network Some More

One of the biggest factors contributing to the successful marketing of any startup is networking. Knowing the right people in your industry can put you on the path to success. So be sure to carry your business card with you and be ready with your elevator pitch at all times.

Actively seeking out opportunities to talk about your startup will go a long way in building awareness. Conferences and networking events are great places to connect with key influencers, spread the word about what you’re doing, and learn more about your industry.

7. Start Using Video Today

YouTube has over a billion visitors every month. Facebook users watch 8 billion videos a day. You don’t have to have access to Hollywood producers to create a shareable online video. Look at the audio and visual resources you have, and think about what type of video would be helpful and informative to your audience. Can you make a professional, informative video sitting in your office? With some trial and error, probably yes. There are plenty of free slideshows and video editing software that will help.

Last Words

For a new startup, marketing can feel like a challenging game that’s difficult to master. Using these seven tips will help jump start your marketing efforts with little to no strain on your company’s budget. You’ll have the basics such as social media and networking covered, and your startup will stand out for its focus on providing real value for customers, followers and other industry professionals.

Source : http://bit.ly/1jm1AcZ