Best Marketing Tips and Ideas for Startups That Work

Starting a business is a difficult task. It seems to many that they know the reasons: lack of experience and knowledge, lack of imitators of the brand, low credit of trust, lack of financing, high competition and so on. Some even like to justify their first failures this way.

Indeed, such things complicate the start of a business. But the main problem is marketing. This is what a startup can create or destroy. Its quality very rarely depends on the size of the budget or the history of the company. Good marketing has two things:

• strategy;


• creative.

Thanks to these elements, startups win the first competition. Only after this, people have an interest in the product and begin to evaluate its quality. Moreover, a well-developed strategy and good creativity in 90% of cases solve financing problems, as they attract the attention of investors.

Know your customer

He may be in Australia, and you in France. But your task, as the owner of a startup, is to know all the information about the client that may affect his reaction to the product. It is useless to think about a strategy, look for a team of marketers, use social networks if you do not know exactly who will use the product.

It’s not enough to know who they are. It is necessary to study interests, daily activities, efforts, problems, benefits, priorities. The more such information you can get, the more opportunities to generate an extraordinary and working idea for building a startup.

Important! Do not repeat the common mistake - do not try to get to know everyone. Divide the study of the audience into several stages. At the end of each of them, the circle of the target audience should decline.

Remember: you are a startup. A priori, in the beginning there cannot be too many buyers. The first marketing ideas should be very precise. Only if they are successful there will be rapid scaling.

Hire a creator

You must feel your potential and objectively evaluate it. If you understand that your imagination is not enough for a sophisticated marketing campaign, urgently look for a creative person. Depending on the size of the budget, a whole team, an individual specialist or an ordinary freelancer can play the role of this.

«You always need a person who will produce a Wow effect on you personally».

In each company, regardless of its level, number of sales and annual turnover, there is a creative person. This person may not be responsible for setting up advertising and choosing promotion channels: moreover, he may not even be aware of this. But he simply must come up with the most extraordinary ideas to convey the value of a product or service.

The advantage of the creator is that at one point he can come up with a practically free, but effective way to attract an audience. He will allow himself to play a game during the creation of advertising, will be able to use a competitor’s marketing strategy in your favor. These are the people who win the fight for the market.

Do not work alone

It seems like an obvious step, but it is often ignored. Let's be honest: there are people who consider themselves the best and do not trust others to promote their product. Success in such cases is more likely an exception to the rule.



Teamwork makes the product (service) meaningful, helps to avoid misunderstandings, saves time and money. Even if you came up with the idea of a startup or business yourself, you need to develop it with the team.

No team? Find it. The principle is this: if you want something to work, you want to work in a team.

Sell profit, not comparison

A very common mistake of many startups is an attempt to tell why they are better than others. You should know the answer to this question, but never give it directly.

Often, in advertising, it sounds like this: “Whereby are we better than others? Firstly ... secondly ... thirdly ...”. Such a step is equal to defeat. Even if all points are true.

First of all, after such actions, many begin to look for what makes your startup worse than others. Objectively, you should understand that the answer will be found.

It also encourages your competitors to take action. Believe me, they will definitely find weak spots in your product and will embellish them quite strongly. As a result, the startup will be unsuccessful at the launch stage.

«You can say that you provide a product or service that is cheaper or more effective than other businesses. But this does not mean how you can make a customer’s life better.»

That is why, during the marketing campaign, show the potential buyer with whatexactly your startup will be useful.

Marketing before sale

Some startups wait for the product to become perfect and go on sale before conducting any marketing or information campaigns. This can be a costly mistake.



If no one knows about the product, demand at the time when sales are launched will be zero. A marketing campaign needs to be started in advance in order to increase brand awareness. It’s better to have a proactive campaign, even the smallest one, so that potential buyers know that the product or service is about to be available.

Thus, the buyer will be ready at the same time as the product.

Talk to a client about a startup

At least one of your thoughts can be read very easily: you always want to know what they say about your startup. Gathering this information is one of the easiest marketing tasks.

Provide a place for clients to complain and praise. It can be a live meeting, either official, in the conference hall, or informal in some restaurant. In addition, a mandatory point is the creation of a page or chat on a social network, a forum topic. Free options for creating a place for feedback even can’t be counted.

If you do not provide your customers with space for comments, it seems that their thoughts and opinions simply do not matter. Remember that even if a potential buyer comes to you in a rage, this is a great opportunity to publicly show how much you are ready to work on mistakes.

After all, very often the problem does not exist. The client just wants to be heard. This is especially important for startups. Why? Brand awareness is greatly enhanced through continuous engagement.

Interact with a competitor

Many people think that high competition is a big problem for businesses, and especially for startups. In fact, having competition is a huge advantage. Big businesses have been using it for a long time.

For example, the fight between PepsiCo and The Coca-Cola Company is artificial. Yes, Coca-Cola is often ahead of annual reports. But here the shares of PepsiCo recently significantly higher. But in fact, both companies have the same recognition around the world. None of them feel problems in production or sales.



In some ways, they managed to achieve this thanks to the presence of competition. Why? Man needs a choice. If there is always only one product from one company on a shelf, it will be sold less than with alternatives.

Thanks to cooperation with competitors, you can enter the market much more efficiently. After all, they will tell you the behavior of the target audience and the latest reactions to different products.

In addition, by creating an “artificial” struggle, greater demand can be generated. People will discuss both products, argue which one is better. But, in fact, you and the competitor will win. This approach is known as win-win, where both sides win.

Do not ignore traditional marketing

Innovative technologies have captured our world so much that we are talking only about them. Indeed, social networks, video content and other digital marketing approaches today show excellent results. World-famous brands allocate tens of millions for online promotion.

But the “secret” of brands is that they have not forgotten about traditional marketing. A break for TV commercials still exists. And new videos constantly appear there. If you haven’t watched TV for several years, then today you don’t even know what the advertisement looks like.

Radio, billboards, banner posting at sport events, and other similar ideas still work. Press releases haven’t gone anywhere: people are still reading the news and very actively.



It is noteworthy that traditional marketing does not mean to reach only the audience of the older generation. Millennials and Z generation are also prone to older approaches.

Your task, as the owner of a startup, is to determine all the promotion channels, from newspapers and magazines to augmented reality. Among them, you need to highlight those that are more appropriate for your product. But at the same time it is necessary to maintain a balance between digital and traditional channels.

Beta version

This approach has been and is being used by a huge number of startups and engrained companies around the world. In the world of virtual games, beta testing has become one of the sources of product promotion.

Closed beta testing generates product exclusivity in the minds of users. To use it before others, you need to receive a special invitation. How to get it? Find those, who are already in the team. While a person will search, he himself will tell about the product to everyone who needs and does not need.

This approach is tied to parts of human nature: we always want what we cannot get in a simple way. You can buy a finished product, so they will not rush to chase it from the first seconds. You can become the part of the beta only by invitation. And the number of places is limited. Accordingly, all willing are activated.

Become the largest user of the product

The main problem with many startups is the small number of users. This is especially true for products that are tied to a particular site. It is almost impossible to solve this problem. After all, catching up traffic artificially means falling into doubt of the search engine.

A small user base means little content, so it’s harder to increase service activity, so it’s difficult to connect new users.

A great example became Adam D'Angelo, founder of Quora. At the dawn of the existence of the platform, almost no one visited it. Accordingly, the implementation of the idea was in question. How to attract users if there are no answers in different topic?

Adam himself began to answer various questions, regardless of whether his comment was correct. The main task was to increase the amount of content and provoke discussion. It worked. Today we know Quora as one of the best knowledge sharing platforms in any industry.

Use the product for public purposes

One of the most working methods today. Humanity is increasingly taking care of itself and its environment. Therefore, most of the projects pursuing a great goal, gain huge recognition.

For example, Ambev entered into an agreement with the Brazilian authorities and provided the following opportunity: scanning a can on a turnstilegives one trip by train. After scanning, the can was dumped into the trash compartment right near the turnstile, and a person could easily use the transport.

The idea was realized in the midst of the carnival in Rio. This approach instantly solved the problem that is associated with mass events: people did not throw garbage in the street. After all, this garbage made it possible to save on public transport.

Well, the company itself made good money. After all, a free trip was only available when exchanging their cans.

Tests or failure?

You can spend a lot of money on a marketing campaign and see an increase in interest in the very first days. But how can you be sure that these things are connected?

If you intend to spend resources on advertising, make sure that you can measure the result. Establish ways to track the conversions associated with each campaign. Run several types of campaigns in small batches. This will allow you to compare the marketing channel and see which ones work best.

After starting each creative you need to observe. You should listen and carefully monitor what actually happened after the start of the campaign:

• analyze feedback in different sources;


• configure and check alerts on Google;


• track changes in brand interest.

When it comes to business, it is very important to listen and observe. This will make it possible to instantly respond to any feedback (both positive and negative). It is extremely important for startups to be attentive to each related event in order to quickly establish themselves and gain a foothold in the market.

Time for advertising - always

When working on a marketing strategy, it is important to remember that it cannot be the only one. In other words, if there are several ideas at once, divide them into parts. Implement them in batches. The product will be sold as long as it is heard. And he will be heard only when he is actively advertised.

Mercedes, Nestle, P&G, McDonald’s, Apple, Samsung and any other world-famous brand constantly use advertising through various channels: from traditional (TV, radio) to digital (social networks, forums). It would seem, why? The world trusts them and constantly uses their services.

But as soon as these names disappear from the screens of users, they will gradually begin to forget. Yes, millions of corporations will not leave shelves right away. But after a few years, they will be replaced by goods that will be heard.