Get a cut above the rest with an effective and creative digital strategy
Business is booming in the UK according to the UK government’s 2019 ‘Business population estimates’, as there are now 5.9 million private businesses, with 99% of these being either small companies or start-ups, mostly within the IT sector.
While this growth is of course good for the economy, it also means that it’s a competitive market for IT start-ups and standing out from the crowd can be crucial for success. But as a small business owner, how can you go about this?
A great approach is to roll out an effective and creative digital strategy, as this can both provide your IT start-up with a variety of marketing opportunities and help demonstrate that your business is tech-savvy and digitally up to date. Here, we’ve detailed a few digital strategy examples you might want to try.
Boost your online presence
You should have an interesting and informative online presence, as this will be where people look to learn more about your business. This covers your:
- Company website
- Social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram)
- Advertising platforms (paid ads, Google My Business listings, online sector profiles)
- Affiliate profiles (content about your business hosted elsewhere)
As well as making sure these are regularly updated and relevant, you should also do your best to ensure your messaging and tone of voice is consistent and appropriate on each platform.
This shows an awareness of your target audience and will help leave a good impression on potential new clients. What’s more, a quality online presence demonstrates that your IT start-up values its importance and is in touch with the digital world.
Use content marketing
Content marketing is essentially the strategic use of the content you produce (blogs, videos, infographics etc.) to create awareness of your services and to help generate leads. The key word here though is ‘strategic’ and a holistic approach to your content marketing will help it make a bigger impact. More specifically:
- Accurate and informative content positions you as an expert and builds trust with your audience.
- Content tailored for specific users can be more persuasive and can increase conversion rates.
- Keyword-led content can boost your site’s rankings and help wider audiences find your website.
- Having aspects like these in place is in line with Google’s Content Guidelines and can again help improve rankings.
Involve influencers and affiliate marketing
By using influencers and producing content for affiliate websites you can essentially piggyback on the valuable online profiles of these third parties.
While this will invariably be at a cost, by selecting the right influencers or affiliate sites to promote your product or service, you can quickly reach the right digital audiences and potential leads.
The chances are you’ll have seen this creative digital strategy being used, particularly if you subscribe to any online publications in your particular IT sector.
But, as recent studies show that 80% of marketers find this approach to be effective with a strong ROI, it’s certainly worth a try if you’re trying to get your IT start-up quickly noticed.
99% of UK private businesses are either small companies or start-ups, mostly within the IT sector
Final thoughts
With all of these digital strategy examples it’s important to remember that you need to be consistent with your online marketing and include a variety of approaches to demonstrate your IT start-up is a cut above the rest.
Here you can find out how global players like Dropbox and Reddit utilised creative digital strategies when they were start-ups.
However, as a busy small business owner it might be the case that you don’t have the flexibility you need to fully commit to your digital strategy. This is where we could help, as Ultimate Languages provide a variety of digital consultancy services on both a local and international level.
Our experts can guide and advise you on what digital marketing is right for your IT start-up to help it grow and eventually go global. If you’re interested, and would like to speak to our team, you can contact us here.
Passionate about International Marketing, Ana combines traditional and digital marketing experience to deliver strategic digital advice and services focused on business goals. Creative, analytical and practical, her professional background covers large multinational corporations, advertising, public relations, search and digital marketing agencies.
