You’ve done the research, sourced your product, and filed the paperwork. You’re finally ready to create your ecommerce pet food store. You’re confident your startup will help pets eat healthier, but you need to get the word out. You know you need an effective marketing plan, but your budget is tight, you don’t have customer data yet, your brand is entirely unknown, and you lack the marketing expertise of a larger company. Where do you start?
Startup marketing strategies are a new business blueprint for long-term success that can scale and adapt to different budgets and needs. They emphasize leaner marketing efforts that can raise brand awareness and build credibility—without breaking the bank.
This guide walks through actionable steps for your business with examples from a startup that successfully differentiated itself in a crowded market.
Table of contents
How to create a marketing strategy for your startup
- Set your objective
- Define your target audience
- Conduct market research
- Find your unique selling point (USP)
- Create a marketing budget
- Set an SEO target
- Lean into content marketing
- Create social media accounts
- Implement email marketing
A marketing strategy can help you find new customers by defining your objectives, target demographics, unique selling points, and brand voice. Many marketing strategies incorporate market research so business owners can better understand their target audience and ideal customers. Here’s how to start building your marketing plan:
1. Set your objective
As a startup, your objectives might include boosting brand recognition, establishing brand credibility, increasing website traffic, or generating new sales. Deciding on your primary business goal will help you determine next steps.
For example, if your goal is higher brand recognition, your team could retool your brand identity, standardize your style and colors, and post consistent messaging across social media platforms. If you prioritize website traffic, your strategy might focus on inbound marketing techniques, such as publishing blogs and newsletters with valuable, user-centric information.
2. Define your target audience
Identify a target audience to create personalized marketing content with a higher chance of connecting to potential customers. Ask yourself who might need your product or service and then map out buyer personas—a data-driven profile of your ideal customer. Are age and gender significant factors for your brand? Is affordability one of your unique selling points, or does your brand offer luxury items? In both cases, your customer’s income and lifestyle might be essential characteristics to consider.
Other factors in your ideal customer profile might include location, hobbies, likes, and dislikes. If your marketing team establishes these identifiers, it can tailor the messaging to build authentic relationships with your potential customers. As a result, your team could bring in higher-quality leads and increase sales.
As a startup, your ideal customer may evolve as you develop your brand identity and products. Still, it’s essential to understand who you are speaking to before creating your marketing content.
3. Conduct market research
Market research involves analyzing data to gain insights into your target audience and your competition. Your findings can help your startup decide on its marketing strategy.
Though a mature business can invest heavily in market research, your startup can consider more affordable options such as partnering with a third-party researcher, interacting directly with your customers on social media, hosting focus groups, or analyzing competitors’ strategies.
4. Find your unique selling point (USP)
After conducting market research, use that data to refine your product’s unique selling point (USP). Your USP is what distinguishes your product and business from the competition.
Consider the problem your product solves, its specific benefits, and how those features outperform the competition. Once you identify your USP, the next step is to convey that idea in your brand’s storytelling. Shoppers who hear your story and believe your product is superior are more likely to become loyal customers.
Charlotte Palermino, co-founder and CEO of skin care brand Dieux Skin, emphasizes the importance of storytelling in an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, saying, “You have to really stay on point for your storytelling—great salespeople are storytellers.”
5. Create a marketing budget
Set a limit on what you’re willing and able to spend on marketing efforts. This will determine the parameters and expectations for your marketing strategy.
For many entrepreneurs, money is tight. “If you are starting a company and you don’t come from money and you don’t have that institutional money, get scrappy,” Charlotte says. “It’s incredible what you can do and build on your own.”
Charlotte explains that she did much of the initial marketing herself and took advantage of free social media platforms to raise brand awareness.
6. Set an SEO target
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a tool in your digital marketing strategy to boost your search engine ranking and increase website visibility. Set an SEO target, such as ranking in the top three on search engine results pages (SERPs), so users find your business when searching related keywords.
Use keyword research tools to discover what your target market searches for and incorporate popular phrases into your site. Perfect your website’s meta titles and descriptions to help your company name appear in search results. Optimize your website on mobile to ensure visitors can easily navigate pages, find products, and complete a purchase.
7. Lean into content marketing
Creating content on your website is a low-cost way to promote your brand and inform potential customers. Start a blog or create engaging web pages about your company and product to address any questions by potential customers. Your website is your own space to craft your brand narrative and market your product how you see fit.
8. Create social media accounts
Social media marketing can supercharge your company’s public profile. Social media platforms are easy to access and attract billions of users who spend time scrolling through content. Incorporating social media into your marketing strategy is a cost-effective way to get your brand in front of those large audiences.
Use social media channels to share user-generated content (UGC), post stories, hold giveaways, and create paid ads. Dieux Skin, for example, gained more than eight million likes on TikTok and 125,000 followers on Instagram by posting organic content on its channels.
9. Implement email marketing
One survey found that 81% of businesses send emails as part of their marketing strategy. Email marketing is a proven tactic that can scale up as your business grows. It’s an inexpensive way to keep existing customers engaged and informed of new products and company updates.
Your email marketing strategies can include exclusive discounts, early access to new products, newsletters, customer surveys, and product promotions.
Dieux Skin’s startup marketing success
Understanding what’s a natural fit for your brand can also affect your marketing campaigns. For Charlotte, social media marketing is an authentic tool to connect Dieux Skin with its target audience. “You get people’s buy-in when you explain something to them,” she says. “That’s all that sales is.”
Dieux Skin sets itself apart by posting valuable, informative TikTok videos. In many instances, educating the viewer is the primary purpose, and product promotion is secondary. Through storytelling on TikTok, Dieux Skin brings authenticity to its audience, gains their trust, and creates an educational experience that fosters higher purchase intent.
One of Dieux Skin’s viral posts on TikTok covers topics many wouldn’t consider: product packaging, plastic, and carbon footprint. “It’s just a five-minute video about plastic and aluminum, and it’s doing incredibly well, and it’s because it’s about storytelling,” Charlotte says. She advises fellow founders to speak on topics they genuinely find interesting. “If you feel like you could just talk about something for 10 minutes, then make a video on it and try to cut it down to two,” she says. With this content, Dieux Skin encourages potential customers to understand the brand, connect with the information, and ultimately make a purchase.
Startup marketing strategy FAQ
How do you build a startup marketing plan?
Build a startup marketing strategy by defining your goals and target audience. Once these are established, take accessible, low-cost actions to market your brand and product. Popular startup marketing strategies include creating website content marketing, email campaigns, and social media content.
What is a startup marketing strategy?
A startup marketing strategy is the long-term plan for your marketing team. It lays out your company’s objectives and details which marketing channels you’ll utilize to tap into your target audience and reach your goals.
Why is it important to have a marketing strategy for your startup?
A marketing strategy is essential for startups, as many potential customers are unaware of your brand, product, or service. Marketing strategies can give your startup a roadmap to reach your target audience and potential customers as your business grows.
