Master engagement marketing: and you’ll future-proof your startup

Investors expect a clear, well-targeted startup marketing strategy if you are going to attract their investment. But, pre-funding when you are still in “hustle mode”, and experimenting with various marketing channels, your startup marketing strategy may lack coherence. It can feel like having puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit together, leaving you with an incomplete picture.

Funding Accelerator mentor: Future-proof your startup with engagement marketing.

That’s where Claire Marshall, Funding Accelerator mentor, advocates building a startup marketing “ecosystem.” This ecosystem not only informs your thinking and guides your strategy, but also supports you in constructing a marketing model that attracts the right leads and future-proofs your startup by cultivating engaged and loyal customers.

Securing loyal customers who buy from you again and again, or who repeatedly renew their contract with you, is what investors are looking for from a startup marketing strategy. Why? Because it is more cost-effective and conversion is higher when you speak to loyal customers and opportunities for additional revenue open up. In fact, customers referred by other customers have a 37% higher customer retention rate and loyal customers spend 67% more money than first-time customers. So how do you achieve this? The key is identifying, nurturing and converting your ideal customers through personalised messaging and segmentation.

Listening to your customers, adapting to their needs, and streamline your operations to provide the best possible customer experience is your starting point. Easy to say, but how do you do this in reality and on a tight budget?

It all starts with tracking customer data, says Claire. Data is the key to improving your startup marketing strategy and reaching more customers. A good place to start is with quiz funnels (such as Scoreapp) which help you segment and learn from your customers, generating leads, and saving time and money. Claire recommends starting by developing a series of questions that help identify your customer’s pain points. By comprehending their problems, you can then position your products and services as solutions to these problems. Additionally, analysing customer insights can uncover opportunities to expand your product line and boost revenue – a crucial aspect investors consider when evaluating your startup’s marketing strategy.

Claire pointed out that using quizzes – and providing personalised landing pages which give insights related to their results – provides an opt-in funnel for future communications and gives potential customers more relevant information, based on their needs, than is possible through a generic website.

Not every startup founder has the skills – or the time – to create these data building startup marketing strategies but there are a range of platforms that make it easy to create the quizzes and advisers like Claire who can show you how to handle the algorithm and landing page.

Claire highlighted how one business she supported in developing a quiz funnel discovered they had four different types of business owners amongst their potential customers. By tailoring their startup’s services to each type of customer they were better able to solve their customer’s problems and increase conversion and revenue.

Once built, the quizzes can be promoted on social platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram, or through your blog or website. This provides a cost-effective way to generate leads, especially if you don’t yet have the budget to spend on digital advertising. By incorporating nurturing email sequences following the quiz, custom-tailored to each result, your startup marketing strategy begins to take form, enhancing its attractiveness to potential investors. And, of course, simultaneously you are building your customer understanding with the insights that come from the quiz data.

These tactics are not only important for marketing your product or service to potential customers, but they can also be applied to marketing your startup to investors in order to secure investment. Personalising content for investors shows them that you understand their motivations and goals, and nurturing the relationship through consistent communication is vital in order to build trust and establish a rapport with your target investors. It is important to keep in mind that securing funding is not instantaneous. It takes time and effort to build a strong relationship. By implementing these tactics, you increase your chances of closing an investment round successfully and forming a long-lasting partnership with your investors.

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