Top 8 Successful Branding Strategies for Tech Startups
In tech startups word of mouth is the best thing to happen to create a brand value organically. Like Facebook and Google not every tech startup company gets this opportunity. Startups create their own brand by marketing the products or services in different ways. If people don’t know about your startup or what you offer, they will not buy your products or services. That's why applying branding or marketing strategies is very essential for startups.What is Branding for startups?
Branding is a marketing strategy by which people can easily connect with an organization's products or services from the competitors' market and they experience the brand products or services for a long time consistently.
Branding for startups is a technique to get closer with the customers by its quality products or services in the long run. A strong brand not only helps customers to recognize your company but also it helps employees to know about your intention regarding your business.
Why is branding important for tech startups?
Suppose you have a super shop that is called a traditional business from where people will buy their products. In this case those people will buy from a super shop who lives near the shop. That is the limitation of traditional business.
On the other hand, if you have a tech startup like e-commerce website then people can buy products from anywhere in the country. For this you don’t need a big space like a physical super shop. And you can get customers from all over the country. You just need a good connection with wholesalers and retailers, a payment gateway and technological knowledge to monitor your website. All of these you can do from a remote place with some employees. This is the real magic of tech startups you can enjoy.
The only thing is people have to know about your website or startup. If you can reach your target customers then you can get huge traffic on your website and generate a decent revenue. For reaching people and keeping your customers consistent you will need to make a brand value of your tech startup. Now you can understand why branding is very crucial for any tech startup.
Here are some reasons why tech startups need branding:
- Branding helps you to make a unique identity of your company.
- Branding distinguishes your tech startup from the competition.
- Branding helps you to increase your visibility and traction.
- Branding helps you to determine your marketing strategies.
- Branding brings consistency in your business.
- Branding assists you to establish a strong image of your business.
- Branding gives support to stay in the market for a very long time.
What are the best branding strategies for tech startups?
For tech startups branding is a must to grow your business. Branding is a powerful tool to gain reputation and customer loyalty. Every startup company follows their own strategies to brand their product or services.
I am giving here some important branding strategies for a tech startup which are best in my point of view:
Making products or services valuable to the customers
A quality product is the king for any kind of business. Creating a product no one needs is the top reason for startups failing. Based on analysis on 101 startups, Cbinsights found 17% of startups fail because of user unfriendly products.
Before marketing your products, you have to make sure your product is valuable to the customers as well as user friendly to use. This is the first condition to make a brand of your product. Competitor market analysis and customer feedback will help you to create a valuable product which is really helpful for the customers.
Choosing a small and catchy name for your startup
Without a name you can’t run your startup business. Before naming your startup, you have to be careful as your name is small, catchy and meaningful to the users. A good name will help you to increase your market and brand value.
Pick a meaningful name which will give a clear idea about your business. Small and easy name is brandable quickly. Choose a unique name which will separate you from the competitor’s business name. Register your favorite name physically and digitally as soon as possible before someone takes it.
Making a clear business plan to attain the goal
Before marketing your product, you need a clear and visualized business plan to fulfill your goal. It will help to expand your startup business when you need it. A business plan is an essential tool to help guide your decisions and activities.
A proper business plan is a roadmap to success, providing significant clarity on all aspects of your business, from marketing and finance to operations and product/service details. A good business plan will help you take your startup to the next level. It also helps you to improve your brand value.
Creating a detailed documents of your target buyers
You have a valuable product, a catchy business name and a proper business plan for your startup. Now you need detailed documents of your target customers.
New entrepreneurs think everybody is their target customer. But this is totally wrong. The needs are not the same for every person in the world. The behavior pattern of every customer is not the same. So, you have to find out who your target customers are. For whom you are making products or services. Collect all of the customers' intent and feedback in one place and use it to create your brand value.
Building your business website and app
Your website is your asset and you can easily control it. Preparing your business website and app is one of the important branding strategies. From the website people can know about your products and services. It will help to make trust in your customers.
You should make your website and app user friendly. Day after day proper optimization is needed based on customers behavior and others signals. SEO, conversion rate optimization, split testing and other processes will all help you to make the proper customization of your website.
Advertise the product/service to reach customer
14% of startups fail because of poor marketing. A great product is half of the work and advertising is the other half to fulfill your dream. If you want to catch people’s attention and make a reputation for your business, you will need a well-organized marketing strategy to reach your target customers.
For tech startups advertisement is must to reach the target customers. There are different ways to advertise your product or services. Some advertising methods are given below:
Paid Advertising: Giving paid advertisement on google, Bing and other popular search engines is a trendiest way to get reach and increase conversion rate of the product. It is becoming popular day by day in the startup field.
You can also run paid social ads in different social media like Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. Besides, display ads are best for brand awareness and retargeting of your products.
Direct email: Email marketing sounds like old but it is a very powerful way of branding. From websites, social media and other sales funnels you will collect the customers email and nurture it regularly.
MailChimp and other email marketing tools are very helpful to automate your system. By email marketing you can maintain a good relationship with your customers. Because email marketing is a direct communication system to communicate with the target customers.
Social media for organic: Latest statistics show that more than 4.33 billion people use social media around the world as per datareportal stats of 2021. So here is a huge opportunity to get organic social traffic to your website.
To increase your business's presence, you have to post regularly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other platforms. It is the best way to get real feedback from your customers. So, social media activities are very important to increase your startup brand value.
Content marketing: Content marketing is the key element for the overall advertising process. Without content you can not post it on social platforms. In paid advertising and direct email, it is impossible to connect with the customers without content.
To maintain a brand image, you will need high quality content. Today billboards and magazine ads no longer work. That's why it will be a great plan to create content that customers will consume. You have to analyze what type of content people want. Based on your analysis you will make content and publish it in video, image, audio or written format.
Event sponsoring: On a primary level, sponsoring in local events will help you to reach customers. When your startup will go to the next level then sponsoring in international events should be considered. Paying event's organizers to promote your product is the best strategy for branding.
If you are capable enough you can organize events to market your product with your money. But it needs time to go to that place.
PR campaign: If your startup is tech related then Public Relations (PR) strategy will benefit you a lot for branding your product. If you lack expertise internally then a professional PR company will be a better option for you.
Press coverage, events, outreach, thought leadership content are the part of traditional PR strategies. On the other hand, digital PR will help you to get backlinks to your website and commenting on social media. A PR agency will work as your representative to reach your product to the target customers.
Think out of the box by guerrilla marketing
As a tech startup taking risks is common. Besides traditional methods of advertising you have to think out of the box. Analyze your competitor and find out a new way to advertise your product. This is called guerrilla marketing. Social hacking and guerrilla marketing are very uncommon and unique techniques to spread your company name quickly.
Establish and nurture your reputation
When you will establish your startup business and gain reputation then it will be a great responsibility for you to nurture your reputation to keep your permanent customers in your world. In this way you will get other new customers.
To maintain your good reputation, you need to do these things:
- Take action based on customer feedback.
- Maintain a professional manner to communicate with the customers.
- Maintain a good relationship with the investors.
- Involve with different kinds of social activities.
- Manage a good relationship with the employees and other parties.
- Always Keeping a positive vibe regarding your company.
Not be over confident that all branding strategies will work well for your tech startup. By applying various strategies, you need to find out what strategies are giving you better output. Based on the pattern of your business, your target audience, your campaign budgets, and your team’s ability, you need to find the suitable techniques to reach your target customers and generate a satisfied conversation rate from your products or services.