Everyone starts small, so if you’re a digital marketing start-up wanting to grow in 2017, follow our top hacks!

1. Branding is BIG

Establishing your brand is vital! When you’ve rolled out all your marketing activities, you need to develop a brand personality which gives your brand an overall identity. This will allow you to be able to develop sincere and emotive relationships with your target customers – your customers want to feel they are communicating with humans.

Once you’ve figured out your tone of voice and brand identity, it will be a lot easier to decipher who your target audience is, and will make other digital marketing campaigns such as PPC a lot easier to run. Having a clear brand personality reinforces your culture and philosophy, and also makes sure you’re giving your customers what they need.

2. Live online

Establish all your social media platforms. Similar to the point raised above, having solid social media platforms will not only bring your brand to life, but it opens up alternative communication channels with your customers and target audience.

Have at least two key social platforms (i.e. Facebook and Twitter, or Facebook and Instagram depending on the product/service you offer). Potential customers who want to learn more about you will (as well as visiting your site) flock to your social channels to see what you’re all about.

3. Get the tools

Once you’ve got everything up to speed, the next thing is to invest in good quality digital tools (get rid of all those free ones you’ve been using and upgrade to the paid versions!) You will be spoiled for choice, as there are so many fantastic tools on the market.

If you need a bit of help with your social media management, try Hootsuite Professional (although the free version is also very good); if you need a helping hand with any SEO tasks, Moz Pro is great, as is Crazy Egg, a fantastic tool that heat maps where your visitors click – giving you an accurate visualisation of your hot pages.

4. KISS

Follow the KISS philosophy: keep-it-simple-stupid. When it comes to producing content, don’t complicate things e.g. using amalgamate instead of blend, and don’t use cliche words e.g. describing your business as creative or innovative, as it will make you the same as everybody else!

5. Track your time

Here at SGM we live and breathe time tracking – with everything recorded down to the minute. Keep a track of your time throughout the day as it will give you an idea of what you’re spending too much and little time doing. It will also give you an accurate idea of how long particular tasks will take, so you can look into ways of combating this. Look to invest in a productivity tool to streamline your work.

6. Hire the pros!

If you’ve only been going for a few months, instead of hiring juniors, hire a senior that has a lot of experience (particularly with startups). They will be able to offer some invaluable advice and can help solidify your marketing strategy, and should have a good all round knowledge of social media, SEO etc.

If you’re in need of some digital marketing help, get in touch with us today!