PRESENTING: How to market your startup on social media to grow your business and gain boatloads of customers
Marketing your brand is the most important thing you can to do gain customers — whether that’s through social media, email, or advertising.
Influencers have become a major asset to a brand’s marketing strategy, and businesses are finding that micro- and nano-influencers are increasingly effective.
Business Insider has talked to founders, attended panels, and surveyed entrepreneurs to find out what marketing tools and strategies helped them build their businesses.
Marketing your brand is the most important thing you can to do gain customers — but that can come in multiple forms.
Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have the biggest impact, but also present challenges standing out in a highly saturated market. Some brands also find success through email campaigns or ambassador programs.
But first, you need the right resources to create content for marketing your brand. There are countless apps to help you create and plan posts for Instagram, so we asked entrepreneurs to list the ones they find most useful.
Influencers have become a major assets to any brand’s marketing strategy — whether they take a photo with a physical product or a plug a digital service in their caption. Consumers are turning to the people they relate to and businesses are finding that micro- and nano-influencers are increasingly effective in that way.
Siblings Emily and Mark Stallings cofounded phone-case startup Casely and boosted their sales to $10 million. They created their Instagram account three months before launching their products to generate buzz — now they have over 200,000 followers on the platform. They reveal how they contact and work with ‘micro-influencers’ on Instagram to hype their products.
Read the story here.
Toymaker Skyrocket has a formula behind its best-selling toys to cater to these viral and trending videos. Last holiday season, the company recruited more than 100 influencers on YouTube and Instagram to launch its Blume doll, which was one of the year’s most popular toys.
Read the story here.
Claire Diaz-Ortiz, a former Twitter employee who is now a social-media consultant, says brands need to stop trying to go viral and instead focus on the value they were providing to consumers. Instead, she suggests creating more meaningful engagement on social media through conversation and customer service.
From left to right: Sacha Strebe, Editorial Director of Create & Cultivate, who moderated the panel; Vanessa Dew, CSO and co-founder of Health-Ade Kombucha; Arielle Loren, founder and CEO of 100K Incubator; Hilary McCain, founder and CEO of Sweet Reason Beverage Co.; and Molly Hayward, co-founder and CBO of Cora. Chris Polk for Mastercard
At Mastercard’s first Small Business Summit, one panel of women with a variety of experience in content creation and marketing discussed ways small businesses can make the most of social media. Entrepreneur and TV host Marie Forleo said content gives businesses “an opportunity to inspire trust and confidence in your audience long before they ever do business with you.”
E-commerce founder Adii Pienaar said a low open rate is a major threat to business owners hoping to boost sales through email. He provided six templates for small business owners looking to create engaging email campaigns.
Read the story here.