As startup founders, we know marketing can feel like a necessary evil. And not only can marketing feel overwhelming, but it's also constantly evolving. As social media platforms change their algorithm, Google makes another update, and new platforms break onto the scene, it can be stressful to keep up in this ever-changing industry.
But there are certain things you can control that will help put you in the driver’s seat. We’ve rounded up some of the most stress-inducing factors for digital marketers and provided some tips to help you find some zen.
Challenge #1: Audience
If you’re struggling with low engagement or low conversions, you may not be reaching the right people with your marketing efforts.
The Challenge:
To generate quality leads, you first need to know who to target. Many times, founders think they know their audience, but they really don’t. Remember, you are NOT your audience.
On the flip side, you might have done your homework but you’re left with five or more potential personas, and it’s just too many.
The Solution:
Grounding yourself in the fact that this is an iterative process and you probably won’t get it right the first time is a great step. Here are our tips for quickly assessing and understanding your target audience:
Create personas. If you’re just launching, you likely have some assumptions about who your target is. Take this a step further by researching more details including demographics, where to find them, their challenges, and how your product solves them. Do this for each audience. Here’s an example template to get you started.
If you have time, take the above a step further with market research. You can utilize research that already exists, also known as secondary research, or conduct your own, aka primary research. We suggest a survey of current or potential customers to get started.
Consider adding in a competitive SWOT analysis. If you don’t know, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a great way to understand your competitors and seize opportunities. You can find several templates here to get you started.
Challenge #2: Metrics
Metrics are key to marketing success but you may not know what and how to measure your marketing efforts.
The Challenge:
An important focus of your digital marketing efforts should be measurement and optimization. But many times, you have no benchmarks or don’t understand how to set the appropriate KPIs. You may already have these benchmarks in place but are struggling to meet them.
The Solution:
First, let’s talk about what you should be tracking at each stage of the funnel.
High-volume metrics like website traffic, bounce rate, and email open rates usually are tied to top-of-the-funnel performance. High performance of these metrics indicates that you’re targeting the right audience. Low performance, on the other hand, may mean your message isn’t making it to the right people.
In the middle of the funnel, look to metrics like qualified leads and adds-to-cart. If you’re hitting your numbers, it means you’re effectively moving your audience through the sales funnel. If performance is low, it could mean your product positioning is off.
Bottom-of-the-funnel indicators include things like purchases and sign-ups. If they’re low, it could mean you need to adjust your pricing.
Second, let’s talk about benchmarks. Industry benchmarks are a good place to start to help you get a sense of what’s typical. Performance varies widely across industries—but for example, most websites see between 1,001-15,000 visitors per month. Average email open rates usually fall somewhere between 15 and 25%, while the average click-through rate across industries is 2.62%.
Industry averages are important, but what’s even more important is your performance. Once you establish a baseline, set your benchmarks according to your data. You can iterate and refine these goals over time as needed. Evaluate each funnel stage critically to find the leaks—and fix them—to help increase performance in the long run. Depending on the channel, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to start seeing results so don’t give up! It’s tempting to give up on something after a few days but it’s important to let your marketing activity fully mature.
Challenge #3: Messaging
When you’re juggling a million priorities, maintaining consistency across your entire team can feel nearly impossible. But there are a few easy steps to take to stay true to your brand.
The Challenge:
As a founder, you know your company inside and out. But it’s still important to work through all of the steps to create a strong brand foundation. Without a message and consistent look, feel, and tone of voice, your brand will start to feel confused. As a result, you won’t be able to build brand awareness, and your target audience won’t immediately recognize your brand when they come across your materials.
The Solution:
Take time to do a positioning and messaging exercise. Sit down and align on your brand’s vision, mission, values, and positioning statement. These will serve as the north star for all of your future marketing materials and allow you to create consistent and recognizable messaging across teams and assets.
When you are done with your messaging, develop brand guidelines that establish the ground rules. Create consistency around how anyone and everyone communicates about your brand with words or visuals. What core messaging should never be altered? Where can employees have flexibility without damaging the brand? How should creative partners use your logo? What colors do you use, how often, when, and where?
You can use these not only for your marketing team, but other customer-facing teams like sales or customer support, to ensure that everything feels like it’s coming from the same brand. You can also share them with partners to ensure that any third-party materials still uphold your brand standards.
Challenge #4: Budgets
When you’re in early stages, dollars are a precious resource. Strategically allocating your marketing budget can help you get more for your money.
The Challenge:
Your budget is based on your runway, likely until your next round of funding or an expectation of growth. So making sure those dollars are delivering ROI is key. How can you effectively engage leads and move them through your marketing funnel in a way that delivers that ROI? It’s not always easy to tell at this early stage, and there’s a lot of needed testing that needs to place. When you’re allocating funds, you need to determine your goals to decide how to best use your marketing budget to help the business meet its bottom line.
The Solution:
Before you jump in head first without planning, be sure to determine your goals. If your goal is brand awareness, you’ll want to allocate more money towards brand awareness in the form of events or top-of-the-funnel advertising. If your goal is lead generation or user acquisition, you’ll want to focus money more on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics like demos and product reviews. This will give you a clearer picture of how to structure your marketing budget and allow your dollars to work smarter—not harder.
Tackling these big-picture problems is an easy way to take some stress off of your plate day-to-day and help your startup thrive—it’s a win-win. If you’re struggling with where to start, we’ve helped countless startups get their footing and set their marketing efforts on the right track.
Get in touch today to tap into our expertise with a free 30-minute consultation.