The world of tech startups is a highly competitive space. To rise above the noise, your tech startup needs to invest in effective startup marketing techniques. Having said that, it’s wise to learn marketing lessons from big brands have seen it all.

After all, brands that have spent vast sums of money on marketing have a lot of insight into how startups can go about building a brand and promoting themselves in a cost-effective manner.

privilege of learning from their mistakes and maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Here are 10 marketing lessons from big brands that can help every startup hit the bull’s eye.

10 Marketing Lessons Every Startup Needs To Learn In 2020

#1 Streamline Content Marketing 

Content creation is vital for marketing, and it demands a lot of time and energy. Good content can enhance your brand’s visibility, increase your audience and boost your sales and conversions.

People like to learn about your brand and your products through your content and one of the most important marketing lessons is to streamline your content creation.

Startups usually handle content creation themselves because of a lack of resources. This often leads to the creation of low-quality content, which doesn’t give them the desired results. By doing a haphazard job at content creation, startups fail to benefit from one of the most effective marketing strategies – content marketing.

Unless your business is about content creation, delegate this area of your business to content professionals, just like the big brands do. By streamlining such a major section of marketing, you can concentrate on expanding your businesses.

#2 Video Marketing

Starting a tech blog is one of the most important aspects of content marketing. However, there’s a completely different category of audience, that prefers watching a video over reading and you don’t want to miss out on such a large chunk of potential customers.

Many startups fail to take advantage of the fact that starting a tech YouTube channel and creating engaging videos can visually immerse their consumers, educate them about their products, and encourage them to buy from them. 

YouTube offers a lucrative opportunity for video marketing, and social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook also allow brands to build an audience through their videos. In fact, nearly 50% of consumers look for product related-videos before buying.

#3 Hashtag Campaign

Today, social media is highly influenced by hashtags and big brands craft custom hashtags like #ShotOniPhone to segregate their content and build a brand identity.

Your startup needs to do the same by coming up with a strong hashtag campaign. Hashtags can bring people together for a common cause, unite them around your brand, and increase your brand awareness.

#LikeAGirl hashtag campaign by Always, a hygiene brand made quite a mark. “Like a girl” as a phrase has been used in the past to portray girls as weak.

With this campaign, By turning the phrase into a hashtag of strength, Always appealed to young girls who weren’t influenced by society’s gender-based expectations. The hashtag went viral and boosted the brand value by engaging a large number of people.

 

#4 Community Marketing

There could be multiple reasons for a person to buy a product. But most of all, people buy something because they are just habituated to doing so. By creating a community, you can create a habit around your product.

Fitbit is a tech company that sells smart fitness watches that can measure pulse rate, calorie-burn, and other vital parameters of people who wear them while walking, running or climbing, etc.

While it looks like they only sell fitness watches, they’re actually building a digital community of fitness-loving people. They share health tips on their blogs as well.

Their app is like a small social media site where people can message or even challenge each other. They have been able to build a community that does a lot more than just buying their watches.

#5 Creativity

There are multiple marketing strategies that any startup can use by the book. But the question is whether that will give the desired results? One of the best marketing lessons is to deploy creative marketing techniques. 

To launch their latest Ultra HD TV, LG came up with this creative prank video which not only amazed the viewers but also showcased their product at its best.

Nestle set up musical benches in the Philippines to promote KitKat with the theme of taking a break and making friends.

#6 Giveaways

The goal of marketing is to sell more products and not give them away for free. But if you can find a way to sell a lot by just giving a little, isn’t that awesome?

Many marketers find giveaways to be a bad idea, but big brands like Google feel otherwise.

When Android KitKat was being launched, people could win a Google Nexus 7 tablet by completing a challenge by Kitkat. This campaign blew up and led to heavy promotion and awareness of the product.

#7 Contests

Contests are a great way of promoting your products, and it’s one of the most critical marketing lessons you can learn from big brands. With the development of technology, the availability of online tools, and the abundance of social media, hosting contests has become rather easy to execute.

By giving the right incentive, you can reach a huge audience, engage with them, and get them to promote your brand through contests.

For example, to promote Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel launched its own 10-year sweepstakes contest where fans could win trips to Disneyland or the Captain Marvel Set or tickets to the premiere and so on. It built a huge hype for the film and Marvel as a studio both.

#8 Influencer Marketing

Social media influencers have a massive fan following who are relevant to your brand. Not only does influencer marketing help in tapping a completely new audience but the conversion rate is also much higher in this case. That’s why it’s considered to be one of the most effective marketing lessons.

Tech brands tie up with influencers all the time. Popular tech influencers like MKBHD and Unbox Therapy make for influential promoters. Their reviews have a significant impact on purchase decisions.

#9 Use Content To Increase Visibility

It’s a known fact that your social media visibility is directly proportionate to the amount of content you post. Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneurial expert, has built his audience by posting valuable and meaningful content every couple of hours.

He documented his journey, his conversations with other people, his conference speeches, and posted them. He posted content on YouTube and his other social media channels and built a huge audience for himself.

#10 Tell Your Product Story

Storytelling is a great way to build an emotional connection with your prospects and customers. Every great product or brand tells a story, and it is one of the main requirements of effective marketing.

For example, TOMS, a charitable merchandise brand, came up with their “one for one” slogan, where they donated a pair of shoes for every pair bought. Their story creates the impression that they are generous, and anyone who buys from them is also generous.

Storytelling is less popular amongst startups but is considered to be one of the very effective marketing lessons to be learned from big brands.

Final Thoughts

While some of these marketing lessons might come across as obvious, they are not given much attention. These marketing lessons come from business leaders and seasoned brands who have shaped their business to reach the top. By implementing these marketing lessons, you could be on your way to paving a path of success. Good luck!