Marketing is insanely expensive. When I started out nearly thirty years ago the monthly expense of my yellow page listing alone (I'm really dating myself here) was more than double my office rent. Back then it was TV and radio advertising that ripped through your budget, and although there is more organic opportunity with social media these days it stills amazes me how expensive advertising can be. My number one tip would be to network. Surround yourself with businesses within the sphere of what you offer. Not competitors, but "complimenters." Offer to collaborate by exchanging blog posts and cross promotions to expand both of your audiences with minimal outlay. Offer affiliate relationships to similar businesses. There is so much that can be done informally to scale your market without breaking the bank.
When I was consulting for small businesses, I recognized time and time again that many brands felt compelled to be on every single marketing channel possible. They were spread so thin that they couldn't manage some of the most profitable and powerful marketing tools - such as your email newsletter, which is key for retention and conversion efforts; having a basic social media presence (on 1-2 channels) where customers can ask questions and engage in conversations with you; and ensuring your digital shopping experience was as smooth and frictionless as possible. Don't get swept up in the hubub of trendy platforms, ads platforms and sophisticated software until you feel confident you have the capacity or staff to help you really take advantage of all those tools have to offer.
As a software engineer at Amazon for 4 years, I've seen my fair share of marketing challenges. One of the biggest ones was generating quality leads. It's tough to cut through the noise and reach your target audience. We overcame this by creating targeted content that spoke directly to our ideal customer's pain points. We also leveraged social media and email marketing to nurture those leads and build trust with our audience.
One marketing challenge I struggled with in the beginning, and I think most new businesses do as well, was building a solid client base. People didn't know who I was, and it was hard to get clients at first because I hadn't developed relationships or a reputation yet. To overcome this challenge, I picked 3 areas of marketing to focus on. Not only did this help me create a marketing strategy that actually helped propel my business forward, but it prevented me from getting overwhelmed (because there are a LOT of different approaches and tactics when it comes to marketing). The first area I focused on was creating a referral program. Word of mouth was incredibly helpful for me in the beginning stages (and still is), and I got several new clients because I was referred by an existing client. My referral program was simple and made in a Canva doc, but it explained the benefits clearly for people who referred me and made it easy for them to send their friend my contact info. The second area of marketing I focused on was making an email list. I was very in favor of free and affordable marketing in the beginning stages of my business, so building an email list was a no-brainer. I ended up creating a little postcard that had details about a freebie and a QR code people can scan. Then, after people signed up for my email list, I was able to give them free value each week, and I found that because they often wanted even more help, they asked to work with me. The third area of marketing I focused on was networking events. I'm an introvert and don't like leaving my comfort zone, but networking events are one of the best ways to meet new people and make connections. I joined two networking groups: one was big and great for making fast connections. The other group was small and good for making deep connections. Both have been useful for my business. The postcards I mentioned earlier were great to give out at these events! When you start a new business, there are lots of marketing challenges. But the best way to overcome them is by paying attention and pivoting when needed. What works and what doesn't? What does your customer-base need or want? How can you help? Asking those questions and making the necessary adjustments will help tremendously in your marketing.
The biggest marketing challenge we faces by far is not having enough money to put toward advertising. For this reason we had to think outside the box to come up with solutions that weren't going to cost us $1000, but would ultimately start getting us clients. The two things we did was cold email and LinkedIn outreach. But we went about it in a clever way this didn't cost us hours everyday. Here's how we did it: Cold Email For the cold email we searched the internet to get a long list of businesses we thought may be interested in working with us. Once we had created the list we wrote an email sequence of 4 different emails. An intro, a bit more about us& our work, some links to book a call with us and a final goodbye email. We then connected our list and input our sequence into a software called instantly.ai which sent the email sequence staggered so that we didn't trigger any spam filters. The results were not spectacular but we got a good few new clients. LinkedIn Outreach The second thing we did was LinkedIn outreach using a similar message sequence as the emails. We used a software called Expandi.io which allows you to automatically send connection requests to people on LinkedIn. Once the connection is accepted the message sequence is triggered and people then get a staggered messages. The results for this were much better than the cold email and we were getting around 2-3 leads per day! All in all, these two methods cost us less than $200 and some of these clients are still with us today. If you're a new business with limited budget, I 100% recommend both of these methods.
My name is Liudas Kanapienis, and I have spent over 15 years in fintech and business development, currently serving as the CEO of Ondato. As a new business, we faced significant marketing challenges, particularly in building brand awareness and differentiating ourselves in a crowded market. 1. Building Brand Awareness: One of our biggest challenges was getting our name out there in a highly competitive space. We focused on content marketing and thought leadership. This included creating high-quality content such as blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies. Additionally, I participated in industry events and conferences, sharing insights into fintech trends and compliance technology. You can see some of my talks here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XegAUJ98MYo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC4KWdOhiTg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbKlO0MxaTo These speaking engagements helped build our reputation and increase brand awareness. 2. Differentiating Ourselves in a Crowded Market: Another major challenge was differentiating Ondato from other compliance solution providers. We focused on innovation and customer-centric solutions. By investing in advanced AI and machine learning capabilities, we enhanced our product's efficiency and accuracy. We also prioritized customer feedback, incorporating it into our product development cycle. This helped us build a loyal client base and establish a unique market position. Focusing on content marketing and thought leadership helped us build brand awareness, while investing in innovation and customer-centric solutions allowed us to differentiate ourselves in a crowded market. These strategic marketing initiatives helped establish Ondato as a trusted and innovative player in the fintech industry.
Staff + Client acquisition, staff we built very slowly to ensure we didn't have to lay people off in the future. In terms of client acquisition, we used Upwork at the start of our agency and at the time the cost wasn't bad, around $15-20 to acquire a customer worth $20,000 on average. Upworks prices have rose massively since then, now we're about $200-240 per sale.
Neuroscientist | Scientific Consultant in Physics & Theoretical Biology | Author & Co-founder at VMeDx
Answered 2 years ago
One of our biggest marketing challenges was gaining visibility in a highly specialized and competitive field. As VMeDX was entering a niche market focused on virtual medical assistant services, it was crucial to stand out among established players. To overcome this, we leveraged our unique value proposition by highlighting our unparalleled commitment to the well-being of our virtual assistants. We offered industry-leading compensation and comprehensive healthcare coverage, which attracted top talent and set us apart from the competition. We also invested heavily in digital marketing strategies, including targeted ads and SEO optimization. This helped us connect directly with medical practices that could benefit most from our services. Sharing success stories and client testimonials played a crucial role, allowing potential clients to see real-world benefits of our service. This multifaceted approach not only improved our visibility but also built trust and credibility in a crowded market.
As a B2B legal tech startup, two of our biggest challenges as a new business were building brand trust and improving our SEO ranking. For building trust in a relatively conservative industry, we focused on creating valuable content like articles, case studies, and customer testimonials to demonstrate our expertise and showcase how our customers benefit from our service. For SEO, we implemented a comprehensive strategy: optimizing our website for relevant keywords, creating high-quality backlinks, and ensuring technical SEO was sound. Additionally, we’ve maintained a blog with regular updates on industry trends, which helped improve our search rankings and attract targeted traffic. By consistently monitoring and adjusting our approach, we gradually enhanced our online visibility and credibility.
As a new business, one of the biggest marketing challenges was finding the right channels for our efforts. When you’re just starting out, you don’t have a lot of budget dedicated to large marketing initiatives, so you have to find the channels where you can scale and operate efficiently. Because of this, organic channels and word of mouth are the most attractive channels. However when choosing the marketing channels to focus on, there will be a balance between organic channels that will drive traffic cost efficiently and paid channels where you can prove immediate ROI for leadership and investors while you build your organic audience. To overcome this challenge, you need to test lots of different channels quickly to try to find the channels where you gain quick traction. This will allow you to prove ROI quickly and scale more effectively.
As a new business, one of the biggest marketing challenges is consistently creating top-notch, captivating content that resonates with our target audience and eliminates their pain points. In the hyper-changing digital era, consumers are inundated with information from every direction. Web and Social media platforms are flooded with articles, videos, and infographics, making it tough for a new brand's message to cut through the noise. Here's where the challenge gets even worse: simply creating content isn't enough. It needs to be exceptional, something that cuts through the noise and resonates with the target audience. This means going beyond generic blog posts and stock photos. What we do to overcome this challenge? We focus on providing Hyper-Specific Value via our content. This has proved to be an exceptional marketing strategy for us. Instead of trying to compete with industry giants on broad topics, we focus on hyper-specific niches within our industry. This means identifying a particular pain point or challenge faced by our target audience and then becoming the ultimate resource for solving it. However, to make this strategy result-driven, we conduct in-depth research on our target audience. This includes going beyond demographics – understanding their specific challenges, frustrations, and information gaps. For this, online communities, forums, and social media groups always help us in uncovering these insights. The beauty of the strategy is that it allows us to compete on value, not volume. By providing exceptional content that directly solves a specific problem, we carve out a unique space in the market and establish ourselves as a go-to resource for our target audience. This, in turn, fosters trust, and loyalty by engaging our target audience.
In our experience, one of the biggest marketing challenges we faced as a new business was dealing with dynamic platforms. The constantly changing algorithms of platforms make it particularly tough to keep up, especially when managing multi-channel marketing. For a startup, creating a marketing strategy from scratch across various channels, both traditional and digital, is daunting. Digital marketing trends are crucial to incorporate, but staying current with them is a significant challenge. For example, in digital marketing, the frequent updates to algorithms by Google and other platforms, which are intended to improve user experience most of the time also often disrupt SEO and SMM efforts. We managed to overcome these challenges by partnering with a marketing agency and outsourcing some of our marketing tasks. This approach not only helped us build our marketing efforts but also allowed us to align our marketing goals with our broader business objectives.
In my experience with countless new businesses, allocating budget for marketing, planning a marketing budget and understanding why the messaging has to be consistent are challenges for new business. After understanding that they cannot mean everything to everyone, new businesses start to appreciate what being consistent in messaging means. Especially when they realise they cant keep changing their product as per different customers.
I started Elevated Audience, a digital marketing agency, during COVID after spending 15 years in the event industry. The greatest marketing challenge I faced was reshaping my personal brand. I was known as an event expert, and I needed to retrain my personal network to associate their image of me. First, I went to my social accounts and changed all my messaging. I changed my professions, shifted my content, and asked for help! Most people are intimidated by asking for help but this was my greatest victory. Humans generally want to help others and within a few weeks I was getting tagged in posts by people in my network when they noticed someone looking for a website developer, SEM specialist, social media manager, and more. Next, I needed to prove that I was an expert in the field. I took as many courses as I could, got interviewed on YouTube channels and podcasts. Then I shared those achievements and certifications on my personal and business profiles. I believe this subconsciously made my personal connections more confident referring me to theirs. The moral of this story is: do not let your limiting beliefs prevent you from letting your warm connections help you your business off the ground! It helped me generate 6 figures in my first year.
One of the most significant challenges I faced as a new business was operating with a constrained marketing budget. In the early stages, I wasn't able to invest in a large marketing team or expensive ad campaigns. I focused heavily on content marketing and leveraged my time to build a steady stream of "free" traffic. Since I did not have enough revenue to invest heavily in marketing, I chose to invest my time and close a few deals so I could eventually hire a team to increase my output. By creating valuable content tailored to my target audience's interests, I grew organic traffic to my website and engaged with potential customers on social platforms without incurring significant costs. Blog posts, case studies, and in-depth how-to content became the cornerstone of my content strategy. To track performance, I focused on key metrics such as website traffic, engagement on social platforms from our target audience, and sales meetings booked. These KPIs allowed me to refine the content I was creating and ensure we were getting the most out of our limited budget. Overall, operating with a limited budget forced me to be scrappy and strategic in my marketing efforts. It also allowed me to have a deeper understanding of marketing so I could hire more efficiently when we grew. Many founders don't think about that benefit but it allowed me to build out a marketing team more efficiently when I was ready.
Initially, CoinLedger thrived on support from the Reddit community, which not only shaped our product but also drove our initial customer base. However, about a year post-launch, growth plateaued as the effectiveness of Reddit waned and our SEO investments had yet to mature. To overcome this, we launched an affiliate program, rewarding our loyal customers for promoting our platform. This program paid dividends, leveraging our existing user base to sustain growth while SEO efforts took time to bear fruit. We offer a 25% lifetime commission to our affiliates, a strategy that turns our users into passionate promoters. This initiative helped us bridge the gap during slower SEO periods, maintaining momentum by activating our community. The major lesson learned was the power of turning customers into advocates; it's a highly effective strategy to amplify reach and engagement, especially when traditional channels are still developing.
Challenge: very few monthly visitors on the B2B company blog with average time spent on blog articles low and pages per session mostly under 2. How I overcame it: While one of the reason for these metrics were the content itself that could be solved by employing knowledgable content writers, another cause was the SEO structure of the blog page. To solve this problem, I have created a solid SEO-optimized website structure that maps to keywords, creates logical hierarchies, and addresses each topic relevant to the visitor in detail (via a hub & spoke structure). To implement this, the first step was finding a high volume keyword around a topic that will be the content “hub” and organizing corresponding articles that over the central topic for all stages of the buyer journey underneath this hub. The hub then acts as central landing page focused around a general keyword (e.g. monetizing a job board) and the spoke pages cover related subtopics (e.g. from the top of funnel topic: [How Do Job Boards Make Money In 2024?] to the more bottom funnel content: [Job Board Business Model: Resume Database]) We’ve increased the average time spent on site for blogposts by 45 seconds and increased pages per session to be consistently over 2. I believe that this is because the logical structure of our blog makes it easier for website visitors to navigate, find helpful content, and move towards the answer they were looking for. We have also improved our rank for some long-tail, higher intent keywords.
One of the biggest marketing challenges we faced as a new business was standing out in a crowded market. To overcome this, we focused on building strong relationships with our clients and delivering exceptional results. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth referrals, we were able to differentiate ourselves from the competition and establish a strong reputation in the industry. Additionally, we leveraged social media and content marketing to showcase our expertise and attract new clients. By staying true to our values and consistently delivering high-quality work, we were able to overcome the initial marketing hurdles and grow our business successfully.
A significant marketing challenge for us was reaching potential sellers who were unaware of the benefits of selling to an investor. To address this, I started attending in-person events listed on Eventbrite, where I connected with real estate investors directly. This approach helped build credibility and attract more clients. Creating educational content like blog posts and videos, and optimizing our website for SEO, further increased our reach and effectiveness.
When I started my marketing team, budget allocation across different channels was a major challenge. We aimed to reach a breakeven point ASAP. However, I knew that without integrating strategic initiatives from the outset, we'd struggle post-breakeven. Thus, we adopted a balanced approach: 40% of our budget went into SEO and content marketing, and 60% into PPC. This strategy was to quickly build our initial user base and kickstart cash flow. This approach paid off, yielding a positive ROI within just two months of launch. More importantly, it laid a robust foundation for our organic search presence. Today, our website attracts over 300,000 monthly visitors, a milestone we couldn’t have achieved without this early investment in a diverse marketing mix.