3 online marketing channels your start-up needs to explore
1. YouTube advertising
Did you know YouTube has logged over 2 billion monthly users, with each each viewer watching for 11m 24s per day on average? That’s a lot of people watching content everyday. There is a wide range of content creation on the site, with creators uploading 500 hours of content everyday.
From a purely marketing perspective, this is a gold mine. Being able to access so many people consistently and repetitively on the same platform should not be overlooked.
Advertising on YouTube doesn't stop at paying YouTube to run your ads, nowadays it is paying influencers on YouTube to advertise your products, rather than YouTube itself.
This style of marketing is cheaper and reaches more of your audience than traditional marketing, it focuses upon gaining brand ambassadors or hiring key opinion leaders to push your product instead of algorithms.
For start-ups or small businesses this a cost effective way of advertising that gives you more control with your market demographic and brand image. It is also beneficial for those who don’t have the marketing budget to be able to create video advertisements or expensive marketing campaigns.
2. Google advertisements
Whilst this blog may seem like an Alphabet promotion, it is not. It is difficult not to mention Google advertisements when looking at online marketing channels as Google is the world’s largest and most popular PPC advertising platform.
The reason it is so popular is due to vast amounts of reach that businesses have using Google as a marketing channel. Businesses make an average of $2 (£1.46) in revenue for every $1 (£0.73) they spend on Google Ads according to a Google Economic Impact Report. Whilst an ad in the first position only gets an average click-through-rate of 7%, it is still important to note the psychological impact of seeing an advertisement over and over again.
For start-up businesses getting your products marketed to your target audience is critical and as Google is the word’s most used search platform, it makes sense that advertising on Google will create product awareness. The cost of advertising on Google can vary and some start-ups might not be able to afford the costs.
The benefit of forking out for Google Ads is the analytics that accompany the advertisements. When managed right, these insights can be critical towards your start-ups development. They can help grow and develop your marketing strategy without the need for hiring a marketing team.
3. Sponsoring newsletters/emails
Sponsoring company newsletters might not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about online marketing channels nevertheless it is a viable option for start-ups seeking to begin marketing to their target market.
The main benefits of sponsoring company newsletters or emails is that firstly, you can control the target market. The newsletter or email will only go out to those who have subscribed for the service and therefore you will be ensuring to market to those who are interested in the product/service that you are offering.
Secondly, it will be cheaper than other conventional online marketing, as you are paying a flat fee to another company rather than paying on rolling basis.
Thirdly, it can also be quite profitable if marketed correctly, according to DMA, for every $1 (£0.73) you spend on emails marketing, you can expect an average return of $42 (£30.70).
Lastly, its easier to build a marketing relationship with your customers through the newsletters/emails as you will be able to market weekly based upon shared interests. You will also be able to develop relationships with the suppliers of your marketing as they will recognise your company more than Google or YouTube would due to the scarcity of available space on there platform, giving more meaning to your company.
