According to result of our research findings today startups face the following challenges with their digital marketing strategy:

1. Targeted user acquisition;
2. Content production;
3. Localisation of a marketing strategy;
4. Setting a marketing budget;
5. Building a product brand.

Let's take a closer look at how startups can overcome these marketing challenges. Download the full report.

Classic user acquisition is no longer effective

The key goal of digital marketing strategies is quality lead generation, I recommend following a few rules:

1. Try to find your market fit and stand out from your competitors. At the same time, develop your brand and increase brand awareness.
2. Test different channels and don’t get stuck on the conventional ones.
3. Adopt a versatile and comprehensive approach. Focus on building a thorough combo-strategy.

Content - the new black of the digital industry

Content is the main message that product marketers want to communicate to their target audience. The content strategy defines the marketing goals of startups. When implementing a content strategy, there are a number of things that require extra attention:

• Choosing the right message as a call to action
• Finding the right trigger message to motivate consumers to change their behaviour
• Choosing a distribution channel that can be scaled multiple times

Go global be local: localisation of a marketing strategy

Most startups aspire to operate worldwide. So entering new markets is one of the most popular marketing goals.

The main challenge in international expansion is local cultural peculiarities and differences in consumer behaviour.

To avoid negative outcomes, startups often turn to local marketing and PR agencies, or agencies that have a proven record of running successful ad campaigns in the region.

There is no universal benchmark

The research revealed that 46% of startups do not have a clear digital marketing strategy at all. The main reason for this is the limited marketing budget. Having limited resources makes it difficult to manage different channels and test new hypotheses.

Another common problem is how to measure the marketing effectiveness. And yet, the distinctive feature of digital marketing is a great number of metrics available at your disposal. It means that the performance of digital marketing campaigns can be estimated even before the launch.

Brand - the intangible capital of a startup

A brand is the meaning or idea that users get once they hear the name of a product or a startup. Building a brand requires time and resources.

In order for content marketing to be effective, there are a few rules to follow:

• PR activities should not be overlooked. It is a common case for startups to neglect them for various reasons like uncertainty about the results and high costs.
• Content marketing is a continuous activity.
• Before launching any PR campaigns, it is necessary to thoroughly study all the peculiarities of the region and the market which you are going to enter.

The Zorka.Agency team would like to thank all the startups that participated in the research!