With the UK currently home to more than 5.9 million SMEs, the likelihood of reaching success for any small business owner depends largely upon their ability to make their company stand out from the crowd. Differentiating your brand from others can be a challenge in any industry, but with the right knowledge and mindset it can be achieved.

You’ve dreamt it. You’ve started it. Now comes the hard part: talking about it. Whether you’re revolutionising banking or taking on healthcare, words are a big part of growing your business. They get investors excited. Bring recruits up to speed. And convince customers to give you a try.

Nigel Botterill’s entrepreneurial journey began in much the same way as many others. The Founder and CEO of The Entrepreneurs Circle, a company whose mantra is to educate, motivate, help and inspire business owners to achieve more than they ever thought possible, was following a classic corporate path and had forged a very successful career with Barclays, who he joined at 16.

The startup landscape is notoriously difficult to navigate. The numbers speak for themselves – 60% of startups will fail in the first three years of launching. Whether it’s because their core proposition is unworkable and fails to fulfill a market need, or the fact they simply haven’t built the right team, there are a variety of reasons that could lead to a company ultimately closing its doors.

We’ve all wondered how to crack the world of Twitter. How much should I tweet? Am I tweeting too much? What time should I tweet to get the most engagement? If you’ve ever been curious about how tech giants like Elon Musk Jeff Benzos compare on Twitter, then you’re in the right place.

Building a website is about more than just an online page that shows who you are in today’s society, it is part of your brand identity, and imperative to your company or business. Wix really understand that, it’s not just putting some text and images onto a page and sharing your website with people. It’s something that reflects your business which is a part of you, and that’s why it includes a number of features that help you take your website further.

Companies have been marketing their business in weird and wonderful ways for centuries, but, in 2019, what is the best way to draw in, and retain a solid customer base through strategic marketing. When you think of Nike, you think of ‘Just Do It’, when you think of McDonalds, you think of ‘I’m Loving It’.

John Armstrong co-created Custom Planet with his friend Andrew Dark in 2008, while they were both at university. The company has since grown to become one of the UK's leading printwear specialists. Here, he gives his expert tips for startups wanting to create their own merchandise for a podcast.

This guest post comes from Caroline Macdonald, CEO and founder of OggaDoon, the guerrilla comms business. If you have no idea what tone of voice is, head to Twitter and scroll through Innocent Drinks’ feed. Then come back here. Done it? Great. 

More than 200,000 small companies have been created in 2019, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, and each and every one of these businesses will have their own story to tell. So, what’s yours?  

Global creative production studio The Mill has revealed its new digital platform designed and built by Studio Output.The project shows how bespoke digital and motion design can evolve a brand’s story, without needing to change its core identity.

We speak to Chris Gunn – MD of LoveGunn – on why a brand is much more than a logo, especially for startups.

Do you remember that time you posted something accidentally on your Instagram and then you tried to delete it? How many likes did you get before the post came down?

Greek philosophy and public relations: two subjects that rarely inform the same discussion. But here we go (please bear with me).

As we approach this new decade, it is clear that chasing after customers is getting increasingly harder and harder. Social media advertising is now as saturated if not even more than its traditional counterpart.

Have you heard of ‘associative learning’? If not then, very simply, this is the basis upon which people mentally connect things together.

Business is becoming ever-more personal. Today’s leading companies have human faces: to think of Facebook is to think of Mark Zuckerberg; to hear Amazon is to call to mind Jeff Bezos.

“We can no longer continue to operate in this linear B2B / B2C world when it comes to business. People buy people and all relationships are human to human,” Sallee Poinsette-Nash.

Sounds like a simple question, doesn’t it? And yet a fundamental lack of understanding in who your customer is, where to find them and what they think or feel is often one of the most common mistakes businesses can’t afford to make, but do.

When it comes to marketing a startup, there can often be some misconceptions: Is it too soon to start thinking about? Is the company too small? Some people think marketing isn’t a priority and budget should be spent elsewhere (something that bigger corporations also fall foul of), or that any type of marketing is good.

When you’re keen to win more customers, you turn to marketing. And more often than not, you look at advertising, PR, or anything else that you think that will make a change quickly.

On the ScaleX stage at Dublin Tech Summit 2019, April 10th, a panel comprised of: Andrew Lindsay VP Corporate Development and Business Development at Hubspot; Alan Costello Venture Investor Leader at NDRC; Niall McEvoy Manager of High Potential Startups at Enterprise Ireland; and moderated by Graham Hussey co-founder of The Startup Van, discussed how to position your team and brand for international scaling.

Jane Henry, co-founder of Marylebone Difference Marketing shares some words of PR wisdom for startups.

At the start of any new year, a slew of gurus and thought leaders come out of hiding. Ben Hayes, Director at Grasp Brands, explains.

Ben Hayes, Director of Grasp Brands, exposes the tech industry's big and costly branding problem.

Startups Magazine talks with Julie Rice, WeWork Partner and co-founder of SoulCycle, to discuss what she envisions for the future of branding.