Investors know that you have to speculate to accumulate, and the same applies when it comes to marketing. Most startups realize that they have to put money into their marketing strategy in order to gain traction and attract buyers and potential investors. Yet it can be tricky to know how to create an effective marketing budget on the limited resources most startups have at their disposal. Thankfully there are ways that tech startups can cut costs while still making waves.

Utilize LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a free-to-use networking platform, although there are premium options. As well as creating business connections, it provides companies with a place to share their blogs, achievements, and other content from their websites, such as resources from industry peers. It's also possible to create content that sits directly on the LinkedIn platform, reducing the touchpoints potential clients have to go through and potentially increasing the trust between your company and customers. LinkedIn even offers free resources and guides on how to best create content on the platform.

Follow SEO Trends

Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing or having to match specific phrasing in order to gain traction on search engine results. Today's SEO is much more focused on creating quality content that answers the questions of searchers. For tech startups, that means providing high-level content that businesses gain value from. This could be regular blogs on industry-related topics or news, articles about features of your tech offering, or insights about working in your particular field of tech. Understanding what drives current search engine results helps you create content that gets in front of potential leads faster.

As AI-powered content creation advances, following SEO trends becomes even more important. Currently, Google penalizes anything it considers AI-created content. However, this may change as articles written by AI become more useful and insightful.

Make the Most of Free Social Media

All social media platforms are free to join, but they become expensive once you start paying for sponsored posts, reels, and stories. In the early days of your business, make the most of the free options available to you on your chosen social media platforms. It's free to set up a business page on Facebook, for example. You can link it directly to your website and even add a "shop now" button if you have products and services that potential clients can browse online. You can go beyond this and set up groups for existing clients and encourage engagement via regular posts and updates about your company or related topics. Just keep all your communications on brand and be prepared to deal with criticism as well as praise!

Get a Marketing Audit

If you're already spending a ton on marketing but not really experiencing meaningful growth, it could be time for a full marketing audit. This is where a marketing expert will carefully assess your current strategies and goals and figure out if they're actually aligned or if you could make changes that would save money and boost your bottom line. Marketing audits naturally highlight where your company is underperforming, but they also point out your successes and help you replicate those for future growth. After a week, you could have a whole new roadmap of where to channel your marketing budget and money to spare for other areas such as R&D.

Final Word

It's always worth speaking to other tech startup founders and their teams to discover how they managed their marketing budget in the early days. Online communities or in-person conferences are great ways to meet other business owners or entrepreneurs and learn more about the experts they onboarded to help them get their products in front of the right people. If you want to talk to a team that's helped numerous tech startups find their way, book a 15-minute introductory call and tell us your pain points. We'll connect you to a marketing solution that's the right fit for you.

Do you need to get your marketing budget back under control and drive ROI? Book an Arch Collective Marketing Audit and see what you need to change to achieve sustainable growth.