What are the best marketing approaches for startups in the UK?

One of the most common questions we see for young businesses is, what are the approaches I should use for marketing my start-up in the UK?  For many young businesses, the goal of marketing is to attract new customers. Quite simply, how can I turn my startup into a revenue generating company?

Marketing for startups in the UK isn’t too dissimilar, if at all, to any other region of the world. There is a proven approach to the fundamentals of marketing all startup businesses, be it in the UK or abroad. Significant gains can be made with industry specific knowledge, but at the very start. Marketing for startups in the UK, or anywhere, follows the same approach.

At Akcela, working with startups is in our DNA. We run the Akcela business incubator in Norwich, offer a range of startup consultancy services and have a dedicated brand and marketing team who work with businesses of all sizes.

Understand your Why, How and What.

Simon Sinek and his now legendary book, Start with Why optimises the relationship between companies and their customers. Sinek argues (rightly in our opinion), that companies need to give customers an emotional connection to the brand through their why first, before explaining how of their business and ultimately what it is you sell. When beginning to market a startup, having a clear understanding of your why doesn’t just form the basis of an excellent marketing strategy, it can also define the culture and direction of travel for the business.

Align your Why, How and What to customers.

Many startup companies in the UK and around the world know their product inside out, but don’t take the time to understand their target market. Understanding and segmenting your target market into personas, profiles or groups, makes it easy to understand who they are, where they play and what they want. Many will start with the brand, but to get brand and marketing correct, we recommend starting with who you are targeting.

Create your brand, tone of voice, marketing plan around your target markets.

Once you understand your business, what it stands for and what it does. Who your customers are and what your message to them is. It is time to build the brand, tone of voice and vehicle to market to them. Trying to deliver this beforehand means you are pushing the brand into a product/market fit. This way round, you are pushing the product/market fit into the brand, which will create a much more concise and targeted brand approach. From there, you can implement a marketing plan that focuses on the delivery of your messaging, to attract new customers.