Marketing tips for startups of foreigners

Marketing your new business or startup can be very difficult. In some cases, there are not enough people to do the job while in others, the budget is simply too small to be able to afford massive campaigns.

The situation becomes even more complicated if you are a foreigner in the country where you opened your startup. It can be difficult to understand the local culture and people. That being said, it is still possible to market your startup successfully. Hence, here are the best marketing tips for startups of foreigners.

Table of Contents

#1 Start with Your Target Audience

First and foremost, you need to start with your target audience. Consider whether you want to market to foreigners like yourself or whether your status as a foreigner doesn’t play a role in your marketing strategy. Then, research who your audience is and how you can market your business to your customers in the most effective way.

As a foreigner, it will be easier for you to understand foreigners like yourself living in the country. If you decide to market your products or services to them, you will already have a significant advantage. Moreover, you might have a business that is meant to cater to foreigners in the first place.

That being said, you don’t necessarily need to market to foreigners. You can market your brand to locals, but this might be difficult for you if your own culture is very different. Of course, you can hire an expert in the field who will help you with this. But it is still necessary to keep in mind such challenges.

Once you decide which direction you want to move in with your target audience, you can start actually researching it. Likewise, you should also research the market. Who are your ideal customers? Who are your competitors? How big is the demand for your products or services? What kind of marketing have your competitors used before and to what success?

#2 Define Your Brand Identity

The next thing you should do is define your brand identity. Your brand identity or image will determine how your business will be perceived by your target audience. Furthermore, your brand identity can influence how successful your marketing efforts are because certain traits of your brand image will appeal to your target audience more than others.

For example, brands that want to appear professional and exclusive (e.g. Apple) will often use sleek, modern designs. Such brands prefer black, white, or cool tones such as dark blue. Their marketing presents their products as luxury items or products specifically designed for high-profile professionals in the business.

On the other hand, there are brands that want to appeal to a wide audience that mainly consists of younger people. They might want to display a playful, casual tone through their marketing campaigns and social media activities. Their brand image also reflects this (e.g. their logo design uses bright colors and a cartoon-style mascot).

Your brand identity should be based on your target audience and your products or services. Decide what your brand name will be (and select your website domain and social media handles). Then, design your logo and choose your color theme, slogan, etc. Keep in mind that your website design and product design should both be in line with your brand identity.

It’s a good idea to have a set of guidelines for your branding. You can hire a professional writer from the writing services reviews to site Best Writers Online to help you create these. In your guidelines, think about all the details listed above as well as the brand tone you want to have (e.g. casual, sarcastic, playful, professional, friendly, etc.)

#3 Choose Your Marketing Methods

When you know who your audience is and what your brand identity will be like, it will be much easier for you to choose the marketing methods you will be using in your campaigns. There are many types of marketing available to you as well as numerous marketing channels to choose from for executing your campaigns. Here are some things to consider when choosing your marketing methods:

Target Audience: Who is your target audience? Which platforms does your audience use (e.g. Instagram, email, blogs)? To which marketing tactics does your audience respond to the best? What are your audience’s personal preferences?
Competitors and Market: Who are your competitors? Which marketing techniques and channels have they used before? How effective were they? What is the current situation on the market like?
Brand Identity: What is your brand identity like? Which marketing techniques and channels would work the best for your brand identity?
Available Resources: What are the resources available to you? What is your budget? Do you have a marketing team? What has been your past experience with marketing?
Personal Preferences: What do you personally prefer in terms of marketing? Are you willing to take risks? Do you want to play it safe?

#4 Set Your Goals and Priorities

Speaking of your personal preferences, this is the time when you need to set your goals and priorities for your marketing activities. You already know which types of marketing you will be using (e.g. PPC ads, social media marketing, emailing, etc.), so you will now need to consider which goals you want to pursue with your campaigns.

Keep in mind that your campaigns can (and should) use multiple marketing channels at once to achieve the best results. That being said, you can still prioritize certain types of marketing or marketing channels (e.g. social media marketing over PPC ad campaigns).

When setting your goals and priorities, it is crucial to be realistic. Unless you are realistic, you will constantly be disappointed by your marketing efforts. The best thing you can do is use the SMART approach to setting goals and priorities:

Specific: Your goals are specific. Nothing is vague or unclear.
Measurable: Your goals can be measured (e.g. number of followers).
Achievable: Your goals can be achieved because they are realistic.
Relevant: Your goals are relevant to your marketing and business strategy.
Time-Bound: Your goals have a timeline and deadlines to meet.

One example of setting a goal using the SMART approach is the number of users you want to have on your mailing list by a specific date. If you aren’t sure that you can set goals by using the SMART approach, you can always get in touch with professionals. Hire an experienced writer from the custom writing reviews site writing judge who will help you with the planning. This way, you will be certain that your marketing goals are appropriate.

#5 Assess Your Resources and Budget

While this is a separate step, it is actually best to follow it at the same time as the previous one. Budgeting and resource management is directly related to setting goals and priorities. This is exactly why it’s best to plan these things at the same time and avoid potential inconsistencies in your marketing strategy.

Assessing your resources and budget in a realistic way is one of the most important things for your marketing strategy to succeed. Why? Because you can’t jump over your own head. As a new business owner, you likely don’t have many resources or a big budget to spend on your marketing. This is why you need to be mindful of what you can and cannot do.

Luckily, many types of digital marketing will cost you nothing if you perform them yourself. Of course, you will need to learn how to use these marketing techniques and spend time doing the marketing itself. Yet, this is still the best way to market your startup if you don’t have many resources or a big budget.

When allocating your resources and deciding what to spend your marketing budget on, keep in mind your goals and priorities. For instance, if you are prioritizing social media marketing over PPC ads, then you should probably spend more on the former.

#6 Act, Monitor, and Improve

Last but not least, execute your marketing plans and start tracking the performance of your activities. Based on what you see (e.g. goals achieved or not, resources sufficient or not), you can make adjustments to your current marketing strategy to launch more successful and efficient campaigns in the future.

Monitoring and assessing the results of your marketing activities will help you understand how to market in the future. It will also help you avoid the mistakes you made with your current campaigns so that future ones can run smoothly.

Moreover, if you see that a specific marketing technique isn’t working as effectively as you expected it to, perhaps you will want to prioritize a different marketing method. For example, if your email marketing isn’t very successful while your PPC ad campaigns are, then you can shift your focus to the latter in the future.