Three pillars of a successful startup: Marketing steps, Part 3

Melissa F. | June 12, 2025

22 mins

Do you have a commercial idea that lights you up? Or maybe you want the freedom of being your own boss? Either way, once you’ve made the decision to create your own business, there are three key areas you’ll need to cover if you want to make your dream a thriving reality.

Starting a small business from scratch can easily become overwhelming. Many startups make the mistake of rushing in with guns blazing, only to come crashing down in two to three years because they didn’t build the right foundation.

This guide explains the marketing steps that will earn you lots of customers. Don’t miss Part 1 for the mindset needed to overcome challenges, plus Part 2 for the logistical setup and financial planning to set you up for long-term growth.

If you’re dreaming of being your own boss, but haven’t fully decided yet what type of business is the right fit, this guide is for you: Most future-proof small business ideas you can start today.

And if you're looking to bringing new ideas to life without any cost barrier, check out the Business Starter Kit – get all this for free: LLC registration, a .com domain, business email, easy website builder, SEO tool to get found online, and social media tool to for fast posts to grow your reach. What’s stopping you?

Pillar 3: Marketing

In a nutshell, marketing means attracting and retaining customers. Before we get a handle on the how-to’s, let’s clarify exactly why good marketing is crucial for any small businesses:

Visibility — the online marketplace is increasingly crowded, so you need to find a way to get seen by potential customers, and appeal to their tastes. Strategies like social media campaigns, SEO, and advertising will ensure your target audience knows who you are and what you offer. Building brand awareness key for startups.
Standing Out — get noticed by honing and highlighting your unique value proposition. Aim to differentiate your brand by showcasing why your business is better suited to solve customer pain points than your competitors.
Trust — consistent, professional marketing builds a good impression. A polished brand image and clear messaging creates a sense of credibility, which is essential for people to want to try out an unknown business.
Revenue Growth — other than building brand awareness, the goal of marketing is to convert consumers into paying customers. By creating targeted campaigns, your small business can promote its products or services to the right audience, leading to more sales, and an upward profit trajectory.
Customer Loyalty — good marketing is about more than just making a sale, it's about building long-term relationships with your customers. By engaging with them through personalized email campaigns, social media, and great customer service, you’ll be encouraging them to choose you over your competitors, as well as recommend your business to their friends and family.
Compete with Larger Businesses — smart marketing can level the playing field with bigger businesses that have more budget spend, if you target your audience effectively. You could even angle yourself as an underdog who cares more about the personal touch, compared to the corporates who take their customers for granted.
Longevity — a consistently strong marketing strategy will support your long-term growth by driving brand recognition, customer acquisition, and customer retention. Marketing will sustain your growth momentum.
Good Value for Money — for small businesses with limited budgets, savvy digital marketing can deliver strong value from every dollar spent. By targeting the right audience, and making cost-effective choices with the channels and tools you use, you can optimize your return on investment (ROI).
Customer Insights — surveys, social media feedback, and analytics are invaluable resources for small businesses to understand their customers. This information lets you tailor your offerings to better suit their needs, as well as helping you strengthen your blind spots to improve. This is the secret of long term success.

Common Marketing Mistakes

These are the main main pitfalls that cause road bumps for startups, so you can be sure to avoid them. For solutions to these problems, see the Checklist section below.

Failure to Target — overly broad, unfocused marketing that tries to appeal to everyone is not going to make an impact in the noisy digital marketplace. You want to look for niches by understanding your customers, and addressing their needs in your messaging.
Being Too Sales-Focused — it’s understandable that as a startup, your priority is earning revenue as fast as possible. But coming across as too aggressively salesy is not a good long-term approach, it can alienate potential customers.

Instead you want to build a strong foundation of brand trust, by focusing on engaging your audience, building relationships, and providing value.
Mimicking Competitors — it’s also understandable when you first start out that you’d want to do what your most successful competitors are doing, as a sure way to success. But that destroys the point of good marketing, which is to make you stand out from the crowd.
Trying to Be Everywhere at Once — remember that old saying: ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. This warning about choosing quantity over quality applies to tackling too many marketing channels from the get go. First build strong traction on two channels, before branching out.
Neglecting Your Website — these days, it’s no longer acceptable to have a poorly designed or outdated website. At best it screams ‘amateur’, at worst it could make you look shady. You also need to have regular fresh content, easy navigation, and be optimized for search engines.
Ignoring Mobile Optimization — people increasingly use their phones for researching and shopping. A website that looks great on desktop could be a messy turn-off on smaller screens. Make sure your website is just as appealing and user-friendly on mobile devices.
Inconsistent Social Media Posts — social platforms are all about engaging your audience to build brand loyalty. This can’t be accomplished if you’re sporadic with your posts. The solution for busy small business owners is to plan a content calendar and use a social media manager to auto publish the posts. That way you can set it up and move onto other things.
Ignoring Customer Feedback — people rely heavily on the social proof of positive reviews when choosing a business. And how you handle negative comments play a big part in building brand trust. In fact negative feedback can be really valuable in showing you where your company has weak spots. It’s important to take the time to respond to reviews, and engage with your customers to show you care.
Relying Solely on Paid Advertising — paid ads are great for guaranteeing clicks and traffic (website visitors), but it’s also important to build a long-term strategy based on delivering value to your customers. Content marketing, SEO, and organic social media growth are vital for sustainable success.

Neglecting to Set Goals — without setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals, it’s easy for your marketing to become aimless. The success of any startup relies heavily on tracking performance, measuring success, and having clear goals to work towards. It’s vital to keep adjusting and improving.

Top Marketing Tips for Startups

Let’s take a look at a summary of marketing musts, distilled from hard lessons learned by experienced small business owners:

Know Your Audience — never stop wanting to learn about your customers, by using email surveys or social media polls. If you offer prize incentives, you’ll get higher value feedback. But think of this as an ongoing, phased approach. To start with, focus on good messaging that will appeal to a broad demographic.
Develop a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) — this is key, as it will make you stand out to potential customers. Your UVP should clearly communicate why your product or service is better or different from the competition. It should spotlight the benefits that people will gain by choosing your business, and how it solves your audience’s problems

Learn more: link to the 3rd main topic and it’s sub-articles i.e. Brand Awareness
Post Regularly on Social Media — pick channels where your target audience are most active. Sporadic posts aren’t going to make people remember your brand or engage your audience. Think in terms of building a community of like-minded people. Social media is a low cost way to build brand appeal and get people interested in your products or services.

Learn more:
Easy way to create a social media content calendar
Social media content ideas 101
Invest in SEO and Quality Content — optimizing your website and creating regular useful content may take some time to gain traction with search engines, but eventually it will pay off with higher website rankings in search results. Organic traffic is the gift that keeps on giving.

Likewise, taking time to put out regular quality blogs/guides will establish you as a trusted thought leader over time. It’s a good investment.
Think Engagement Not Sales — if you focus on building relationships with your target audience, the brand trust and sales will naturally follow. Whereas aggressively pushing sales over quality and care is short term thinking, you can’t earn loyalty or stand out that way.

Engage with your followers on social media, respond to comments, and offer helpful advice. People ultimately like to shop where they’re treated well.
Run Promotions — offering incentives like discounts, freebies, or contests are a great way for startups to catch the attention of consumers when first breaking into the marketplace.
Encourage Customer Feedback — social proof is super important these days, as most people look at online reviews before deciding whether to buy from a company. Even negative reviews are gold, as they give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you care about your customers if you handle them right.

Learn more:
What is Reputation Management and why is it so important?
Reputation Management — how to write review replies like a pro
Collaborate with Influencers & Other Businesses — contacting people who put out content that has a good sized following, and who align with your business, is another great way of growing your customer base, as is affiliate marketing. If an influencer likes and promotes your product to their followers, the trust is already there.

It’s also a good plan to partner with like-minded businesses. Cross-promotions and joint ventures are a win-win.
Build Your Subscriber List — email marketing will never be replaced by social media, because it allows you to own your subscriber list, it can’t be wiped away by an algorithm. If email marketing is done right, you can effectively build trust for high conversion rates.

To get people to subscribe, offer something of value like a guide that addresses common pain points. And be sure to personalize your emails, to build a relationship.
Be Strategic With Paid Advertising — first dip your toe in with a small advertising budget on the two most popular platforms, Google and Meta. The great thing about paid ads is they allow you to test our different target demographics. This in itself is a great return on investment, as it will steer you on where to focus your marketing.
Keep On Keeping On — it can’t be stated enough, the key to good marketing is consistency. That’s what builds engagement, trust, and ultimately sales. Also be sure to be consistent in your branding, across every customer touchpoint, so your brand becomes instantly recognizable.

Marketing Checklist & Helpful Tools

This is the To-Do list that every startup needs to tick off, if you want to reach potential customers, effectively target the right audience, build brand awareness, and increase your revenue.

It’s important to stay focused on startup priorities, to avoid getting overwhelmed by trying to take on too much. So we’re only including the information you need to know right now.

For a comprehensive guide walking you through all the marketing strategies you can use to grow your business, read: Need-to-know marketing strategies for small business startups.

To make this Checklist even more useful, we’re including suggestions for related helpful tools that will make things much easier. These tools are either free or low cost, so they won’t make a dent in your budget.

1. Develop a Brand Identity

It’s vital to create a brand that distinguishes you from the crowd, and that communicates an instant good impression which resonates with the type of audience your product or service is aimed at.

If your target audience is very broad, think about the emotion you want them to feel as their first impression. For example, if you’re selling high end clothing, you’ll want to convey a feel of sleek style. Or if you’re selling a financial service, it will be important to convey reliability.

Follow these steps:

1.1 Choose Your Business Name

Give this some serious thought as a rebrand later on would be costly. The free Business Name Generator will help you with ideas.

Learn more: How to come up with a business name: 10+ useful tips.

1.2 Create a Professional Logo

It’s important to have a stand-out logo that represents your brand, as it will become the immediate way that customers recognise your business. Try the free Logo Maker, it gives you templates that you can easily edit, even if you don’t have design experience.

Learn more: How to find the best color combination for your logo design.

1.3 Identify Your Brand Style

It may seem trivial, but the colors and fonts you choose will have an immediate impact on how people feel about your business. Font Generator lets you easily stand out with personalized style in your messaging.

Learn more: 8 tips for choosing and using brand colors.

1.4 Clarify Your Brand Values

These days customers are more fussy about who they buy from, so it’s important to explain what you stand for. Your website should include well crafted explanations of your brand’s mission, values, and unique selling proposition. This will help you stand out from the crown, and allow customers to resonate with you.

Learn more: How to write an effective mission statement for your business.

2. Build a Website

The following steps cover you getting started. But to dive deeper on this subject, read: Create a successful website – Simplified tips for small businesses.

2.1 Choose Your Domain Name

Ideally you’ll want your domain name to match your business name. It used to be all about .com domains, but now you have many more options to choose from, like .shop if you’re doing ecommerce. Explore your options.

Learn more: How to choose a domain name: recommendations & tips.

2.2 Find a Website Platform

It’s essential to have an online presence as most people shop online, or at least want to find out more about the business they buy from. And it needs to look good on mobile devices, especially for the younger generations.

These days you’re spoilt for choice, here are some options:

If you just want to get something simple up fast, Site Maker lets you do that in minutes. And it’s very affordable. While there are lots of other, ‘more sparkly’ web builder platforms like Wix or Squarespace, be warned that they tend to raise their costs significantly after year one, and you’re tied-in because your site can’t be migrated to another platform, it has to be rebuilt from scratch.

For a more advanced ecommerce website, Wordpress is a good choice. This platform is super popular for a reason, as it comes with tons of flexibility and plug-ins to suit specific needs. And if you get managed Wordpress which you can try for free, you don’t need to worry about security, downtime, or any of the usual hassles. It’s all done for you.

2.2 Create Key Web Pages

To build trust with potential customers and convince them that they should choose you over their competitors, these are the four must-have pages for startups:

Home: your branding needs to pop so that it immediately appeals to your target audience, and makes them want to read more.
Product/Service: if your site is simple, this page could also be your Home page. It needs to clearly explain what you’re selling, and how it solves your target audience pain points. Ideally you should add an FAQ section at the bottom, so people are clear about what they’re getting, and how it will be delivered.
About: explain how your business started, your goals, and your values.
Contact: it’s essential for credibility that customers know how to get hold of you if they have questions or a problem with their purchase. If you’re a local business, adding a map is important so customers can find you easily.

Learn more: How to write a brand story: Tips and advice for your brand.

2.3 Add Basic SEO to Your Web Pages

This means adding keywords and meta descriptions for each page, so that search engines know what you’re selling and can display your site when people do related searches. In your web platform’s content management system, you’ll find a field where you can add the meta descriptions.

For the keywords that best match what people search for and more, RelateSEO makes it super easy, even for total newbies, by giving you a list of SEO tasks tailored to your website, with video guides to walk you through it.

To learn more about optimizing your website to get found online, read: Make sure your new website gets found: SEO need-to-know.

3.1 Setup Accounts

You’ll want to have separate business accounts from your personal ones. It’s best to start with the two most popular social media channels for now, which are Meta and X. Linkedin is important too if you’re wanting to reach a business audience.

3.2 Create Consistent Branding

Be sure to have consistent branding across all your channels, so they’re integrated and instantly recognisable.

3.3 Don’t Skip Profile Pages

Take the time to explain your business, provide contact info, and website links. This builds brand trust.

3.4 Post a Welcome — this gives you a professional touch, like having a champagne mixer for the opening of a new physical store. While making people feel welcome, you’ll also want to give an introduction to what you’re offering to generate initial interest.

4. Phase 1 Content Marketing Plan

4.1 Create a Social Media Content Calendar

It’s important to make regular posts on your social channels, to keep your target audience engaged. RelateSocial is a good tool for this, as it gives you AI that writes posts. You can easily edit them to match your brand, and auto-publish posts in bulk. Try it out for free.

4.2 Kickstart Your Website Blog

Writing useful articles regularly is a great way to get ranked higher in search results, and will build trust with your audience.

If you already have too much on your plate to do this yourself, you can affordably hire a copywriter on freelance platforms like Fiverr, or spend some time getting comfortable with using AI to write blog content. Either way, you’ll definitely want to review and edit the blogs that you outsource, because if they’re low quality you’ll lose both SEO juice and customer trust.

Learn more: AI Know-How for Small Business Marketing.

5. Create Marketing Materials

5.1 Design Real-World Marketing

Assets like business cards, brochures, flyers, and other print materials are still good for boosting your brand presence. You never know when you’ll bump into a great business contact, and handing out branded merch is a great way to develop customer loyalty.

Check out Business Card Maker, which gives you templates to edit so you can easily create swanky looking cards to make a lasting impression.

5.2 Create Instant Appeal

Be sure to use colorful, stylish images in your marketing, whether it’s web pages, social posts and blogs, or flyers and brochures. Stencil is a good tool to try out, because it puts pro design skills in your hands, without the usual costs.

6. Setup Email Marketing

6.1 Choose an Email Marketing Platform

There are lots of platform providers to choose from, but not all of them are flexible or affordable. Many only give you good prices if you have high volumes of subscribers, which doesn’t work for startups.

Professional Business Email is worth taking a look at, because it caters to both newbies and larger companies so you can scale. The features are comprehensive, and the prices affordable.

6.2 Create a Branded Email Template

Be sure to add the same logo and font to your email template as you have on your website. A seamless customer experience is key to differentiate your brand.

6.3 Build Your Subscriber List

Take the time to incentivise signup to your email newsletter, by creating and giving away a free ebook on your website, or running special promotions on your social channels.

6.4 Plan an Introductory Email Campaign

Once people sign up to your email list, be sure to keep them engaged with a series of emails, sent out weekly or monthly, with interesting content. This is a prime way of building brand presence for future sales. But don’t overdo it with too many emails, or people will get annoyed and unsubscribe

7. Start Paid Advertising

This step can be daunting for many startups, because it;s easy to fall into the trap of a runaway budget, and the analytics side of things isn’t in everyone’s wheelhouse. RelateAds is highly recommended for startups, because it gives you full budget control, and makes performance monitoring easy.

8. Get Found Locally

8.1 Register On Business Directories

If you own a local brick and mortar business, it’s important to sign up to all relevant directories so people can find you online when they’re planning to visit your area. The main ones are Google My Business, Yelp, and local-specific directories.

8.2 Keep Your Profiles Updated

Adding relevant keywords to your Google My Business listing will ensure you get found in search results. So will up to date information. Be sure to keep current with your contact information, opening hours,.appealing images, and other key info (like menu links if you’re a restaurant).

Keeping on top of all this information on all relevant directory platforms can be time consuming. RelateLocal does this for you, at the touch of a button. This tool gives local startups everything you need to impress customers online, so they walk through your doors.

9. Manage Your Brand Reputation

9.1 Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews

Ask customers to leave feedback when you send them a purchase confirmation, as well as building this into your marketing campaigns. It’s a good idea to offer a discount code to incentivise this.

But the catch is you need to stay on top of customer feedback, as ignoring comments, especially bad reviews, will damage your brand reputation. RelateReviews is a good tool to handle this, it can even write replies for you.

9.2 Create a Press Kit

To get the word out more efficiently and effectively, create a brochure (digital and paper) that summarizes who your company is, your values, your products/services, and your contact info.

9.3 Find the Spotlight

Look for websites or channels on streaming platforms that align with your brand, and that have a good amount of subscribers. Reach out to them with either giveaways, paid offers, or reciprocal promotion offers.

Do this not only for your main launch, but every time you have a new product/service release or special event. And of course you’ll want to be promoting new offers on your social media channels as well as email marketing.

10. Network

10.1 Develop a Small Business Community

There are lots of ways to do this. Get active with business networks on social platforms, answer questions, and contribute to discussions relevant to your expertise. Also meet people through your local chambers of commerce, and seek out industry-related events.

It’s also a good idea to build partnerships by leaving supportive comments on the social platforms of complementary businesses, and making an effort to meet them if local. Small businesses supporting each other is a great way to get ahead.

10.2 Get Referrals

Do this by offering incentive programs. Loyalty schemes are a great way to bring in new customers that already trust your business.

Wrap up

This three part guide explains the Three Pillars that create an unshakeable foundation for a small business startup, so you’re all set for long-term growth. Part 3 has covered the marketing steps to earn you lots of customers. Don’t miss:

Part 1 – the mindset needed to succeed, so you can keep going when things get challenging.
Part 2 – the logistics to create a rock-solid foundation, like business registration, financial planning, and permits.

So as not to overwhelm, we’ve focused purely on what you need to know in the early stages of starting your small business. But we link to more advanced guides throughout, so you can learn more when you feel ready.

If you want a quick steer on the right tools to make starting a small business easier, including a short Quiz that offers recommendations based on what stage your business is at, check out the Build & Grow Hub.

Frequently asked questions

How to create a brand identity?

If done right, your brand identity will make you stand out from the crowd, communicating an instant good impression that resonates with the type of audience your product or service is aimed at.

This guide covers the essential know-how and tools to get started the easy way, including choosing your business name, creating a professional logo for free, identifying your brand style, and clarifying your brand values.

How to build a website?

This guide covers the basic know-how and tools to quickly get your website up and running, including choosing your domain name, finding a website platform, creating key web pages, and basic SEO so your site gets found in search results.

To go next level with your website, these two guides will make things clear and easy:

How to create a social media campaign?

This guide covers the basics of setting up social media for your startup. To learn more, read these supporting guides, designed to make social media marketing easy for small businesses:

How to create a content marketing plan?

The Phase 1 Content Marketing Plan for startups is to create a social media content calendar for regular posts to develop brand awareness, and kickstart your website blog to establish your business as an industry expert (building trust).

To learn more read: Need-to-know marketing strategies for small business startups.

How to setup an email marketing plan?

These are the starter steps:

Choose an Email Marketing Platform — there are lots of options out there, choose a provider that is flexible and affordable for your volume of subscribers.
Create a Branded Email Template — add the same logo and font to your email template as you have on your website.
Build Your Subscriber List — incentivise signup to your email newsletter, such as giving away a free ebook on your website, or promotions on your social channels.
Plan an Introductory Email Campaign — keep subscribers engaged with a series of emails, sent out weekly or monthly. Don’t overdo it with too many emails, or people will get annoyed and unsubscribe.

How to launch paid advertising?

One of the easiest ways for small businesses that are new to paid advertising to get up and running, is the RelateAds tool. It even writes ads for you, and gives you transparent flexibility on your campaigns so you don’t overspend for small results.

To learn more, read:

How to increase local visibility for my business?

One of the best tools for strengthening your online presence if your business has a physical address is the RelateLocal. It lets you add your details to all relevant local directories with one click of a button, while giving you a bunch of other features to make sure you’re sending more customers through your doors.

To learn more, read: How to boost your local business.

How to manage brand reputation?

One of the best tools to make managing your brand reputation easy is RelateReviews. It even gives you writing suggestions for fast replies to customer feedback, so you can get more positive reviews.