SBE Community - Business Growth Topic March 2023: Marketing for growth

Published on March 13, 2023

SEO, PPC, CRM, CTR, AI and ChatGPT. Is it just us or did marketing get way more complex in 2023?

Just when you feel like you are on top of one effective marketing channel, another one pops up from tiktok stars and professional youtubers to business models built to sell directly to algorithms. This month we are diving into the wild, wild west of marketing for growth.

Marketing is an essential element of any startup's or scaleup’s strategy and poor marketing has been attributed to one of the top ten reasons start-ups fail and what founders would focus on to prevent failure. From the first go-to-market plan to global marketing, we asked our experts for their best advice.

How to cut through online - The art of the story with Slice

We asked Vanessa Keys, a content strategist and co-founder of content agency Slice, how to create content that cuts through the noise online. Vanessa told us, "Ultimately, you want to be creating content that reaches the right people, at the right time, in the right place. The "people" part is paramount – understanding who your audience is means you can speak their language, understand their needs, tap into their pain points, and offer solutions to their problems. People engage with and purchase from brands that they feel understand them; brands that they feel a connection with; brands that solve a problem.”

Vanessa says, “Cutting through the noise is actually very simple when you break it down. Give your target audience a reason to follow, engage and interact with you by sharing timely, entertaining, helpful and targeted content; distribute this content where your audience already is and in a format they enjoy engaging with; and create clear pathways that make it easy for your audience to find you and understand your value, services and approach. Once you know your audience intimately you need to align their needs with your business goals. This is a crucial step and is the sweet spot that will determine the kind of content you should be creating."

Your first online marketing campaign - Digital marketing with Candid Marketing

We asked SBE Evolve Alum Cassandra Cadorin and her team at Candid Marketing what for their best advice for early stage ventures looking to set-up their first online marketing strategy. They shared four questions Founders and their teams need to ask themselves when creating a digital marketing campaign.

1. Who are you targeting? Align your online marketing campaign to a specific audience including specific customer personas you are targeting. Ask yourself who is your ideal customer for this specific campaign. Having an understanding of your target customers demographics, behaviors, likes and dislikes will help you to be able to create relevant content and target both the right online channels and audience.

2. What are you trying to achieve? Brand awareness, sales, social media engagement, referrals? Create SMART goals for your digital marketing campaign to help align tactics for execution.

3. How will you achieve it? Outline your digital marketing strategy include which tactics you are going to utilise such as SEO, social media marketing, email and content marketing. Ask yourself which audience and channels are going to be most likely to help you reach your goals for the campaign. Consider where your target market hangs out online and what content format they engage with. Where do they go to find answers to their problems? Use digital analytics such as Google Analytics and split testing strategies to help understand your most effective channels.

4. Was it effective? Just like when you take a start-up to market, testing a marketing strategy means you go through the test-learn-iterate model. Consider which marketing metrics make the most sense for your campaign goals including cost per acquisition, customer life-time value, return on advertising spend, social media engagement metrics and website traffic to name a few. Review your metrics, assess which channels and content were the most effective and iterate to turn your sales funnel into a flywheel.

Where marketing fits into the go-to-market funnel for start-up

International marketing strategy - Accessing the EMDG grant with Grant Help

Embarking on an exporting journey is a significant milestone for any Australian scale-up looking to expand its customer base and reach new markets. The Export Market Development Grants program helps Australian businesses grow their exports in international markets.

We asked EMDG Expert Jess Metzer from Grant Help for a breakdown on accessing the grant, here is what she told us.

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) is a federal program that provides financial assistance for Australian exporters. It is designed to bring benefits to Australia by encouraging the creation, development, and expansion into foreign markets. The EMDG program is a re-occurring program that provides 50% reimbursements for international marketing and advertising expenses for 8 years. Through this grant, Australian businesses can claim up to $28,000 back on activities such as:

Overseas representation: Partnering with local representatives to navigate the local market and generate export revenue
Marketing consultants: Based either domestically or globally; third-party consultants to support with market research and international campaigns
Marketing visits: Promotional trips to increase demand and seek opportunities in foreign markets
International trade fairs, conferences, expos, and promotional events
Digital media and social media marketing, free samples
Export training: SBE members, who are new to their exporting journey, may also be able to access up to 50% off of the Global Program which enables businesses to better target and market to foreign countries

Applications for the grant open on 9am AEDT, Wednesday 15th March 2023 and close 4pm AEST 14th April 2023. Join the SBE Australia x GrantHelp Masterclass in March here.

Learn more & get connected

SBE Community (join here)

Masterclass on demand: Telling the story of your business with Kate Dinon

Masterclass on demand: CRM strategy with Alyssa Yap

Talk with other founders on the same journey. Reach out and register your interest for our next Founder Connect.

Engage with the Marketplace and Advisory

Ideation to MVP

Book in to Ask an Expert: Pamela Yip from VSNRY Digital Marketing here

Ask the e-commerce experts Candid Marketing

Talk it over at the next Community Office Hours

Commercialise, Scale-up & High Growth

Masterclass on Export Market Development Grants with Grant Help - register here