Five ways to market your STARTUP programme and generate new interest
Looking to boost the appeal of your programme? Tailoring content to your audience’s needs can help generate fresh interest in your goals and overall vision.
Whether you’re a charity, government-funded organisation or a nonprofit startup, onboarding new applicants and volunteers to a particular initiative is often tricky.
Having worked with Innovate UK to deliver its annual Women In Innovation programme, and as lead organisers for The Pitch every year, we’ve had first-hand experience managing government-funded nonprofit campaigns and creating effective content strategies.
So, where do you start? Creating high-quality content that promotes diversity, boasts the benefits of your programme, and emphasises the tangible strengths of your organisation is the key to successfully reaching new applicants.
Here’s how to refine your own strategy and draw in potential applicants and entrepreneurs to your projects.
Evaluate what your target audience needs and wants
You’ll no doubt have a vivid idea of what your programme is specifically delivering, but remember that potential applicants and viewers won’t necessarily understand immediately.
When building a content strategy, consider:
What is your programme or organisation offering?
Why would somebody want to be involved and how would it benefit them?
What are the general motivations for your target audience?
What industry pain points or gaps does your programme address?
Is it clear and immediately obvious what your programme is for?
Determine what the typical needs of your target audience are. Pay attention to relevant competitors and study what they’re doing effectively to drum up interest in their brand or projects.
Understanding the pain points, wants and motivations of your potential applicants will help dictate what you create and where, across all your channels.
Research and evaluate the SEO practices of your industry
Though this may seem somewhat obvious, perfecting your SEO practices can make a huge difference in overall website traffic and Google search result rankings. Take some time to study the specific niche you’re operating within and determine what your approach should be.
Have a look at competitor websites and review the following:
What keywords, style and tone have they opted for?
How have they represented their programme or initiative compared to yours? What makes theirs unique?
How concise is their language and do they convey information clearly?
What does the user journey from initial landing page to signing up and submitting personal details look like?
Is their website reachable via backlinks and do they include their own internal hyperlinks throughout any copy?
It can be useful to evaluate other websites through an SEO platform such as Google’s own analytics service. Make note of where engagement is highest and see if you can adopt any similar ideas within your own work.
Conversely, you may also be able to identify which keyword areas you should avoid as a result of market saturation; understanding where your lane is and how to operate accordingly can go a long way in bringing new eyes to your work.
Promote inclusivity and diversity across your channels
For most events or programmes, you’ll likely want to attract as broad a range of applicants as possible and make clear that your brand promotes inclusivity and diversity. It’s important that anyone suitable feels welcome taking part in your initiative.
Be sure to use inclusive language and maintain a consistently thoughtful brand across your channels. Investigate whether your organisation offers any internal schemes for disadvantaged groups and consider showcasing inspiring role models and influencers in your content strategy.
We’ve written plenty on this topic before, including how best to create tone of voice guidelines, boost engagement with language, and how to promote diversity in startup programmes.
Oxfam, a leading global charity that combats inequality and poverty, has also published a 92 page guide on inclusive language that you may find useful. Keep an eye on any similar online resources and keep ahead of the curve when it comes to inclusivity.
Let your current or past applicants advocate for you
Checking in with those already involved with your initiative is an excellent way to gain fresh insights and better grasp what your key demographic is looking for.
You can do this in a number of ways, some more formal than others. If your programme runs annually, consider reaching out to current or past applicants via email or survey.
Alternatively, you may opt to organise an in-person meeting and query what’s going well and where improvements are needed. Evaluate the resulting data and use it to inform your content strategy.
Provide a platform for previous participants to speak about their experiences. Testimonials can be an effective tool to prove your goals and work are worthwhile in a real, tangible way. Those interested in joining your cause will want to know what it actually entails.
Ensure you have clear and established calls to action
The hard work undertaken to refine your strategy only matters if you provide a clear and obvious call to action.
Round off any content you create by encouraging the reader to provide their details and become a part of your community. Onboarding new applicants or volunteers needs to be as painless and easy as possible.
Converting engagement into action is tough regardless, but it can be even harder when your potential audience has to go through several steps to apply and register to your programme.
Make sure you’ve plenty of links, buttons and badges that make it obvious where and how someone can sign up to your cause.
At Inkwell, we create compelling content that connects startups and small businesses with the right people. Get in touch with our team for more details on how we can help your programme or initiative reach more volunteers and entrepreneurs.
