Four of the top startup trends to consider in your marketing campaigns
Keeping an eye on the trends around your target audience is a must. Failure to do so, and you risk getting left behind.
This is particularly important when you’re targeting startups. Not only is the landscape constantly changing, but you also need to stay ahead of the game to make sure you reach your audience at the right moment.
Reaching startups in the small window of opportunity – after they register a company but before they begin making purchases – can be tricky, but it is possible.
To remove some of the legwork for you, here are four of the top startup trends we’ve identified, as well as some tips on how you can implement them into your marketing campaigns.
Young people are more likely to start a business
Young adults aged between 18-34 are more likely to start a business than any other age group, meaning that many startup founders are still relatively new to the business world. As they may not have established connections or have strings already attached, this makes them the perfect candidate for selling your product or service to.
This is something you should bear in mind when creating your marketing content. For instance, consider the channels that this group will commonly be found in, what topics they’ll most be concerned about and how knowledgeable they would be about them.
You may find that you need to undertake multiple marketing campaigns to reach your different target groups successfully.
An example of an organisation who does this well is Innovate UK KTN. After identifying the need for more support for young entrepreneurs, they introduced their Young Innovators programme. Other similar Innovate UK programmes include Women In Innovation and Inclusive Innovation.
If you’re not sure what content would resonate with your customers, check out our guide on how to use audience research to generate content ideas.
Ecommerce is one of the most popular startup sectors
According to data from Business Data Group, 25% of people who started a business in 2022 launched in the ecommerce sector. With the popularity of internet shopping showing no sign of slowing up, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this trend.
But how should this impact your marketing strategy? You will need to consider the various challenges that come with running an ecommerce business – such as sourcing products and acquiring customers – and plan your marketing content accordingly.
Online small business community UKBF, for instance, creates articles inspired by the conversations they see on their forums. After recognising the popularity of ecommerce, they decided to include the topic as one of their 11 categories for content.
Birmingham is the most popular city for startups (outside of London, of course)
It comes as no surprise that London remains the startup hotspot of the UK. However, the city’s becoming awash with startup support, meaning that you will likely create more of an impact by targeting regions outside of the capital.
One of these regions is Birmingham, which held 29% of all new startup registrations last year. This fact is one of the reasons we expanded to the city for The Pitch 2022 competition. Other popular regions included Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds, to name a few.
This should all come into consideration when planning your marketing campaigns. By figuring out the supply and demand for your product/services across the nation, you should be able to establish the prime locations to focus your marketing efforts.
Side hustles are becoming more and more popular
Side hustles, where you complete work supplementary to your 9-to-5 job, have shot up in popularity – particularly in the past year.
Considering the cost of living crisis and general economic uncertainty, this really should come as no surprise. Side hustles provide a great way for business-minded individuals to make a bit of extra money and safely test out their idea before taking it full-time.
Because of this, any business targeting startups should spend some of their energy marketing specifically to side hustle founders. This was something that we did for The Pitch last year, with Sage as the partner for our side hustle content. The topic proved popular too – our Side Hustle Final garnered over 4,000 views.
Reach more startups by perfecting your marketing campaigns
At Inkwell, we help companies reach small business owners with great content. Our clients range from governmental bodies like Innovate UK to professional service companies such as Sage.
Do you target small businesses? Inkwell can help. The latest edition of our Insights report covers everything you need to know about common startup challenges, latest trends and how you can build your marketing campaigns to address them both – download the full report here.
If you’d like to hear more about what we do, you can check out our services page or get in touch with us here.
