The Cold Hard Facts Startups Need to Know about Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a critical piece of any startup's success. However, knowing where to start or what strategies will work best for your business can be tricky. To help shed light on the topic, we sat down with Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM) Co-founder and Principal Michael Clark. He laid out some of the basics of digital marketing and provided tips on how startups can get the most out of their marketing budget. So whether you're just getting started or looking for ways to optimize your campaigns, read on for must-know insights, key points and the cold-hard facts that every startup needs to know about digital marketing in today's digital data-driven business environment.

Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM) Stands at the Forefront of Digital Marketing

BCM is a Performance Marketing Agency with a seventeen-year record of specializing in customer acquisition, through digital and data-driven media. They provide services to various industries that include travel and tourism, food and beverage, consumer goods, real estate, education and e-commerce, to name a few. BCM caters to midsize and large companies whose goals are to bring accountability to their advertising through performance-based metrics utilizing a "Cost-Per" and "Lifetime-Value to Customer-Acquisition-Cost ratio" strategy. A few of BCM's clients include Choice Hotels, Vermont Bike Tours, The Parking Spot, Energizer, Fissler and Stokke. BCM has also worked with a number of start-ups such as Seir Hill Non-Alcoholic Spirits.

As Clark explained, BCM secures customer acquisition for these clients through digital and data-driven media, including search, paid social, and programmatic (including addressable TV and other targeted video). In short, BCM clients achieve their goals through advanced modeling capabilities, so that performance can be measured during this "privacy-first" and "post-last-click attribution" era we are currently conducting business in. 

"The state of digital marketing is changing rapidly," said Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM) co-founder and Principal Michael Clark. "The big headline story, of course, is the end of the cookie brought about by various privacy initiatives and government legislation across the US and Europe. The effect of this is that advertisers cannot deliver digital ads or measure direct short-term impact with the precision they have become accustomed to over the past two decades."

According to Clark, this is forcing digital advertisers, both big and small, to rethink how they assess the performance of their digital marketing investments. And as organizations reimagine their digital strategies, Clark offers up the following advice: 

The entry point for start-ups is paid search

Digital Marketing is generally the entry-level point for startups. Digital marketing is a highly accessible and investment-efficient way for start-ups to begin promoting their products and brands. Some digital media, like paid search, provide an almost instantaneous signal back to the start-up whether their value proposition is landing with their chosen audience. 

"Even with some of the measurement challenges, channels like paid search still offer good visibility on advertising effectiveness and are a good place to start. Paid search also has the advantage of being relatively efficient to get into the market, due to the lack of creative production investment."

Get to know your audience's consumption habits

The best way to incorporate digital marketing into your plans is to begin with your audience. What are their media consumption habits, their values, their general purchase patterns and behaviors? Your audience characteristics will tell you whether to advertise on TikTok or AARP.com. In today's age, nearly all demographics have some level of digital media behavior associated with them. The start-up's business objectives, pay-back windows, and audience profiles will ultimately guide media selection. 

"Not all consumers are the same and their media consumption habits reflect this, "said Clark. "Make sure you are focused on your target consumers and not on what the latest headlines might be. Really knowing your target customer inside and out is a competitive advantage too few start-ups, surprisingly, invest in completely understanding. Many entrepreneurs, high on their business concept, tend to employ a build-it-and-they-will-come approach."

What startups should look for when seeking digital marketing support

According to Clark, there are two things startups should look for in a potential support partner, experience and expertise. Is the support partner equipped with experience and a track record to connect you with your target audience? This doesn't necessarily mean industry vertical expertise, it means audience expertise. Can they reach Moms, IT Executives, High-Value Travel consumers, etc. 

"Most start-ups become frozen in a no-growth media plan because they can't justify further investments beyond paid search, which limits business growth to audiences that are only active right now," added Clark. As such, startups must ask themselves if the potential partner has measurable solutions for scaling their program past last-click attribution." 

Where startups should invest their marketing dollars, given the latest headlines with Social Media Outlets 

"Where to invest should be purely driven by the media consumption patterns of your audience," said Clark. "Be cautious when making media planning decisions based on the latest headlines, and invest where your audience spends their time, despite what the business press is reporting."

For example, a switch didn't flip that suddenly made Meta advertising completely ineffective because Wall Street is unhappy with Meta's financial decisions. Additionally, headlines in the business press pertaining to the impact of privacy on digital advertising effectiveness tend to be misconstrued. There is a measurement challenge, not necessarily an ad effectiveness challenge. Clark explained that these are two entirely different things that require different solutions. 

Competing with the big brands

When it comes to competing with larger, more established brands, Clark urges startups to remember that well-known brands have lower acquisition costs. And this should be a factor when it comes to ROI expectations. 

"There will come a time when you will need to take the step beyond what is immediately measurable through a click into smart and targeted consumer exposure through less directly attributable advertising," he said. "If your partner has a game plan to help you assess the efficacy of advertising beyond last-click attribution, you should have no problem scaling your business."  

In the beginning, the path to success is somewhat of a learning process. And knowing has a cost. 

"If you know your LTV (Lifetime Value) to CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ratio better than your competitors, you will not under or over-invest in growth, and you will acquire more market share more quickly than they do," explained Clark. "However, knowing requires investment, too. An investment of time, executive attention, and, yes, money."

Final Thoughts

If you're a startup, it's important to understand the cold hard facts about digital marketing. Digital marketing is essential for any business that wants to stay relevant and competitive, but it's especially important for startups. Startups must invest in digital marketing services to get off the ground and ensure long-term success. With so much riding on program success, there's simply no room for error regarding their digital marketing strategy.