The FIVE most effective marketing strategies for UK tech startups

If you're a founder, ops lead, growth consultant, or "marketing-department-of-one" at a high-growth startup, here at Bloom we really feel your pain.

Bloom is the leading agency of choice for ambitious tech businesses in the UK (a.k.a. startups and scale-ups). Working with co-founding teams, growth consultants, ops gurus and in-house marketers at challenger brands, we're very familiar with the growing pains your company is experiencing.

"As an agency, they are focused on high-growth tech businesses, so they completely understand the challenges that scale-up companies face. Bloom is agile, shifting tasks quickly, and adapt to budget and time restrictions. I highly recommend Bloom to other fast-paced and ambitious tech scale-ups!” - Alexa Biale, VP of Marketing, Elephant Healthcare

Taking a startup to scale-up is HARD. Getting yourself known, acquiring customers, keeping those customers, getting them to tell their friends, AND making your brand famous - all for £2.50 is not an easy task! Let alone in trying times like these, with the cost of living crisis on everyone's lips, a #quietquitting talent market, a political landscape in turmoil, cost-conscious consumers, and belt-tightening investors. Ugh, it's all a bit doom & gloom, isn't it?

Well, actually it isn't.

There is a silver lining; heard of a little taxi business called Uber? Or a website where you can book to stay in other people's houses, Airbnb? What about the messaging tool with the green icon on our phones, WhatsApp? Even Pinterest and Instagram belong to this group of unicorns and now household names - all born from the last economic crisis.

So, with that little boost in mind, let's look at the top five most effective marketing strategies to setup your business for success - so that your tech startup is cited among the top unicorns born from this recession...

1. Get #OBSESSED by your customers

If the business is at least a year or so along its exciting journey, you'll have a good idea of exactly who your ideal customer really is. It's important to bear this in mind before we dive into listening to our target audience, because not all feedback is weighted equally. You can't (and shouldn't*) make everyone happy all of the time - particularly at a lean startup where resources are thin. Identifying, defining, and prioritising your ideal client profile or ideal customer avatar is the key first step here.

Once we know this, it's time to get obsessed.

We all know demographic profiling which uses basics like age, gender, location, income level, etc. But deep-diving on your customer psychographics and user behaviour is what will help take your startup to the next level. This entails going deeper on their psyche, desires, fears, motivations, etc. And the best way to find out all of this? Speak - and LISTEN - to them!

If you're able to conduct qualitative market research with focus groups or 1:1 interviews, actively listen to words they use, see if there are any emerging patterns, subtext, or emotion to what they have to say. The listening can also be done digitally en masse too, using social media tools like Social Baker, Sprout Social, Pulsar, or BrandWatch.

The customer always knows more than you do, so pay attention.

Why you shouldn't try to make everyone happy all of the time

2. Employ laser focus

Lean startups entering their next stage of growth are the masters of doing more with less. (A concept also known as "ephemeralisation" - a term by R. Buckminster Fuller in 1938 as the ability of technological advancement to do "more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing." Ok, history lesson over). It's this streamlining and driving efficiencies that made your business a reality and attracted VC investors to back your entrepreneurialism. But as the startup scales and the team grows, it can get harder and harder to retain this level of smoothness in operations.

One way of keeping busy teams everyone focused is to agree on a single, North Star Metric.

Coined by Sean Ellis, this is a simple and actionable way to align all your teams (not just marketing).

For the aforementioned traveltech unicorn, Airbnb, their North Start Metric is 'Number of Nights Booked.' For workplace comms app, Slack, it's 'Daily Active Users.' And for top blogging site, Medium, it's 'Number of Minutes Read.'

These are company-wide examples of singular metrics that sales, ops, product, and indeed marketing can all work towards.

3. Stay scrappy

Yes, the garage has turned into a co-working space, the bean bags are being swapped for meeting rooms, and maybe there's a shirt in the mix with all the hoodies. The once-scrappy-startup is getting a little more sophisticated - which is GREAT.

But during these turbulent times (ugh, we hate that we typed that), don't shy away from employing a bit of that entrepreneurial spirit by testing out some eye-catching guerrilla tactics or aiming for small but quick wins.

Take retailtech app, Slip, for example, who leveraged their founder's personal brand and Central London office positioning to create targeted, offline brand activations right in front of their target partners' stores.

Dressing up as sharks by the new GymShark location on Regent Street, and leaving 'Slip Hazard' signs up around Selfridges, then shared on CEO & Co-Founder's social media channels caught everyone's attention.

How this award-winning agency transformed the VC-backed retailtech's visual identity with strategy-led branding

4. Allow a margin for experimentation

Whilst your marketing budget is surely being cut, ensure you still leave even a tiny percentage for experimenting. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 10% of your overall marketing budget to experimentation - whether it's on testing a new channel, trying out a new activity, or collaborating with an influencer you've never worked with before.

An element of tolerance that's within your risk profile allows you to continue to discover

Of course the exact plan will be shaped by the specific company's situation; if you're a larger business, this might mean you have a small pot of cash to carry out some light-touch brand activations. For smaller startups, simply adhering to your initial strategy, honouring your brand guidelines, and consistently executing with clarity is key. (In fact, that also goes for the larger brands too!)

An element of tolerance that's within your risk profile allows you to continue to discover - because what once worked for your marketing doesn't always mean it will work today or tomorrow (and there's actually less chance of that being true in today's tumultuous landscape).

By continuing to experiment, you set yourself up for longer-term success.

And remember, if they work, fantastic, If they don't, take the learnings.

5. Balance your long-term brand-building

Last but not least, do not neglect your longer-term brand-building.

When times are tough, it's completely understandable to default to survival mode and revert to the "acquisition-is-oxygen" mindset. We get it. In fact, reports have shown that while overall marketing budgets have been cut by an average of 18%, the proportionate amount dedicated to paid media (or direct response / performance marketing) shoots up by 20%.

What you neglect now will become obvious in the years to come. Those who can afford to continue advertising and building their brand will see increased market share as they're first to mind for audiences when they are ready to buy. Use this time to build trust with your customers and drive advocacy through consistent marketing and excellent user experience.

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At Bloom, we specialise in taking high-growth tech businesses from scrappy startup status to sophisticated scale-up mode. As award-winning brand marketers, we blend strategy and execution to take startups to the next level. If you're a tech founder, ops manager, growth consultant, or "marketing-department-of-one" then book a free 30-minute discuvery call with our expert team here.