Represent is one of the companies exhibiting at Startup Summit this year. Through an integrated PR and digital marketing approach, they advise their clients on the best way to generate awareness, recognition and leads. Today, they share with us their best marketing tips for start-ups -- get in touch with them to learn more.

You haven’t got a hope in hell of getting your marketing right and therefore engaging with your target market if you don’t know who they are.

Research everything there is to know about your target customers: Who are they? How old are they? What are their biggest challenges? What motivates them? Where do they hang out (online and in real life)? How do they consume information? What publications do they read? Which social media channels are they most active on?

Only when you have built up a comprehensive picture of who it is you are targeting can you understand how you should be marketing to them and which channels you should be investing in.

Your website is your shop window – it’s where all your potential customers, recruits and investors will come to research you, so don’t skimp on it!

Once you have nailed down your brand and your messaging, you’ll need to develop a really clear website brief. As well as looking beautiful and reflecting your brand, the website needs to be fast, it needs to work across multiple devices and it needs to be easy to navigate.

Don’t forget to conduct detailed keyword research and optimise your website for those all-important search terms your customers are looking for. You can read more about how important this is on our SEO page.

We’re all bombarded with marketing messages from companies on a daily basis, so it can be difficult to achieve cut through. But if you have done your research properly, you’ll be able to create compelling content you know your audience will be interested in.

So, whether you are sharing an infographic on social, sending out an email newsletter, producing a keyword optimised blog, a landing page for your site or an ebook for download, the trick is to make sure it is WAY better than anything else out there. That means it needs to be more engaging, more informative and better looking than anything your competitors are doing.

One of the best ways to build credibility and generate awareness of your start-up is to win some awards! Have a look at business, start-up and industry awards and look for the most suitable.

At the same time, think about which publications your target customers are reading and look at ways you could feature in them. Journalists don’t really want to hear about a new business or a new product launching, but they will be interested in your expert opinion on industry trends or a particular issue that’s affecting your sector. This is a great way of raising your profile and positioning yourself as an expert in your field.

While we all live and buy online, the traditional art of networking still plays a really vital role in marketing yourself and your business effectively.

The key is to be very targeted in your networking. Identify the key influencers in your market and find out what events they attend. Look at where your potential customers hang out and make sure you are there too. And before each event, identify what it is you want to get out of it and look at the list of attendees. Always remember to follow-up with everyone you have spoken to, you never know where it might lead!

If you want to meet Represent and more than 1,000 attendees, get your Early Bird ticket today!