Leading companies treat their teams like brand ambassadors. Startups can benefit tremendously by tapping into their team’s existing networks and voices. 
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Leading brands were once startups, too. Their marketing success is admired but often overlooked by smaller companies. They have a bigger budget, larger teams, and household recognizability; how would that be relevant to a startup? 
Yet it’s not the size of the campaign, but the strategic foundational elements that establish household names. Yes, the gap in marketing budgets continues to widen, but the underlying principles remain accessible, and startups can learn from them. 
Let’s start with some of the basics: organizational structure within your marketing processes. Startups are known for their agility and bold marketing ideas, quickly able to creatively get a product to market, all with a glitzy campaign to get the word out. Hierarchy and structure, on the other hand, are clear processes for campaigns, but they’re just about taboo concepts. 
But many startups fail to scale exactly because of this lack of organization, from what can effectively be described as internal chaos. Yet the companies that do make it invest in marketing SOPs, workflows, and training from day one. 
Procter & Gamble, for instance, is known for its detailed ‘playbooks’ that cover every single step for launches across markets, from which employees rarely deviate. It’s not glamorous, but it does translate to speed without mess. 
These playbooks include everything from granular launch checklists and multi-tiered approval timelines to regional adaptation frameworks. Each document is part of a broader knowledge management system, which means teams from different geographic locations, and even outsourced companies/individuals for a project, can use them easily and effectively. 
Startups do not have to let organization get in the way of the creative process; it can even be a light-touch version of structure. Simple onboarding documents, templates for processes, and defined roles for individual marketing campaigns can be enough to make a significant difference. 
Leverage apps to help you. Even the big tech brands use third-party SaaS tools. Airtable, Notion, and Loom are just three names that growing startups use to create a scalable organization from the start. 

From an overarching point on organizational structure, we move to directly actionable advice for your next campaign. Most companies have an omnichannel strategy, with a significant focus on social media channels, such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. 
However, they also quietly make the most of one of the oldest digital channels – SMS marketing. It’s an easy formula, with SMS outpacing emails with a 98% open rate, and offering companies a direct and personal way to get in touch with potential customers. 
Domino’s Pizza is one of the biggest success stories with SMS marketing. The company uses it successfully to update your order status, offer discounts to entice repeat pizzas, and drive users to their smartphone’s app store. 
Abandoned carts and exclusive deals are the bread and butter of the IKEA SMS marketing team. For home delivery options, SMS reminders helped the company drive a 25% uptick. 
Companies can now streamline this process by leveraging third-party SMS marketing tools, which do not require a high upfront investment. Beyond just promotions, SMS is fantastic for post-sale care. Think shipping updates, review requests, or birthday discounts. 

Customers invest in the companies they choose, with people now far more keenly aware of the effect companies can have on the environment, the importance of sustainability practices, human rights, worker conditions, and many other factors. But most of all, customers want to be heard, to feel that their voice matters in the decision-making process. 
Patagonia, for example, is known for involving its customers in its sustainability mission. It creates advocates who buy and refer, creating a community of people who care not only about how a product performs, but how it comes to market. 
Initiatives like the Worn Wear program, which encourages repairing and reusing garments, and its famous “Don’t Buy This Jacket” anticonsumerism campaign, show that the company cares about its values, which align with those of its customers, too. 
To create this relationship, startups should integrate simple ‘listening tools’ early on. Email surveys, community forums, and responding to comments on social media. All of these will help your customers feel heard. 
Leading companies treat their teams like brand ambassadors. Startups can benefit tremendously by tapping into their team’s existing networks and voices. 
Make it super easy to share individual or team wins, share behind-the-scenes activity, team stories, and encourage employees to be transparent and real. Empower employees to share, encouraging an open approach. 
Salesforce is a notable example of this approach, openly involving its employees in brand initiatives. They provide them with training, internal brand materials, and even incentives to organically push the Salesforce mission. 
The company uses Trailhead, its internal learning platform, to onboard employees and give them brand and messaging training. Plus, they have an active approach to advocacy. Branding efforts involve employees heavily; take the #TeamEarth initiative as an example, joining employees and executives to push forward an important message. 
Smart startups understand that it’s not about creating carbon copies of marketing campaigns. You can’t just create your own #TeamEarth project and expect the same results, nor will a Patagonia-esque campaign necessarily work for your company. 
It may not be enough, and the lesson is not to just copy the code. You need to adapt the ways of the big brands to your (smaller) organization, creating strong foundations for future growth. Leveraging the right tools and picking the ones that can scale easily. Ultimately, it’s about strategic thinking, not budget.
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