First of all, congratulation on your wonderful journey ahead. You pursued your dreams and followed your passion. You must be thrilled to take on multiple roles for your enterprise.
I will leave it to the experts to help you with other aspects of running a business but I would definitely like to share few solid marketing tips for first-time entrepreneurs, based on my experience from working with multiple startups.
Let’s dive in!!
First Rule of Business: Market the product but Sell the benefit
You may have a great idea and a great product…but you also need to understand how your product is better than the competition. Your messaging should focus on customer needs and not only on product features.
Communicate to reflect how your product/service is beneficial to your target audience and not what you are willing to sell.
Invest in marketing before you are ready to sell
Most entrepreneurs wait to perfect their offering/product and then decide to invest in any marketing efforts.
Ask yourself, will you buy from a stranger or from someone whom you know?
Same is the case with marketing when it comes to generating awareness about your company and your offering. If you wait till you are 100% ready, you will risk the chance of a successful launch.
Run awareness campaigns talking about the benefits of your product/service to generate interest and setting up sales funnels.
Have a Marketing Plan
Without a proper plan in place, you will end up wasting money on any kind of marketing effort, as you will not be sure what results to expect or where to improve. Having a plan means –
- Deciding the goal of your marketing campaign
- Finding your target audience
- Creating buyers personas
- Having a clear voice for your brand
- Research competition and define your USP
- Deciding a marketing strategy
- Define a timeline for all marketing activities related to the campaign
- Reviewing key metrics regularly
A lot more goes into setting up a proper marketing campaign but its better to have the basics in place based on your requirements and then improving as you go, rather than trying everything out there and costing your business.
Be where your customers are
If you want to be sure which marketing channel to invest in…start by finding where your target audience hangs out, and then be there.
Among the hundreds of marketing channels out there (PR, influencers, events, digital, podcasts, print, newsletters, partnerships etc), it’s important to pick the ones that will work the hardest for you for the smallest amount of money. A good marketing plan starts with placing strategic bets on a few channels where your customer is most likely to see your message AND take action (like, share, buy, comment, sign up, review).
– Forbes
Hope these tips will answer certain queries regarding your first marketing campaign or force you to review your existing efforts. Do let me know in comments what I have missed or if you have had a different experience.
If you want to discuss any specific challenge that your business is facing while effectively communicating with your potential customers or building you brand awareness…let’s connect over a call.
Sonal Mishra 