Starting a business from nothing is one of the most challenging and exciting things you can possibly do. You know that the odds of surviving beyond the first five years are against you.
Yet, there’s something deep within you that’s driving you to keep going and beat the odds.
Launching a startup isn’t easy. You need to have financing, operations, sales, and marketing all working in unison to deliver results and keep customers coming back.
A startup marketing plan will get your customers in the door. Read on to find out what creative tips you can use in your marketing plan to ensure your business is a massive success.
1. Do your research
Too many startup founders just start their business because they have an idea and they want to go with it. They launch a business without key pieces of information. They don’t understand their customers and they don’t understand the competition.
The first thing you need to do in your startup marketing plan is to research your target market. You want to understand their desires, their needs, and how your product or service would solve a challenge they are trying to solve.
Understanding these things will make it easier to create content that resonates with them. Not connecting with your audience is one of the top reasons why businesses fail in 5 years.
You also want to research your competition. Knowing your competitors means seeing what they do well, what they don’t do well, and what you can do differently.
2. Explain your why
Why does your business exist?
If your only answer is to make money, then you’re in trouble. Yes, money is going to be part of the answer—but there needs to be something else that drives why you do what you do.
People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Your why can get your employees, your customers, and your vendors all working together because they know they’re part of something special.
Author Simon Sinek talked about this concept in his TED talk and book Start With Why. In it, he mentions large companies like Apple as examples of getting people to rally around the cause that the company represents.
Communicating your why can have the same impact on your business. Your why is essentially a rallying cry to inspire people.
3. Develop the right kind of partnerships
It takes a village to build a business. Any entrepreneur who thinks that they can build it all on their own will find themselves frustrated and burned out.
It’s also true for marketing your business. You can develop partnerships to help you get the word out about your company.
In your startup marketing plan, include the types of partnerships that you want to have. You can develop partnerships with influencers like bloggers or Instagrammers.
You can also develop partnerships with people in your community, or businesses like yours that serve the same audience.
4. Value, value, value
You can have the best marketing strategies in your startup marketing plan, but if you’re not focused on the audience, then you’re wasting your time.
Your customers have high expectations from the first interaction all the way through to customer care.
In your marketing plan, make sure that you’re adding value early in the process. That can be as simple as using informative blog posts on your website, giving yourself authority.
For B2B marketers, you can incorporate account-based marketing into your business. Account-based marketing takes the sales and marketing process to a detailed account level. That allows for personalization that your customers will appreciate.
You can visit this site to learn more about the top account based marketing strategies.
5. Get your digital marketing right
Like most startups, you’re going to incorporate digital marketing strategies in your marketing plan. That’s a smart thing to do as it’s affordable and it can help build brand awareness.
Where a lot of companies fail in digital marketing is that they don’t execute well. They’re on the wrong social media networks and they don’t produce enough content on a consistent basis to make an impact.
In your target market research, you should have learned what social media networks your customers are on. For example, if you target women between 30-49 years old, you’ll find that YouTube and Facebook are good places for your business.
6. Don’t ignore offline marketing
It’s easy to get sucked into the latest and greatest digital marketing strategies. But you can’t forget about offline marketing strategies in your marketing plan!
Offline and online marketing strategies work well together to keep your business in front of your potential customers. For example, event sponsorship or community involvement can go a long way to increase trust in your company.
7. Retargeting campaigns
Statistically speaking, when people see your marketing messages or get a sales call, they’re rarely ready to buy now.
It takes consistent follow-up over a period of time to get them to make a purchase. That can happen in 6 months or two years.
You can’t control when someone is ready to buy, but you can ensure that your branding stays in front of them throughout the buyer’s journey.
A retargeting campaign can do just that. When someone visits your website and then leaves, you can create specific ads that target those visitors that left your site. The most popular ad networks for retargeting are through Google and Facebook.
You can create campaigns for visitors that took no action, or a campaign around people who abandoned their shopping carts on your site, to improve your close rates.
The best strategies for your startup marketing plan
There is so much opportunity for entrepreneurs today. The barriers to starting a business are incredibly low, but that also means more competition.
You can beat the competition and create an amazing business when you have a thorough startup marketing plan. By having a solid foundation to work from, you’re charting the course for success. Now, it’s time to execute your marketing plan.
Read this article to learn how you can scale your business to take it to the next level.
1 comment
Nice article, Thomas. I think one thing you missed from point 5 is SEO! Really worthwhile, especially when creating marketable content
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