As a new entrepreneur, you won’t have the benefit of experience behind you. You won’t have made all of the usual mistakes, so you won’t know to avoid them either. Here are the best marketing tips you will need for your start-up, so you can get it right the first time around!
Know your goals
Whenever you want to put out a marketing campaign, think about your goals before you start. This is very important because your goal will determine a lot of the variables of your campaign. For example, if you want to build a mailing list of customers, you will want to give them incentives and to market on social networks. If you are trying to create a reputation amongst other business leaders as an expert in your field, you might want to hold a webinar. Set out clear goals for each marketing campaign you run before you decide the medium and style.
Find other niches
What else does your customer need? This is a question that will help you fill other niches. For example, let’s say that you are selling apparel for music fans. Could you partner with a record company to offer exclusive singles and vinyl releases? How about giving customers the opportunity to learn tips about writing and releasing their own music? Do the fans want access to gig tickets or other branded accessories as well? The more you can offer to your customer, the more they will spend with you.
Use your USP
Most startups think up a USP, or unique selling point, when in the planning stages. This enters your business plan and impresses all of your investors. But where does it go then? The sad answer for many start-ups is that it disappears into the paperwork. The USP is what makes your business exciting, so brag about it as much as you can. It can feature in slogans, and be worded prominently on your website. Have it in your calls to action and your social networks. Make it stand out so that customers know exactly why they should pick you right away.
Build an email list
You need an email list, and you need it urgently. Start building your list before you launch your startup. You need to offer incentives, so you could let email sign-ups have sneak peeks of your coming business as well as getting an alert on launch day. They may even collect a discount code for that first release in their inbox. After launch, keep growing. Give them exclusive content and rewards to thank them. The reason you want a big email list is because in marketing terms, emails always have the biggest return on investment. The people on your list are already halfway to making a purchase – you just have to push them the rest of the distance to collect that conversion.
Make better content
Content marketing is also king in the world of start-ups. So how do you make your content work harder than anyone else’s? By making it better. It’s easy to improve on content which is already out there. Search in your niche and find the most popular content, then add your own take on it. You can go better by adding more content, providing unique information which only you have, making it longer, or giving it an alternative form. For example, you could take an article about the 5 best marketing tips and turn it into an infographic of the 20 best!
By getting your marketing right from the start, you can increase your launch sales massively. In turn, this will help your customer base to grow and sales to increase further.