It can be quite exciting to know that you’ve done your registrations and concluded the process of starting your new business, congratulations! However, as exciting as it may sound, it’s not time to celebrate yet because your work just started. The next steps taken in bringing your business to the limelight are a huge factor in determining whether the business survives or not. Marketing is one of the main things every entrepreneur must look forward to. Your new startup hugely depends on this because your business success rate is determined by how well you handle your marketing.
The most common mistake made amongst new business owners is not having a clear plan for marketing their business or not taking action when the plan has been created. Developing a marketing strategy for your new business as a new entrepreneur can be confusing. To douse that confusion and help you get things up and running, we’ve taken the time to draw out a marketing checklist that will help you plan and execute your marketing in the best possible way.
Here’s Your Checklist!
- Put down a problem statement
- Define who your ideal customers are
- Define your message
- Conduct a market research
- Adopt a strong Brand Name
- Set up a web presence
1. Put down a problem statement
For every business with a plan, there’s a problem it is designed to solve in the market. To be able to market your business properly, you need to be very clear about the reason it all started. You have to be clear about the problem you intend to solve. Take out some time, define these problems clearly and state how you’re going to solve them and why your solutions will be the best.
2. Define who your ideal customers are
Before any business can thrive, you must understand those who need the solution your business brings. Those are your potential customers. No matter how good your business is, no matter how interesting your products and services might be, not everyone needs what your business has to offer. Therefore, before you start any marketing process, you must identify who your customers are.
Your ideal customer is the person who most needs the solutions or services your business offers. Identify them and know their basic demographics. Take note of their age, gender, location, income, wants, needs, desires, etc. Doing this will help you narrow down your marketing to the right audience and increase your chances of conversion rather than wasting time and resources on people who will never be interested in what you have to offer.
3. Define your message
Create a clear message for your marketing. This will help you prevent confusion and a clash of interests. In the message, clearly explain the things you have to offer, and what your product or services can do for anyone. Your message doesn’t have to be lengthy. Just two sentences will do.
Printsouq advises doing this even on your marketing materials including brochures, business cards, roll-up banners, paper bags, etc.
4. Conduct a market research
Even if you think you know the industry you’re venturing into like the back of your hands, nothing can replace having real-time information on the markets. Therefore, before you launch your business, one of the most important things you must do is conduct market research. Find out what the current trends are in your area. Discover who your competitors are and find out what they are doing. Also check for what type of marketing works in that area by studying what other companies are doing. Study their websites and find out how easy it is for visitors to navigate.
Find ways to talk to people who fit into your category of potential customers. Ask them about the problems you intend to solve with your business and see what would be an ideal solution for them.
5. Adopt a strong Brand Name
At this point, if you haven’t got a brand name for your business, you must get one. When choosing a brand name, make sure that you choose one that’ll resonate easily with your target customers and also stand out. Here are a few tips from Printsouq to guide you;
- Your brand name should be entirely different from your competitors,
- It should communicate what your business is all about
- It should be easy to remember
- Its pronunciation and spelling shouldn’t be hard.
- Make sure it’s a name you can secure its domain name on the web as well as social media platforms
6. Set up your web presence
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people now prefer to transact or buy whatever they need online. Therefore, businesses are left with no choice but to build an online presence for their brand. Therefore, if you’re starting up a new business, one of the most important things you must have on your checklist is creating an online presence for your business. To do this, you’ll have to;
Buy a domain name for your business
Secure your web domain name using your brand name or something very identical to your business. Try to keep it short so it’s easy for your customers to memorize it.
Set up a company website
You can engage the services of a webs developer to set up your website using the domain name you’ve bought. This is very important as most of your prospective customers and their referrals are more likely to go online in the quest to learn more about your business. Therefore, you must do this before starting your marketing.
Create an attractive and engaging landing page.
When you run online marketing campaigns, you’ll want your potential customers to take an action when they see your ads or read your emails. Therefore, set up a special page called the landing page on your website. A landing page talks more about the services or products you intend to sell. When designing yours, make sure it’s engaging and attractive enough to convert your visitors to customers when they click your action links.
Set up branded emails
Once you have your domain name or URL of your website set up, you should be able to set up a branded email address. While it might look okay to you to send emails from public domain emails like Gmail and Yahoo, people are only going to take you seriously when you use a branded email.
Set up social media/professional network accounts
Even if you’re not planning to post social content immediately, it’s important to secure your social accounts using your brand name. Besides that, social media is one of the powerful tools for marketing in today’s markets. So, make use of it and launch your brand to the world.
Now that you have all this checked on your checklist. It’s time to execute your marketing strategy. Whether it involves physical marketing, online marketing, or both. It’s time to launch your new business. If you’re looking for the right place to get a quick design and professional printing for your marketing materials, be sure to check out Printsouq.