5 Ways To Market Your Start Up
You’ve done it! You’ve started your own business. You are without a doubt very excited about your new venture but there remains many months of hard work and determination to start landing customers and growing your business. In order to project your business in an upwards trajectory you will need to generate new leads regularly. So how are you going to do this? The honest answer, through your marketing endeavours.
Marketing is essential however not as easy as you may think. Throwing money at your marketing efforts will unfortunately not secure its success. If you are starting out its unlikely your budget is not going to stretch to hiring someone full time to focus on solely marketing your business, you therefore need to think smart about what marketing initiatives are cost effective and can generate results you wish to see. We have compiled 5 ways to simply market your start up, with little or no marketing budget in place.
Your Brand, Your Message:
Consistency is key. It’s simple, if your brand and your message don’t work together neither will your business. No matter how much money you throw at your marketing efforts, if there is no consistency between your website, signage, marketing materials, social media etc. it will not work. Take time to know who your customers are and what they want. From this know what you want your brand to represent and what your message should be. Be aware this will take time but will ultimately be the foundation upon which your business can thrive.
The Snowball Effect:
The power of speech is immense, probably a lot more powerful than you think. Word of mouth is, firstly free and secondly hugely influential in generated new leads and growing your customer base. Listening to your customer’s feedback is vital, when they have feedback or new ideas try, where possible to implement these, it will make your customers happy. Listening to your customers and building relationships will generate trust in you and your brand. It sounds simple but keeping your customers happy is worth its weight in gold because as a result they will tell their co-workers, friends and family about your business. Word of mouth marketing costs nothing!
The Power of Print:
Do not forget the power of print when marketing your start-up. It’s a misconception that printed marketing materials are not as powerful as their digital counterparts, E.g. Social media platforms but this is simply not the case. In order for your business to succeed your clients and potential new customers need to trust your brand and know its legitimate. Creating legitimacy by purely having an online presence is an uphill battle. It is well worth investing a small portion of your marketing budget on business cards, leaflets and flyers. Printed brochures advertising your products and services do not need to break the bank but the return on investment can be great and propel your business.
Search Engine Optimisation:
Before launching your business whether it’s online or offline you are more than likely to be developing a website. Whilst researching the essential components of your new website you are more than likely to have come across the phrase “Search Engine Optimisation”. Your new site might look amazing, eye catching, unique but if no one can find it, it’s worthless and frankly a waist of your time and money. Avoid extra work further down the line and factor in SEO right from the start. Consider SEO from day 1.
The Use of Social Media:
Is social media, important? Yes. Social media now dominates much of the business sphere today. Its commonly thought that social media requires little thought and is a quick way to make money, unfortunately this isn’t the case. Social media requires consistency and attention. Ensuring, again anything you post whether is text, images, infographics is consistent with your brand and professional. Keep on top of your social media don’t create an account and be active for a few weeks and fall off the face of the earth. This will send the wrong message to anyone visiting your page and could deter them from venturing further and making contact with you and your business.
Creating legitimacy and trust around your business will be the key to its success. In order to do this there must be consistent branding over your online and offline marketing endeavours. Printing remains a vital part of marketing for both established and stat-up businesses and should by no means be overlooked. If you are a start-up and are looking for high quality, cost effective printed marketing materials or branded stationery then get in touch with PrintUK.com. (https://printuk.com/)