When you are venturing into business ownership for the very first time, your time is a very precious asset that you will feel has been monopolized by tasks ranging from small admin tasks to developing crucial business strategies. Getting the ball rolling for any new business is hard, and that is why many businesses, unfortunately, end up failing. Of course, there are a lot of factors that influence whether a business takes off or not. From whether the customer demand is there to having the right marketing strategy, there is no guarantee of success particularly in an uncertain economic climate.
If you are in the position where you are starting your new venture, and you’re not sure what steps to take in regards to your marketing, then here are a few tips that you may find useful:
Website – Having a website for your business is crucial. Most consumers now use the internet to find products and services, and the percentage of people doing this is only likely to increase over the next few years. If you don’t have a website, your potential customers are less likely to be able to find you.
Social Media – The fantastic thing about social media is that you can set up accounts for free, and therefore you don’t have to outlay a huge budget on this. However, you will still need to invest time in curating good, relevant and useful content to display through these accounts. You should be looking to use all of your marketing channels collaboratively, so if you are selling your services through your website, make sure that your social media accounts encourage people to visit your website.
Email Marketing – Email marketing is one of the most effective ways when finding new customers. If you are not using email campaigns, then you are missing out on a huge marketing opportunity. It is also important that you are using your email campaigns in the right way. Therefore, you shouldn’t just send out a blast email that goes to every email address that you hold. You need to be savvier with your email campaigns and use personalization, segmentation and targeting methods.
To go into a little more detail, you will get a higher response rate from customers who will find your email content relevant to them. For example, let’s say you sell insurance and you are going to target homeowners with home insurance offers. You are less likely to get a good response rate for life insurance from people who are 18-25 than you are with higher ages. Email marketing personalization is all about using the information you have about people and using it in your email content. This will make you more appealing to the target audience.
Research – Marketing methods and trends change on a regular basis. It pays to be in the know, so make sure that you spend some time reading up on the latest trends. There may be new email marketing software launching that will help you to boost sales, so keep up to date by checking business websites for regular updates.