Marketing your business can seem like an overwhelming task, especially if you’re starting out as an entrepreneur. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems, and with the right approach, you can make your business into something that people notice and want to engage with on all levels. Keep reading to learn more about marketing a new business through these five steps!
Choose One Channel
Most new businesses try to reach their target audience through as many marketing channels as possible, but that’s actually not very effective. Instead, you should pick one—ideally, one that’s closely related to your products or services—and try it out for about three months. If it doesn’t work (or if you have any problems), move on to another channel. That can be on TV with ads, a specific social media audience, or recruiting people with web campaigns. Don’t be afraid of a little trial and error.
Target a Niche
Before you spend any time or money promoting your business, you need to determine whom your product is for. If you target everyone, you’ll be seen as general and uninteresting. Narrowing down your niche helps make people more interested in what you have to offer because they can identify with it better than if they don’t feel like they fit into your audience.
Know your Competition
It’s important to understand what’s out there and how you can offer something better. A competitive analysis is just that: an analysis of your competitors and how they go about their marketing. What do they do well? Where could they improve? Are there any holes in their game plan where you could step in and make an impact? You can do this through customer interviews or internal analysis of your current website traffic analytics.
Create an Email List
A large part of your marketing strategy should include acquiring an email list. Email is still one of, if not the most, cost-effective ways to market your business and deliver content to interested customers. Start building your list by offering free products or services in exchange for their contact information. Or you can use free email providers like MailChimp, Aweber, Constant Contact, or Microsoft Outlook. Then use that list as a platform for distributing newsletters and other company updates.
Market Consistently, But Perfectly
Once you’ve built up your audience and are attracting customers, it can be tempting to pull back on marketing efforts. After all, if your business is doing well enough, why continue pummeling people with marketing messages? Because while most of your early work is getting customers in through doors, you need to keep marketing consistently even after they’re there so they don’t go somewhere else.
