As a startup, we tend to be all consumed by our business. It’s a simple case of having to be at the very beginning. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a recession or a boom, it needs you to be creative and deeply involved to make it work.
Marketing your business and building awareness are the most important things to do though, certainly from the outset. So to make the most of your limited time I have outlined a few tips you might find useful.
Tips to Have Ticked Off Before you Market Your Business
Who
Who is your audience? Have you segmented the types of people who will be interested in your product or service? You need to understand ages, genders, interests, money available, personal circumstances for purchase, etc.
What
What makes you stand out over others in the same line of business as yourself? This can be a way of sharing your testimonials and star ratings.
Why
Why should they buy from you? What’s your Unique Selling Point? Why do you do things differently? Why has this worked for you?
Where
Where can they get hold of your service or products? Would it be in a shop, online, or at a stand? Always be clear about accessibility.
When
This is always the tough one in my opinion. You may have answered all the others concisely and quickly, but you can’t always exactly measure when someone will buy from you. The when is answered by a WANT or a NEED.
If your product or service is a NEED you can pretty much predict “when” as there will be a recognized timeline to purchase. For instance, if you sell baby products, you’ll need to wait for the baby to be conceived or born.
If, however, you’re a WANT or a desire service or product, then it’s sometimes a bit tougher. You need to understand how people get to your purchase. You have to create a funnel and a strategy that encourages people to purchase. Let me offer an example, a Couples Spa Break – sure everyone needs one, but to pry money out of the couple to come along when convenient to both of them, to part with money when they can do all of what you offer at home – this is the possible issue.
This is when you need to be creative. In this case, you have to create an “experience” for them. Pretty much the same for every WANT or desire. You need to make it something personal and precious, easy (ish) to obtain, and make them feel like they have had a return on investment.
Now that you have the 5 W’s sorted, let’s get on with the Tools you may find useful.
Please note this post is not a sponsored post. All of the tools mentioned have worked for me and have been suitable for my business.
AgoraPulse
I use this tool to help me schedule and have an “Inbox zero.” I can add several platforms to this and respond through it. It means all of my notifications go through to one place and I can also add team members and assign posts and tweets to them to action. My top favorite thing about this tool though is the reporting. It generates Powerpoint presentations at the touch of button that I can use as well. This isn’t a free tool, but its return on investment is brilliant.
Canva
This fabulous tool is FREE for the most part, but you also have the option of purchasing images for $1. Canva has some really superb templates for every shape and size of social media out there. You can also create your own sized templates too. So if you’re looking for a creative and affordable way to create a graphic for a blog or website, then I would pop along to this web and app first.
Free Apps on Your Phone
There truly is an app for everything! It may seem very obvious to have this here but not everyone puts their apps on their phone. If you are using social media for business, it’s essential that you allow notifications and you add the FREE app to your phone. Every platform gives you the opportunity. It improves your response time and means that your customer feels heard.
Google My Business
This little used tool is not just for bricks and mortar shops. Long before I moved into my office I had a GMB account. I couldn’t recommend it more wholeheartedly for SEO! You can create posts and share blogs, add directions, opening hours, and create a personalized URL for the business.
Admittedly, it can be a little fiddly at the beginning, and unfortunately it’s not very easy to schedule. I use OneUp (when I remember). However, to help you get found for FREE, it’s phenomenal. You will need to post to it at least 3 or 4 times a month, but it genuinely helps you get found.
Hootsuite
This is yet another tool you can have for free – but there is a paid version as well. The analytics on it are pretty good and you can share to 3 platforms before you have to pay. I would suggest to all startups (if they have time!) to use Facebook for their business, but to schedule only through Facebook. You can then share on to a further 3 platforms for free through Hootsuite and add videos, blogs, and links natively for free. There you can schedule to LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter perhaps?
Missinglettr
This is a bloggers dream come true! If you want to write about your products and services (everyone should) you need to be able to share your content on the right channels at the right times and most definitely more than once.
Personally, I can sweat over a blog for days, so to only share that blog once would be criminal in my opinion. This paid-for platform creates a content plan from your blog and you can then change it up to suit yourself and your audience, and then push a button and it will schedule for a year! Or as long as you want to.
Postplanner
This tremendous tool has saved me so much time! It’s a Marketer’s dream as it finds content for your channels using keywords. It is a paid-for platform, but worth its weight in gold. You can add streams of content from people you’re interested in hearing from as well.
Quuu Promote
This is a relatively new tool to me, but it’s been out quite some time now. When you want your content to be found on places such as Buffer and Postplanner, Quuu Promote can place it there using this tool.
Again another paid-for platform, but my shares of these posts and articles on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter have soared since started using it.
Website
This is here simply because it’s so important to have a website for your business. There are courses you can do via your state body or you can get books out or simply watch YouTube videos to get you started.
I know first impressions are very important and you’ll want to get it done properly BUT this can get expensive if you want it done professionally. However, what is more important initially is to get found. If people can’t find you in a search, then your awareness won’t be there.
Please consider even a basic one page website at the beginning. The longer it’s there and being frequently updated with things such as a calendar, blogs, or images, it makes your website more reputable. The Google (Bots) Spiders who rank your website, rate the frequency of your updates over similar websites.
In late 2016 Melanie started writing for Irish Tech News and now travels to locations throughout Europe and reports, blogs and Live Streams her experience of events whilst she's there.
Her interests span Social Media (of course) Event Planning and Co-ordination, Start Up Business Support, Mentoring and Sponsorship on the job. However, off the job she's into SciFi / Sci Fact, STEM and Space. Oh and Cats rule.
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