Startups are emerging in the business sphere at a tremendous rate. Every day, entrepreneurs launch new business concepts, and try to carve a niche for themselves in a world where competition holds sway.
For many startups, the most challenging aspect of business is acquiring customers, and getting them to become loyal. But that won’t be much of a challenge if they can get their marketing right.
Marketing is the fuel which runs the business engine. If the marketing is done correctly, startups will start reaping the gains of business within a short period of time. Although PR is very important in business, you don’t need to break a bank to spread information about your business organization to the public.
Here are smart ways to market your new business on a shoestring.
1. Do Things Differently
The best form of marketing is to offer impeccable services. Look at what your competitors aren’t doing correctly and focus on doing better. Avoid repeating their mistakes and go the extra length to satisfy your customers. It’s that simple.
By tailoring your services to the needs of your clients, you’re gradually building trust and very soon, word will spread out about your company through unpaid referrals. And this works well for even startups in the so-called boring niches.
2. Create an Online Brand
Building an online brand appears to be the smartest move for many successful businesses today. It’s what the most successful companies leverage to emerge as household names across the world.
Nowadays, many entrepreneurs have realized that a personal brand is what creates awareness about what their businesses stand for. It also creates an avenue to grow a fan base, improve credibility, build trust, land more customers and ultimately, make more profit.
You can achieve this by simply creating an outstanding blog, a unique logo and tagline, and stuffing it with valuable web content that excites and educates your readers. Then, get on social media – Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter – and speak to your ideal clients on each platform in a language they want.
You should also create a subscriber base, and constantly send them valuable stuff, not just sales letters that make them think you’re only interested in their money. These will help you create a lovable brand.
3. Leverage Customer Relationships
Those who say the customer is king aren’t wrong in the least. Because let’s face it: a business which can’t attract new customers has no chance in hell of survival. Of what value is the product or service you’re offering when there are no customers to patronize you?
But then, don’t focus too much on getting new customers that you ignore the existing ones. It’s probably 10 times easier to get a customer to buy again, than to convert a lead into a customer. Your services must be customer-focused. You must always create different channels to get feedback from your customers, and carry them along when there’s a change in your offerings.
That’s why businesses now make use of customized mobile apps – the new effective way to provide better customer support, collect feedback and data about customer behaviour, and improve lead generation.
Realistically, customers can be your best marketing tools once you satisfy their needs. All you need do is keep them happy with your service and they’ll happily promote you on social media and in other ways – telling the company story on your behalf.
Other marketing avenues you can explore later when you’ve gained some financial strength include using PPC ads, gaining coverage in local papers, trade magazines and authority websites. But for now, you don’t have to break the bank to break even. You can start off with these simple DIY marketing strategies. They produce amazing results too.