Top 5 Tips for Startup Marketing

Top 5 Tips for Startup Marketing

Attracting customers is one of the top challenges for startup businesses, especially if you do not have any marketing background yourself. However, the principles of marketing are common sense and can get you a long way without excessive expenditure.

1. Know Yourself

Time spent on working out what makes your product or service special (its unique selling proposition) is time well spent because it helps you differentiate yourself from the competition. Clarifying your mission and values will provide you with a framework for positioning your business.

2. Know your Customers

Who is supposed to buy your product or service? Be clear about who you want to sell to. Even if your service or product theoretically could be of interest to almost everybody, pick a customer segment and start marketing to it. Once you have decided on a market segment, it will be easier to decide how to reach potential customers and which channels to focus on.

3. Set a Budget

Making a marketing plan and allocating a fixed budget can help you keep an eye on costs. It is easy to overspend; having a budget will help you focus your mind and your marketing activities. Beware of advertising scams: Unscrupulous fraudsters systematically target new businesses. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t any good at all. Don’t commit to anything over the telephone, and don’t be shy to say “no thank you”.

4. Care for Contacts

Referrals and word-of-mouth are a fantastic way to get new customers. Think about who you know who could help endorse your business. Ask for testimonials, referrals and recommendations.

5. Be Visible

A website is a must for any new business, but it can be simple and inexpensive. The three most important elements are: Your contact details, a compelling offer and an attractive design. The same applies to any other promotional material such as leaflets, flyers and posters.

How to succeed in a niche market

How to succeed in a niche market

It may be worth rejecting the competitive world of mass-market products in favor of more specialized offerings.

While aiming for mass-market appeal is often seen as a sound business strategy, one of the major roadblocks to success is the fact that you’ll be competing against hundreds of other companies who are doing exactly the same thing.

Targeting niche markets, on the other hand, means you’re working with a much smaller customer base. On the face of it, it may seem this is a sure-fire way to reduce your profits – but don’t forget that niche markets are a much less congested space in which you can make your brand known.

Businesses operating in smaller markets are often more visible, better able to adapt to the needs of their customers and, perhaps most importantly, rewarded with a higher degree of customer loyalty if they manage to deliver an excellent service. Therefore, it helps to consider some of the ways you can succeed in a niche market, as well as examining some of the companies that have done the same – and how they did it.

The best place to start is with market research: if you know what your potential customers want, where and how they buy, and whether you’re equipped to deliver what they expect, you’re already halfway to staking your claim on a small market space. This also allows you to craft a brand that resonates with the segment of the population that is most likely to buy your products or services.

Consider the following questions:

1. Can I identify prospects within the market that I can communicate with?

2. Do these prospects need or have a strong desire for what my business offers?

3. Is my offering suitably priced for this market? (If not, can it be?)

4. Can I communicate a sales message to this market?

5. Is this market large enough to support my business?

If you can answer “yes” to all of these, chances are you’ve found your market!

The more specialised your focus is, the better – customers will appreciate feeling that you’re fulfilling a specific need they have, and will be more likely to go back to you in future.

Another benefit of operating in a niche market: the more business you do, the more you learn about your clientele. Analysing customer data to find trends that can be used as springboards for future strategies is much less complicated when your customers are a small group who tend to share similar traits, rather than the populace at large. Any new initiatives you put in place to boost business can therefore have a much more dramatic impact – and could even cement your position as the market leader in your chosen field.