Every year, millions of businesses are started across the United States. Out of these millions of businesses, only a fraction will ultimately be successful. One of the reasons many businesses struggle is due to a struggle in marketing or a complete abandonment of marketing strategies. Without the ability to market their business, business owners are significantly limiting their potential revenue and therefore profit of their own business. For some business owners, they believe marketing requires a high influx of money to do it properly, this however, is not the case. If done correctly, it can also be done quite cheaply but also effectively.
That being said, knowing where to get started with marketing can be overwhelming, we tried to simplify it for you by offering five beginner marketing tips for new businesses and business owners. These tips are great for your first few months or even your first year or so in business but as your company grows, be sure to grow your marketing strategies with it and dedicate more of your expenses to marketing but thee five will always remain as root marketing strategies that you will use throughout the lifespan of your business.
These of course are not the only beginner marketing strategies for your business to use but they are among the notables. In essence, these strategies are all about customer recruitment, customer retention, customer incentivization, and when necessary customer recovery as we see throughout the business world in various industries including sports, music, restaurants, and even hospitality/gaming, a great example of this is BetMGM Ontario who uses these strategies and more to develop long standing relationships with customers while always beginning new and fruitful relationships.
That being said, here’s a look at those five tips.
Find and know your market segment
The first major key to success in marketing is to know and find your market segment. This is quite simple and can be done in quite a few ways. First, through your business, you know what type of products you already offering – what type of product do you offer? Who would commonly use this product? Is one age group more likely to use it over another? Finding these key demographical areas is going to be a huge key to your success when it comes to marketing. These key demographics are going to feed into several of our other tips as well.
Social Media usage
Next up is using the world’s greatest marketing tool – the internet. Be sure to create social media profiles across all the major social media platforms especially Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Be sure to be active on your social media profiles, promoting your individual products but also the business as a whole in different ways. Including hashtags and photos especially on Facebook and Twitter will only help maximize the reach of your postings as well. Additionally, use the demographics that you found above to help promote your social media postings where possible. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter also help in this regard as they allow you to customize who your ads are promoted to as well.
Website building
On top of social media, be sure to create a website for your business and ensure that it is highly SEO-friendly. If you have SEO experience, feel free to do this yourself, if not, hire an SEO freelancer to help in creating your website. While it may cost a bit more upfront, the results could result in increased profits down the road for your business. On your website, be sure to have more on the background of your business, the products that you offer as well as your company’s vision and overall goals when it comes to your product and the benefits for your customers. In essence, use your website as a one-stop shop for customers learning more about your business but also use it as a sale pitch.
Analytics
To tie the previous two tips together is the use of analytics for your social media, websites, sales, and more. Analytics in general give us a great sense of the big picture but also show us what lies underneath the top layer of those analytics. It can give us an idea of what each demographic sees in our business, what products may be most profitable and popular, which demographics are slowly becoming more interested in the company, and which demographics are losing interest. How are they accessing your social media or website the most? Additionally, on social media, how many users are your posts over the course of a week, month, or year reaching? Who is interacting with your social media platforms and websites the most? The list goes on and on, ultimately there really is no cap to what analytics can offer business owners from a marketing perspective. All it offers is more ways to better understand your customer base and how you can reach those customers going forward.
Referral programs/word-of-mouth strategies
Ultimately, your best marketing tool is your customers. If your customers have a great experience with your company and your products, there is a high probability that they will refer you to their friends, families, and others. This is known as word-of-mouth marketing each time you give a customer a positive experience, they’re likely to tell others about your business, and over time, the word of your business will continue to spread. This of course isn’t the most efficient but for community-based businesses that offer services to a particular area, this can be a highly successful strategy. But be sure to also incentivize customers to recommend your business through various programs whether it’s a program offering a percentage off if referred or a customer loyalty program. Finding different ways to ensure your customers are spreading the word about your business will be highly important in your overall success.
