January 11, 2007
The Foundation of Marketing a Business Start-Up
When you become a business owner, the last thing on your mind is marketing. You don’t have the funds to do in-depth research into your customers’ behavior. You don’t have the time to interview potential customers yourself. There are no charts and graphs that you can thoughtfully reflect upon as you decide a marketing strategy. Let’s face it, you don’t even have the time to go through your old marketing textbook and tear out good ideas.
In order to be successful, good marketing should start with the basics. The three elements that come into play in the development of a new business are:
- Making your business visible to those who may need your goods and services.
- Establishing credibility in your market.
- Differentiating your business from all the other businesses that provide the same (or similar) goods and services.
Those three elements: Visibility, Credibility and Differentiation are the key points of focus for your marketing efforts in the early-going. Lets look at a few cost-effective ways entrepreneurs can establish each element at start-up.
Visibility
Set up a web site. This has become one of the most basic steps in business marketing. You need to have a web site. It doesn’t need to be fancy (especially in the beginning). There are many companies that offer templates that you can use to help you get started. If you are a technophobe, you can hire a freelance consultant to put together a basic four or five page web site for you. You need a place for people to view your products and services. Your first web site can just be an electronic version of a sales brochure. You can get more sophisticated as your business grows.
Yellow Pages Listing. When you set up a business telephone line you are automatically listed in the yellow pages. If your business name does not include a description of your services (Joe’s Dry Cleaning) you might want to register a fictitious name with your state. This way you can list your business under that name in the directory. For example: If your name is Joe Smith and you are an account you might want to register a fictitious name (sometimes called a D. B.A. – short for “doing business as”) such as Accounting by Joe Smith instead of Joe Smith CPA. Another example: If you are a chiropractor you could register as Pain Free Bones and Backs – Jack Brown, Doctor of Chiropractic.
The more descriptive you can be in your simple listing in the Yellow Pages, the better off you’ll be. Again, as your business grows you can take out more sophisticated Yellow Pages Ads, if you feel it is necessary.
Chamber of Commerce Membership. Join as many community groups as you possible can. Go to the meetings. When you go, talk to people. Tell them what you do for a living. Hand out business cards to everyone. Make sure as many people know you as possible. Most Chambers of Commerce have new business welcome kits which include mentions in their news letter as well as discounts on some advertising. A quick word on that – spend money on advertising very carefully at start-up. Until you understand your customers well, you should be very careful investing in an advertising campaign.
Credibility
Offer to speak to groups free of charge. Every time you share your expertise with a group of people you gain credibility. You need to know your topic inside and out. You need to be comfortable in front of a group. And you need to keep your wits about you after your talk. Many business owners are so relieved to be through with their speech that they forget to collect business cards after they finish speaking. This is the most important part of your talk – collecting leads afterward.
Provide free samples, free estimates or free consultations. Giving people an opportunity to sample your product or service is a great way to build up your credibility in the eyes of a potential customer. This is especially true if your product or service is expensive. You wouldn’t buy a car unless you test drove it, would you? Find a way to get people involved with your product or service at minimal or no cost. Let them interact with it and with you.
Referrals. The best way to establish credibility with a potential client is to be introduced to that person by someone the potential client respects. People trust their fiends and colleagues. If you can get every client to refer you to another potential client, you will double your business every few months. Many businesses use referrals as their only source of marketing (Doctors, Dentists and Accountants come to mind). Referrals are powerful and they are often overlooked as a critical component of a good marketing offense.
Differentiation
Be faster. Delivering your product or service faster is always a good way to differentiate your business. Speed is an advantage in many industries.
Be better. Using higher quality materials can separate you from the competition – if the competition values the difference in quality. Taking more time with your customer will often give them the perception that you are a higher quality business.
Offer a better experience. In many cases the experience of working with you – if positive, will be a key factor in differentiating your business from others. Study your competition and learn how you can make the customer’s experience with you better than it is with them.
While this is certainly not an exhaustive list of marketing options, it should serve as fertile ground for ideas. As you can see, marketing does not need to be expensive or time consuming. The important thing to remember is that good marketing starts with an understanding of your customer and how they buy your goods or services.
Filed under: Marketing
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