Here are my top tips on where you need to start with your marketing.
1 – Define Your Target Customer
Let’s go right back to basics. Before you start your marketing, or even your business in fact, you need to have a really clear understanding of your target consumer.
Are they male or female, how old are they, where do they live? These are some of the key things that can really help you narrow down who you need to “talk” to with your marketing.
Identifying the needs, expectations and problems of your target audience not only helps you to understand them better, but it also ensures that you’re creating a product or service that’s going to have a real impact and that your marketing is going to be more effective as you are ‘selling’ to the right people.
2 – Key Messages
Next you need to identify your key messages. What are the most important things about your business that you need your potential customer to know? What makes your service or product different to everyone else, what makes it stand out, what are the Unique Selling Points (USP)?
Think about your customers pain points, or problems. These are the things that are going to resonate with them. Make a list of those too, then in all your marketing these are the things you want to be shouting about all the time.
3 – Look at Competitors
Looking at your competitors is always a good way to find out what other people in your industry are doing. Do they have a website, what social media channels are they on, do they appear in the newspaper, do they produce flyers, how do they sell themselves? If they are a busy thriving business, this gives you an indication that what they are doing works, so lead by example. Don’t copy…do it even better.
4 – Establish A Social Media Presence
If you have no budget, no following, no email list or background then social media is a great place to get known. Share posts that resonate with your ideal client, posts that get attention, shout about your key messages and grow your marketing organically that way.
5 – Get Networking
One of my favourite, but often forgotten about forms of marketing is networking. It’s a little different and difficult right now but have a look online to see what online networking events there are and if your ideal client would join these events. If the answer is yes, then get networking (and even better face-to-face when we can).
Another sneaky tip I’m going to add in here is PR. Public Relations is a great way to get some free press coverage for your business. It is often really simple to get a news story in your local paper about your flourishing new business, but the key to this is thinking about what the news story is. It’s not just that you opened a business, but the reasons why you started a business, your background, your story. Sell your story to the newspaper so they want to write about you.
So, if you have zero budget and want to know where to start in marketing your business, these are some sure-fire ways to get noticed and to get marketing successfully without being overwhelmed.
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