Just started a new business? Read this! (Part 1)
Did you know that only half of new business stay in business after 5 years according to the SBA? Of course there are a lot of different reasons behind such statistics but once of them, in many cases, is without doubt lack of planning and marketing.
Marketing consist of many, many things like branding, advertisement, publicity, website, word-of-mouth referrals, even your how you handle your customer service! All of them are important, but the most important thing is how they interact and complement each other to deliver your customer a unique and delightful experience.[This is the first of 3 articles highlighting the importance of marketing and advertisement in new businesses]
First of all, we hope that before you opened the doors of your new business you researched a little bit, and have a clear idea of who your ideal client is. If you have not done this already I urge you to go grab a piece of paper, turn off your computer and your phone and think about how is your ideal client, and why is that this ideal client will buy from you. (and how).
This is were you want to get, right?
I talk to new business owners very often. and I am always surprised by how, unless they started their business with a huge capital, new businesses owners think they cannot afford any kind of advertisement/marketing. They think they should not spend a lot of money in having a professional designer do their new business logo and website, or in things like getting a clear brand. This is a huge mistake. New businesses lack the steady stream of income that a customer base provides, also, unless they open in a great, but I mean great location, they will remain unknown to their target market unless they go out there and get the word out (a.k.a do some marketing). This is an essential task for any new business: to attract and maintain new customers until a sustainable customer base is obtained.
However, very often I hear things like “I just started, so I cannot advertise” or “I just opened my new business, money is scarce, so I cannot do any marketing, but when things get better I will.”
In my point of view this is complete madness! Yes, I understand that you have to be careful with cash and that a good accountant and book keeping will definitely help but imagine for a second that you have a leg injury that prevents you from walking unless you go to rehab. One day you wake up and think to yourself “I don’t go to rehab because I cannot walk, but once I can walk I will go to rehab.” Now, if you are lucky, you will let time pass and maybe your leg will get better so you could walk but if you are not, then you will stay in that position for a very, very long time, if not, ever.
Very often people will see advertisements and/or marketing as an expense rather than as an investment. They don’t see advertisement as a way of attracting new business, or they simply don’t want to take the risk of spending money and never see it back. Think about, yes money is scarce but if you spend $500 on a marketing campaign that will eventually bring $1,500 back, wouldn’t that be a worthy risk to take?
It is very important that if you decide to do some kind of advertisement you must try to find ways to measure the effectiveness of different marketing mediums, such as giving coupons or discounts for specific marketing campaigns, creating specific landing pages for the online ad with your local newspaper, and so on. This will help you identify which efforts are really paying out and which ones are not.
A voice of warning; there are some marketing campaigns and mediums that work, and others that do not work for your market. Very often you learn this by experience, by learning from your customers, by listening to them, what is that they like, where is that they learn about the things they need (your products/services). It may be worth it to spend a bit more, and get help from a professional who will do two things for you: Will work with you to understand your market better, and maximize the odds of your marketing campaign, and second, will do the work for you, so you can focus on other aspects of your business to continue growing your business.
Now don’t think that just because you published an ad on the newspaper or you bought the biggest banner on the highway that your phone will not stop ringing or people will flock your office/store. It is unlikely to be the case, but you will start to position your business and to have some presence. (We will talk more about this in the second part of this series. Stay tuned!)
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