Starting a business requires lots of work and lots of thought, and most entrepreneurs are focused on building the perfect product or deciding how best to deliver service to their potential customers. Of course, a product or service that people will love, talk about, and recommend to others can all but sell itself. Most business owners are not that lucky, and will have to work at finding customers, and many do not have a plan to market their business.
Here are some tips on getting some attention for your business, both locally and all around the world:
- Market Yourself First: Think of the start-up businesses that get the most buzz. Typically the owners or one of the top executives is exceptionally good at personal marketing and branding, and already are widely known and respected or liked. Because of this, they already have a great reputation and people trust them. This kind of great mojo is great to transfer to a fledgling business to help it soar! Internet marketers are often masters at this—they are everywhere on the web, which provides massive exposure, and a very receptive soft market.
- Be part of the local community: Even though your customer target may not be exclusively local, participating in your local community offers a start-up business many benefits. Building goodwill with your peers in the community can lead to collaborations with people that help each other only for the joy of seeing local success stories. Organizations that meet just to network and create friendships give business people a helping hand spreading the word and creating buzz about your business. Leverage for further marketing efforts can also come with a strong network of friends.
- Blog about your business: Blogging is a very effective way to build buzz about your company, and easily interact with your customers and potential customers. The blog should be the voice of the company, as opposed to those that come from a personal perspective. Be the voice of the business.
- Video presentation: While blogging is a long-term organic approach, posting a video really should be targeted to generate immediate and widespread attention for your business. Video is hot, and if you put together a fun and humorous video, it has the chance to go viral and be seen by thousands of people.
- Start-up sites: Submit information about your company to start-up listing sites on the internet. There are several large sites online like Mashable and Start-up Nation that cover start-ups and also offer lots of great marketing advice. Smaller sites like Killer Start-ups let you submit your start-up information for the community to vote on it. Similar sites such as Listio, SimpleSpark, and FeedMyApp can help build an online network, build awareness and an online presence, and also drive traffic to your website, blog, and business.
- Sustained marketing buzz: This is one of a new company’s biggest marketing challenges, but newer websites like Facebook and Twitter help you to gain popularity, continue your growth, sustain and increase the marketing buzz surrounding your business. The point is that you will need to continually work at sustaining and growing your marketing efforts for the duration of your business.
- Major announcement: Shortly following the initial launch of your business, be sure that you have something major to announce. Perhaps a few weeks into your launch, make an announcement of major upgrades to your product or services, thereby catching the fading buzz that was generated at launch time. Continually offering something ‘new and improved’ or some new change or advancement will enable your company to keep itself on the minds of clients and potential customers.
Having a plan, and working that plan, are vital to the success or failure of your new business. If you find that some parts of your strategy work better than others, you should increase your efforts in that area without neglecting completely other channels which may take a little longer to get results. Continuous marketing key, but do not be afraid to try something new or tweak your tactics when necessary for greater results.
This guest post written by Denise Gabbard, a writer and online marketing professional. She recommends start-up businesses in the bar and restaurant niche to check out the Pub Insurance site to protect your investment and hard work.
