Entering into any industry as a new business can be challenging, especially considering over half fail within the first five years. To stand a chance of succeeding, plenty of effort needs to be put into marketing techniques, which don’t have to come at a high cost to the business. Throughout this article, we offer up eleven tips for marketing a new business.
Have a Mobile-Optimized Website
Data presented by Explodingtopics.com suggest that more than 92.3% of internet users access the web from a smartphone and more than 56% of all web traffic originates from mobile devices. Given the enormous trend in mobile usage, it goes without saying that your website and other marketing efforts have to function properly on any mobile. If you’re not catering to smartphone users in 2023, you may as well prevent the inevitable and liquidate your business now.
Be Active on Social Media Channels
There are around 4.8 billion social media users worldwide, which means there are a lot of potential customers you can engage almost completely free of charge. However, you’ll need to carry out some research to find out where your customers are hanging out, whether that means you advertise on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, or any other channel.
Once you’ve set up the channel, it’s important to post consistently high-quality content, which will help boost brand authority and attract new customers. Alongside high-quality content, remember that this is social media, so make sure you’re interacting with customers in the comments and messages.
Optimize Google Business Account
With more people relying on smart assistants and smartphones for location-based information, it has never been more important to make sure your Google Business page is complete and fully optimized. According to reports from Google back in 2018, more people assume smartphones know where they are, which means they’re removing location information in searches in favor of “near me”.
Research Competitor Marketing Tactics
Every new business has competitors that are considered successful. Even though you can’t plagiarize content, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with exploring their marketing efforts to see what’s worked for them. By analyzing competitors, you can find new markets to tap into, make sure your prices and offers are correct, and you may even find ways to update your overall business plan.
Fully Understand Your Audience
There’s no way to market a new business without understanding the target audience. Therefore, you have to spend time researching local demographics to find out what your audience’s needs are. The more you know about your audience, the more engaging and useful content you’ll create, which will boost your sales.
Use Offers, Discounts, and Loyalty Schemes
Even though your website and social channels will have plenty of suitable calls to action (CTA), some potential customers may need a little more encouragement to make that click. Therefore, you should create a series of incentives including giveaways, free samples, and other offers. As well as this, you need to find ways to bring back existing customers, which you can do by creating a loyalty program.
Encourage Customers to Leave Reviews
According to GlobalNewswire, around 96% of consumers check out reviews before buying anything from a company – and a further 58% go on to say they’d spend more if a business has good reviews. With this in mind, you should find ways to encourage your customers to leave reviews. A great way to do this is with a follow-up email or asking how their experience was. As well as simply asking, you can put an incentive on it, like entry into a monthly prize draw.
Explore Email Marketing Campaigns
If you’re not already collecting user email addresses, whether that be from a newsletter subscription or a sale, you need to start now. Once you’ve got email addresses, you can spend very little money on an email campaign, which will help to attract return customers. According to data collected by Hubspot, businesses can expect to see a return of $38 for every $1 spent, which makes it one of the most profitable marketing techniques.
Form Partnerships with Influencers and Businesses
As a new business, you’re part of a wider community of businesses simply trying to make it in a cutthroat environment. Therefore, you will find that many non-competing businesses will be open to partnering, which gives you access to their established network. To make the partnership mutually beneficial, you have to offer something in return.
As well as businesses, you should attempt to build a positive relationship with relevant influencers, who will use social channels to discuss your business with their followers. In most cases, you’ll have to provide a free sample and other incentives. To find an influencer, you should check out social media channels and start interacting with their comments, which will catch their attention. Eventually, you can successfully reach out and ask if they’ll partner with your business.
Create Quality Content for All Channels
When you’re creating content, you may be fooled into focusing more on satisfying the needs of the Google algorithm. However, even though SEO (search engine optimization) is important, providing high-quality to your customers is always a winner. Some examples of useful content include:
- Service or product reviews
- How-to content
- General articles
- List-based content
Video Content is King
In a world where TikTok, Facebook and Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts are the dominating form of social content, you should be including useful video content in your marketing strategy. However, you should make sure it’s not content for the sake of content. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Product demonstrations
- Q&A sessions
- Behind-the-scenes shots
- Interviews with the team
- Customer testimonial videos
Attracting customers as a new business involves putting in hard work and creating an effective marketing strategy. You don’t need to spend a fortune on marketing to begin with, as many of the steps outlined above can be done with a limited budget. No matter which marketing channels you’re using, remember that high-quality content is always the winner.
