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Avoiding Marketing Downfalls Marketing is immensely important to a startup business. The new company needs to attract the attention of potential customers. The process warrants due diligence; marketing involves the portrayal of the startup's image and facilitating a dynamic with customers. It is important for a startup to begin moving forth in a steady fashion. Consider the following marketing tips. Business Startup Marketing Tip #1 – Know your market It would be ideal to offer a service/product that is needed by every person in the world. In most cases, this is not a possibility, so a 'target market' is defined, illuminating customers that are likely to purchase a startup’s product/service. A startup needs to define their target market and learn about their behaviors in order to better market to them. This includes knowing radio stations they listen to; television program they view; magazines they read; etc. A startup can never have too much information about their target market. Business Startup Marketing Tip #2 – Distinguish customers A startup’s customers are not going to relate to the company in an equal manner. It is wise to value all customers, but it is necessary to distinguish between them. Be mindful of the '80/20 theory,' which assumes that about 80% of a business’ revenue stems from about 20% of their clients. That is a large amount of revenue from a small number of clients; it would be good business to keep that 20% very happy. Business Startup Marketing Tip #3 – The cost of your customers It is crucial to assess the 'cost' of customers, meaning how much money is poured into marketing/advertising in order to prompt a customer to make a purchase. For instance, if it costs a startup $10 to prompt a customer to make a $6 purchase, then something needs to change quickly. Assessing the amount it takes to get a customer to make a purchase helps engineer a startup's marketing plan and target market. Through the life of the startup, marketing plans may need modification; also, the scope of the target market may broaden, become smaller, or need complete reassessment depending on the changing nature of the startup. Calculate the costs of recruiting, maintaining, and inspiring future purchases of customers. In addition, analyze customers' profiles to decide whether particular ones are optimal for the target market. Business Startup Marketing Tip #4 – It is about the customer Many startup businesses want to tell the world about their greatness. There is nothing wrong with confidence; but, from a marketing perspective, it is wise to engineer marketing sentiments in a way that is empathetic towards the customer. A startup's marketing messages need to be about how the service/product can improve the state of the customer and not about the greatness of the startup or its products/services. A startup makes money by selling to the customer and not from an inflated ego. By: Michael Slater Michael Slater uses his vast business experience to facilitate the growth of start-ups by addressing ways to recruit funding, improve sales, and fine-tune their overall business model.
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