11 Marketing Tips For Starting A Business

Starting a business is exciting. 

You get to work on a project that’s entirely yours. 

But, you soon realize one important thing – your business is worthless without customers willing to pay for your services or products. 

Even the best ideas in the world are worthless if you can’t sell them.

This article goes over 11 essential marketing tips to help new businesses find their customers. We share actionable tactics and methods you can try to start your business and find your customers. 

Let’s start with the first one. 

Know Your Audience

This is the most important thing for every business owner. You have to understand what people in your target market think. You have to understand their pains and problems. You have to understand what they want. 

You can create targeted marketing campaigns if you connect with your audience. You can position your brand to match favorably with existing businesses in the market. 

You can also create offers that you know have a better chance of getting picked by the people if you understand what they want. 

We recommend you keep coming back to this tip as your business grows. There’s a chance your target audience changes with time. If that’s the case, you have to fine-tune your messaging and offers to better align your brand with your audience. 

Remember, always think about how your brand can solve problems for your target audience. 

Focus On What Works

We’ll let you in on a little secret all marketers know – marketing is all about testing. 

You can prepare an amazing campaign, but it still might fail. Nothing is certain in marketing. That’s why professional marketers often test different campaigns simultaneously. They start small to see what works best. 

Once they find a campaign that provides the biggest ROI, they eliminate all campaigns that aren’t delivering results and double-down on the net positive campaigns. 

We recommend you keep track of all your campaigns across your marketing channels. Take note of the things that work. Eliminate the channels that aren’t delivering sales and leads, and instead focus on the ones that do. 

It’s better to have one or two strong campaigns than ten average ones. 

Build An Email List

This is a tip we hear often. But what makes email lists so effective?

For starters, the people on your list are yours. You don’t rely on anyone else to reach them. For example, if you want to attract visitors from Google, you have to first convince Google that your website is worth ranking for targeted keywords. 

But you can always reach people on your list. You can send a promotional message every time you launch a new product. 

You can ask them to spread the message about your brand. They are more likely to help you since they value you enough to be on your list. 

Start collecting e-mail addresses from the first day you start a business. 

Find People With Existing Audiences

Chances are, you don’t have a huge following as you start a business. This also means you don’t have an audience to talk to. 

That’s why we recommend you leverage people with existing audiences. Here’s how that works. 

You identify the most influential people in your industry. These can be vloggers, bloggers, and social media influencers. You find something they want. For example, an exclusive affiliate deal for your product. Or ask them about sponsored content on their website. 

You contact them, and you offer a collaboration. You explain to them what they gain by working with you. In exchange, you get the chance to promote your new business to their audience. 

We recommend you start with micro-influencers first. People with huge followings usually charge a lot of money for sponsored content. 

It’s better to start with smaller opinion leaders who are more likely to work with new businesses like yours. 

Go On Podcasts

You probably noticed podcasts are extremely popular. It seems like every online influencer has a podcast. People love them, and content creators love creating them. 

You can position yourself as an authority and contact popular podcasters in your niche. Offer to become a guest on one of their future episodes. 

You will gain access to a huge following, and you will be able to share your story. You can even promote your new business. Just make sure you’re not being pushy with your offering. People that listen to podcasts are more interested in tips and stories than products. 

Be kind and interesting. You’ll get invited to work with other podcasters if you do a good job. This is a great option to get the word about your business out to your target audience. 

Coupons And Early Discounts

People are skeptical about new businesses. It’s not they don’t trust you. They just aren’t sure if you’re what they are looking for. 

You need to entice them to give you a chance. You can do this by providing coupons and early adopter discounts. 

Discounts are a great way to turn leads into customers. Especially if you don’t yet have the credibility that other businesses in your niche have. 

But remember, you don’t want to attract cheap customers. Competing on price is rarely a smart idea. 

We recommend you don’t publicly offer discounts. Instead, offer them to people on your email list. This way, they get something valuable, and you don’t position your brand as something cheap. 

Local SEO

Every business that builds a website hopes to attract fresh visitors and leads from search engines like Google. 

But, SEO (search engine optimization) is a long-term game. It takes months to get your articles ranking. You need results faster. You need new customers. 

Local SEO might be the perfect option for you if you’re looking to quickly rank your website. Local SEO is similar to SEO. The only exception is you target people in specific geographic locations. 

For example, it would be almost impossible for a new business to rank for “affordable patio furniture” since there’s too much competition. 

But, if you try to rank for “affordable patio furniture in San Clemente,” you can definitely get the top position in Google faster. Of course, this implies you’re actually selling your products in San Clemente. 

Local SEO makes sense for businesses that have physical locations. 

Old-School PR

We understand digital marketing sounds more interesting, but old-school marketing tactics still work. PR articles can do wonders for your new business, especially if you’re running a local business.

Think of ways to get covered by the local press. One tactic that often works is to organize different events. 

You can invite industry experts or organize roundtable discussions with local opinion leaders. Make sure you send the invite to all TV stations and newspapers in your area. 

They are always looking for new stories to publish. It’s often a lot easier to get them to cover your event than you might think. 

Attend Events And Join Business Groups

You probably heard that connections are one of the most important things to have as a business owner. Knowing the right people can take your business to the next level. 

The hard part is getting to know the people that can help you. 

We recommend you attend business events in your niche. You can also join different business clubs and make connections there. Find where influential people meet and find a way to join their group. 

Make sure you don’t appear as someone looking for favors. Instead, do a good deed for them before asking them to help you. 

Be helpful and friendly. Help them solve a problem, and you’ll be surprised how quickly these business leaders will be willing to help you and your business. 

Paid Ads

Paid ads are the easiest marketing technique to measure. You can use different tracking codes to get precise results on which ads are working and which ones aren’t. 

You can easily optimize your campaigns once you have a few ads up and running. You can double-down on the ads that are working and scratch the ones that aren’t profitable. 

The downside of paid ads is that they cost money. You need a solid budget to run serious campaigns. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to get clicks for pennies, which was possible a few years ago. 

You can outsource your ad campaigns to a marketing agency if you have the budget for that. This then turns this tactic into a completely passive method. 

Cold Calling

Cold calling works best in B2B markets. You can probably do this in B2C, but cold calling produces better results in B2B. The first step is finding the information about your potential clients.

Once you have the contacts, you start cold calling the businesses that might be interested in what you have to offer. 

Introduce yourself and ask them for 15 minutes of their time. We don’t recommend you try to make the sale over the phone. 

Instead, ask if you can come in for a presentation. You can make an impression if you provide something valuable for them in the presentation. Give them a reason to work with you. 

This is a great way to get initial clients in the B2B world. 

Free Consultations

This tactic works best if you’re starting a service business. Offering free consultations is very similar to providing coupons and early discounts. 

The basic premise is this – you provide free consultations to people in your target audience. This way, you get your first testimonials and clients, even if they didn’t pay for your services. 

But, if they are happy with what you offer, they will spread the word. They will recommend you to their friends and family. 

You can also do this if you’re selling a product. You can consult people on the problems they have and offer your products as a way to solve the problems. 

Conclusion

As you see, there’s a lot you can do to grow your business. We understand that getting the word out isn’t easy. But getting the first clients can provide the motivation you need to elevate your business to the next level. 

We recommend you try the tips we shared in the article. You should probably pick one or two to start with. 

Good luck on your business journey.