There are many aspects that an entrepreneur must keep in mind in order to start his business well. Every new entrant in the business world faces some sort of difficulties or issues as it is not a walk in the park. The marketing aspect is one of the main features as in today’s market, impression and image – both are everything. If you are not able to market your company, your product and image well, then your path to success will be shaky to say the least.
Apart from marketing, there are many other aspects too which need the attention of a young entrepreneur. The following 8 tips, chiefly related to marketing and operations, can be instrumental to the success of any new entrant in the marketplace.
1. Stellar business plan
It doesn’t matter through which way you want to get the capital for your new venture, a detailed and comprehensive business plan is the basic requirement. Very few people have a healthy bank account so that they can start any business without blinking an eye. A plan which has all the details about your operations, marketing, sales figure for the next 2-3 years, etc. is one of the fundamental requirements of making sure you will get the approval from whichever source you are pitching for the capital. The list includes financial institutions, banks, angel investors, etc.
2. Don’t hire complete in-house staff early on
Being careful with spending and staffing early on as you may shell out too much amount right at the start of your business. You don’t need superfluous expenditures to hamper your growth and in-house and permanent staff will do exactly that. It’s more cost effective to hire freelancers and interns to start your work early on and when your business is fully established only then go for the permanent staff.
3. An eCommerce ready website
If you think that you can run and expand your business by just using the social media or email marketing, you are wrong. Most customers look for a product or service on the Internet and they search websites for it, not social media pages. Very few people buy a product other than a website as most of the times consumers’ decision is not based on a tweet or FB post. If you don’t have a website then you may lose a potential customer to your competitor company.
It is not very difficult to have a website for your business as you can take the assistance from web development services in this regard. Another reason you need a website is that it is a direct line of communication between you and your potential clients as you can showcase your products prominently on your business portal. So go for a website before formally launching your product in the market.
4. Creative SEO strategy
The next logical step after your website is live, you need a detailed and extensive SEO strategy because search engines like Google are more likely to rank your site higher if you have applied the strategies right. This includes adding keywords to your content, titles and descriptions to name a few tactics. If you don’t know how to do it, there are a number of companies or digital marketing agencies which can help you out in this important aspect.
5. Keep an eye on the outcomes
Knowing the status and effectiveness of your marketing strategy is very important than the strategy itself. In other words, you need to know what’s going on and how well your strategies are working out. If you’re not studying analytics, measuring sales volume, and evaluating your pay-per-click ads, then you might as well not have a marketing strategy at all. That’s the reason why you must alter the strategy according to the changing scenario or market requirement.
6. Marketing to the wrong audience
An extension of the point no. 5, if you will market the to the wrong audience, there is no way you will get close to the results. According to me, “If you don’t know how to make market your product to the right audience, then probably you need expert’s advice to make sure you are heading in the right direction.”
7. Too much focus on the competitors
If you are focusing too much on the competitors, then it is not a good ploy. If you want to study their marketing ploys and tactics, then most of the companies do follow a similar pattern to woo the audience through their websites and social media channels. So it’s time to concentrate on your own strategies rather than mimic the ones of your competitors.
8. Keeping future trends and scenario in mind
While no one can predict the future, you need to make sure that you are aware of all the latest trends in the market that will dominate in the near future. Also, try to research about what the future will hold for your product and in the industry in which you work so that you are ready for any drastic change coming up.
Muneeb Qadar Siddiqui
Muneeb Qadar Siddiqui is a professional marketer and offers expert services for companies in the UAE and MENA region. He works for Branex Dubai and is a thorough professional regarding any issue concerning online and digital marketing. He is a lively person who takes great interest in learning new ways to interact with people and ultimately with customers to know what they really want in a marketing campaign. You can contact him for the marketing of any product or service.