As a startup business, the common challenge might be the obscure guideline limiting the daily business sales of products or the visibility of your brand.
Having a well-thought-out marketing strategy as a business is the game changer in reaching new prospects and converting them into customers of the product or service that your business provides.
A plan to boost your business marketing would require you to get informed about the company’s value proposition, key marketing messages, information on the target customer and other high-level elements. That might have an impact on your strategy.
Here are 8 ways that you might want to consider to boost your small business marketing in 2019
1. Conduct a SWOT Analysis
Most of the time, the failure in the business performance or visibility might be due to unutilized strength within the business.
This is exactly why you need to start listing down as a business where there might be strength with the opportunities with your internal team.
You want not to neglect the weaknesses with the threats that are likely to impact your performance
In your marketing plan, SWOT analysis would be commonly applied in developing the business strategies while forming the ground to start on with your team.
A thoroughly done analysis of these four metrics; strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats will uncover a wide scope of data that may be useful in many circumstances.
2. Follow blogs and read extensively
With an ever-changing industry, it’s easy to get lost, or worse, become irrelevant if you don’t keep up.
Keeping with the trend and talks that shape or influence your business performance, you may need to remain updated.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh ideas that will inspire you. You can follow some good design blogs. Here are some design blogs to spend some time reading daily:
Simpaul Design If you want to become good at visual design for your marketing and advertising campaign, add this website to your bookmark list now.
Gainbuzz It is again covering advertisement topics and some create ads.
1stWebdesigner Keep track of the latest developments in the design industry with this blog.
FastCo Design Find some inspiration every day with this sub-blog of FastCompany.
Swiss Miss Take a break with this fun, an inspiring and interesting blog with snackable content.
3. Take feedback
As many may avoid feedback as they feel that it’s only going to cause them time and money. The bottom line of it is, feedback is the best way for a business to review its activities and establish what the customer would want.
How you handle negative feedback as a constructive sentiment is what makes your business ‘human’ and inclusive of the customer’s needs.
Your areas that may need improvement as a business might be overlooked by the internal team but your customers may provide you with a critique that may improve your business sales.
4. Have clear and attainable goals
When you have no clear goal to work for, it may be difficult for you to identify your milestones or measure key performance indicators (KPIs)in your market or industry.
The performance or the success of a business need to be measured to identify shortcomings and the areas that need attention.
To define your business goals you may need to understand that they are part of a larger process starting with the vision and mission of your business and ending with specific goals, objectives, and action plans.
To put it plainly your business goals are what helps your business move forward like the ‘engine’. Of course, these goals should not just be any random goal you think as in the end they need to be attainable.
So have realistic goals, with clear timelines set for you to easily gauge your performance.
5. Price Your Product or Services well
Your pricing model for a product or service varies widely between B2B and B2C offerings.
In the customer’s buying process their many factors that the customer may consider including the indirect competitors that are vying for their customer’s dollars.
Overlooking these may cost you a fortune having in mind that customers don’t compare products and services in a vacuum, they compare the offer across various businesses and brands.
Your geographic and demographics of the target customers may inform you also about your pricing. The important aspect to consider is the profit margin and how much the customers are willing to spend on the product or service.
Underpricing your product without factoring even the cost of production, or the expenses incurred may lead to the downfall of your business.
?You?ll never know how much someone will pay until money changes hands. Many founders make the mistake of asking people how much they would pay for something. Theoretical spending answers do not reflect reality! Instead, pre-sell your product or service by actually asking for the sale. You?ll quickly find out how much people are really willing to pay.? ? Laura Roeder, MeetEdgar.com
6. Build on your design process
As the business model design is unique there is no prediction on how your business might evolve. This would require reviewing of your business in phases as you study the trends and the need that arises.
The design process consists of five phases:
Mobilize: preparing for a successful business model design project
Understand: Research and analyze elements needed for the business model design effort
Design: Generate and test viable business model options and choose the best
Implement: Implement the business model prototype in the field
Manage Adapt and modify the business model in response to the market reaction.
A well-defined design process will be able to:
- Fulfil a current need in the market which no other product or company are meeting.
- Give you a boost in the market by being the first with an idea, technology or product.
- Be the change agent in the industry by introducing a new business model. You may have these as a desire to bring innovation, creation of evolution in the market or simply to change how things are being done in an industry.
- Target and identify a whole new market.
7. Develop your branding materials
With the design process in place, the next step is to apply and have branding materials that communicate your business values and promises.
Let your branding materials from the logo, business cards, business profile and even the website have consistency in the brand style, use of the corporate colours, and the choice of typeface and pictorials.
These will ensure your business is coherent in its communication and the image of the business being portrayed.
Effective use of your brand materials will be your best marketing channel for your product or service.
Start by choosing a designer or an agency that could best understand the problem you are seeking to solve and have an illustration of the concept that can be easily understood by your target customers.
Related: Types Of Visual Content You Need For Your Brand Strategy
8. Build your work portfolio
Regardless of the industry, your business is in, you would want to have a sampling of the kind of work you have done previously. This could either be captured in a video format of a case study, images of the product, or a brief paper on the result of the work done.
This helps build on your trust and engagement with your customers. As customers would wish to relate to real-time projects done by a given business or company.
It is easy for your target market to view the expected results of the product or service when having a case study of a project you have done in the past.
