The entrepreneurial spirit often finds its first hurdle in the form of operations, management and administration of business in its nascent form. However, the number one concern of every start up business is how to find and market to a targeted customer base on a consistent basis. However, there are strategies that have been proven to work in many cases throughout many industries when it comes to the creation and the maintenance of this initial audience.
Getting the Customers
Everything else hinges on your business finding its target market. If you know where your target market is, then you know where to place ads, you know what promotional products to give away and you understand the public relations that must be employed in order to retain goodwill. You will also have a much better understanding of who to partner with in your supply chain in order to create the most interesting and useful product for this audience.
The idea here is to create a “minimum value proposition” for your marketing campaign. This idea of the MVP is usually meant for the production schedule; however, it works just as well with the marketing schedule. The basic idea is to only place your funds behind small-scale marketing ideas that showcase the most promise.
Creating the Promo
Long gone are the days in which you could simply give away a free pen and hope for integration into a particular social circle. Even the free gifts of today need to be highly researched and targeted. First of all, you must be sure that you are giving away your promotional products only to the social leaders in your target market. This is why exchanging corporate gifts is such an important part in the marketing program of successful businessmen across industries.
Keep in mind that you do not have to spend money on physical product in order to create goodwill through promotional products. The main idea that you are looking to cultivate in your best customers is the idea of exclusivity. This can be done through a localized coupon that is personalized through an exclusive opt in email list. Ideas like this actually cost you nothing to implement. You do not even have to give up your time, because there are plenty of apps that will automate this entire process.
Building Partnerships
It is often said that if you want to move fast, go alone. However, if you want to move successfully, move within a group. While you will definitely need to hold up your end of the bargain when you do partnerships, you should understand that partnerships are definitely a net positive if you get involved with the right people.
The most important partners with whom you will likely trade correspondence are your supply-chain partners. You will need to make diligent decisions between quality and price. You will also need to test various supply chain providers for their distribution network and ability to be on time. Even if you are selling digital product, the distribution aspect of your supply-chain is definitely an important part of your operations.
You will also need to incorporate partnerships on the marketing side. You may choose to hire a third-party marketing company, but this is not the only marketing that your business can do online. As a matter of fact, most of the businesses that you will be partnering with will be reviewing your product on behalf of their audience. The name of the game today is the independent blogger and the social network review leader.
Putting Everything Together
Although none of the above steps is necessarily easy to put into practice, they are all necessary if you are looking to build a business that will last. Regardless of your industry, make sure that you have all of the above steps in place from the very beginning. You do not have to spend a great deal of money on any aspect of your marketing until the idea has proven itself within the scope of a minimum value proposition. You should not sign any long-term supply chain contracts until your suppliers prove themselves in the market as well.
