by Thomas Griffin
23 April 2019 Starting a new business is an exciting experience. Your marketing strategy will play a crucial role in the success of your company. Here are three of the most common marketing mistakes, and how you can overcome them. When most people think about starting a company, they often think too far ahead. While the long term plan is important, it's also important to take some time to think about your short-term marketing strategy. Instead of focusing heavily on niche specific marketing mistakes, we are going to take a look at mistakes that new business owners can make when working out how they are going to market their company. You need a complete website for marketing One of the first mistakes many business owners make is to believe they must have a complete website to start marketing to their audience. A common trend among new startups is creating a Coming Soon page for potential customers. A Coming Soon page is a way to give customers a taste of what's to come when your website and business officially launches. We often have it set in our minds that it is impossible to promote something that doesn't yet exist, but that's not true. Don't forget a contact page Surprisingly, many new business owners forget about this crucial aspect of their website. It doesn't matter if you're creating a Coming Soon page, or just launching your site on day one. You must have an easy way for customers to contact your business. There are a whole host of free and premium form builders you can download for your website. These builders give you the freedom and flexibility to build custom contact pages for your customers so they can communicate what they need help with regarding your product or service. You could also use this as an opportunity to discover what kind of pain points your customers have – as it pertains to your niche – so you can work on improving your company once you notice a reoccurring problem. Contact pages are relevant because they are a way for you to keep in contact with the people who buy your products, potentially adding them to your email marketing list. This strategy could open the door for future email offers and makes marketing new products to a test audience easy. Editor's note: Looking for email marketing software for your business? Fill out the questionnaire below to have our vendor partners contact you about your needs. Do you have a list of email addresses for your email marketing campaigns? Please note: Email marketing companies do not provide email address lists. You must possess a list prior to enlisting the services of a marketing company. Yes - We already have a list of addresses No - We will need to obtain a list of addresses Don't be afraid to experiment When people start marketing their website to a broader audience, they often feel as if their way is the right way. You have to be able to come to terms with your notions of what customers want and run split tests on your email marketing campaign and on-site ads to learn what your customers expect from your brand. For example, if you're running a site about content marketing and keep pushing a free checklist for new bloggers and no one is responding, maybe it's time to think about other things that could benefit your audience. You can run split tests with two ad campaigns – one with the free checklist and one with access to an SEO webinar – and see which ad gets the most traction. The point here is that sometimes you have to put different options out there, see how the customers respond, and use that analytic data to determine where to take your business model next. [Interested in email marketing services for your small business? Check out our best picks and reviews.] Conclusion As a new business owner, your marketing strategy should change rapidly during the first few years of business. You'll learn how to handle customer issues and how you can use their problems to build a better product. After you've nailed down a formula, it’s essential to keep your mind open and anticipate small changes while marketing. The small changes can and will add up to more significant changes over time. One final tip is that you must be prepared to evolve with your brand and your customers. Don’t get too comfortable or set in your ways. If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that marketing is continually changing based on social media, customer perception and needs, and how you present your business to potential leads. |
Marcus Guiliano
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