Top Marketing Strategies for a New Business

Most new businesses and startups don't have the time or capital to gamble on marketing strategies which might not work. And while there are plenty of articles on the internet promoting hundreds of different excellent marketing strategies, many of them aren't appropriate for cash-strapped new businesses, or startups which don't have months to wait for the results of an ultra-targeted campaign. Others are appropriate only for specific niches or industries, and shouldn't be applied without careful consideration.

Whatever the nature of your business, we've gotten together some of the best and most effective marketing strategies to utilize to grow your client base methodically and effectively.

Social Media Marketing

Whether you're a B2B business or primarily work in B2C offerings, you can leverage the power of social media to market to potential customers for a massive improvement on ROI over traditional advertising. But that doesn't mean that it's easy! For example, choosing the right social media network to market on based on your ideal client base can be difficult, and if you do a poor job of producing or targeting your marketing efforts, you're basically throwing money into the wind. That said, most social media websites provide detailed analytics and targeting mechanisms to help, and offer free support staff to assist you in setting up campaigns for the best results. Instead of jumping into social media marketing uninformed, utilize these and other free resources for the best results.

Content Marketing

Content marketing can be a cost-effective marketing strategy all on its own, but can also dramatically increase the effectiveness of other marketing strategies, especially SEO and social media-based strategies. The most obvious benefit of content marketing is that a website with more information will be more likely to draw more visitors... and keep them for longer, increasing your lead-generation rate. But it can also improve broader brand reputation and awareness, and usually improves a website's conversion rate. If your business is mostly web-based, this strategy shouldn't be ignored, and is arguably the best marketing strategy through your blog.

Free Products

Whatever your product is, you can often generate the fastest (and most far-reaching) buzz by giving it away for free. Or even nearly-free. Providing customers an opportunity to try your business by getting a free product in return for promoting it on social media or elsewhere can immediately maximize brand awareness across all target markets. It’s usually much easier to capture a return customer than a new one, meaning that this short-term hit to profitability can net you a lot of regular customers. If you don’t have the wherewithal to give many customers your product or services for free, consider identifying key influencers, such as popular bloggers or social media users, and offering them a free product in return for promotion to their circles.

Media Mentions

Another fantastic strategy is to gain media mentions: especially if you're dealing with local consumers! But even if you're not, niche-specific media mentions and endorsements from trusted sources can do a great deal to ensure not just that there’s more general brand awareness for your company, but trust. Many potential consumers will shy away from a new business because it’s untested, and they don’t know if the customer service experience or product quality are reliable. Having a position of authority vouch for your business can help solve both those problems.

The Bottom Line

Marketing a new business is complex, and if you don't prove your value convincingly and concisely, you might find few first-adopters of your services lining up and your investment funds dwindling. It's not uncommon for fantastic ideas to fail their first market test because of poor media attention, advertising, and marketing. These failures to raise customer awareness can be easily prevented by beginning with a fantastic marketing strategy with well-set goals and timelines.

 

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