How to start marketing your business
Now that I’ve started two businesses (one of which is a marketing consultancy), I’m particularly tuned in to the woes of new business owners. And surprise, surprise! Marketing is one of the biggest pain points.
People know how to run their businesses, but self-promotion is a totally different skill. Yes, you can read about marketing or hire experts, but marketing has a remarkable amount of jargon to cut through.
So I decided to create this primer. Think of it as Marketing 101: It’s an overview with an explanation of basic best practices. You should feel ready to get started on your own after reading it, or at the very least, feel equipped to continue learning.
The funnel
The marketing funnel is the king of all marketing jargon. Essentially, it’s metaphor for the customer journey, or how a person goes from never having heard of you to being a customer. In other words, it’s this:
At the top, imagine everyone in the world.
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Next, imagine everyone who is aware of your company.
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From here, who is considering working with you?
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And finally, who has made a purchase?
It’s called a funnel because in theory the pool gets smaller at every step. Your goal, with marketing, is to move people through these stages. The type of marketing that creates awareness is often different than the type of marketing that leads you to purchase. After all, how many company jingles do you know by heart, despite never having shopped with that company?
I’m going to use this funnel, or customer journey, as a rough structure to recap some of the basic principles of marketing.
Awareness
Getting your name out there can be the hardest part. The best way to do this can depend on what your business is selling.
If your business would benefit from referrals, try to create a situation where this is as easy as possible. Give stacks of your business cards to professional contacts to make it easy for them to recommend you.
If your business is more generic in nature, awareness can be created via paid advertising. With paid advertising, you’re using various techniques to make sure your name pops up, whether it’s via Facebook ads, the sidebar of various websites, or in an old fashioned newspaper.
Promoting content you are already creating (versus creating new content for ads) can be a good way to start. For instance, if you have an Instagram or Facebook page, you can pay to promote your content. This can be very reasonable, say $5 a day for 10 days, and your reach can be in the thousands. You can also set who you target. For instance, you can try to target people who are interested in breastfeeding or volunteer work.
The more you know about your audience, i.e. the type of people who are most likely to seek your products/services, the more successful your marketing will be. Not only can you target those people, but you can research them and make sure you’re creating content that’s likely to resonate.
If you’re thinking: I’m too busy starting my business to worry about an Instagram or Facebook, there are solutions out there. Sites like UpWork allow you to post jobs where you can pay people to manage your social media. Yes, some of the applicants to this will be very cheap and based in India. But there are also recent college grads and highly qualified individuals. It will cost you more than doing it yourself, but these experts can also help you develop a look and a system that you can then take over for yourself when you have enough bandwidth.
You can also try to earn awareness via search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations. SEO can be challenging because search engines are forever changing their algorithms. There are plenty of companies that do this full time, and lots of expensive software that can help you optimize for search. However, if you’re not there yet there are still some best practices you can use.
Google trends can help you determine keywords.
Google trends lets you see how popular different search terms are. For instance, far more people search for “cheap vacation” than “budget vacation” so if I’m marketing an affordable vacation, I’m much more likely to capture search if I use the word “cheap” than “budget.” This may be counterintuitive, as budget may sound classier, but think of how you yourself search for things. Then, incorporate some of that language—known as keywords or keyphrases—into your website.
For public relations, you don’t have to turn yourself into a media company. But it’s a good idea to start subscribing to publications your audience is likely to read. Then, put yourself out there as an expert. You can do this by signing up to speak at industry events, publishing your own work (so reporters can see your expertise first hand), and registering for sites like Help a Reporter, where your name will be searchable by journalists who are looking for expert sources for a story.
When you’re ready, you can also serve as your own PR person; simply email editors at the publications. It’s helpful email them about an angle or a specific story, versus simply offering yourself as an expert. Just be sure to do a little bit of research around pitch letters; reporters are famous for being quick to toss poorly written pitches. For instance, just saying you’re an expert won’t cut it.
Consideration
Once someone knows your name, you need to convey quickly and powerfully why you are someone they should consider working with or purchasing from. This is where content marketing has gained a big following. Content can be anything from entertainment to education, but it creates engagement.
When someone is engaged with your brand, they’re more likely to take that next step to purchase or book an appointment.
In order to create engaging content, ask yourself: What is your value add? If you’re an expert at a new type of physical therapy, creating content to explain what the therapy is and why it’s beneficial is likely going to be an essential part of getting someone to work with you. Try to create blog posts or videos that demonstrate your methodology.
It’s also important that you get your content out into the world; don’t just make videos and post them on your website. Upload them to YouTube. Post clips to Instagram. Make it as easy as possible for people to discover your expertise.
This type of content can have ripple effects. Potential clients will hopefully see it, but as mentioned above, journalists may use it to verify your expertise and book you as an expert, thereby exposing you to more clients. In fact, content can be one of the best ways from taking you from a business to a brand.
Conversion
Getting someone to take the final step can be the hardest part. This is why so many retailers offer incentives: Sales, buy one-get one deals, free consultations and so on. If you’re in a position to offer this type of incentive, it could be a good way to encourage potential clients to take that final step into full fledged client.
Creating an easy user experience is also key. Make it as easy as possible for someone to book an appointment or make a payment. Something as simple as “send an inquiry” (versus easy booking) could deter a potential client.
Never Stop Marketing
Just because someone is a client doesn’t mean you should stop marketing to them. You want to make sure they are continually aware of (and considering) new offerings.
This is another area where creating engaging content can help. You’re continually demonstrating to your existing customers why they’re getting a good value by continuing to work with you.
Additionally, everyone wants to be the friend that discovers an amazing product or service and shares it with their friends. Content can often help clients do this. They don’t have to say “take my word for it, ____ is amazing,” they can share your content and show not tell how great you are.