There are many things new startups needs to consider and plan for in order to provide the highest likelihood of success for their new businesses.
These include things like market research, ensuring a suitable product/market fit, and making sure that what you’re selling is actually something that people want and are willing to pay for.
These are kind of a given.
But once that’s done…
Once the ideas fleshed out…
Solid…
And ready to go…
What do you do next?
The following 6 steps outline a basic marketing blueprint to help make sure your ducks are in a row, and you don’t put the cart before the horse.
Ok enough animal metaphors, let’s get to it!
1. Branding
This includes logos and colours and any other brand related materials (your business name as well) and deciding on one early will save massive headaches later on.
A big mistake I see companies make is starting with a simple idea or a quickly thrown together logo on a home computer, and then have to pay big money later on down the road when they want to change it to something more professional.
The other side of the coin is spending too much time or money on a logo. The key here is to hire a professional, get one done, and then get to work.
2. Website
Get the domain registered (as you’ve hopefully already done) and get a website up as this will be where you want to drive the majority of traffic to and will be the online property that you control completely (unlike social media channels where we rent space on their networks).
For website hosting I use and recommend WPEngine as they’re the fastest, safest, and most reliable host I’ve found yet.
3. Email
Set up a custom email (ideally through Google Apps which is a fantastic service and only $5/month that will allow you to have a custom email name (ie yourname@yourcompany.com)
Avoid using free email services like yourname@hotmail.com and yourname@gmail.com like the plague. It just screams amateur.
4. Email Signature
A custom email signature is a “nice to have” not a “need to have” but it helps establish credibility, and provides contact information. My favorite is Wisestamp.
5. Facebook
A Facebook business page should be next on the list and should incorporate your company branding from your website so you’re presenting a clear and consistent image.
From there, you’ll want to fill it out as best as possible and then invite your friends to “like” the page.
You can run a short promotion to promote the page as well but I’ve found that advertising dollars are normally better spend sending traffic to a website or landing page than to simply increase page “likes”.
6. Search engine optimization (SEO)
While SEO is amazing at increasing traffic and business it’s also the most complicated aspect of online marketing so careful consideration and assigning a value to a customer is important before going down this time intensive path and expensive.
7. Next Steps
Once the preceding basics are taken care of you’re pretty much ready to go.
From here there are a few more advanced techniques you can look into including: * Google Analytics * Google Webmaster tools * installing a Facebook retargeting pixel on the website *And setting up highly targeted local Facebook Ads.
If you want to go a step further, there are even more marketing options available such as:
- Custom landing pages
- Content creation
- And email marketing
But make sure you’ve got the basics well handled first before diving into these options.
By taking a little bit of extra time and doing things correctly from the start, you’re giving your startup the best possibility of success and ensuring you’re startup is built on a solid foundation.
