What are some of your initial marketing tactics?

[Cody]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to know what are some must-dos for when you initially launch your startup? Are there certain directories you post your site? Do you get started right away on content creation? I'm curious to find out. I recently launched a handwriting note service for personal and business purposes but am trying to get a grip on where I should start spending my resources in marketing this business.

Thanks for any replies!

[Owen]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to know what are some must-dos for when you initially launch your startup? Are there certain directories you post your site? Do you get started right away on content creation? I'm curious to find out. I recently launched a handwriting note service for personal and business purposes but am trying to get a grip on where I should start spending my resources in marketing this business.

Thanks for any replies!

-={ Owen's Step-By-Step Business Guide }=-
1. Get an idea
2. Plan out that idea and get it ready
3. Write A Business Plan
4. Start the development of your product
5. Roll around in cash

[Mont Ellis Consulting]

Hi Cody,

Congratulations on launching your start-up! The concept sounded really interesting, so I had a look at your website - I love it! I especially like how you have described the steps involved - you came across very personable and approachable, which fits well with your business model of handwritten, personal notes. Are there many other businesses doing a similar thing? I have't heard of any....
Anyway, to answer your question about whether you get started right away - YES! Many start-ups have a marketing plan months before the launch date, ensuring you hit the ground running. So, if you haven't started marketing already, now is definitely the time to do so.
It's always best to start with a very clear picture of who your target market is - demographics, behaviour, how they make their purchase decisions etc. Be very specific - by the end of this process, you should be able to describe, (even draw!) your customer. What do they look like, what do they do on a typical day? Now start thinking about how to get your service in front of them. What magazines do they read? What websites do they go to?
This will be your marketing channel(s)
Once you have this, you need to think about the actual advertisement, brand or content, again keeping your target market in mind. The language and images you use have to appeal to your audience, and be appropriate for the marketing channel. You should also have a clear call to action.
You can get really creative here, think about teaming up with other start-ups that complement what you do and appeal to the same target market. You may be able to do some promotions together and leverage off their contact lists or website traffic.
It's difficult to sum up a marketing strategy in a paragraph, but certainly start with a clear picture of who your target market is, and get in front of them!

Good luck!
Tanja

[Harold Mansfield]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to know what are some must-dos for when you initially launch your startup?
That's a broad question with no answer that is correct for everyone across the board. Marketing isn't a static set of rules or a step by step of specifics that is the same for every business.

How about you tell us what you've done so far, and what your goals are?


Are there certain directories you post your site?
Directories as an SEO strategy died a long time ago.
There are directories for specific industries like Angie's List and Home Advisory. If there are places like that for your industry where buyers look for services, then of course you want to be there. But don't waste your time submitting to random directories that have no traffic and that no one ever uses.

Outside of those specif examples and others like it, no one uses directories anymore. They use search engines.


Do you get started right away on content creation?
What kind of content? Do you mean blogging? Sure, if you have something to say that will show your expertise or help steer people in your direction for your services.


I'm curious to find out. I recently launched a handwriting note service for personal and business purposes but am trying to get a grip on where I should start spending my resources in marketing this business.
Thanks for any replies!

Your first step is to determine who you are, who your target market is, and where and how they look for your services. Only then can you create a strategy to be there when they are looking for you and attract them.

I'm sure when you started this business you had an idea of the kind of customer that would buy your product or service. Who are they?

[David Hunter]

Answer Harold's questions and we'll get back to you.

[cbscreative]

Answer Harold's questions and we'll get back to you.

Ditto on that.

And Tanja...paragraph spacing is a good thing.

It really helps enhance readability. :)

[turboguy]

While we are waiting for your answers to Harold's excellent questions I will throw out my two cents were.

First step would be a business plan as Owen suggested. I would spend as much time as possible identifying those specific types of people who might be interested in your services. Of course I would also include all the normal aspects of a business plan.

Assuming your product is defined, created and ready to go the next step it to expose it to as many people as possible. My top priority would be as good a web site as you can get. This is going to be your most important marketing tool.

Then I would work on Social media. This may or may not be a big factor in your success but it is a way to increase your visibility

I would then look at any other way you can get in front of people. This may be print advertising, pay per click, mailings, trade shows, radio or something else that isn't coming to my mind at the minute The more exposure you can get the better.

Then evaluate your return by the various methods and concentrate on the ones that are working.

[Cody]

As far as what I've done so far for marketing, it isn't much. I've ran a couple of small FB ads but didn't see much ROI since I am just offering a 15% off discount but don't really have a sales funnel set up as of yet. I am in the process of building content such as blog posts and infographics to hopefully attract more people, get their email addresses and move them down the funnel.

My target market for this handwriting note business is a little spread out depending on what kind of note you want. We have a business thanks note which is good for medium to large sized businesses (even small businesses if they have the budget) that want to send out a thank you note to a client that has referred someone or maybe just as a thank you to a customer that has been with the company for X amount of years.

Another one of our notes is a personal thank you note. This would target between the 22-40 year old range, I'm guessing predominantly female (not sure yet). These people would want to send a thank you note to a travel agent for example or a real estate agent. Just as a gesture to show their appreciation for the work that person has done.

We also have a birthday card and a prank card. The prank card would be predominantly targeted towards younger males and the birthday card is really quite open with whom we target. We may be visiting the idea of keeping the birthday card since it may be a little too impersonal.

Hope this helps answer some questions. I think targeting businesses who would like to send out thank you cards to clients would be a good place to start for now but I am a little unsure of where to find those businesses and what avenues I can take to attract those businesses to The Note Shack.

Thanks for any advice!

[webfanatic]

It seems the most likely consumer for your product would be professionals i.e. real estate agents, small businesses, etc...

I suggest you focus on LinkedIn. This is social platform for professionals and businesses. Focus on building out your network and posting links to your blog from within LinkedIn. You should also create unique content on LinkedIn as well. Once you get people using your product, you'll want to solicit them for testimonials. This will help propel your business reputation/credibility.

[Fulcrum]

The other is that no measure of advertising will make a poop item pick up a mass gathering of people.

I wouldn't say that as a rule. The guy who came up with the pet rock did pretty good.

[brettjfox]

Read the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg. It is the best book, BY FAR, on determining the unpaid and paid marketing channels to choose. Better yet, Traction gives you a systematic framework for your decision making.

Good luck

[canirank_mel]

DON'T:
- Email Spam
- Buy spammy back links
- Buy reviews
- Create fake social media accounts
- Use excessive bot usage

DO'S:
- Play by the rules
- Produce quality content
- Be polite to your competition
- Believe in your product
- Find out where your target audience hangs out; go there and be GENUINE

[bdodd43]

If you are talking about a new site I always make sure I have about 10 pages including the home, about, contact, privacy, and then start trying to rank it. Try to only get backlinks from high pr sites as you can because doing a massive submit can hurt you in the long run.

[razchan]

Hi Cody,

Congratulations on your new venture. There are some good suggestions made on this forum. From what I have read you don't seem to know who your target market yet. You also don't have a sales funnel as well. These two things are crucial otherwise you will be blinding shooting into the dark hoping to hit your target.

First thing you must do is identify your ideal market (avatar) and who you want to serve? If it's women for example, identify the age group, education, married, single, children, where they live and hangout. Then go to the place where they are likely to be like hair salons, spas, etc. If you are serving middle aged corporate women they will most likely not be hanging out a night club. So start looking at your business from this perspective. As I always say, there's no use trying to meat products to a vegetarian.

Networking at live events with other business owners is a great way to build your business. However I will caution you to not shove business cards in their face expecting them to hand you business. Get to know them and be authentic. No one likes to be sold to. For local events you can go to:

- meetup groups, chamber of commerce, BNI's, women's business associations, wedding shops, wedding services, board of trade, trade shows, company lunch and learns, kijiji, craigslist, postering

- always look for an opportunity - hand out 10 business cards per day to every place you visit such as gas station, restaurant etc.

As for a sales funnel, this is important as you need to know your customer is in the sales process and how to bring them down the funnel. If they say yes to your service what other related services can you upsell them too. If they say no to your service, how can you keep in touch with them to make it a yes in the future. Or perhaps there might be an alternative service you have that might fit them better.

Having a customer just use your service one time and leave is money leaving your pocket. McDonalds is a great example of having a great funnel. They sell you burger but upsell you to fries, drink, a dessert, and the experience of fast service & convenient. They also focus their marketing on kids because they know they will tug on their parents arm to bring them to McD's.

You can design your funnel with a free app called X-Mind.

Once you know where you are going the marketing becomes easier. Be known as the go to expert in your niche.

[MosheC]

Hey Cody,

The best thing you can do is learn from people how have documented their process. I follow a guy called pat flynn ha has a website called smartpassiveincome.
In addition I would try to look for your products as someone who doesn't know you, so I can learn the process and help more people find out about you.
and if possible I would use telemarketing to talk to my target audience to find out what exactly they are looking for. I would dig deeper with the ones that are not interested buy asking them why. This can also be done with a survey but it's missing the option to put the prospect on the spot and get the real answer.

I hope this is helpful.

[Palani Kumar]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to know what are some must-dos for when you initially launch your startup? Are there certain directories you post your site? Do you get started right away on content creation? I'm curious to find out. I recently launched a handwriting note service for personal and business purposes but am trying to get a grip on where I should start spending my resources in marketing this business.

Thanks for any replies!

Creating a well crafted content would be the first step I take, ensuring sales friendly call to actions and SE friendly keywords would be a perfect next step. From there on you focus on building a respectable Social presence on major networks such as Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn (depending on your industry).

Once you are comfortable with your website's contents and appearance you can focus on adding your business to local directories, posting some classified ads and more...!

[99social]

Once you launch a website or landing page that you are comfortable with appearance and content wise, I would start connecting with your target audience (other business in your case) on social media. LinkedIn & Facebook (or even Pinterest if you were interested in branching out into wedding thank you notes, etc.) would be great platforms for you. Get someone to create great graphics and sales copy for you and get to promoting!