Partner Article

Spreading the word about your start-up

Laura McLeod, Senior Digital Marketing Manager, 99designs

The feeling of starting a new business is quite a rush. You’ve got your new company name, a logo you love, and you’ve mapped out your brand. You’ve defined what makes you different and memorable and how your product or service fits the needs of its target audience.

Next you need to spread the word, and reach prospective customers. You will be busy getting your business off the ground and perfecting your product at the same time. That’s why you need this list, specifically for small business owners with tight budgets and precious little time. Here are five easy ways to spread the word out about your awesome product, without breaking the bank:

1. Always let everyone know who you are

Put your name, logo and contact information on every single touchpoint with the world. It’s not enough to merely put your logo on your website, especially when you’re first starting out. You have to make it incredibly easy for people to remember you and find you on the World Wide Web, and that means always being one click away when interacting with your audience.

Why have a logo? Your logo conveys who you are in just a few seconds; your sector, your service, your personality. It distinguishes you from the competition and is a crucial component of your brand.

Here are four places you can put your information and your logo:

• Your email signature (with a link to your website and your phone number)
• Your business cards (of course!)
• Your social media profiles (see tip 3)
• Your packaging (stickers or tape can be an affordable way of branding otherwise plain packaging)

This is just the first step in creating an identity, but when you’re first starting out, it’s important. Not only does it establish your business as ‘real’, it’s the very first step in helping people remember your name and growing word of mouth for your business. It gives a solid base for all further marketing steps to follow.

2. Share your profound thoughts and make people want to interact with you

Start a blog and share your experience and knowledge. This is what your customers want from you - expertise. Content marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are not only things that big companies with big marketing departments do. Creating a blog with unique and relevant content will help improve your authority on your subject and your search engine rankings. No coding knowledge or marketing qualification is needed for this; just do it! Better search engine rankings mean more visitors and more, hopefully, conversions into customers. Here’s a simple guide to getting started.

If you are not sure what to write about, put yourself in your customers’ shoes as a first step:

What sorts of things are they searching for? Create a list of questions your customer might be asking that you can use your expertise to answer – become a helpful advisor Search online for answers to the questions on your list. If you can’t find any articles right away, you’ve found your opportunity

3.Speak where your customers can hear

Start communicating on social media channels. Approximately three-quarters of shoppers today will research a company online before making a purchase. Don’t expect target customers to take companies at their word. One of the easiest ways for a customer to determine your credibility is to check you out on social. Currently, one in ten online purchases around the world originates from social media channels. Luckily a start-up can work with these tools for free.

Managing several social media channels might be daunting. That’s OK. It’s not recommended being on every channel right away. Start with the channel that’s most relevant to your business and expand from there once you feel ready. Here’s a helpful guide by industry.

Once you have your channels, it’s time to start posting. Here are a few helpful tips to get started, for any channel Those with patience and website navigation skills might be uniquely qualified to tackle Reddit as a marketer. Here’s a beginners guide to Reddit

4. Find those people that want to hang on your every word

Start building your email list, because email remains one of the most cost-effective channels for marketing departments, worldwide. According to the DMA National Client Email Report, 2015, email packs a ROI of £38 for each £1 spent. Companies using email to nurture leads generate 50 per cent more sales-ready leads at 33 per cent lower cost. Nurtured leads, on average, produce a 20 per cent increase in sales opportunities compared to non-nurtured leads, according to Hubspot.

Just like your blog, email marketing is most effective when you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and focus on their wants, needs, concerns, and questions. Learn from your favourite brands and your competitors. What emails are you most likely to read? What makes you take action? And like the rest of your branded materials, emails to your customers and prospects should always look professional.

There’s a lot of software out there to help you manage your email list and automate distribution: Here are some usefulemail tools for small businesses.

5. Get creative with your touchpoints

Benefit Cosmetics and Starbucks joined forces in February to offer consumers free coffee and makeup with their #bestfriends campaign. Coffee shop visitors were able to pick up a pink emoji coaster to redeem a makeover. It was a simple touchpoint with a guaranteed audience, incredibly likely to take notice of it.

Airbnb got their site free distribution by coding a set of tools that made it possible for every user to cross-post their Airbnb listing on Craigslist. These specific examples of guerrilla marketing won’t necessarily work for your business or industry, but if you put your own creative thinking cap on, you might find your own ingenious way of growing word of mouth for your business for next to nothing…

You don’t have to tackle all of these tips at once: Your business will have its own rhythm. It’s good practice to proceed steadily, doing the right things well before branching out.

Your company is in your hands, but at the right time, you need to put its words in other people’s ears. These free and easy tips will help you start reaching the audiences that will want to hear from you. Before you know it, you’ll have your very own set of superfans, who will become your loyal customers.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura McLeod .