Easy ways to market a startup business

By Erica Simpson

Effective marketing is about more than pushing the message about your startup business out to millions of consumers. To succeed, you  have to introduce your new business to the right people. In fact, a single market a startup business misstep could cost you. . . everything.

Money isn’t the greatest challenge that startups face

Consider this. The average amount of funding that a startup business receives is $1.5 million. Still, 75% of startups fail according to Mashable.

Clearly, lack of capital isn’t the only reason why some startups fail. Scaling too soon has hurt new businesses that were well funded. Poor cash flow management, overlooking risks and losing contact with too many former customers are other reasons why startups fail.

There’s also the opposite end of growing your business too fast while you market a startup. Absent angel funding, you could struggle to gain enough customers to keep your company going. Intuit says that, “Plenty of solopreneurs get twitchy at the idea of marketing their business.”

You could build your confidence and flex your marketing muscles if you start small. Schedule a meeting with 10 to 30 of your relatives, friends and neighbors, people you know well, people you trust. Have these tools on hand: foldable business brochures, product catalogs, media kits and, of course, product samples.

The link between confidence and effective marketing

Just as you would at a corporate sales meeting, serve refreshments (i.e. tea, water, juice, fruit, finger foods). Develop an event agenda and stick to it (even if you’re the only one who sees the agenda).

Spread the word (market) the event by taking pictures of your products and sharing them on social media. Develop landing pages for your products or services. Include the landing page links in messages that you send to relatives, friends and neighbors that you invite to the meeting.

At the event, speak with each attendee. Focus on the benefits that your products or services offer. Answer questions candidly. Also, ask the attendees for their honest feedback about your products or services. Feedback that you receive could prove invaluable, helping you to make product improvements before you launch a broad marketing effort.

The event could also do wonders for your confidence, especially when you start contacting media outlets (i.e. talk show hosts, magazine editors) to have your business featured. Your confidence high, you could begin to take other easy marketing steps, including the following:

• Using free market a startup research tools to learn more about your prospects (i.e. where they hang out, what their career aspirations are)
• Getting listed in local yellow pages
• Conducting online and offline radio interviews
• Designing and sending post cards to your target audience
• Building a newsletter (be sure to include valuable coupons that lead to incredible landing pages)
• Developing and sticking to a social media messaging strategy
• Starting a business blog (update it regularly)
• Hosting and attending community based events (i.e. festivals, small business expos)
• Setting up search engine alerts for market a startup topics related to your business (include your business URL when you comment on relevant alerts)

Don’t stop with these marketing steps. Continue to learn, implement and measure other marketing actions. You’re going to need to do this for as long as you operate your business.