FIVE MARKETING GROWTH TIPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Entrepreneurs often shy away from marketing because it’s an area they worry will be overwhelming and time- consuming — yet grabbing people’ s attention is crucial to building a loyal following.
“When you start your business you’re not just in the business of delivering your product or service, you’re also in the business of acquiring customers,” says Mitch Solway, vice-president of marketing at FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps small businesses meet their cash flow needs.
“Marketing is going to be the engine that drives new customers into
your business and, as your business grows, so will the demand for more and better marketing to continue to fuelthatgrowth.”
Whether you’re looking to grow your existing customer base or simply wondering where to start, Solway says, there are a few key things you should keep in mind: 1. Asan entrepreneur, you have
great marketing instincts. While many business ownersmay feel they don’t have a grasp on “marketing,” the truth is they are often one of the best marketers in their companies, Solwaynotes.
“Marketing, at its core, is about three things: a deeper understanding of who you are trying to serve, the problem you are solving for that customer, and what makes you different than the current alternatives,” he says. “These are the exact motivators that likely drove the entrepreneur to start their business in the first place— they identified a need for a market thatwasn’t being served and are now doing something aboutit.” 2. Don’t market to everyone — focus on your best customers. Whenyou’re starting out, you’re not going to have as many resources as you’d like to take on the world, so you’ll have to focus – and shrink the size of your market to something you can really start to chip away at. That means identifying your ideal customer, figuring out who’s ready to buy what you’re selling, where they live and what they have been using before you came along.
The same applies to your marketing— you should always come back to what is the most important problem that you are solving for your customers, so you can identify who you really need to focus your marketing against. That will also help you figure out what channels you should use to reach them and what problems you need to tell them you solve.
3. There’s a ton of freelance and small agency help out there, so use it. What you do from a marketing perspective reallydependson how early you are in your business, how much time or resources you have for it, and how much growth you are looking for right now.
The good news is that there are so many great small agencies and freelancers who can help with any of the basics, from building a simple website to doing some basic search enginemarketing, to designing great print or presentation material, and even writing and sending email campaigns.
If you’renot ready to bringonoutside help, remember that you are often your own best sales and marketing department— you can hustle, make calls, meet people and make things happen on the promotional side, just like you didwhenyou were getting your business off the ground. 4. Today’ s happy customers are tomorrow’s best marketers for your business. While it’s important to get those first key customers in the door, it’s also crucial to make sure they enjoy the time they spend with you. That’s because your customers can be one of your best marketing tools. “You’ll get lots of people telling you to build a referral program, and that’s not a bad idea, but the best referral program is delivering really happy customers,” Solway says. “There are lots of talented marketers out there who you can call on to really ramp things up, but you can also take things into your own hands and make sure your business is really focused on making your customers feel great about having chosen you. That will always add extra lift to any marketing efforts .”
5. Don’t let waiting on invoice payments slow down your marketing and other growth efforts. While early on you’re going to rely on hustle to generate new business, eventually you are going to need to invest in marketing to not only drive more growth but also to systemize and scale those marketing programs thatwork.
That may mean hiring external or internal resources, and that’s going to take funds. For many businesses, cash flow is something that can get in the way of being able to invest in marketing. You may have some great ideas on how you can drive more business with some marketing but if you don’t have the funds on hand to invest because you’rewaiting on invoices to get paid then it can be frustrating— even if you’re justwaiting on30-dayterms.
Using a third-party funding service like FundThrough can help small businesses keep the marketing momentumgoing, because it allows them to get their invoices paid right away, forasmallfee.
“It’s like instant cash flow when you need it and you can then use those funds to pay employees, increase inventory or invest in marketing to drive even more business,” Solway says.
Marketing is going to be the engine that drives new customers into your business