STARTING A BUSINESS? PART 4 - MARKETING STRATEGIES TO SUCCEED!

Here we are – past the half way mark of our ‘So you’re starting a business?’ series and we’re now entering the more strategic side of promoting your business and making your mark. The word ‘strategy’ is not interchangeable for ‘scary’. So when you feel a little bit of alarm and your head starting to cloud when you read the ‘s’ word, don’t panic. Let’s break it down.

You’ve worked hard to get to this point and you need customers, not just on the first day when you open your doors, but long into the future.

You might need to sit down and plan your marketing strategy – where you want to spend, if you can spend, where your target market is and what you’re wanting to say to them.

After these questions have been answered you will then be in a better position to be able to plan your marketing moves, if you’d like to spend on digital marketing strategies like social media, traditional advertising like print or radio or perhaps a partnership with a local community group to show your community spirit. You don’t have to do it all within the first month of business opening – or in the first 6 months, or you might not do any of the above. As long as you’re making some marketing moves that is the main thing!

It could be something simple like ensuring you’re kept up to date with the latest networking sessions in your region so you can get out and about and meet people, or perhaps exploring the world of LinkedIn a little further, if that’s a platform that you’ve not yet made the most of. Perhaps you could talk to previous clients and start to gather testimonials, so you’re able to use this wording to market yourself and generate even more interest. Or it might be a photoshoot you need to really illustrate and show exactly what you’re offering…

There are stacks of options when it comes to marketing strategies.

If you’re struggling to sort out exactly where your focus needs to be placed, the team at dms CREATiVE offers a number of affordable, highly interactive marketing strategy sessions to help you plan the way forward and make sure you are getting the most out of your marketing budget.