New business is always a risky business. In addition to choosing a niche, you also need to understand how to promote it.
Promotion of products should be started at once. Do not be afraid of anything, just start.
- Take the first step
As it was written above, the main thing is to start. Yes, you do not know how and where to go in your marketing efforts, but the earlier you start, the better. At the same time, of course, you need to study competitors, study the market and build a promotion strategy.
There is a belief, especially among manufacturing companies, that if you create a great product with an excellent design and really solve the user's problem, then without marketing you will fly into the trends.
This is not the case today. Too much competition and information noise in which your brand can get lost. And the sooner you invest in marketing, the more chances you have to attract attention, attract an audience and win clients.
2. Handmade work
The very first step that startups must take is to manually recruit an audience. Yes, respond to each letter, communicate with each new client in person. It's a painstaking job that will bear great fruit afterwards. You should not wait for users to find you, no matter how unique the product you own, you need to find these users yourself.
There are two reasons why the founders of companies refuse to log out and dial users manually. One is the combination of shyness and laziness. They only prefer to produce their favorite product, rather than go outside or online and talk to strangers. But for the success of a startup at least one founder (usually the CEO) will have to spend a lot of time on sales and marketing.
3. hiring a station wagon
This is exactly what David Epstein's book, Range: Why Universities Triumph in a Specialized World, discusses.
Your first marketer should be able to do everything little by little: write, set up advertising, shoot videos, hold events, engage in joint marketing and partnerships, PR, SEO, content marketing. Look for people who are hungry, who do not have a certain "niche". Find someone who can do a lot and multiply! Take Futureinapps, for example.
4. Say yes to everything
In the first days, say yes to every webinar, every podcast interview, every opportunity to speak, every Twitter chat room. Whatever it is. Just say "yes" until you have a good reason to say "no" - for example, it doesn't work, no one shows up, no one comes forward, and so on.
Marketing is a game, though it has rules. You will never know what will benefit until you play.
5. Look for role models
At first you need to find people who do the same job very well. You have to follow (but not copy!) these examples. Better yet, find an interest group to share best practices and stay connected. This is a great support!
What are you waiting for? Invest in marketing!
