5 Marketing Rules for Startups

When you first enter the business world, you’ll immediately start handling all the “big” infrastructural issues, one of which will be the issue of marketing. Sure, your aim is to get as good cost-per-conversion as you can get as well as to boost your revenue through efficient promotion. However, these things are easier said than done and knowing what you need to do and knowing how to do it are not one and the same. In order to help you out with this task, here are the top five marketing rules that every first-time entrepreneur needs to know.

Watch out who you’re getting associated with

As soon as you establish your brand presence, you’ll start receiving offers from “influencers” asking for free products and services in exchange for “exposure”. Sure, in some scenarios, this exposure is really worth your money and resources, however, you need to ask yourself one vital question – how effective are these influencers if they use this kind of approach? Niche experts and people of some renown and authority usually require you to reach out to them. Moreover, their services usually don’t come as cheap. Therefore, you need to ask yourself a follow-up question – are these the people you want your brand to be associated with?

Chatbots are the future

There are many reasons why chatbots are so important. First of all, they respond instantly, which somewhat improves your customer satisfaction. Second, most of the time, your audience can’t even tell that they’re talking to a chatbot, which means that you get to save a tremendous amount of workforce and work hours of your human staff. Finally, chatbots are available 24/7, they do not charge extra to work on weekends and holidays, they don’t strike, complain or take sick leave. In other words, automation is the future of the industry.

Combine digital and old-school

While building your website and promoting your content online is the logical first step, you don’t want to neglect your traditional marketing either. At the very least, you need to print out some t-shirts for your team (as uniforms) and some high-quality promotional materials to hand out to your investors and most valuable clients. We’re talking about things like stylish branded notebooks which are frugal to print, yet, make a significant boost to your brand image. Keep in mind that the brand awareness that you receive this way also transfers onto your digital footprint.

Keep your customers

One thing that you need to learn about your customer base is the fact that keeping an existing customer costs you about five times less than getting a new one. Therefore, as much as you want to expand your traffic and boost your conversion rates, what’s even more important is to invest in building customer loyalty. A reliable client base is key to success, seeing as how only 8 percent of your most loyal customers tend to be responsible for about 40 percent of your profit. This is why you need to invest in transparency and improve your post-sale follow-up.

Take a stance

Sparking a controversy should never be your primary goal, however, you can’t expect to appeal to everyone. By casting too wide of a net, you’ll miss out on everyone, which is why you might want to take a bit more balanced approach and choose your target wisely. Your brand should speak in a voice that resounds in their heads and your brand values need to match theirs. It’s better to be liked by some and disliked by others than for everyone to be indifferent about you.
Each of the above-listed five tips helps you improve in an important area of your business promotion and the image of your brand. This is why focusing on them early on will benefit you in all the ways necessary for your brand to become a household name among your target demographic. In time, you would get to some of the above-mentioned solutions on your own. Still, why waste time, money and effort when you can learn on mistakes and successes of others?