Marketing is the backbone of your startup. If this is not corrected or in a bad shape then your whole startup is in a bad shape. For your business to thrive you must have a solid and bullet-proof marketing plan. Your startup could be one of those ground-breaking innovations and what not but if there is no awareness of your product then what is the point. If there is no awareness of the product then there will be no sale and hence the targets remain unfulfilled and then impacts your business. Let us understand why having a company or an idea is not enough but a marketing plan to sell your idea and product is the key to your success.
1. Awareness: A good product with a good marketing plan does not only sell the product but also the maker. When you have a good product it can speak for itself when people around know about it.
Let us take an example, suppose Apple decided to launch a new iPhone and this time just without any promotion sends its product to Imagine stores and waits for the product to sell. Now, the people who are visiting by need or chance to the store will come to know about it but people who do not visit the store will never know that there is a new product and hence the sale will not reach the height as expected and so it is a bad marketing strategy and an even more bad impact on the company’s sales.
2. Sales: Following awareness is demand and once the demand for your product rises the sales go up. Now that people know about what the product is and that this is available there will be a spike in sales.
3. Form a customer base: Following awareness and sales is trust. Once a customer is aware of the existence of the product and is satisfied with the product (we have already assumed that your product is a ground-breaking idea), they will now avail membership if any, and that is how you set the base to your trust between you and your customer.
4. Success and renowned reputation: Once you set the stage straight for the product, have already formed a customer base, have happy and satisfied clients, here comes success. Your product is not only selling in the market but also has made its place in the market. The selling of your product is bringing in success for you and your future products.
Now that we have established how important marketing is to the product and where it could lead you, let us look at the Top Five Startup Mistakes that one can make:
No Marketing Plan
As described previously as well, marketing is the backbone of the company. It is as important as the idea itself if not more. A marketing plan is as essential as a business plan. However, what exactly is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is the blueprint of the customer reaching a company’s targets or plans. It consists of the strategies and plans of how the whole idea is to be executed, it has everything broken down into smaller goals and then the bigger picture as well. A marketing plan is the result of the constant study of the market, its marketing tactics, and how to apply them. This pan consist of Plan A’s and B’s and this plan tells you when the A is no longer working and when to move to Plan B.
- When you do not have a plan you expect magic to happen and your product to sell. Let us all be realists here and plan a bulletproof marketing strategy to ensure that our ground-breaking idea is not devoid of awareness because marketing fell short somewhere. SEO, Facebook ads, local ads, global ads, you name them and your PR is ready to sell for you. The only question you need to ask is what is your marketing goal and then create this plan around the answers you get from this question.
Marketing on the Wrong Networks
Today we have a variety of channels when it comes to promoting our product. It is a sea of channels and you need to figure out which is the one you need. To figure this out you need to ask yourself a question that is ‘Who are my target audience’. Once you know your product and the target audience you will know exactly which channel to promote it through.
- Let us assume you have created an app that lets you look for nannies, so the awareness here needs to be for the ones that want to be nannies and the ones that are looking for nannies. This is your targeted audience and you need to look at the factors and decide what are channels that you could use to reach these targeted customers. This is how you figure out the channel because promoting on the wrong platform could also impact a negative sale.
- A not so functional website even after the launch of the product: Suppose you are launching your product tomorrow and have nowhere where one can go look up the product then it is a mistake you have to look for. A fully functional website with all the details of the product comes even before the product.
- Failing to build an audience: You need to know the target audience as mentioned earlier. A clear description of what your target group looks likes and what are the requirements are that will base the whole marketing plan. Building an audience is the first step of the business blooming or even beginning.
- Lacking engaging content: The biggest challenge when selling your product is the quality of content you are creating. It’s the content engaging enough for the customer’s attention to be glued to it? Content marketing is the key to the success of a business. Not having one can harm your business/startup in ways in which the damage is irreversible. Remember to: write catchy headlines, add images to grab the attention, add videos as well, and personalize the content for it to be relatable and engaging.
