Top Tips Part 2: Expert Coaches offer Expert Advice
Abhishek Kothari Shares the Second Edition of His Top Tips: On Marketing Essentials
Part 2 of 2.
Every enterprise will need to employ its own unique marketing strategy depending on its target consumer group and market. Conducting sufficient market research will provide a solid foundation to your marketing strategy. Below you will find a list of top tips that can further guide you in the creation of your marketing strategy.
Create products/services that delight clients: The best strategy to attract clients is to create products/services that surpass their expectations and delight them. Even before an entrepreneur sets up a business, he or she can test the product or service with friends, family and the immediate community. This will test the underlying value proposition. Without a strong value proposition, it is impossible to attract clients. Ultimately it may prove beneficial to offer testimonials to demonstrate the value of your services. Word of mouth, and client satisfaction are very strong marketing tools. Raising awareness through marketing is the next step in building a successful enterprise.
Target Your Clients in the Right Places: Your marketing strategy should depend on where you can reach your potential customer base and who makes up your target market. If your clients are mostly coming into contact with your business online, your marketing strategy should be focused online also. If your audience is local, word of mouth recommendations and referral schemes may prove more beneficial. In this case, marketing at local shopping malls, population dense areas, or participating in exhibitions and conferences can offer simple ways to gain high exposure.
Don’t Underestimate Word of Mouth: As a past small business owner, I believe word of mouth is the most effective strategy for small businesses at the earliest stages of growth, followed by an online strategy (i.e. Search Engine Optimization, Google AdWords or social media targeted marketing). Your closest family, friends, and initial clients can serve as product ambassadors. It is important to utilize them wisely. In short, talk to as many people in a day as you can, either online or from your own network.
Supplement word of mouth marketing by using online tools: After maximizing how far word of mouth can take your enterprise, Google AdWords can assist with directing traffic to your website when people search for certain key words. For example, if you search for a pizza place nearby, Google AdWords will show the paid advertisements first. Using Google AdWords will drive traffic to your website. Make sure your website is ready for the influx in users by seeking the assistance of an Hyper Text Markup Language / Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) programmer who can help you create a great looking and easily searchable website. A lot of other paid website hosting services like Squarespace, WordPress allow newbies to create beautiful websites.
These tools and specialists will ensure you are attracting new customers to your website and keeping them engaged once they arrive.
Customer Service Matters: You can engage future customers online, but customer service and the follow up is key. The follow up matters! With these new customers, it cannot be understated how important it is to follow up once they have initially utilized your service or purchased your product. It can mean the difference between a returning customer and a one-time customer. Building a conversation, making the customer feel valued and even providing a brick-and-mortar space for them to engage with you face-to-face, can mean the difference between long-term success and failure.
Abhishek Kothari is a Banker at Citi as well as a Skydiver and Budding Fixed Wing Pilot. His interests range from sports to entrepreneurship and politics. He is a new member of the Ye! Coaching Community and available to answer all of your most pressing entrepreneurship questions.
To keep up with all of Abhishek's work, you can find him on Medium:@abhishekkothari or on Twitter: @akothari_mba