Your side-hustle has been a great success, and now you want to take it to the next level. To ensure your scale-up is just as successful, your marketing strategy is critical.
At Snap we regularly work with start-up businesses to support the launch and growth process. We’ve used that experience to pull together five simple steps to set you on the path to success.
Step 1: Understand your market
If your picture of exactly who your business will sell to is at all unclear, stop now. You may have already addressed this in your business and product development, but if not, now is the time to do it.
You cannot build a marketing strategy without knowing who you will market to. Putting yourself in your customer’s shoes is a powerful exercise to understand what they want from you.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What are the demographics (age, gender, income, etc.) of my customers?
- For B2B marketing, what are my customers’ firmographics? This includes industry, business activity, size, etc.
- Where are my customers geographically? Local, national – or international?
- What are those customers and buyers looking for from my product or service?
If you are unsure of the answers, seek feedback from your existing customers, research your competitors, or do both.
Step 2: Build your visual identity with brand design
Your brand’s visual identity has the power to create immediate brand recognition amongst your customers. It lies at the heart of your business… and also appears in every interaction and touchpoint you have with customers.
The reality is that you cannot underestimate the importance of maintaining brand consistency. Using a mishmash of brand elements can create brand confusion, which quickly erodes customer trust.
A good brand designer will help you to develop a cohesive style and identity that you can then use across all your print and online marketing collateral
Step 3: Develop your website to reach your audience
No matter what type of business you run, a website is a powerful tool to reach your audience.
The most successful websites are clean and easy to access. Building and managing a website is no longer as complex as it once was… particularly with the right website marketing team on your side. We can guide you through the entire process and make it as simple as possible to get you up and running quickly.
Step 4: Educate your market with a brochure
For both B2B and B2C businesses, print collateral should be a core element of your scale-up business marketing plan.
An educational brochure with a call to action that gives your potential customers an incentive to contact you is a great place to start. This should be something valuable that captures people’s attention and compels them to take action.
Offering a free first consultation or similar can be the difference between a prospect calling you or throwing your brochure in the bin.
Step 5: Think of creative ways to promote your business
Over our many years of providing promotional items for our customers, we know that practical items work best. Items that people keep on their desks can serve as a reminder of your brand.
Kickstart your scale-up business marketing plan with SNAP
At SNAP, we have been helping start-up businesses with their print and design needs for more than 130 years. If you are starting a business, our comprehensive Print, Design & Digital Guide to Starting a Business will help bring your dream to life.
Contact us today for help getting your business in front of more customers.
