Attention Startups! Effective and Efficient Marketing is a Must!

We all would love to win the lottery.  And in the entrepreneur and startup world, landing a large investment at the onset is just as likely as winning said lottery.  So, it’s likely that you don’t have a great deal of cash to spend on marketing for your business. And that sucks.  But, you can still develop an effective and efficient, successful marketing plan – even with limited resources.  How?

The majority of startups don’t have enough money to hire a marketing expert right away. Therefore, it’s up to you to determine the best route to take to get the word out regarding your startup. If you’re working with a very small budget, the road to success can get tough. But, keep the faith because here are a few guidelines that will get you started in the right direction.

1. Solidify your brand.

You must have a solid concept regarding what your business is, what you desire to accomplish, and why it even exists before you can even think about launching a successful marketing campaign. Make sure you know exactly who you are, since understanding this will greatly help you determine how to position both you and your company.

·         Stay true to yourself.

Be yourself and stay true to your original business concept. Show people who you really are and don’t pretend to be somebody you’re not.

·         Determine why you’re unique and what sets you apart from your competitors.

This is your key selling point. What can you offer the world in a special and unique way that no one else can? If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank, you know how detrimental it is to show up without a solid understanding of what sets your business apart and what the competitive landscape is.  The Sharks will rip you apart…and so will your prospects.

·         Be consistent when presenting your image.

Don’t try to change your image to attract a variety of audiences. Present a consistent overall look and feel so you’re crystal clear about who you are.

If your business is experiencing an identity crisis, it’s best to address it prior to marketing your company. If a brand is continually changing their approach or image, it can be a huge red flag to potential customers. While every startup will inevitably face challenges that will make them rethink or even second-guess certain things, branding is the one aspect that you can control 100 percent right from the start.

Simple tip: Use the same company name and your name consistently.  If people know you as James T. Kirk, then use that name everywhere in exactly the same way.  Don’t be James on your business card and then Jim on LinkedIn.  The same is true with your company name.  

2. Clearly define your key goals and metrics.

The less money you have to work with, the more you need to be completely clear and detailed concerning your goals. Of course, you want to make money, but not every marketing endeavor is going to make money. Therefore, you need to figure out all the potential outcomes in terms of what you actually consider ‘success’; whether that means a certain amount of lead generations, more subscribers to your list, or more traffic to your website. All of these things combined mean more publicity regarding your startup and can eventually result in making more money.

3. Determine your budget.

This is a complicated, yet simple step. Determining your budget simply means figuring out how much cash you can actually afford to spend on marketing and how much time you can spend both planning and managing your marketing campaign?

This step often confuses people since they don’t exactly know the amount of money it requires to achieve results. It’s kind of like “which came first, the chicken or the egg” scenario.  Unfortunately, no magic number exists. For most startups, this dollar amount boils down to putting aside only as much as you can spare.

Tip:  Focus on internet spending first.  Other marketing avenues can come once money flows in.

4. Choose your target niche.

Although your products may appeal to the masses, that also presents somewhat of a problem when marketing your business. Overall, the more customers you desire to reach, the more money and time you will need to pull it off. Choose a segment, or niche, of your potential audience and focus on that. Not only will it decrease your marketing expenses, it makes sense regarding messaging.

5. Follow and engage with your audience through social media.

In order to succeed, you need to market your brand where your potential customers are. If your niche is in the fashion industry, using Pinterest is a great way to connect to your female-based audience. However, if you want to reach young male gamers, Pinterest is not the ideal social media channel to use.

Study the various social media outlets and find out where your target audience hangs out so you can connect with them. Spend your time and resources on the ones that are most conducive to your brand.

6. Focus on quality content and audience interaction.

Although you may not have a great deal to offer people in terms of discounts and giveaways in order to attract potential customers, you can present good, quality content that’s related to your target audience.

The most successful brands continually share interesting content that’s frequently not obvious advertising or a direct call for action. They often post and share ideas that their audience is most interested in. Interact with your audience. Directly connect with them by responding to their comments. This is huge in terms of building a long, trustworthy relationship with your potential customers.

7. Know your partners and potential partners.

Find key experts within your particular industry and start interacting with them. Follow your brand’s influencers on Facebook and Twitter without coming right out and asking them to directly promote you. Simply continue to comment and share the good content they keep posting. The key is to develop a solid relationship with people. You can do that by continuing to publish useful content that your audience can benefit from. Over time, one of your brand’s influencers will eventually notice it and then share it, which results in getting you exposed.

8. Listen and observe.

You can’t simply launch a marketing campaign and receive instant results. It doesn’t work that way in the real world. You must listen and pay close attention to what’s actually happening.  See what is trending in the news and on social media.

Chances are your initial marketing efforts will probably fail. Successful marketing is all about refining your methods so you can determine what works best for you. Go back and evaluate each step of your campaign. What areas can you improve upon? Are you targeting the wrong audience? Are you using the wrong social media channels for your particular niche?

Marketing your startup can be overwhelming.  There are so many components to consider that you may feel like a failure before you even start.  Don’t go it alone.  Enlist some help.  SK Consulting would be happy to help you effectively and efficiently navigate the marketing landscape.  From concept to creation to implementation – we’re there with you every step of the way!

Content Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations

It’s no secret that the majority of nonprofits work on a limited budget.  Employing a fully-staffed communications team is typically unheard of.  Many rely on freelance writers, editors and designers to help them develop content. Higher education institutions tap their alumni to make connections with each other, generating content to draw more alumni into donating to their alma mater. Organizers in the nonprofit world, especially those who are conscious of every donated dollar they spend, should embrace the high ROI of content marketing.

No matter how an organization generates content, it is a necessity for them to understand their audiences and be able to tell their most authentic stories. The more targeted, the better. This means that content managers should continually develop new strategies to add to their arsenal of best practices. 

How can this be done?

1. Segment your donors.

When program staff and nonprofit managers become more aware of their target audiences, they become clearer about how to craft unique messages, and begin framing their content towards getting specific results.

This may require some research and data analysis of your donor portfolios, but segmenting your donors, or grouping them into categories (such as place-based locale, giving amounts, or issue-based interests), will allow you to integrate storytelling, story gathering, program planning, and monitoring and evaluation all into your content marketing strategy.

2. Craft audience personas.

With some light research into your donors, nonprofits can learn about donors and alumni by how they interact with your web pages, your calls to action, your social media feeds, and your e-newsletters and donation clicks. Nonprofits can use this data to create an audience persona, or multiple audience personas based on your donor segmentation research.

Audience personas can help your team create content for a more specific group of supporters than ‘the general public.’ These audience personas, developed and based on actual supporters (or potential ones), can give direction on how to create content in the personalized ways your donors like.

3. Plot your supporters’ journey.

When you ask people to take on your cause, it has to be something the donor feels speaks to their own goals. How you craft your content will depend on what you believe is your supporters’ journey. Plot the supporters’ journey with clear calls to action and share relevant stories that help them see how supporting your organization’s cause or mission allows them to succeed in their own goals.

Organizations often frame content from an internal projection, rather from the donor’s point of view. Make your content about the donor, not only about your organization.

4. Encourage constituents in sharing their story.

Your most powerful, often overlooked, and untapped resources for authentic storytelling are the people you serve. With some initial investment of time and training, and sensitivity to constituents’ comfort in sharing their struggles, failures and successes, constituents who share their stories can become the nonprofits most impactful storytellers.

Constituent personal experiences ring true to donors in ways and words that scripted mission and vision statements cannot. When a person who has benefited from your organization’s programs can speak to how effectively your interventions addressed their problems in unique, highly-personal, and innovative ways, those stories reveal the profound ways in which your organization values and measures success.

5. Allow for authentic voices to tell your organization’s story.

Nonprofits, whether they recognize it or not, naturally attract authentic storytellers. Your message drew them to you, and they want to give back, and share the purpose of your organization’s mission. That’s why they showed up.

And don’t overlook your staff!  They were drawn to your organization for a reason as well.  Why do they show up every day?  What does your mission mean to them?  Everyone has a story to tell and theirs could be key to a great campaign for your organization.

6. Set clear guidelines on how individual stories highlight your organization’s mission.

Some precaution and clear guidelines should be established with constituents, volunteers and staff when their individual stories are used to highlight the organization’s work and mission.

Make sure you get signed waivers for all photographic images and text.

Add time at the tail end of deadlines for stories to be properly reviewed for cultural and political sensitivities that might create difficulties for constituents, volunteers or staff whose stories are featured.

Add disclaimer-like language in the “ask” part of the content to make sure donors know they are giving to the organization, not the individual, and that giving to the organization adds to the collective impact on the community at large.

7. Build content marketing into your programming.

When planning events and programming, consider how to capture the events; how to frame the story of each activity to your donors and supporters; or the policymakers you want to hear your perspectives.

Try to have all visits, talks and trainings documented through video, in pre-event montages or post-event interviews. Often this documentation cannot be done by staff delivering the programming, but could be an ideal job for a volunteer, student or intern to show your mission in action.

Nonprofit organizations often go to great lengths to plan events, but neglect to create a content marketing strategy for how to capture these experiences and share them widely to donor audiences.

8. Assess what content marketing strategies work best for your target audiences.

Nonprofit organizations need to think strategically about communications – outline a plan; write it down; set measurable goals’ and assess them.  Not all steps have to happen in one year, nor in the order outlined here.

Developing branding, the time taken to review and analyze the organization’s content, has incredible intrinsic value. Often, organizations find a new voice, uprooting old organizational mindsets and changing the ways in which success is measured.

Highlighting your organization’s impact on the personal, community and social levels widens the net of who your content speaks most authentically to and helps open links for you to connect with new donors, volunteers and supporters.

Attention Start-Ups! Your Branding and Website Matter!

It’s no question that starting your own business can be overwhelming.  There are so many plans to implement, tasks to complete and strategies to develop to make your business a success.  It’s crucial to get your name out there to create awareness and establish your brand.  But, before promoting your grandiose idea – it’s important that you understand your business, your message, your brand…and have the tools in place for others to be able to understand as well. 

The first thing your potential customers will see is your brand name. How you have chosen to illustrate this reinforces what sets you apart from the competition. Many small businesses and start-ups do not spend enough time thinking about their brand and this can have a serious impact on their business.

Along with your brand identity and logo, your website is an important branding tool.  This is where people go to find out all about you and your business and the products and services you offer. Having a website isn’t enough.  You need an eye-catching website that serves as your online shop front and explains why visitors need your product and or services.

Why do you need effective branding and an exceptional website?

1. Website and branding build credibility

A website is crucial to a start-up because it’s where you sell your products and ideas, make a connection with your customers and build trust. These days having a website is a basic requirement.  If you can’t be found online or your web presence isn’t up to standard, then you can wave goodbye to your credibility and getting the attention of new customers. Without a website that is easy to find and easy to navigate, you cannot expect your customers to find out information about you and your products.

Your website should be visually appealing and professionally designed to attract visitors. Think about how you want your brand to be portrayed and reflect this in your web design as your potential customers will judge you on first impressions.  And remember, the design and flow of your website should align with your industry and how your target audience does research.

To make sure your website reflects a professional image that is inviting and engaging consider the following:

• Test to ensure your website looks good and performs well in all browsers.
• Make sure your website looks good on a mobile device. Increasing mobile usage means your website needs to be optimized for mobile viewing.

2. Website and branding can present a unified message about your company

A solid branding strategy builds a unified message across all your marketing channels from your website, to social media to printed materials like business cards, posters and direct mail pieces. A branding strategy often incorporates colors, images, fonts and language to convey to your target audience who you are, your brand personality and values. It is important to share this message consistently across different marketing platforms (even if you sell different products or services), so that your audience knows simply and quickly who you are and what they can expect from your company.

3. Website and branding allow you to stand out against competition

A strong, easily recognizable brand makes it easier to cut through the clutter and help you stand out from the competition. From your color combination, to the font, pictures and messaging, your choices help set you apart in the minds of your customers.

4. Brands generate referrals

Word of mouth is one of the most popular ways to grow your business.  Let’s face it - people love to give and receive recommendations. In today’s digital environment, where we are all so connected, word of mouth is extremely important. Today, our friends and family can easily share recommendations through social media channels or we can access social media influencers. This is why it’s so important to create a strong brand that is memorable in your customer’s mind.

A functional and fantastic website and a recognizable brand give your customers a reason to engage further with you. While your goods and services might be a great idea, they cannot stand on their own. First impressions count, so how you portray yourself through your branding and website is your chance to make your company shine.

Not sure how to develop an authentic brand?  Need assistance developing a unique, engaging website?  Contact the experts at SKConsulting!  From concept to creation to implementation – we’re there with you every step of the way!