10 BIG Mistakes For Startups | How To Succeed In Business
Are you about to start putting that idea you have had in your mind for so long down into a business plan? Want to get your new business off to the right start?
Here’s a dummy’s guide to business and the best startup advice on the internet (provided by those that have been there themselves). Toot Marketing gives you the 10 most common mistakes startups make so that you can avoid them and get that flying start you are looking for.
Not Knowing Who Your Customers Are – Live Like Them!
One of the biggest mistakes startups make is not knowing who your ideal customers are. This can quickly lead to you targeting the wrong people and spending unnecessary money on advertising.
Take time to ask yourself the following questions: Who would be interested in my product? Are they male or female? What age are they? What do they like to do? Etc.
Thinking that you are selling to everyone is too broad and you need to narrow down your potential customers so that you can specifically target the right customers that would be interested in buying your products.
Not Using The Right Words On Your Webpage – Do Keyword Research
This is so important to get right from the get-go. Google checks your webpage to read what it is about so that it can show it to the right kind of people when they search for something. To find the correct words to use on your webpage you need to do keyword research.
Need help with your copywriting? Contact Toot Marketing.
Keywords are the words or phrases people put into Google when they are looking for something. For example, you are selling internet courses about interior design on your webpage. Which words should you use on your webpage to attract the people who are looking for your product?
What will they type in when they search? “Interior design courses online” might be a good keyword. But this might be a keyword that has high competition which means that a lot of webpages might have this as their keyword, and it will take longer to get that keyword ranking on the first pages of Google. So, a better keyword might be, “online courses about decorating your home”. This is a so-called long-tail keyword that fewer webpage might have on their page. This means that it can be easier for you to rank for this keyword and get to the first page of Google.
Not Making A Marketing Plan – Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy is a plan for you to reach your customers and turn them into buying customers. Having a marketing strategy is important and the 4p’s can help you achieve this.
The 4P’s stand for Price, Product, Promotion, and Place. Price means the amount the end-user is expected to pay. How you price your product will affect how it sells. This is linked to the perceived value of the product. Make sure you get the right price for your product. The product is the goods or the service that is meeting a specific demand or need for the customer. Knowing what these demands and needs are is important. Promotion includes advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and special offers. The placement has distribution as its key element and tells us how the product will be provided to the customer.
Want help with marketing strategy? Contact Toot Marketing.
Not Changing Things When Your Customers Aren’t Reacting To What You Do – Pivot! Be Flexible
When starting a business, we have an idea of how we want to market our brand. But maybe your customers are not reacting to what you are doing. Make sure you don’t get stuck on your idea and are unable to make changes as you go along.
Your business and strategy will change over time as you test out what works and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to test out things on for example -social media that you think might be a little off-brand but might get a lot of engagement. Engagement drives traffic and you want as many as you can to see and know your brand.
Not Using Social Media – Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a great way to improve brand loyalty as it is easy to engage with your customers and allows you to show them why your brand is different.
There are a lot of channels that can be used for social media marketing: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are the biggest ones.
Need a social media management company? Contact Toot Marketing.
Giving Up Too Quickly – Give Your Business Time
So, you are starting your new business and you have watched all tutorials on how to get started, including the ones that promise you will get lots of sales on the first day if you do what they tell you. A week after launching you still see no sales and are discouraged. Don’t be.
Most, if not all, businesses start like this. Building up a brand takes time and making costumers know you exist does too. Make sure you have a long-term plan with your business. It also takes Google some time to read your page and get you ranking for those keywords.
Keep working on making your brand the best it can be, and the sales will come with time.
Not Blogging –Provide Valuable Information To Your Customers
Blogging is a perfect way to provide useful and fun information to your customers that can result in sales. Drive them to your webpage by talking about relevant things that will interest them and get those much-wanted keywords at the same time. That’s exactly what this blog is doing!
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Providing useful and quality content does not only give value to your customer, but it also shows Google that you are providing relevant information for your industry and will help with the ranking.
Not Building A Brand Identity – Make An Impression
Brand identity is the message the customer receives from your brand. This can be logo, tone, name, etc and will connect brand recognition. It is important that the message is consistent and clarifying what is offered. A strong brand identity keeps you in the mind of the customer.
Think about your core offering. Who are you? What do you represent? Help customers see that you’re not just another startup, you’re one that’s here for the long run.
Online And Offline Marketing – Go Tell People What You Do
This is a mistake we see often at Toot Marketing. Online marketing is very important, but so if offline marketing.
Offline marketing is all the connections and relationships you build outside your webpage. It might be scary to put yourself out there and try to sell your brand. But this is also an important part of your marketing.
Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool. Talk about your brand to everyone who wants to hear about it, and also the ones who don’t, go to business events, sell your product at markets, talk to other businesses you can work with, etc. There are so many possibilities also offline, so make sure you work on both.
Not Researching Your Competition – Competitor Research
Don’t forget to check out what your competitors are doing.
This will give you an insight into how to build competitive strategies in your target market. It helps you see why they are ranking higher than you; it might give you data for new opportunities and ideas and it gives you information about product pricing, product tracking and understanding your market.
We have a powerful competitor research analysis. Get in touch with us to find out more.