Essential Guide to Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Don’t Start Without a Plan!

Today’s economy is so uncertain that it pays to have a good backup plan. If you have recently lost your job or been laid off due to the pandemic or other reasons, you may be asking yourself if you should start your own business.

And why not? You’ve been working long hours, missing your child’s soccer games due to work and you know there has to be a better way. One where you can work the hours you choose, be there for your family, and have the freedom to take a vacation whenever you want without anyone’s permission.

When it comes to marketing for startups, what you need first is a marketing plan. A plan based on marketing techniques that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to implement. Something so simple that anyone can use without any prior marketing or business experience.

What is a Marketing Plan

Maybe you’ve thought about doing this before but had no idea which direction to take or how to get started. What is a marketing plan? What does it involve and does it have to be complicated? The answer to these questions is no. It doesn’t need to be complicated. As you can see in the image, a marketing plan is just writing down or making a list of the things you will do to market or advertise your product or service.

A sample marketing plan could include email marketing, paid advertising, search engine optimization, using content to drive traffic, and more. It’s just organizing your ideas to make them easy to implement. And the best part is that you don’t need to be a marketing expert to do it. This will work if you plan to start a business or want to make money from home.

Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Ok, so you need some marketing strategies to put into your plan.  Marketing for entrepreneurs is no different from any other type of business. The ideas and strategies are basically the same. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive to be effective.

Of course, if you have some money set aside and have a larger marketing budget you may be able to gain more visibility to the people you want to sell your service to. But you don’t have to. There are plenty of low-cost marketing strategies than anyone can use regardless of their budget.

Your marketing for startups plan should look something like this:

1. Set your goals for this business.
2. Make a list of the people you want to market to.
3. Have an engaging message to convey.
4. Determine your marketing budget.
5. Create  content to generate leads to your website.
6. Create an ad for your paid advertising.

Content marketing

Content marketing is one of the easiest techniques to start with because all it requires is being able to write content. If you don’t think you’re a good writer you can always hire one from any of the freelance marketplaces on the web (Fiverr, Upwork, Guru) for about $25 – $30.

Now that you have your content, you’ll need a place to post it where people will find it and visit your website to learn more about you and your business. This method is used to generate leads and drive traffic. You can post your content on your social media channels, create a blog, or post on forums like Reddit,  Digital Point Forum, and Problogger.com. These are just a few of the forums out there, but there are many others.

Start by posting once or twice per week and vary your written content with visual content like videos or infographics. Switch it up to keep your audience coming back for more.

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization and it applies to your website as well as your content. It pertains to finding the right keywords to make your content stand out and to help visitors find your website. Tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer can help to identify relevant keywords that your target customers are using to search. You’ll need to use these keywords on your site and in your content to bring in more traffic.

The second part of SEO pertains to your website structure. More consumers use their smartphones to shop so your site will need to be mobile-friendly. That just means it is set up to display on smaller screens like phones and tablets. You should also make sure that your site is easy to navigate, meaning that you have a way for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your site like categories, older posts, and popular posts, as well as your sales pages.

PPC Ads

PPC is another popular way to get traffic to your site. The cost will depend on the popularity of the keywords you choose. High-traffic keywords will cost the most, so you should try to target low to medium traffic keywords. This will show up under competition. You should go for keywords that get between 1,000 and 5,000 global views.

There are a couple of different places to advertise like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other advertising sources. The two mentioned here allow you to set a daily budget and you only pay for clicks. This means you can pay as little as $1 a day for some ads. Also do not overlook Bing – while not as popular as Google Search, it will get you in front of a different crowd (and may cost you less).

Social Media Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Social media marketing is another way to promote your business that is relatively inexpensive. It may take some time to master however. To get started you should have profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and begin posting weekly. It doesn’t have to be a full page of content, just something to stay in touch with your audience.

Reach out to people in your friends list, and send friend requests to people in your target market  to establish a relationship. Don’t try to market right now, you need to establish yourself first and earn their trust. In time, your audience will grow creating a steady stream of traffic to your site.

 Email Marketing

Email marketing is another effective marketing strategy that you can use to build an email list and send out promotional materials to those people in your list. To implement this method you will need an autoresponder and pre-written emails ready to send to everyone on your list. You don’t want to do this too often, say once per month , just to stay in touch and offer valuable information. Messaging too often could lead to your subscribers to block you. You can also create a monthly newsletter to send to them as well. Start with one or two of these strategies and see what results you get, then add more over time. Eventually you will have a relatively consistent revenue stream if you stay on top of everything and then branch out to other strategies as your budget allows.

SUMMARY

You need a plan, because that is how you will articulate your goals. When you have a plan you can measure your progress. When you measure your progress you’ll know what is driving your growth, customer acquisition, follower, etc. and what activities are a waste of effort. This will make you more efficient and smart. Also, you will know what money/time were well spent and what was not. With these observations, your next play will be a total success.