Marketing is a really complex area of business, and getting it right is what will most likely be the difference between your venture either succeeding or failing. But it’s something that’s actually surprisingly easy to overlook. When you’re putting everything together like sorting supply chains for stock, signing the lease to your business premises, getting your end product right and looking into things like shipping companies, insurances and so much more it’s no wonder it can slip your mind. But the reality is that even if you have a great product or service and everything else is perfect and done right in your business, without the right promotion it just wont go anywhere. It doesnt matter what you do or sell, the business world is heavily saturated and when you’re a newcomer you’re competing against much more established companies. So if you’re in the early stages of setting up a business, make sure your marketing is something you’re putting the time, effort and money into. Here’s why.
The psychology of marketing
Marketing has changed so much, if you’ve been online for a while you might remember the old methods companies used to use. Spammy links and huge flashing banners and popups to get your attention, it wasn’t clever or discreet in any way. It wasn’t even targeted to the the right type of customer, and was literally just designed to get the attention of anyone who came across it. Methods like this just wouldn’t fly these days, people don’t want to have companies and products shoved down their throat. That means marketing methods need to be more clever and subtle, you need to convince people to choose your company and part with their money but in a way that still feels like it was their idea. Methods like content marketing work for this exact reason, you’re not presenting people with an ad but with content they want to consume anyway, the ad feels like an extra that they can click on to get more information if they want to. This is the kind of content feels more genuine because it gives people space to decide whether they want to engage further with it rather than feeling pressured. Social media marketing is another example, and when it’s done properly it does really work. It’s not about using these platforms as a way to spam your links or even necessarily to share lots of products directly. Instead it’s a way to show customers who you are as a brand, promoting your blog content here is a smart move as well as things like customer review posts and giveaways. People get to see how you present yourself as a brand and interact with customers which builds trust. It also means if they follow you they’re still seeing your business name and your content in their feed which act as reminders that you’re around, but without it being constant sales and product posts which can seem like pressure.
Understanding your customer
Once you understand the general psychology of marketing, the next step is to understand and get to know YOUR customer specifically. You might know your product or service inside and out, chances are you’ve spent years getting to the stage of opening your shop doors (whether that’s physical or digital) so the end product is something you know well. But do you know who is buying it? You need to know exactly what kind of problem you’re solving for people, and what kind of people specifically have that problem. One way to go about learning more about your customer base is to create personas. These are semi fictional representations of your customers, but they’re built from the real data and research you’ve gathered from the people who already buy from you. They can give you a clearer picture of who you’re actually talking to when you create your marketing, and this is so important because marketing is about solving a real problem rather than something vague or made up. Instead of guessing at what your audience might want, you’re able to map out the kind of person they are, what stage of life they’re in and what might be going on in their day when they come across your business. For example, if you’re a clothes shop it’s important to know that you’re not just selling clothes. If you sell designer clothes, you’re selling someone a certain type of image and reputation and the way they want to portray themselves. If you sell inexpensive clothes you might be appealing to students or parents living on a smaller income that still want to look good but without a huge budget. It usually makes sense to create two or three personas based on the real information you already have, since most businesses attract more than one type of buyer, and you’ll often notice that different groups are motivated by different things. Over time this can really help you to make better decisions about everything from the wording you use to the platforms you focus on, becaue you’re no longer trying to appeal to everyone. Instead you’re actually speaking directly to the people who are most likely to connect with what you offer.
Understanding your niche
Your company’s brand is something that needs to be carefully thought through, as it will usually be the first thing people hear about your business so it needs to be memorable and appealing to customers. It’s not just a logo or a slogan there’s a lot more to it than that, and as well as your actual products or services you need to be able to understand where that fits within the wider business world too. Branding is something that’s important to customers because it builds trust, especially these days when so much of what we do is online as you’re buying something that you can’t see in person until it arrives. These days it’s easier than ever to set up a business that looks legitimate online thanks to the accessibility of the internet. With only a small amount of basic know how, scammers can throw together sites that either sell poor quality products or take people’s money altogether. Customers will be aware of this, which is why people like to buy from companies they know and have heard of and your brand is a way to achieve this. When you buy from a brand, you’re essentially paying for the company’s reputation because if something were to go wrong with the transaction, you know that things will be dealt with quickly and professionally and you’ll get your money back. So for those reasons people tend to trust established brands and because of this it means they’re generally happier to spend more money on them too. So even though branding can be costly upfront you can reap the rewards of it by charging more and having customers that are happy to pay more.
Marketing needs to be done right
For all of the reasons above, marketing absolutely does need to be done right. It’s complex, and just isn’t something that you can guess at. If you do, at worse you could be spending a lot of money on ads and methods that aren’t right for your business and arent reaching the right customers. But at worst you could damage your reputation, it could be your take on a viral trend that’s innocent but gets taken badly or badly interpreted by your customers. Or it could be your site getting penalised by Google where you’ve used techniques like keyword stuffing that it doesn’t allow. This means that to do things properly, you either need to hire a marketing expert to work on your team who knows the ins and outs and can do things by the book. Another option is to outsource your marketing to a company that deals with it. This means you’re only paying for the marketing jobs you want doing (as opposed to paying someone to work for you full time) and they already have everything in place they need to do the job right. Some companies specialise in all areas of marketing, or you could mix and match depending on what you need. For example some specialise in PR campaigns, or link building and have everything in place ready to build your domain authority quickly and safely. Other companies focus more on things like video production or viral video trends which can be useful for creating content for your Tiktok or Instagram. That way you know that it’s done to a high standard, and you arent going to accidentally come across badly where you’ve misunderstood something. Whatever you do, just make sure that the marketing you choose is done properly by a professional as there can be serious repercussions when it goes wrong.
