I tell my clients, “You have no business until you have clients and the key to getting clients is marketing”. As an entrepreneur you need to focus on marketing when you are starting your business. I recommend that you focus on the areas below even before you make any big investments or worry about getting paid clients. Without the information you gather from the three keys below, you will be shooting arrows in the dark and then wonder why your great idea has gotten you nowhere.
I understand that you may feel overwhelmed when they think of marketing, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Below are three key areas for you to focus on, which will make the difference between having an expensive hobby and having a revenue generating business.
- Do your homework –research your target market and the need for your product and service. Make sure you are clear about the problem you are solving and who you are solving it for. Find out who the competitors are, how long they’ve been in business, market share, etc. Then think about how you are different? How are you better? What is your unique value proposition?
- Interview your target market – find the throngs of people that will love to buy what you have to offer and ask them, what they want. I would recommend doing an interview in exchange for a trial of what you have to offer. This way they can tell you what they really need and also give you feedback on your product/service. This is your opportunity to just be curious. Don’t assume you know what they want or what they will say about what you’re offering. Just be curious, you’ll get a lot more out of it this way.
- Incorporate the feedback – now you are ready to take all the information you have gathered and make changes as appropriate. Whether it’s to your overall strategy, delivery mechanism, etc. you will have the information you need to successfully launch a marketing campaign to get real paying clients.
If you did one and two thoroughly, you will have people anxious to buy your product or service, or at a minimum will know where to go to find your ideal customer. Keep in mind, just because you do this when you start out, doesn’t mean that you stop there. Marketing will be a natural part of your business moving forward, and building up that muscle is really important to your success.
