Looking for a few general rules to help you improve your business’s marketing strategy? Below are a handful of evergreen tips (meaning they are always relevant) collected from marketing professionals across the web.
Bootstrap your startup’s marketing strategy with these tips
Market your solution’s benefits – not the product itself
Say you have an IoT widget that can transmit live data about where it is. Instead of focusing on all of the data being transmitted, how easy it is to install, the range of transmission or the super user-friendly dashboard that you can view from a desktop or your phone – talk about how having this information will save the client time and money.
What the end user cares about and what you think they care about aren’t always the same
This is why it’s so important for Sales and Marketing to work together. Salespeople are on the front lines, talking to clients, talking to prospects, and hearing objections firsthand. Make sure to understand from sales, or even end users themselves, what they are really looking for in a solution like the one you are offering – never assume yourself!
If the end user is using your product in a different way, adapt that as a new vertical
A client of ours had developed a platform for supply chain management. In the process of pitching to a potential client, the client said that they think a different department would benefit from the solution being presented. Our client saw this opportunity and ran with it. While keeping the supply chain management vertical, they also started marketing themselves as a solution for contract management (the new vertical). Contract management ended up becoming the bulk of their client base. Be flexible and listen to what the market is telling you.
Marketing starts with the customer and ends with the customer
At every stage of the process the customer’s wants and needs need to be kept in perspective: The marketing process begins with market research providing businesses with information about what the end user wants or needs. It ends with marketers using that information to effectively deliver the right messaging to the customer so they are chosen from amongst all of the competition.
If you take your eye off the reason the customer is buying the product, you’ll veer off-track.
Bad marketing is insulting
Marketing gets in people’s faces, literally. Whether a commercial on TV, an ad viewed on YouTube on a phone, or even a message in your LinkedIn DMs, marketing messaging is something that gets up close and personal. If it’s done right, it’s appreciated, but if it’s done wrong it can be insulting (as Bud Light’s failed campaign was). Make sure your messaging is tailored to your audience (which is the benefit of segmenting your client base) to provide the right message that will be most effective.
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