With great ideas of product and services
that will be attractive to consumers, experts say entrepreneurs are
ready to make a difference in the market place. However, they can end up
frustrated if they fail to consider how to create awareness in an
environment where numerous businesses offer similar products.
Experts have always advised entrepreneurs
to start small or with what they have in order to avoid incurring huge
debts from loans or from purchasing expensive machines and equipment.
The disadvantage in starting with huge capital is that the returns on
the investment may be long-term, and sustaining such business while
waiting for the profit may be difficult.
Emerging trends in technology can,
however, be harnessed to provide a cheap form of marketing, which will
attract customers enabling the business to break even faster, according
to experts.
In a survey by Citibank, it was
discovered that nearly 40 per cent of small businesses don’t have a
website, 62 per cent don’t send marketing e-mails to promote their
business, and 84 per cent have not been using e-commerce. But among the
companies that have a website, 74 per cent say it is an effective way to
bring in business.
For a small business budget, marketing
professionals have highlighted ways of creating awareness for what
start-up has to offer, without spending much money and still make an
impact.
Identify your target market
Experts say you may design your product
in such a way that it will appeal to a large group of people but in
order to create a niche for yourself, they say it may not be possible
initially, to market to everyone. Moreover, the more potential clients
you try to reach, the more time and money will be expended.
Therefore, they say defining a target will help to minimise cost and manage the limited resources at your disposal.
Focusing on a portion of the people who
may be interested in your products will allow you to communicate and
engage with that segment more immensely before expending your horizon.
The Chief Executive Officer, Angela
Itambo Company, Mrs. Angela Ihunweze, says before entrepreneurs decide
on a marketing strategy to adopt, they must first identify their target
market. Every target market has the dynamics of how they want their
goods. For example, if the target market is a very wealthy one, there
are certain marketing strategies that will appeal to them. If it is a
market for the masses, they have they own distinctive marketing
strategies.
She says, “When you acquire the business
skills, you will be told that in a market there are various consumer
groups and several skills appeal to them but most times, you find out
that people believe that only one marketing strategy still apply,
probably making fliers or jingles for advertisement and eventually the
target market does not even know they exist.”
Connect on social media
Ihunweze says right now, the social media
is the cheapest but entrepreneurs need to make up their mind to be
consistent. She says because it is called the social media, it means
there is an interaction between the business owners and the audience so
they need to build trust.
With consistent audience engagement, Ihunweze says the assurance that the business is ready to stay will be established.
She says, “One thing about the social media is that it attracts referrals.”
However, professionals say the perception
of the social media as cheap platform for marketing does not mean
people you reach out to will show interest in your brand. They say
because people get a lot of similar offers every day, it becomes
difficult for prospective clients to make a choice.
Therefore, they say in order for your
business to stand out among other offers in online marketing channels,
the promotions and tactics must be highly creative, contain quality
messages and fit the audience businesses are targeting.
Content is key
In a content marketing survey by
econsultancy, involving more than 1,300 marketers working for brands,
agencies, and publishers, it was discovered that 90 per cent of
respondents believed content marketing would become more important over
the next 12 months.
According to the results, only 38 per
cent have a defined content marketing strategy and 54 per cent of brands
cited increased engagement as the number one value of content. It was
also discovered that more marketers will be sharing content on Twitter
(69 per cent) than on Facebook (61 per cent) in the coming year.
Experts say the result of the survey is an indication of the enormous value of content marketing.
A content advertiser, Drew Hendricks,
says to attract the target market, the write-up on a website or blog
should cater for the needs of the clients when they are searching on the
web. Content should be entertaining and informative.
The power of videos and pictures
Professionals say marketing should not
only be limited to text on social media or on blogs but may be a mixture
of infographics, videos or images. A good mix of all these elements can
engage readers and draw them in.
They say the young generation in recent times are more attracted to visuals than reading.
It has been discovered
that video is the future of content marketing, and more platforms are
keying into it. Various studies show more than half of companies are
already making use of the medium – a figure that’s predicted to rise as
more people realise the possibilities.