Essential Marketing Tips For New Business Owners

The UK is full of entrepreneurial people going self-employed and setting up their own small businesses, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Despite the economic uncertainty of the last ten years, plenty of optimistic souls who think they’ve got what it takes to be their own boss and make money from their ideas are setting up in business. This sector is vital to the economy and makes a major contribution to local communities too. With all these positives, it’s sad to note that four out of every ten small businesses will close within the first five years. What are the reasons for this, and how can you avoid being one of those closures?

Why businesses close

There are multiple factors involved in the failure of small businesses. There are external influences, such as a major rival moving in and taking business away from you, or perhaps an unsupportable increase in costs. Business rates on the high street are a good example of this problem at the moment. There could be changes in the industry that make your products obsolete, or your suppliers go out of business, or the quality of the products drops. You could have a personal issue like illness or bereavement that affects your ability to run the business. There are many such factors that are hard to predict and difficult to deal with, but in many cases, businesses fail simply because one element of their strategy is flawed, and the most common element behind such failures is a lack of marketing expertise.

Why marketing is critical to business success

Unless you can convey the benefits of your product or service to the people who are likely to want to buy from you, your business will fail. Customers are the lifeblood of any small business, and without them, you’ll make no sales and no profits. Marketing is the method of communication you use to find the right people and show them how you can give them something they need or want. It sounds simple, and the basic premise really is as simple as that, but finding the right people – what is known as your target market – and creating a message that will attract their attention, are far from simple; which is why so many businesses struggle with their marketing.

Choosing the right avenues for your marketing

There are a number of options when it comes to marketing, making it tricky to choose which ones to spend time and money on. As a general rule, a website is your primary marketing tool, as well as being a communication and selling tool in its own right. You should focus on marketing your website effectively by creating a well-designed, informative and user-friendly site. You’ll need to get your search engine optimisation right to ensure your business is featured at the top of the rankings for relevant searches, and you should look at supplementary digital activities such as social media, pay-per-click advertising, and raising your online profile to bring people to your site.

Creating a USP, or unique selling proposition

What do you do that no-one else does? This could be based on your location, i.e, you’re the only fish and chip shop in St. Judes. Or you could have a unique product - perhaps you’re the only shop selling Japanese antiques or garden gnomes that look like celebrities. If your niche is already well-populated this can be more of a challenge, for instance, if you set up a new accountancy business, why should people looking for an accountant choose you over the five other firms already operating in your area? You might have to get creative, and if you’re struggling to find your USP there are websites that will help you find that all-important uniqueness.

Getting your message right

Giving people what they want is at the heart of effective marketing, which sounds obvious but can be a real sticking point in many campaigns. To make a connection with someone to the degree that they want to engage with your business and spend their money with you, you have to show how you can help them answer a problem they have, or provide them with exactly what they need at that time, and that’s the job of your marketing message. Say you’ve opened a new equestrian store and are trying to appeal to local riders. Describing the fine workmanship in your new range of training aids is all well and good, but what customers really want to know is whether this device will help them with a difficult horse, or enable them to do well in competitions. Therefore, instead of leading with “We are now stocking the new Smith’s Training Aid, made by hand from finest quality leather,” you want to go for something like “Cure your horse’s behavioural problems with the new Smith’s Training Aid.” One simple trick you can use to test your marketing copy is to ask yourself “So what?” Read what you’ve written and see what your answer to this question would be if you were reading it as a potential customer, and it will get you on the right track.

Targeting the right people

You can waste a huge amount of time and money advertising to people who will never be interested in your business offer. To get the optimum results for your investment, you need to work out who your ideal customer is, and where they are likely to be. The further you can refine this information, the better your targeting will be, so it’s worth spending some time finding out what websites and publications are most frequently viewed by the people who will need your services. This is easier if you have a very focused niche, like the equestrian store, or your business serves the local community rather than being national or international, but whatever your specialty is, drilling down to the core of what makes your potential customers tick will be crucial to getting a good return on your marketing investment.

There are so many other businesses all clamouring for attention, and you have to find something that sets you apart from everyone else and be able to deliver on your promises. If you can get these key marketing basics right, you have a good chance of avoiding being one of those failure statistics.