5 tips for start ups

5 tips for start ups

5 tips for start-up companies

So, you’re starting up in business? Exciting times ahead! These first few footsteps into the world of business can be both exciting, and inherently critical to your success; gain a firm footing with the following quick-fire, fails-safe business tips.

1. Discover where your customers are and harness the power of digital

Understanding your customers is a non-negotiable in business – however it’s today no longer enough to research who your consumers are and how you’re going to deliver a different product or service that appeals unlike any other. In this modern, digitally driven world, you need to appreciate how your target consumers are using social media – which platforms they’re on, and how best to strike up a conversation.

This piece of research from the Pew Research Centre provides some insight to get started based on age, gender and other demographics, and how they impact on which social media platforms users are to be found.  Leading on from here you should gain a solid understanding as to how your most innovative competitors are reaching out to your target market and starting social conversations that lead to sales.

2. Create content that your customers care about

If you’ve undertaken your customer research correctly, you’ll thoroughly understand your target market’s pain points. You’ll appreciate the problems they face, and that you ultimately solve. Building your content around this, such as blog posts, eBook guides and videos, is central to building an online presence that consumers feel they can connect with, as well as becoming a resource where they’ll gain invaluable advice.

3. Build up your reputation with the power of review websites

Consumer to consumer advocacy is just about the most powerful form of marketing there is. After all, are your customers going to trust in the shiny words splashed across your website, or place more weight on the thoughts and experiences of their fellow consumers?

Websites such as TripAdvisor, Google Places and TrustBase are all leading examples of just how much importance is placed on the opinions of others.

4. Consider whether Pay Per Click advertising could well pay dividends

You may be busy learning all there is to know about content marketing, SEO and social media – and whilst your efforts in each of these areas will undoubtedly pay off, given enough time, in the short term, you may want to consider PPC advertising. Here are some surprising statistics as to just how powerful an option this can be:

“Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Adwords”

“On average, 41% of clicks go to the top 3 paid ads on the search results page”.

“Facebook Ads give businesses the potential reach of 43.8% of all internet users”.

 

5. Finally – don’t get stuck, just start!

Many entrepreneurs fall at the first hurdle because they spend hours upon hours, and months upon months, on planning – and then re-writing and re-working that plan.

A consensus that runs amongst some of the most successful business people in the world is that planning, and then running with it, is the fastest route to growth. The biggest pitfall to this, however, is that when you’re working as an entrepreneur it can be tricky to stick to your goals and not encounter stalled plans through self-doubt, procrastination or just plain old poor organisation. To counter this there are a growing number of accountability apps – with entire communities who encourage, motivate and provide advice to one another to ensure plans are stuck to, and goals are achieved. A prime example includes Coach Me’s Habit Tracker, as well as other apps that purely focus on achieving goals, without the community element, such as Nozbe, GoalsOnTrack and Strides.  

---