Online is great, but traditional marketing such as posters is also valuable. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Marketing your business is vital. Once the services and products you have to offer are ready, you need to get your name or brand into the marketplace to generate sales. Without a carefully considered marketing plan built into all areas of your business, you are unlikely to get the results you want. These plans can be time consuming, so make sure you don’t leave it to the last minute.
In today’s world, every business is open, and everyone has the potential to market your product for you, or slate it. So when creating and implementing your marketing plan, it is important to think about your branding and how you want your business to be perceived, both in the short and longer term. Two Start-Up Loan recipients, Sam Ryan and Barney Williams, had this in mind when devising a marketing plan for their new mobile app, JumpIn. It is a taxi booking and taxi-sharing app that aims to overcome the perception that travelling this way is unsafe, through offering the service to a selected, ring-fenced group of people.
Ryan and Williams are students at Leeds University, so the obvious demographic to initially roll out JumpIn to was fellow students, with a long-term plan to expand the concept to other safe, specified consumer groups. When devising their marketing strategy, the pair’s three key aims were brand awareness, generating downloads and encouraging use. Brand perception was paramount when targeting these areas through various marketing channels.
The boys were keen to be perceived as a “cool student brand”, as well as a professional outlet. They wanted JumpIn to be immediately recognisable and fun, but to appeal to angel investors and larger sectors of society for when they are ready to roll the concept out to other demographics; they always had the wider brand in mind, which is key.
As a startup, you have the benefit of being able to react quickly to changing circumstances, something larger, established businesses will struggle to do. It is important that your marketing approach is flexible. Don’t be afraid to change your approach. Track the success of your various campaigns through measures such as an increase in sales, downloads or hits to your website. If it transpires that one campaign is not working, end it and reallocate the budget.
Thanks to the internet, particularly social media, direct marketing has never been more effective or affordable. Social media sites are a great place to start getting your name out there for relatively low or no cost. Sharing carefully selected snippets on social media can create a buzz around your business and create an audience for you to target directly with new campaigns and promotions.
A Facebook page can be used to promote new products and milestones while Twitter can be a great way to get involved with business communities and potential customers. Adding a blog or videos to your website will ensure your voice gets heard by your customers.
You may also want to consider paying for services which drive targeted traffic to your website. It is important to track success rates. Paid advertising on Facebook may be fruitful as you can target a specific demographic, in a specific area and in JumpIn’s case, target individuals who use a particular mobile operating system – as the app is currently only available on the iPhone to Leeds University students.
Moving away from online marketing, word of mouth is a great way to generate publicity. Look into networking events that you can attend and test your sales pitch on clients and potential partners. Word of mouth emphasising positive customer experience will ultimately be your best marketing tool.
Having a physical presence through poster campaigns, leaflets and organising promotional events can help raise brand awareness. JumpIn organised an event where they asked if they could take advantage of a Student Lock-In, an out of hours, student shopping event, which had been organised in Trinity Leeds shopping centre. JumpIn were granted a stand at the lock-in where they encouraged students to download the JumpIn app in return for a free T-shirt. These T-shirts are still worn on campus, helping to promote the app further. You may also want to consider attempting to form partnerships with relevant brands or companies.
Finally, I would recommend that you find out what your competition are up to and try to stay ahead of them. Be creative and have fun with your campaigns.
James Caan is chairman of the Start-Up Loans Company. Each fortnight he will be tackling a different business issue. Keep up to date by visiting the network and signing up to our weekly newsletter. We welcome your suggestions for future topics and questions for James regarding your own business – please share them in the comments thread below
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To receive more like this you can become a member of the Small Business Network here.
In today’s world, every business is open, and everyone has the potential to market your product for you, or slate it. So when creating and implementing your marketing plan, it is important to think about your branding and how you want your business to be perceived, both in the short and longer term. Two Start-Up Loan recipients, Sam Ryan and Barney Williams, had this in mind when devising a marketing plan for their new mobile app, JumpIn. It is a taxi booking and taxi-sharing app that aims to overcome the perception that travelling this way is unsafe, through offering the service to a selected, ring-fenced group of people.
Ryan and Williams are students at Leeds University, so the obvious demographic to initially roll out JumpIn to was fellow students, with a long-term plan to expand the concept to other safe, specified consumer groups. When devising their marketing strategy, the pair’s three key aims were brand awareness, generating downloads and encouraging use. Brand perception was paramount when targeting these areas through various marketing channels.
The boys were keen to be perceived as a “cool student brand”, as well as a professional outlet. They wanted JumpIn to be immediately recognisable and fun, but to appeal to angel investors and larger sectors of society for when they are ready to roll the concept out to other demographics; they always had the wider brand in mind, which is key.
As a startup, you have the benefit of being able to react quickly to changing circumstances, something larger, established businesses will struggle to do. It is important that your marketing approach is flexible. Don’t be afraid to change your approach. Track the success of your various campaigns through measures such as an increase in sales, downloads or hits to your website. If it transpires that one campaign is not working, end it and reallocate the budget.
Thanks to the internet, particularly social media, direct marketing has never been more effective or affordable. Social media sites are a great place to start getting your name out there for relatively low or no cost. Sharing carefully selected snippets on social media can create a buzz around your business and create an audience for you to target directly with new campaigns and promotions.
A Facebook page can be used to promote new products and milestones while Twitter can be a great way to get involved with business communities and potential customers. Adding a blog or videos to your website will ensure your voice gets heard by your customers.
You may also want to consider paying for services which drive targeted traffic to your website. It is important to track success rates. Paid advertising on Facebook may be fruitful as you can target a specific demographic, in a specific area and in JumpIn’s case, target individuals who use a particular mobile operating system – as the app is currently only available on the iPhone to Leeds University students.
Moving away from online marketing, word of mouth is a great way to generate publicity. Look into networking events that you can attend and test your sales pitch on clients and potential partners. Word of mouth emphasising positive customer experience will ultimately be your best marketing tool.
Having a physical presence through poster campaigns, leaflets and organising promotional events can help raise brand awareness. JumpIn organised an event where they asked if they could take advantage of a Student Lock-In, an out of hours, student shopping event, which had been organised in Trinity Leeds shopping centre. JumpIn were granted a stand at the lock-in where they encouraged students to download the JumpIn app in return for a free T-shirt. These T-shirts are still worn on campus, helping to promote the app further. You may also want to consider attempting to form partnerships with relevant brands or companies.
Finally, I would recommend that you find out what your competition are up to and try to stay ahead of them. Be creative and have fun with your campaigns.
James Caan is chairman of the Start-Up Loans Company. Each fortnight he will be tackling a different business issue. Keep up to date by visiting the network and signing up to our weekly newsletter. We welcome your suggestions for future topics and questions for James regarding your own business – please share them in the comments thread below
This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To receive more like this you can become a member of the Small Business Network here.