One of the important components of a business plan is clearly defining objectives. Stephen Harper in Starting Your Own Business (McGraw Hill) writes, “Objectives can be viewed as dreams with a deadline.” The point he is making is that objectives should be specific in terms of projected amounts and timeframe.
For example, you would not write an objective like this: The business will grow over the next 5 years. You would write it like this: Sales are expected to be $2 million in 5 years and the business will be one of the top 5 niche market leaders. The dreams you have for the business should look ahead and establish where you want the business to be positioned or how much growth is expected within a set period of time. The dreams should also be reasonable, based in facts and business reality, and achievable.
For example, if you plan on opening 5 franchise businesses within 10 years (1 every 5 years) the objective should be stated as such. However, you should also be able to support plans for opening these franchises in the competitive analysis section of the business plan. If the market is already close to being saturated, those 5 new franchises may be difficult to open. When objectives are focused and sensible, the business plan will become a living breathing document that supports your dream.
If you are having trouble setting objectives for the business plan, there are some questions you can ask yourself to develop focus. Ask yourself what your ultimate goal is 5 years from now. Picture yourself as an entrepreneur 5 years from today and imagine the level of business success you want to succeed. Ask yourself questions like how many sales people you hope to have working and how much market share you want to gain. Picture yourself as successful and put your definition of success in writing.
Objectives will become clear when you take the time to look into the future. Though a business plan is not a crystal ball, it is a driving force with strategies for achieving success. Set clear objectives first and the rest of the business plan will be a lot easier to develop.
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How do you convince investors your business idea is worth the risk of investing money? You may have the most innovative and creative idea ever put forth, but that doesn’t mean anyone is going to invest in it. Even a good idea can flop if it’s not implemented correctly. Of course, the most well-known example in business history is the 1958 Edsel. The car had a poor name, a poor pricing strategy and was manufactured during a recession. It remains to be seen if the modern-day Chevy volt will be classified as the “new” Edsel for similar reasons.
Investors are willing to accept risk, but they will do everything in their power to ensure they understand how much risk is involved. Investors are not the same as business speculators in most cases because they want a value proposition that includes a very good probability of earning positive returns. There are many different factors investors will consider to determine risk, and you should assess them first.
Risk is a function of management competencies, available collateral, market acceptance of the business idea and time. To convince investors your business idea is worth the risk of funding, you will have to first prove that the people implementing the plan are fully competent and capable of running a business. Investors will also want reliable collateral. You need to show that the product or services can be efficiently brought to a willing market. Finally, the investor will want to assurances that the payback agreement in terms of time will be met. Payback in terms of money is taken care of by the other factors of competency, market success and collateral.
You can convince investors to fund your projects by developing a sophisticated business plan that clearly and carefully shows the level of risk the investor is assuming. The good news is that the time spent developing a business plan in the first place reduces risk right away.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
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Marketers and copywriters craft the best marketing copy to guarantee more conversions and sales.
But how do you write the best copy that convinces even the most demanding consumers?
What is Marketing?
Marketing refers to creating the image a business wants to portray to their consumers and stakeholders. Marketing is all about representing your image and establishing your unique identity in the market.
Marketing content is not restricted to your products and services. A company can market its work culture to attract the best pool of talented employees. A business can also market its eco-friendly operations to show that they care for the environment we live in.
Common formats of marketing copy include:
Blogs
eBooks
Social media posts
Landing pages
Whitepapers
Video scripts
Infographics
Paid ad copy
CTA copy
Email
Case studies
Webinars
Now that you know what marketing copy is all about, here are the best ways to write an attention-grabbing marketing copy.
Focus on a Single Message
The best copy revolves around a single subject. While copywriters and marketing gurus are multi-taskers, they strongly recommend focusing on one message that is the crux of your campaign.
For instance, if you are writing a copy for a company that sells Bluetooth earphones along with other accessories, such as speakers, create unique content for each product. Whether you’re writing a blog post or creating a landing page, there should be separate information available for every product.
Brainstorm
There’s no copy without understanding the philosophy behind producing and selling a product. If you run a small business, here are a few factors to consider:
What are your strengths?
Why is your product different than other products in the market?
How do you aim to serve your consumers?
What are the channels or mediums that you want to use for your marketing campaigns?
Once you’ve identified the goals you want to accomplish with your copy, crafting the best marketing copy becomes easier. The best way to capture your audience is to address a current problem that needs to be dealt right away.
If you’re a web design and development company, base your marketing copy on statistics that reveal how much online traffic has shifted to mobile devices. This way you can pitch companies that are in need of responsible websites.
Keep it simple
No need to complicate things when all your consumers want to read is simple information. Owing to an exponentially decreasing attention span of today’s busy online visitors, the simplest copy gets the most views and shares. This is because an average user is unaware of the technical terms and jargon you might be tempted to use in our copy.
Keep it short and simple and avoid long-run sentences. Make sure you come up with adjective-rich copy that sums ups the best part of your products in just one word.
Use catchy headlines
Boring headlines and clichés are just a big turn-off.
What’s marketing without any creativity? Interesting headlines ignite interest and push your audience to skim through a blog post or open an email. A few effective ways to create your headlines are:
Pose a question to pique your visitors’ interest
Compile “Top 10” like lists related to your products and services
Include a current or trending subject in your headline
Make an irresistible offer if you’re writing a copy for your social media pages
Value-added services include complementary products and discounted services to first-time and loyal customers. We all love free offers and consumers are always looking for something they can try out for free before investing. The fun part is that a great copy makes even the smallest of offers tempting and popular among customers.
Target the Fearful Customer
Copywriters are known to play off the customers’ fears. For instance, if you’re marketing an insect repellent spray, make your reader imagine a situation where his bed is infested with bed bugs. Nobody wants to imagine ugly crawling insects making their way to their children’s beds.
You’re not doing anything wrong here. You’re just identifying a current or potential problem and offering a solution. Basically, you’re playing off the masses. Needless to say, this is one of the best ways to push more sales.
Again, do your home work to identify what troubles your target audience. What drives them during the day and what keeps them up all night.
Convince not Converse
A customer only buys a product once he’s convinced that the product is going to solve his or her problem. Let’s say you are writing a copy to sell a dietary supplement. Listing ingredients and compounds is not enough to lure someone into buying the supplement.
Make sure you also list the benefits of each ingredient. Even if your marketing copy proclaims that a product solves a specific problem, consumers will remain doubtful. However, if you tell them ‘how’ it takes care of their problem, you convince challenging customers.
Call to Action
All great marketing copies come down to a clearly visible call to action. One deadly mistake that most marketers and copywriters commit is to keep CTA at the bottom of the page. While placing the call to action button in the end is a common practice, there is no fixed rule that prevents you from initiating customer activity during any part of your copy.
Whether it’s providing free consultation, receiving a free eBook or signing up for a newsletter, remember to incorporate CTA’s throughout your copy.
Test your copy
There are plenty of ways to test your marketing copy. The best method to track success is to conduct A/B tests. These tests can be done for any landing page, blog post or infographic. A/B testing helps businesses expand their outreach to a wider audience. It also helps marketing teams tweak suitable changes to their current and future campaigns.
Final Thoughts
Today’s smart consumers can tell the difference between functional and fad products. Great marketing stems from incredible products. If your products don’t add any value to your customers’ lives, not even the best marketing copy can save you. Focus on creating amazing products and let your marketing copy take your business to new heights of success.
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One thing you can find plenty of when looking for investors is advice. Everyone seems to have an opinion and plenty of advice to share even when they have no experience in landing business funding. The best advice you can get is actually the same advice Toastmasters International gives as toasting tips: keep your presentation personal, brief, customized and heartfelt.
Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs and businesses wait until they are desperate for cash to find investors. When it’s time to approach venture capitalists, equity partners or angel investors, the general theme is one of desperation. That is not an approach that usually works because desperation reeks of risk. If investors can detect one thing quickly it is a business or business idea that is high risk and the risk is not supported by a definitive business and marketing plan.
The personal aspect of approaching investors is quite simply – you. You are the one with the idea. You are the one who developed the business plan. You are the one who needs business funding. That makes you a business asset, and the personal aspect refers to your ability to prove business experience, ability to be productive and knowledge of the industry and market niche to be entered. Investors will also want to learn about your background.
When it’s time to present the business plan, the presentation should be brief, organized and well prepared. The investors will ask questions about any area they want more information about. However, when looking for investors, the business plan itself needs to thoroughly address all of the topics of interest. These topics include:
The nature of the business
Uniqueness of the product
Market definition
Customer demographics and needs
Competition
5 year operating strategy
Repayment plan and return on investment
Supporting documentation
Collateral
Financial statements
The customization needed for the presentation will depend on the type of investor you are presenting too. For example, angel investors are considering a high risk investment in your early stage venture so your presentation will have to focus heavily on the management and minimization of risk. If you are presenting to potential equity partners then it will be important to address control of the business. If you are looking for large amounts of venture capital, the presentation may focus on the business plan for accelerated growth.
In all cases when looking for investors, the presentation must be heartfelt. Being heartfelt in this case means you are honest, forthright and truthful. When explaining to angel investors, venture capitalists or equity partners why you need the money, it’s important to show how the funds will be used to fuel growth.
What else can you learn from the toasting experts? You can learn to:
Practice your presentation and avoid embarrassing faux pas
Speak clearly and confidently
Be positive and exude success
Keep comments on point
Summarize succinctly
There are experts who can help anyone looking for investors for their business. Looking and landing are two different things though. In the final analysis, it’s up to you to do the convincing.
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Branding is one element addressed in the marketing section of the business plan. It’s also the image presented to angel investors when searching for business funding. Contrary to popular belief though, branding is not just about a trendy logo or elaborate advertising. It’s the element that represents you as the business owner, the quality of your products, and the level of customer service. Brand is composed of your individuality and your company’s value.
Branding is a complex concept which is one reason why it’s often reduced down in people’s minds as being mostly about advertising. The assumption is that if the target market is aware of your logo, then branding efforts have been successful. However, it goes much deeper than advertising, which is why your business plan must present more than an advertising plan to potential angel investors.
Business brands is about the quality and value that underpins the entire business. It’s the projected image, but more importantly it’s the tie-in for everything the company does or will do. business brand is a broad brush that covers marketing, pricing, the level of customer service and the business culture. Branding pervades the business plan and is not simply one element in the marketing plan.
Common question angel investors ask always concerns brand. What do you want your brand to project to the marketplace? Is it quality, innovation, creativity, problem solving or all of the above? Branding is important to startup companies as well as established companies. In fact, branding for startups can perform an important job for startups on limited budgets by making advertising efforts more effective. Clear and distinct branding differentiates the company in the minds of customers, thus giving the company more value for marketing dollars spent.
Before preparing a business plan to present to angel investors, make sure the brand is well defined. Branding is not just advertising. It’s the element that ties your entire business together.
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When you start a business, different people will advise you differently on how to turn your venture into a success. While it looks natural to have a business plan beforehand, do not be surprised if you find some people telling you to not have one. According to some, having a business plan limits you in your exploration and prevents you from taking risks. That might hold true in some cases, but that’s not how it is for everyone. Having a business plan is a sensible step, but if you are on the fence about whether to have one or not, here are some disadvantages of not having a business plan to help you make a well-informed decision.
Why Not Having a Business Plan Is Not Advisable
1. There Is Nothing to Achieve
Milestones have to be an integral part of any venture. When you don’t have any milestones and targets, there is nothing for you to achieve. Having no business plan is the first sign of your non-seriousness with your business. If you could not take out time to create a detailed plan, how can one expect you to manage your business – an activity that could require even up to 16 hours of continuous working at times? The problem with having nothing to achieve means you will have no strategies for your expenses, profits, revenues, etc.
How would you ever know how much you should spend or not spend? Why would you invest in marketing when you don’t have any goals?
2. There Is Nothing to Interest Investors
There might be some proponents of the idea that a business does not require a business plan, but there are still more people who believe in having a business plan. Investors always need indicators from entrepreneurs to judge their personalities and potentials. Business plan is one of the strongest indicators of a person’s potential of doing a business. When you ask investors for a certain amount of money, the first question they ask is why you need that money or what you need that money for. Your answer to this question can make it or break it for you.
In fact, that is not the only question. They will follow up this first question with a lineup of crucial follow-up questions. For example, if you tell them you will invest the money in marketing, they will ask you about the type of marketing you are aiming for, the return you expect and the costs of customer acquisition. How can you answer all those questions if you do not have a business plan?
3. Your Marketing Will Go Awry
One of the damages of not having a business plan is your marketing plans going awry. Entrepreneurs have more power to them today than they ever had before. These days, startup owners have internet where they can collect information about their customers in the startup stages. Collecting customer information helps them create buyer personas and target their audience with appropriate marketing. Here are some pieces of information you will have to collect.
What age group and gender my product appeals best to?
What interests my target age group and gender?
What platforms is my target audience most active on?
What is the average buying power of my target audience?
What type of content best attracts my target audience?
What expectations do my potential customers have with my product?
How can I personalize my marketing to my audience?
That’s just few of the many questions that you have to get the answers for to make your marketing endeavors profitable. However, all of this homework is a part of your business plan.
4. Your Team Won’t Share Your Vision
It is crucial for a business’ success to have a team that shares the same vision and endeavors to achieve it. Several studies and researches have proven that employees do not perform at their best when they don’t understand the vision well. You must define clear and vivid targets to your employees for them to know exactly what they have to do to be of value for the company. What you have to realize is that telling your team the vision of the business is not enough. It is a broad concept and does not define the action plan to your employees.
What you have to do is break the process of achieving your vision into small parts. These small parts are the milestones and within each milestone the role of your team is clearly defined. In short, break the entire pursuit of vision into small missions, and explain the role of every team member to achieve a milestone.
5. You Won’t Know When to Exit
One of the biggest mistakes most startup owners and entrepreneurs make is that they don’t know when to exit. If you can close down your business before it starts hurting you financially, that’s a form of success. The true failure is when you cannot realize that your business is hurting you and you keep burning dollars for its success. An integral part of a business plan is defining favorable and unfavorable conditions for the business to exist.
In a business, you have to define a deadline before which you must see positive results. You have to define a time frame within which you can continue to invest in your business. However, you have to draw a line to make it clear when you cannot continue anymore. If you have been running your business for six months and the money has been going out of your pocket, it might be an indicator that it won’t work for you.
Conclusion
A business plan should be considered a part and parcel of a venture. It is not an optional component because your success rests on it. If you are looking forward to starting your business, it is advisable that you sit down and take time to write and review your business plan. If that is too much for you, hire a professional to write it for you.
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Getting into a business partnership has its benefits. It allows all contributors to share the stakes in the business. Depending on the risk appetites of partners, a business can have a general or limited liability partnership. Limited partners are only there to provide funding to the business. They have no say in business operations, neither do they share the responsibility of any debt or other business obligations. General Partners operate the business and share its liabilities as well. Since limited liability partnerships require a lot of paperwork, people usually tend to form general partnerships in businesses.
Things to Consider Before Setting Up A Business Partnership
Business partnerships are a great way to share your profit and loss with someone you can trust. However, a poorly executed partnerships can turn out to be a disaster for the business. Here are some useful ways to protect your interests while forming a new business partnership:
1. Being Sure Of Why You Need a Partner
Before entering into a business partnership with someone, you need to ask yourself why you need a partner. If you are looking for just an investor, then a limited liability partnership should suffice. However, if you are trying to create a tax shield for your business, the general partnership would be a better choice.
Business partners should complement each other in terms of experience and skills. If you are a technology enthusiast, teaming up with a professional with extensive marketing experience can be quite beneficial.
2. Understanding Your Partner’s Current Financial Situation
Before asking someone to commit to your business, you need to understand their financial situation. When starting up a business, there may be some amount of initial capital required. If business partners have enough financial resources, they will not require funding from other resources. This will lower a firm’s debt and increase the owner’s equity.
3. Background Check
Even if you trust someone to be your business partner, there is no harm in performing a background check. Calling a couple of professional and personal references can give you a fair idea about their work ethics. Background checks help you avoid any future surprises when you start working with your business partner. If your business partner is used to sitting late and you are not, you can divide responsibilities accordingly.
It is a good idea to check if your partner has any prior experience in running a new business venture. This will tell you how they performed in their previous endeavors.
4. Have an Attorney Vet the Partnership Documents
Make sure you take legal opinion before signing any partnership agreements. It is one of the most useful ways to protect your rights and interests in a business partnership. It is important to have a good understanding of each clause, as a poorly written agreement can make you run into liability issues.
You should make sure to add or delete any relevant clause before entering into a partnership. This is because it is cumbersome to make amendments once the agreement has been signed.
5. The Partnership Should Be Solely Based On Business Terms
Business partnerships should not be based on personal relationships or preferences. There should be strong accountability measures put in place from the very first day to track performance. Responsibilities should be clearly defined and performing metrics should indicate every individual’s contribution towards the business.
Having a weak accountability and performance measurement system is one of the reasons why many partnerships fail. Rather than putting in their efforts, owners start blaming each other for the wrong decisions and resulting in company losses.
6. The Commitment Level of Your Business Partner
All partnerships start on friendly terms and with great enthusiasm. However, some people lose excitement along the way due to everyday slog. Therefore, you need to understand the commitment level of your partner before entering into a business partnership with them.
Your business partner(s) should be able to show the same level of commitment at every stage of the business. If they do not remain committed to the business, it will reflect in their work and can be detrimental to the business as well. The best way to maintain the commitment level of each business partner is to set desired expectations from every person from the very first day.
While entering into a partnership agreement, you need to have an idea about your partner’s added responsibilities. Responsibilities such as taking care of an elderly parent should be given due thought to set realistic expectations. This gives room for compassion and flexibility in your work ethics.
7. What Will Happen If a Partner Exits the Business
Just like any other contract, a business venture requires a prenup. This would outline what happens in case a partner wishes to exit the business. Some of the questions to answer in such a scenario include:
How will the exiting party receive compensation?
How will the division of resources take place among the remaining business partners?
Also, how will you divide the responsibilities?
8. Who Will Be In Charge Of Daily Operations
Even when there is a 50-50 partnership, someone needs to be in charge of daily operations. Positions including CEO and Director need to be allocated to appropriate individuals including the business partners from the beginning.
This helps in creating an organizational structure and further defining the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. When each individual knows what is expected of him or her, they are more likely to perform better in their role.
9. You Share the Same Values and Vision
Entering into a business partnership with someone who shares the same values and vision makes the running of daily operations considerably easy. You can make important business decisions quickly and define long-term strategies. However, sometimes, even the most like-minded individuals can disagree on important decisions. In such cases, it is essential to keep in mind the long-term goals of the business.
Bottom Line
Business partnerships are a great way to share liabilities and increase funding when setting up a new business. To make a business partnership successful, it is important to find a partner that will help you make fruitful decisions for the business. Thus, pay attention to the above-mentioned integral aspects, as a weak partner(s) can prove detrimental for your new venture.
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As an entrepreneur with a unique business idea, your most difficult task is to make others believe in your idea as much as you do. Your knowledge of your business and the passion for its concept reflects in how you pitch your startup. While learning comes from failures, your target should always be to ace your pitch the first time you deliver it. The idea of pitching your business to the experienced investors can be quite daunting. You are standing in front of the people who can look right through you and your words. Any mistakes or misinformation can ruin the opportunity of a successful investment.
If you have watched a few episodes of the Shark Tank, you would know how brutal investors can be with their probing and reprimanding. While their harsh words can be quite painful, the more disappointing part is when you are not able to get the investment you want.
Regardless of all the internal and external forces, favoring and non-favoring odds, it is your perfect pitch that can win the investors over. What you need to focus on is how you can craft the perfect pitch that has the thinnest chances of being turned down by potential investors. Here are the tips that will help.
7 Tips to Craft and Deliver the Most Successful Business Startup Pitch
1) Keep Your Pitch Short
Do whatever it takes—hire professionals or spend hundreds of hours brainstorming—but come up with a shortened, succinct and most effective version of your pitch. Don’t make your investors yawn. Split your pitch into three to four different phases and transition through them smoothly. For example, split your pitch into four parts that could look like this:
Tell the story how it started.
Explain clearly what your product/service is.
Give out numbers i.e. revenue, sales, profits, losses etc.
State the size of the investment you are looking for and explain what the purpose for which you need the said amount.
So, you could give 2 and half minutes to every part and complete your pitch in 10 minutes. Increase the time for the section which you believe needs more attention.
2) Be VERY Clear about Your Product/Service
One of the biggest mistakes that startup teams make is not being able to explain the idea they are selling. It can often happen when you divide your product/service into multiple sections with each section solving a different problem. If you are not able to explain your product/service clearly, it is an indication of one of the two problems or both: 1) you have not worked on your pitch and 2) you don’t know your service/products very well yourself. As soon as the investors feel lost during your pitch, consider the opportunity lost too.
3) Know Your Target Market and Product’s Uniqueness
Many entrepreneurs’ pitches have turned into nightmares because of this particular point. It is like an interviewer asking you, “Why should we hire YOU?” There might be many other products similar to yours in the market without you knowing about them. What you have to know is what makes yours unique/different.
You must also know the market you are targeting with your product. Keep in mind that investors are often not interested in products that only target a niche market. Take the example of selling Christmas trees that only sell in the Christmas season—indicates a niche market, a limited product.
4) Know Your Numbers
If you have not done your homework on your numbers, you have no chance of getting an investor interested in your product. It’s sad but true. In fact, some investors are only interested in numbers as they believe it’s the numbers that tell the real story, not the business owner him/herself. Know your revenues, sales, losses, incomes, etc. Make sure you know your profits and revenues regarding months, quarters and years. If they ask you how much profit you made in last three months, you must come up with an answer immediately.
5) Be Clear on How You Intend to Spend the Money
This section is where the investors will gauge how trustworthy you are and how good you are as a person in the leading position for your business. Of course, if you want money for your business you must also know where you are going to spend it. A few things that investors are trying to find out by asking “how you are going to spend the money” are as under:
You aren’t asking for money just because you haven’t been able to take a paycheck from your business.
You are not going to use the money to pay for debts and old investments.
You are not going to use the investment money for a business process that will not contribute to business’ growth and expansion.
If your demand for money ends up being for any of the reasons mentioned above, you are likely to be rejected for your investment.
6) Show Your Passion
Barbara Corcoran, successful businesswoman and investor, says that she looks at the enthusiasm and passion of an entrepreneur for their business. She believes that you cannot fake passion. Whether you are pitching through an online platform or live in front of the investors, your passion can get them interested in your business even if it is not something they have done before.
7) Choose the Right Platform
In today’s digital world, you can gather funds from investors through an online platform, which is the most popular and successful way for entrepreneurs to gather funds for their start-ups. However, when it comes to choosing the platform, you must pick one that has a reliable network of investors, significant traffic, reputable online image and great exposure for startups. One that fulfills all these requirements and more is Funded. Funded is currently one of the best and most reliable platforms for startups, especially when it comes to angel investors.
Final Word
As a startup, the presence and preparation of your competitors might be intimidating at first, but that’s what you need to change about yourself. Your competitors might have reached to a bigger network of investors, more inventory and better technologies to support their mission, but what can make the difference is your passion and confidence in your startup pitch.
Who we are: Funded.com is a platform that is A+ BBB rated over 10+ years. Access our network of Investors, get instantly matched with a Lender, or get a business plan by visiting us Funded.com
The success of a small business depends greatly on how effectively it markets itself, its products and its services. The real challenge with marketing is that it is one of the broadest concepts that any businessperson and entrepreneur have to deal with. Every business has its specific marketing needs, and yours does too. If you have a business, you must understand marketing in its depths and the many techniques that will help your business grow and expand. A lot of the business owners believe that having a website and doing some seasonal material marketing is enough for them, but they are wrong.
Marketing has completely changed in the modern times with “digital” being the main focus. A conventional approach towards marketing will not help you achieve the goals you have set for your business.
Understand the Concept of Marketing Mix
Before you start marketing your business, you have to understand the concept of the marketing mix. Marketing mix consists of price, product, promotion, and place. While many other factors have been added to the mix recently, these four Ps remain the strongest ones to date. If you can understand the concept of the marketing mix, you will ensure allocating strict budgets and still getting the best ROIs from your marketing campaigns. You must bear in mind that spending too much on marketing does not mean you will always be successful.
Your successful marketing strategy has to be a mix of the four Ps. Before you start promoting a product, you must know the product is complete and in an acceptable form. Once the product is complete and you want to promote it, you have to make sure you promote it in the right place. You don’t want to be selling air conditioning units to the people of Siberia. Now, even if you created a great product and are promoting it in the right place, you won’t be able to sell it well if you haven’t priced it right.
You understand at this point that you have to pick every “P” of the marketing mix one by one and see if your strategy touches all of them. An important point to remember here is that the concept of the marketing mix is not limited to the “planning” phase of your marketing efforts. Even when you have executed your marketing plans, you have to keep measuring these four factors. If your efforts are not yielding any profits or positive ROIs, look at the four factors and try to find out which one has not been executed properly. Maybe you are promoting the right product at the right place but to the wrong people.
Base Your Marketing on Data
If you don’t know already, the more relevant and popular term than marketing is data-driven marketing among marketers. It is clear now that marketing without data is less effective and less practical in the modern times. Today, you have dozens of different tools to collect data about your target audience. You use these tools because the data you collect gives you deep insight into your market, what your customers want and what puts them off. In the online world, the process of data collection starts from your website. On your website, the data you can collect include the demographics of your visitors, their recent interests, their path to reach your website, etc.
There are other means of collecting data about your customers. The thing is that you will collect data from many different channels and in many different formats. Being able to view this data in one place and taking effective action on it is what the real challenge is. Companies are now looking for solutions to manage their digital marketing campaigns in one place, regardless of the nature of those campaigns. Data-driven marketing also allows you to create more personalized campaigns that are more effective in persuading your customers to use your products/services.
Look at the Right Numbers
One huge mistake that many small business owners make is focusing on the wrong numbers. You might have a great website, a strong marketing strategy and a lot of data to target your efforts in the right direction, but you can’t get any benefits until you look at the right numbers. Looking at the right numbers means that you measure the success of your marketing efforts by keeping up with the most important KPIs (key performance indicators). For you to measure the KPIs, you must set associate goals and targets with your marketing campaigns.
So, when creating a landing page for your product and get a lot of visitors on that page, it does not mean anything to you unless you are measuring some KPIs. In the case of a landing page, your most important KPIs will be the number of visitors, number of converted visitors and the sources from where the visitors are coming. Now, focusing on the wrong number would mean you are looking only at the number of visitors coming to your landing page every day. The number of visitors is only telling you that your marketing efforts have been successful enough to bring the visitors to the landing page. But how does that benefit you in any way if you don’t earn anything from those customers?
That’s where you have to measure the conversion rate. The conversion rate will tell you how much you are making from the visitors that are coming to your landing page. By focusing on conversion rates, you will put more money towards marketing campaigns that are bringing the most potential traffic, i.e., the traffic that’s converting the most.
Now, no matter how benefiting it is to focus on your conversion rates, it is still only one side of the picture. The right numbers here are your acquisition costs. If you spend on every acquired customer is $100 but you are obtaining a value of only $20 from that customer, this type of marketing is not good for you. You always have to look at positive ROI, i.e., your returns on the investments must always be higher than the amount of money you have invested in a marketing campaign.
Conclusion
So, you know at this point that marketing is a profound concept and you have to understand it in its depths to it successfully. Large companies spend millions of dollars every year on just marketing. They must find some value in this activity to spend that much money towards it. On the other hand, small business owners can often ignore the importance of marketing. They are always focusing on short-term progress and return. If they don’t see any significant results quickly, they stop spending on marketing and start looking for faults and shortcomings of their products/services.
It will pay off in the long-term to start using the right marketing tools right from today. Keep in mind that marketing tools are designed to handle different phases of marketing. While some tools help you market your products and services, others are more analytical. Another category is of tools that help simplify the use of both the types of tools. If you are thinking of starting a business or have set the foundation for a startup already, be sure to give marketing the attention that it deserves.
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Loans can provide a sometimes easier avenue for a startup or existing business through SBA lenders or an existing business revenue model. You will need good credit in most cases and show cash reserves. In some cases, most lenders will have the partners sign the loan note and require a personal guarantee. The good side is that you keep 100% of the business and have more flexibility in reporting. However, the terms can come due in 10 years on SBA, and ongoing payments can put an initial burden on a startup. Lots of companies can boot-strap some personal debt to start a business. It would be helpful to set aside a year of payments in the bank so the payments will always be made on time and have one year of developing revenue.
Investors can be one of the best ways to raise capital for a startup or existing business. It can provide initial capital and less liability for the raised funds that lenders most likely require personal guarantees and some collateral. Investors can also provide pivotal guidance and experience to your business by offering advice and even distribution chains and connections you usually would not have. This can also bolster your business to a new level. The takeaway is that Investors can be instrumental in the odds of success of your business. However, it can also be challenging to prepare for a pitch and finding the correct type of interested investors can be a drawback. Investors will also return a percentage of your company and expect the business to grow. In addition, they usually get paid through some exit strategy in multiples of their original investment.
Suppose you want to determine the effectiveness of Loans versus Investors. Prepare a business plan using both models, however, If you don’t have good credit or some capital reserves, the banks sometimes like to see the emphasis in your business plan a few pages for investors to return and pitch content geared for investors. On the other hand, if you have good credit and some working capital, a loan might be good if you don’t mind the risk of debt to fund your idea or business.
Some startups can use a variety of ways, including some credit cards to finance some inventory or other expenses and wait for offers of balance transfers of 2-3% fee but no interest for one year. The final thought is that both are equally effective for startup businesses under $150K. Investors may be the best option for you if you are in the $1MM plus and do not have real estate to collateralize.
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