Tips For New Businesses Starting Out In The Digital Marketing World

As we all know, social media is ever-changing. But, we are breaking marketing down to the core and are sharing our top 5 tips for new businesses before they act on marketing efforts.

1. First and foremost ensure that you fully understand your business's needs.
   • Why is your product or service unique?/ How does it benefit consumers?

To begin your action plan, it is helpful to segment your customers from your sales and marketing data by demographics like age group, behaviors, and geographic location AND determine the exact needs your product or service will address.

2. Perform research on your competitors.
   • What are they doing and how can you do it better?

Research takes time but it is well worth it. Get your detective hat ready because we have work to do. 🧐

You should be analyzing everything. From your competitors’ websites, to their social media accounts. And don’t forget to take notes for yourself too.

You want to know the four “P’s”:

1. Product: Think like a consumer. Get insight into what makes their product/service appealing.
2. Price: How does their pricing compare to yours? Can you beat it?
3. Place: Where is their product or service available? In a physical store or just online?
4. Promotion: How are they advertising? What platforms do they have a presence on? What do their ads and posts entail?

3. Create the specific goal/objective that you are trying to achieve from your marketing efforts.
   • What are you wanting to accomplish from running paid advertising campaigns?

Do you want to generate more leads, purchases, build awareness for your brand, etc.? Really get to the root of what will benefit your business the most before diving in.

4. Produce content that will resonate with your audience. Do this for both organic content, as well as for promotional ads/posts.
   • The goal is to connect with your target audience to build a sense of loyalty, as well as to generate engagement and views.
   • Create unique content that will stand out while people are aimlessly scrolling through their phones. You want them to be intrigued enough to stop and click on your ad/post. Content is king.
   • Incorporate trends to draw attention and to show that your brand is relevant and up-to-date.
   • Ensure that your content is narrative to the platform. (Ex: TikTok content will differ from Facebook.) And with that, you also want to choose the platforms that make the most sense for your brand and target audience.

5. Split test various types of content.
   • This includes static images, carousels, UGC (user generated content) style videos, short form videos, etc.
   • See what performs the best organically, and then begin to consider running ads once you start to build a stable customer base/following.

We hope this helps your business excel and provides a little bit of clarity if you are a beginner starting to dip your toes into marketing! Keeping these 5 key points in mind will make such a difference.

- Allie Keaton