It is general knowledge that marketing strategy is important for the success of all businesses, but it is particularly more essential for startup businesses.
This is because of the fact that not many people will know about the products or services offered by startup businesses unless they hear about it. This is the reason why the business strategy for startups is very different from that of the existing businesses.
Business Strategy for Startups
Startup businesses have been known to face a lot of problems that most existing businesses will probably not have to face.
1- Identify And Determine The Vision Of Your Business
One of the most important business strategies for startup businesses is identifying and determining the vision of your business.
This is very important because it will the foundation for the success of your business.
In order to identify and determine the vision of your business, you will need to find the following information:
- What industry is your business in?
- Who is your target audience?
- The goods or services that you intend to market.
- What is your marketing plan?
- What is the main advantage you have over your competitors?
2- Set Your Business Goal And Write Down Your Goals
It’s the second business strategy for business startups and it involves writing down your business goals and a brief description of the kind of products or services you want to offer.
It is best for startup businesses to focus their attention more on creating short term business goals.
Short term goals are goals that will last for about six to twelve months and long term goals are goals that will last for about two to five years.
But if you have a new business concept, it is important that you have to take a period of time to carry out the proper research and development before you add it to your business list of goals for longer time frames.
The business list of goals should be able to describe, as specifically as possible, what you want your business to achieve.
You can start the list by first writing some personal goals that you as a business owner want your business to achieve.
Here's a List of goals
Then you can follow by writing some goals that are important for your business to achieve in order to survive in a competitive world.
This list of goals should be able to tell you the following:
- What you as a business owner want to achieve with your business?
- How small or big you want your business brand to be?
- How do you want to manage your staff?
- What is your marketing plan?
- What is the main advantage you have over your competitors?
- Is there a particular problem you want your business brand to address?
- In what way would your business make a difference in your customers’ personal lives?
- Provide a short description of the quantity, quality, and service and customer satisfaction level.
3- Create A Business Plan
This is considered to be one of the most important business strategies for business startups. This strategy often involves researching, writing and putting together a business plan.
This will require the business owner to review his or her business idea and develop it from many different angles including marketing, finance, and operations.
Investors or lenders often require a formal and written business plan from business owners in order to provide finance for startup businesses.
Even if you already have a source of capital, you will still need to create a business plan that will describe your company’s vision and guide your business operations.
4- Understand And Identify Your Target Audience
If you are a start-up business and you want to be able to effectively market your products and services to your target audience, you will need to identify and understand them first.
This will require you to conduct extensive research on who your target audience is, what they enjoy, what they do not enjoy and more by researching your competition that will have the same target audience.
You can do this by getting access to the data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in the United States and their equivalent organizations in other countries.
You will then use this data to review your target audience.
If you are able to effectively identify and understand your target audience, you will be able to develop marketing messages, products, and services that your target audience will be more interested in.
In order to be able to successfully identify and understand your target audience, you should follow these steps:
- Obtain survey data: This is done by issuing surveys through email blasts or newsletters.
However, it is more effective for startup businesses to hire a market research firm to help them gather survey data on their target audience. - Research your competition: This is done by getting access to the data collected on your competition by the U.S. Census Bureau in the United States and their equivalent organizations in other countries.
You can also hire a research firm to help you find out whom your competition sell their product to, which of their products is most famous and so on. - Use your personal networks: This is done by asking your family, colleagues, investors, mentors, and friends what they think of your product or service.
The information gotten from this will then be used to develop some theory about your target audience.
5- Observe And Learn From Your Competitors
If you are a start-up business and you want to be able to effectively market your products and services to your target audience, it is best that you observe and monitor your competition very carefully.
This is because of the fact that some of your competitors may have faced the same problem you are currently facing and they might have found a way to solve it, so if you observe and learn from them, you will be able to solve your current problem.
Observing and learning from your competition will also enable you to avoid making the same bad business decisions that they may have made in the past.