Once you’ve launched your business, you need to get your products or services out there.
To help you generate sales, it’s a good idea to create a marketing plan.
This document should outline how you’ll communicate the benefits of your products or services to your target customers, the pricing strategy you’ll adopt, and the marketing channels you’ll use.
You should also set goals for what you want your marketing efforts to achieve.
The plan should identify your target customers using demographic data such as gender, age, location, and buying habits.
You also need to understand which brands they currently buy from, how loyal they are to those brands, and the media they consume.
Decide on your marketing goals, such as sales conversion rates from a particular marketing channel.
For example, if you want to get 40 customers a month via your website, calculate how many visitors you’ll need to attract to your website to do that.
Marketing channels to use include:
Websites and online marketplace
Social media
Networking
Website and online marketplace
A website is essential for most businesses.
It’s a way for potential customers to find details about your company and buy your products or services.
You can pay a web designer to build a website, but that can be expensive.
Alternatively, you could use one of several low-cost template website-building services such as WordPress or Wix to build your website yourself.
Choose a website domain name that matches your business name as closely as possible.
To make it easy to find online, work on your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) by building in relevant keywords that customers are likely to type into search engines when looking for a business like yours.
If you sell a product, as well as promoting it on your website, you could use online marketplaces such as Amazon, Etsy, and Not On The High Street, which provide the potential to reach a global audience.
Social media
By using social media, you can reach thousands of potential customers.
There are several platforms to choose from, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and LinkedIn.
You don’t need to join them all.
Work out which are most relevant to your target audience.
For example, Instagram is good for showcasing products, while LinkedIn is useful for business-to-business companies.
Tailor your social media content to the channel, and don’t just promote sales messages.
Encourage engagement with content such as polls, surveys, and graphics.
You can also respond to enquiries and ask your followers questions to gather valuable feedback.
To get even more targeted, you can pay for social media advertising that reaches users based on specific demographics such as gender, location, and interests.
Further reading on social media
Download our free social media toolkit.
Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to target customers and generate revenue.
Start gathering email addresses as soon as you can.
Allow people to register via your website, promote your email list on social media, feature it on business cards, and tell people at networking events.
You could offer an incentive for signing up, such as a product discount.
You may need to ask permission to send marketing information to customers via email – and customers will need to choose to opt in to receive email or marketing from other channels, such as direct mail.
There are several email marketing tools available, many of which are free to use until you have a certain number of subscribers.
Examples include Mailchimp, Mailerlite, and Sender.
Include helpful, entertaining, or informative content as well as sales messages in your emails.
Make sure you have strong calls to action.
Keep subject lines short and snappy and test different topics to understand what makes recipients open emails.
You can also analyse at what time and on what days they are most likely to open them.
Further reading on marketing
Download our free marketing toolkit.
Download the guide
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Your previously read articles
Chapter ten: Networking
Discover the value of building your network as a business owner.
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Whilst we make reasonable efforts to keep the information in this guide up to date, we do not guarantee or warrant (implied or otherwise) that it is current, accurate or complete. The information is intended for general information purposes only and does not take into account your personal situation, nor does it constitute legal, financial, tax or other professional advice. You should always consider whether the information is applicable to your particular circumstances and, where appropriate, seek professional or specialist advice or support.
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