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6 Ways Startups Waste Money on Marketing

Marketing will be where the majority of startups spend most of their budgets. The average B2B marketer spends 42 percent of their budgets on marketing. Yet there are so many startups that don’t always get the results they want simply because most of their dollars are being wasted. If you are failing due to ineffective tactics and tools, this guide is going to show you some of the most common mistakes you may already be making, and how to turn things around.

Building a Following on Social Media

Your marketing budget should be spent partly on social media. But so many startups are convinced that building a following is going to lead to success. The problem with this is that social media reach is no longer what’s best for business. Facebook has seen organic reach crippled. Investing all this time into building a following is nearly pointless because what you’ll quickly discover is that you can have 100 likes on Facebook yet still make more money through advertising than someone with a thousand likes.

When only a fraction of your following will ever see your posts, building a following on social media is an entirely fruitless pursuit, so save your money.

Building a following remains important, but it should come through purchases of your products not through ‘like’ building campaigns.

Giving Up Too Soon

Startup owners believe that their product is so great that it’s sure to gain traction within a matter of days. Many small businesses begin with a twinkle in their eye and then realize they are not going to have an easy time.

Rather than persevering, they give up too soon. Many small business owners begin with high expectations and then when these aren’t met they believe it’s a problem with their business. You have unrealistic expectations if you demand that your business becomes a success within two years.

Not Understanding Your Audience

You can target any niche in the world with advanced marketing and advertising tools these days. To make the most of this you have to actually understand your audience, though. It’s necessary to have the image of your perfect customer, along with their likes/dislikes, and where they hang out.

If you are unable to understand your target audience, your targeting is always going to be slightly off. Conduct customer research before you start to waste your marketing dollars.

You Have No Idea How You Attracted Your Loyal Customers

The most loyal customers in your brand will be the ones who purchase every new product or service without question. These are the people you can rely on. At the same time, you need to know how you got them in the first place. It’s important for you to have a good idea for how you found your most loyal customers, so you can continue to replicate these tactics.

With most startups, the top fifth of your customers may account for up to 70 percent of your overall revenue, and this won’t change much as you grow.

Wagering Everything on One Marketing Campaign

Marketing is a game of trial and error whether you’re a small business or a large business. There are lots of things you can try and part of your growth period is to test out all these different tactics. But it’s difficult to do this when you’re wagering your entire marketing budget on a single campaign.

Don’t give yourself one shot to make your startup work. There’s a time and a place for this, but it’s not now. The best way to handle marketing as a startup is to start with extremely small scale tests.

Scaling up your marketing efforts should be done with extreme caution and only when you are sure that you are actually getting results. If it doesn’t work at a small level, it’s certainly not going to work at a higher spending level.

Not Tracking Your Results Well Enough

And then there are times where you are simply not tracking your results well enough. This tends to happen when startups gain a little bit of success in the beginning. They become so caught up in their success that they forget to track their results and compare them against the past.

Only by keeping track of your marketing results can you keep an accurate record of what works and what doesn’t. Without accurate measurements, you are going to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

 Source: http://bit.ly/1VjevgT

10 Ways to Kickstart Your Business Idea in 2016

It’s never been a better time to start a business. Access to online environments and innovations such as smart devices and cloud technology mean that many entrepreneurs can set up on a shoestring and get things going without needing excessive start-up budgets. Add into the mix the wide availability of cloud-funding platforms and cheap marketing through social media and it’s easy to see the many opportunities that people don’t want to miss out on.

Here are just some ways to get your business idea off the ground if you have the entrepreneurial spirit this year.

1. Find the Right Support

You may have all the personal and physical tools in place, but you’re nowhere without friends. There’s no better time to start networking, building business associate relationships, and getting sound advice from people in your local area and online. The great news for startups is there’s plenty of guidance from other entrepreneurs who are happy to help out for free.

Take the opportunity to make solid, long-term contacts and research all areas of running a business. A good place to start is the Government’s own business portal.

2. Organize Your Funds

While it can be cheap to set up a business nowadays, especially if you have the right idea, it’s a good thing to check what you can currently bring to the table. This should include any debts you have, which may need to be addressed first, and the amount of collateral you can use, if needed, to apply for a loan. If you are finding it difficult to make ends meet, you may well have more problems down the line when you start your business.

3. Come Up with the Right Idea

What may seem like a good idea over a couple of drinks in the local bar might not seem so bright in the cold light of day. Coming up with a good idea is imperative if you want to have any chance of success.

This includes researching how others are running businesses in a similar industry or niche. It also means being honest with yourself.

For a very successful business, the question of scalability is always an issue. In other words, when you come to grow, how easy and cheap is it going to be to carry that out? If you run a restaurant business, that might involve giving out franchises or spending money on new premises.

4. Plan the Business

This is the crucial stage of any startup and the step that many entrepreneurs get wrong. It involves setting out clear stages and strategies, from getting financed, setting up websites, marketing, brand development, and deciding whether you need to have staff employed and where you are going to find them. As far as staff are concerned, there are plenty of options to hire freelancers who can do the initial jobs for you, though you may have to do some hard searching to find the right ones.

You also need to plan for a long-term future and not just look at the immediate setup of your business. There may be a lot to do but it’s important that you have your direction set for some time to come. Your plan should include how you are going to build capital and secure your business future.

You’ll need a strong business plan, especially if you are going to be heading to the bank for a loan or looking at crowdfunding. Check out this article from Start Up Donut for some sound advice.

5. Check Yourself Online

If you have been working for a number of years, no doubt you have a persona online and you need to have a quick search to make sure it doesn’t have any negatives associated with it. Another thing to check, if you don’t want egg on your face, is the name of your new company and whether someone else has got there before you.

6. Register Your Business

One thing you are going to need to do is register your business. This used to be a complicated process, but with online sites such as www.companyformations247.co.uk, everything is reduced to simplicity and you can register everything within 3 hours. You need to do this in the UK if you have a limited company, and it includes registering with Companies House as well as designating directorial roles within your business.

7. Raise Money

Getting the finances together for a business idea is much more viable nowadays. You can use your home or other properties as collateral for a bank loan or choose to sell property and self-fund. Increasingly, many entrepreneurs are turning to crowdfunding to get their business ideas off the ground. If you have good presentation skills and a solid business plan, and can communicate how strong your idea is, then this a great way to get capital. You generally pitch your idea online and people from all over the world can help fund it in exchange for something you offer, for instance a free product or share of the company.

8. Develop Your Brand Online

If you are going to run a business nowadays, you need to develop your online brand and that means marketing. You should have looked into this in detail in the planning stage of your business idea, as it’s the key to success or failure.

You need to build brand awareness, find a following, engage with customers, and use all the free and paid resources out there that help make your business thrive. This may include doing a lot of it yourself at first, but you can also engage with online marketing companies to help you choose the right options.

9. Test, Evaluate, Tweak, Test

While you had strong ideas for how your business would begin to develop, the chances are that things will not go completely according to plan. Even the most experienced entrepreneurs encounter hitches along the way. This is where you need to put in more hard yards. It’s a question of testing everything, evaluating it, tweaking, and then testing again to guide you in the right direction.

10. Plan for Growth

Once your business is up and running and you are satisfied with its progress, it’s time to take a look at that plan again and check whether you under or overestimated growth in the future. Now that you have a bit more experience in the real world, there will no doubt be new ideas that have to be incorporated to guarantee more success. You might need to think about getting other experts on board, or you could be looking to expand into profitable new markets.

There’s no doubt that running a new business requires a lot of good thought, strong planning, and putting in the effort, not to mention often working long hours. With some 50% of startups failing within the first five years, it may seem that you are swimming against the tide in the effort to succeed. If you have done the planning, come up with a great plan, and have the enthusiasm and energy to carry it forward, you stand a better chance of success than other ventures.

 Source : http://bit.ly/24EgCyv

Why Your Business Needs Social Media Marketing

Your company finally has its website, Facebook, and even a Twitter account set up. You are getting some traffic, you have a small following, and you've thrown up a few status updates and links.

Maybe your website or social media handles even show up in a Google search once in awhile. Check "Social Media Marketing" off that list of things to do. Mission accomplished. Wrong! Or maybe you still think that your business can't benefit from social media marketing at all? Wrong again!

It really doesn't matter if you are a sole proprietor or a CMO at a Fortune 500 global corporation. Your business can significantly benefit from social media marketing regardless of its size or business model. Why does social media marketing matter so much? 

Well I'll tell you why! Here are just a few simplified reasons why your business will grow and improve with SMM:

1) Increase Website Traffic, SEO, Referrals, & Revenue Generation

This is pretty obvious. Your social media platforms promote your website links and the content you produce. You get more traffic to your site, your search engine rank improves (and in turn more organic traffic is generated), you get more referrals from readers / viewers / subscribers / followers / customers / clients / colleagues, and you make more money! Depending on your business model, your income may be generated from product / service sales, advertising revenue, sponsorships, contracts, partnerships, subscriptions, investors, donations, or other means. Simply put, increased quality and quantity of traffic derived from social media = more money. This can be true for all companies whether you sell muffins, clean houses, manage portfolios, or market the latest cloud computing software.

2) Interaction, Branding, and Exposure with Customers, Prospects, or Industries

Your business can always benefit from interacting with your customers, clients, readers, viewers, peers, prospects, or industry heavy hitters. Many people and organizations believe this to be the most important aspect of social media marketing. So establish a positive dialogue that will lead to signing a new client. Successfully promote a current client's business. Provide exceptional customer service by answering a question or addressing a concern. Tell the world about your latest campaign, product, or service. Let the customer tell you what they view as your strengths and weaknesses, or how you can improve your business. The possibilities are endless and you'll be missing opportunities if you don't have a strong social media marketing strategy in place. If you don't properly manage or expand your company's community and network, you are leaving money on the table.

3) Increased Perception of Being Connected, Tech Savvy, and Legitimate

A lot of people think this is more of a subjective or less important aspect of social media marketing. I think it's an incredibly important one if you consider basic human psychology. While business professionals can usually distinguish between quality and quantity of social media statistics, the average person may not. So who cares if your company doesn't have many followers, friends, subscribers, views, tweets, likes, posts etc? Turns out a lot of people DO care. If you are a billion dollar corporation and you have 200 Twitter followers, that obviously doesn't look very good. It looks especially poor when your competitors have 200,000 or maybe 2,000,000 followers.

Why does your company have 6 tweets when you do business on 6 continents?

 Perhaps your business is nonexistent on critical social media platforms or your employees aren't representing your company online. 

Or maybe there is little or no activity on any of your social media accounts. This can make your company seem out of touch, which can be especially damaging if your target market includes younger or more technologically proficient customers and industries. It certainly won't help you relate to millenials if you are a B2C company and have them as one of your main "buyer personas". I've seen technology, media, marketing, and online retail companies with minimal social media marketing presence! It's not pretty. 

People and companies do look at numbers and make judgments based on them, fair or not. Having a minimal or nonexistent social media presence makes your company look bad and your competitors look better by comparison. You will lose revenue and market share if you don't successfully compete on all relevant social media platforms.

4) Return On Investment (ROI)

Social Media Marketing can have an excellent Return On Investment (ROI) compared with traditional forms of marketing such as mailers, radio ads, television ads, magazine / newspaper ads, billboards, etc. 

You could easily spend hundreds or thousands (or significantly more depending on your business) of dollars on any of these traditional marketing methods. 

If you are a sole proprietor or small business owner, that price tag can be a risky or completely impossible option. 

Even a global corporation may be looking to tighten their marketing budget or get more value for their dollar (for example: Procter & Gamble this year opted for a frugal Twitter campaign as opposed to a multi-million dollar Superbowl ad). Social media marketing can be that viable affordable alternative, or a significant component, of your marketing strategy. 

Not only will your social media platforms save you money in the short term, these platforms and SEO-boosting power remain in place to pay dividends months and even years with minimal maintenance.

And because it's digital, you can usually modify your social media marketing platforms or strategy as needed .

It is necessary these days to be able to adapt and make changes within a matter of days, hours, or even minutes. You could be spending a fortune on traditional advertising or marketing consultants when social media marketing could get the job done for a fraction of the price.

5) Analytics 

This is an enormous benefit that you receive from implementing social media marketing into your business strategy. You usually get minimal data in response to traditional marketing campaigns. 

Sometimes you aren't sure whether your business is benefiting from one traditional method or another. With social media marketing, you can get incredibly detailed, immediate, and convenient statistical reports on nearly every aspect of your SMM campaigns. 

You'll get key measurables such as impressions, clicks, comments, likes, shares, subscriptions, referring links, sales, time on site, detailed demographics, and much more. Analyze this data and modify your social media posts and ads accordingly to achieve even greater results. 

You don't get that with a newspaper ad or television commercial. You can get these detailed SMM analytics from Google Analytics, CRM platforms, individual social media platforms directly, or other web services. 

6) Integration

Finally, you can seamlessly integrate social media marketing into your overall marketing and business strategy. 

Your social media marketing complements and/or links to your email marketing, website, direct mailers, telephone, print ads, and radio / television ads. You may notice these days that half of the ads out there already have links to the company's social media URL or solicit readers / listeners / viewers to follow them on social media. 

Every email marketing campaign and website should be fully integrated with its SMM if it isn't already. And everything radio and television is already integrated or being integrated with online media. Magazines, newspapers, and newsletters are all online now as well. Complement your overall business marketing, sales, and customer service with social media savvy. 

Of course there are dozens of other important reasons why social media marketing is important for your business success. I will continue posting more specific SMM articles so I can share my thoughts and experiences with specific social media platforms, paid advertising options, specific industries, and various business models. 

Source : http://bit.ly/1Jup3Wc

5 Traits That Make Entrepreneurs Great At Selling

Great salespeople aren’t born. They’re made.

That’s right.

Contrary to popular belief, there’s no such thing as the “natural salesperson.” Yes, it’s true that some people naturally have personality traits that make it easier for them to sell. But even these lucky people have to learn how to be better influencers. They work hard to hone their sales skills. They learn through experience and practice. Just like any other professional.

In order to be successful, entrepreneurs have to learn how to sell effectively. If they don’t, it becomes almost impossible to succeed. Here’s the good news: Anyone can learn how to sell. I learned. So can you.

When I first started learning how to sell, I was excited. I loved the idea of getting people to buy from me. Since I was good at dealing with people, I figured it’d be easy for me. I was both right and wrong. Yes, I knew how to talk to people I knew how to get them to like me. It helped, but it wasn’t enough. I could get some business, but not as much as I wanted.

So I ended up going through sales training. I learned quite a bit. I worked hard to master the sales techniques I learned. It made me better. Again, it helped, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be.

Through my experience, I learned that there are certain qualities that make a person a great salesperson. I found that these are qualities that I needed to possess in order to become the type of influencer I wanted to be.

When I started to adopt these qualities, I found that they shaped the way I used the sales techniques I had learned. I saw that I could use what I learned to have a positive impact on my prospects. Below are the qualities that can make you a great at selling.

How To Become Great At Selling

Trait #1: Mental Toughness

“The way you think when you lose will determine how long it will be before you win.” – GK Chesterton

Let’s face it, selling is not for the faint of heart. You have to be mentally tough to be an effective persuader.

Here’s why.

Selling involves rejection. Lots of it. Even the greatest salespeople in the world get rejected. A lot. It’s unavoidable. If you’re not mentally tough, rejection can erode your self-confidence until you feel like giving up. It can be pretty discouraging. To make matters worse, the discouragement you feel because of the rejection can carry over to the next sales call.

This makes it harder to keep the same level of enthusiasm, which makes it more likely that you will get rejected again. It’s like a vicious cycle.

The difference between a great salesperson and a not-so-great salesperson is how they view rejection. Great salespeople see rejection as an opportunity to improve. They can learn from the mistakes they made on the sales call and adjust their approach accordingly.

In this way, a great salesperson can turn a rejection into a tool that can be used to earn more business on her next sales call. Being mentally tough is the only way you can handle consistent rejection without missing a beat. If you want to be a great persuader,  you better become tougher.

Trait #2: Genuine Concern For The Prospect

“Stop selling. Start helping.” – Zig Ziglar

Yes, I know it sounds nice and fuzzy, but a great influencer actually cares about the people they seek to influence. They desire deeply to bring a lasting benefit to the lives of the people they wish to persuade. The same is true when you’re trying to convince prospects to buy your offering.

Great salespeople want to see their prospects get what they want. This means they present only the solutions that fit the prospect’s needs and wants. They won’t try to push potential customers into buying things they don’t need.

When you approach your sales calls in a way that is focused on helping the prospect solve their problems, you gain a greater level of trust. It enables your prospects to connect to you on a deeper level. You have to show your prospects that you view them as more than just a paycheck. You must have a genuine desire to see your prospect get what they want. If your prospect believes you are only trying to get their money, they will be much less likely to listen to what you have to say. 

Start finding ways to help your prospects. Even if the help you’re giving them doesn’t involve your product or service. Give value beyond what you sell. When you do this, you become more valuable to your prospect.

The more valuable you are to your prospects and customers, the more likely it is that they will continue to do business with you. The amount of influence you have over a prospect is directly tied to how much of a benefit you are to them. Find ways to offer more value.

Trait #3: Patience

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. – Beverly Sills

This might be a surprise, but I’ve found that patience is a key trait to have in order to be great at sales. I know it goes against how most people view salespeople, but it’s true.

Great salespeople are patient with their prospects. Instead of shoving their offering down their prospect’s throat, they take the time to get to know them. They focus on understanding what their customer’s true needs are.

Being pushy and aggressive has become a thing of the past in most cases. People just don’t want to deal with high-pressure sales tactics.

I can’t blame them.

I’ve found that taking the time to make sure my prospects are comfortable with buying from me creates a better experience for both the customer and myself. That’s exactly how great salespeople want their clients to feel

Before presenting your solution to your prospect, take the time to get to know them. Ask questions. Build rapport.

Make the interaction as human as possible.

The more your prospects feel connected to you, the more likely they are to buy your product or service. You must focus on building the relationship. It may take a little longer, but in the end, it’ll be worth it.

Trait #4: A Sense Of Purpose

“People don’t buy WHAT you do. They buy WHY you do it.” – Simon Sinek

This is incredibly important. If you don’t have a sense of purpose in what you’re doing, you won’t be able to persuade others that your product or service is worth buying. You have to believe in what you’re selling.

It’s about branding.

An attractive brand purpose helps you stand out from your competition. It gives your prospects a more “human” face to connect to.

With so many brands to choose from, your prospects have many potential choices to make. By identifying and expressing a purpose that people can buy into, you become more relatable.

Why do you do what you do?

What do you believe about the world your company occupies? What problems are you trying to solve? What kind of impact do you want to make on the world and the people in it?

These are the types of questions you must answer if you’re going to persuade prospects to become paying customers. A strong sense of purpose will enable you to sell with conviction. This is something that makes great salespeople far more influential than those without the conviction of their purpose.

Trait #5: They Serve

“Make a customer, not a sale.” – Katherine Barchetti

A great salesperson is there to meet their prospects’ needs. After the sale, they don’t just move on to the next prospect. They understand the importance of continuing to give value. They focus on building relationships.

The customers of great salespeople know that they are in good hands. They are confident in the fact that they are going to be taken care of.

Great salespeople work hard to make clients are happy. This is what keeps their clients coming back for more.

Because of this, these salespeople are able to turn their clients into evangelists who sing their praises to others. Also, they don’t have to worry as much about the competition. They have cemented their place as their clients’ resource.

If you want to be great at selling, you have to serve. You have to do everything in your power to give a wonderful experience for your customers. In each interaction with your customers, try to make as big an impact as possible by giving them as much value as you can.

Exceed their expectations whenever possible. Give them unexpected benefits every now and then. When your clients feel they are truly being taken care of, they will remain loyal to your brand.

Conclusion

If you want to become great at selling, you must have these traits. It takes time. But when you have these traits, you will find it easier to attract and keep clients.

Become mentally tougher. Genuinely care about the success of your prospect. Don’t rush through your sales process. Find your sense of purpose. And finally, serve your newly-earned customers.

Becoming great at selling will also help you become a great entrepreneur. Not only that, it will help you make a greater impact in the lives of others.

IPHONE APP

Source : http://bit.ly/1NlFfXT

Marketing and Social Media News

Why video marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach millennials

Marketers want to reach Generation Y, and for a good reason. This demographic, born between 1980 and 2000 and now known as "millennials," will collectively spend more than $200 billion annually beginning in 2017, which comes out to $10 trillion over the course of their lifetimes.

How can businesses connect with this purchasing powerhouse? Millennials aren't as responsive to the TV commercials and print advertisements that worked for older generations. Instead, they want engagement. The good news is that they're highly engaged with video. Here are three reasons why incorporating video into your marketing strategy will help you reach millennials.

1. Move millennials through the purchase process

 

Today, millennials consume video for more than just entertainment. They use video to learn about companies and make purchase decisions. According to a recent consumer study byAnimoto, eight out of ten millennials find video helpful when researching a product or service. In fact, they're 85% more likely than baby boomers to purchase a product or service if they can watch a video explaining it beforehand.

Video helps guide millennials through the purchase cycle. You can do so in a number of ways, like including demo videos on product pages or embedding customer testimonials on an "About Us" page. For example, online clothing retailers ASOS and Net-A-Porter include videos of models walking in clothing for sale and.

Further, in the video above, New York Yoga uses video to show potential customers what it’s like to attend their classes. It's easier than ever for consumers to make purchase decisions and have intimate interactions with brands online.

2. Create buzz on social networks

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are embracing the social video trend started by YouTube in 2005. It's apparent when you scroll through your Facebook News Feed — video has taken over.Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook's content will be mostly video in five years. In June 2015, Facebook revealed that its users watch 4 billion video streams every day.

Video as a social medium is becoming increasingly relevant, especially among millennials. The numbers don't lie.

According to the aforementioned Animoto study, 84% of millennials follow brands or companies on Facebook, 75% follow them on YouTube and 47% follow on Twitter. Social media platforms have become a destination where millennials keep up with not only friends, but also companies and brands.

It's not passive, either; millennials are engaging with brands that use video. Animoto data reveals that 66% of millennial males and 60% of millennial females are more likely to comment on, share or like a brand on social media if it posts videos; 57% of millennial males and 58% of millennial females are likely to follow a company's social media page if it posts videos.

3. Drive results and keep millennials engaged

Nearly half of millennials consider companies that produce video content as experts on their product or service. As branded video content becomes increasingly popular, companies that capitalize on this opportunity will be seen as early adopters and interesting brands to follow.

Video doesn't just improve brand perception; it also drives results. In analyzing 2 million tweets posted over the course of a month last year, Twitter found videos boosted retweets by 28%. Liveclicker's "Video Commerce Report" revealed that companies that include video on product pages see a higher conversion rate and higher average order value.

Aside from the business advantages of video, brands need to understand that millennials simply prefer it to text. In fact, two-thirds of millennials said in an Animoto survey that they would rather watch a video from a company instead of reading text; nearly half said they only watch video on their mobile devices.

What's the big takeaway?

Millennials love being online and connected with their social networks. In that time, they're sharing photos and videos, commenting on social media posts, tweeting at brands and shopping online. 

As a business selling a product or service, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't have any videos online. A simple video marketing strategy can help you meet the standards that millennials today are creating. If you're not yet using video to market to Generation Y, now's the time to start.

Source :http://on.mash.to/1LDy0gm