So you’re starting your own business. Congrats! We imagine you’re pretty thrilled about this and we’re excited for you. Once you’ve made the decision to jump in, you may be wondering “now what?”. Luckily, we’ve been in your shoes, and we have the added experience of helping countless other business owners and leaders take the next steps to build their idea into a success.
If you’re not sure where to begin, we recommend starting with your branding, web presence and marketing strategy. These elements help lay a foundation for all other marketing efforts, giving your organization tools that can grow as you get your name out there.
The very first thing you’ll need is branding. Your branding is a visual representation of who you are and what you do. Yes, it’s a logo, but it includes so much more; it also includes the color palette and fonts, your tone of voice and the messaging you use to describe your organization.
Each of these elements play a role in building a trusted and relatable brand. Using them consistently, in all communication efforts, helps you build recognition and define your reputation.
When searching for a product or service, people are most likely to look for it online. A website lends instant credibility to your business, allows new customers to find you, and serves as a foundation for all marketing endeavors, with all marketing materials leading back to the site. Additionally, it acts as a brand representative to tell your story when you’re not able to do so in person.
Websites can be purely informational or feature more advanced functionality to sell items, allow visitors to make donations or upload resources to a shared database. You can choose to invest in a custom website, which we highly recommend, or you can utilize one of the many template-based online website builders. Whichever option you choose, you’ll have an incredibly versatile marketing tool at your disposal.
A marketing strategy can use any combination of traditional advertising, for example radio, t.v. and print, and digital advertising, such as a Facebook campaign or Google AdWords. Your strategy will depend on two very important criteria: your budget and your audience.
Speaking in general terms, traditional advertising tends to be more costly than digital advertising, additionally the effectiveness of traditional advertising is harder to track compared to digital. Digital advertising allows for more specific targeting and the ability to make adjustments on the fly. However, each serves their purpose, depending who you’re trying to market to.
Knowing basic demographic information about your target audience, such as gender, age, and location, can help you determine the best way to market to them. For example, younger audiences will be more likely to to see your ads on social networks, whereas older demographics may not use social media, but may still watch the evening news on t.v.
To see what all of these elements look like together, check out our portfolio page for Representative Veronica Escobar’s campaign. We created her identity, branding, website, collateral and digital advertising strategy.
As experts in creative communications, our team can help bring your ideas to life. If you’d like to know more about branding your business, building a website or crafting a marketing strategy, we’d love to chat with you.
See what success looks like.
