Becoming an Entrepreneur remains incredibly popular in post-covid Britain, with over 80 new businesses registered in the UK per hour in the first half of 2021 (Startups.co.uk). Now, launching a new business is a whole lot easier than it used to be, but thanks to advances in technology, information is becoming more accessible than ever before. This makes consumers savvier than ever to not only how they experience your product or service, but who experiences it with them.
For this reason, small businesses will need to put a lot more thought into how they launch a new product or service, and the end-to-end customer experience, if they want to be successful. Here are my three tips for starting your business off on the right foot.
Three tips to help you when launching a new business
#1 – Have a strategy that suits your context
In order to keep up with bigger businesses, you’ll need a strong strategy in place before you begin launching your product or service. Not only will this ensure that everything is done in the right order, but it can help you prioritise how you spend your time and money across different launch strategies.
The challenge here is the balance between a rigorous, best class approach, and a more ruthless, prioritised “Hustle” to get things out of the door. Do you have time to create a thorough and meticulous plan? Or would you like to get going as fast as possible? Well, in the following links I will provide detailed advice for either approach.
In the coming weeks I will write a post about “The best in class approach to designing a launch strategy for your business” where I will go into the formal and structured approach to a new business launch strategy.
For those of you wanting to cut to the chase, my post, continue reading to fine a three step plan for building your go to market strategy to quickly launch your brand.s
#2 – Position your brand strategy, and use customer insight to inform the design of your products, services and messaging
You’ll want to ensure that you position your brand strategy the right way. This means paying attention to how you want your consumers to perceive you and what you need them to think of when they hear about your business for the first time.
For example, if they’re looking for a specific product or service, do you have it? If not, where will they get it from? And what’s different about your business to make them choose you over another option?
Your brand strategy should be effectively communicated quickly so that customers can understand what value your business provides. This requires a strong understanding of how people will use your product or service, so be sure to test it out extensively before launching anything, otherwise your messaging could fail to resonate with your target audience.
This can often be tough for a new business, so it may be beneficial to find a professional who can help you out with designing and implementing an effective brand strategy.
Again, don’t shy away from speaking to someone in the know when it comes to branding. Even if you just need specific advice about a part of your business, it’ll likely be cheaper than paying someone to design a whole brand for you
#3 – Maximise marketing, but prioritise connections and partnerships to quickly grow your business
Finally, you’ll need to ensure that you have an effective marketing strategy in place. Without marketing, your new product or service may only reach the people who stumble across it by accident- while those who find it as a result of a targeted campaign will be those most likely to be interested in your business.
In addition, you’ll want to design a marketing strategy that lends itself well to the other strategies you’re using. For example, if you’re going for an exclusive launch, then by all means communicate this through social media and word of mouth. However, if you’re looking to appeal to a more general audience, then consider using paid search or email marketing campaigns to advertise your new business.
As with the other two points above, it’s important to bear in mind that you can’t be an expert at everything. If you’ve never run a marketing campaign before, don’t take on too much yourself. Instead, find a professional who can help you plan and execute the campaign for your business.
Launching a new business is always tough, but these three tips will help you work smarter so that you launch successfully.
A three step guide to launching a new business
So what about the detail? Well if you are looking for some quick and specific pointers to consider as you plan your launch, here is a high level plan. This “Hustle” approach breaks down the phases of a quick launch into 3 steps, and gives a whole bunch of questions to think about to ensure that everything is covered.
Step 1: Designing a strategy and creating insight to build strong sales and marketing assets and platforms
Here is an action list of research and planning to do before launch. Creating a PowerPoint or Google slides deck with slides for each of the following areas can help to capture your strategy and give focus that grounds the development of your business, its content, customer experience design and marketing activity.
- Product/Service (What do we sell? What is our product/service list? How is it delivered? What does it include? What experience do we want to create?)
- Customer Insight & Targeting (Who do we sell to, and why do they need our product/service?
- Competitor Research & Analysis (Who do we compete against? How do they position their brands? What do they sell? How do they package products and services? What do they charge? What can we learn from their customer experience? How are they rated on Trust Pilot? Why do they receive 1-3 star reviews on Trust Pilot?)
- Partners & Referrers (Who can we collaborate with? Who could send us business? Who could we send business to? Who has access to the customers we need? Which partnerships could enhance our offering)
- Brand & Messaging (What are we called? What does our brand stand for? What is our vision, and mission? What are our values? How do we do business? Why do we matter to our customers, and why are we their first choice?)
- Value Proposition & Messaging (Which products do we sell to who? What are their features, and why do they benefit each audience?
- Marketing Platform, Channels & System (Which channels do we use? Do we have a website? Do we use Social Media? Which platform should we use? How can we use marketing automation? How can we use digital analytics
Step 2: Set up your brand and marketing channels and write content that talks to your customers, sells your product and is different from the competition
Here are 4 ways to translate your research and planning into your website, social pages and other channels that you are proud to share, and that drive sales.
- Choose a highly rated low maintenance and integrated website or digital marketing platform (Review platforms like Wix.com, Squarespace, Shopify, and, potentially WordPress. All have a whole range of out-of-the-box functionality to quickly set up a website, product pages, enquiry forms, and even marketing automation)
- Create a strong and unique brand. Ensure that you have a compelling brand name, logo, and visual identity that will help you stand out from the competition. If you want to do this without breaking the budget, spend time on your core messaging internally, and look to freelance platforms like Fiverr or Design Crowd to access lower-cost design. For a more in-depth and professional job, find a local small agency or freelancer for support.
- Create strong messaging which uses everything that you learned during the planning phase to create strong communications which align with your audience, sell your products’ features and benefits, and differentiate you from the competition. Create a messaging hierarchy of the top 5 things you want to communicate both as a brand and within each product, ensuring these “USP” Unique Selling Points or “KSP” Key Selling Points are clearly communicated.
- Roll out your new brand and messaging via content across your digital marketing platform and social channels. Now that you understand your market, competitors and customers, have decided on your branding, understood the key points you wish to communicate, now comes content, and creating authority on which will inform customers what you do, but also start to gain their trust which will lead them to enquire. As a minimum viable product, your website should include a strong and detailed About Us section, Details on your Products and Services, Profiles of your Directors and those delivering the service, with qualifications and affiliations to really gain that trust. Finally, ensure you have social proof (testimonials, client lists, and reviews) to build trust and gain user buy-in, and (CTA’s) Call to Actions distributed through the website and other channels to drive customer acquisition. This sounds like a big job, and it can be, but using platforms like Jarvis.ai can help to quickly write product and blog content once you have your core messaging and keywords.
Step 3: Test and finalise your sales and marketing content and launch your business to market
Here are 5 quick actions to get your business to market:
- Test your content with some existing and new customers, gain feedback and update it to align best to customer feedback. There is no better feedback then that of customers, as they are the people that you are trying to engage. Be objective and listen to what they have to say, speak to 5-10 people and ensure you log any trends from the feedback. Make updated to messaging, brand, and content accordingly before launch
- Create launch offers and a content strategy that builds some noise over a few weeks. Think about launch events, any partnership you can use to potentially launch with and create a buzz. Create some blog posts which answer your customers’ key issues and include CTA’s to gain their enquiry.
- Target existing contacts and customers. Whether by paid, discounted, or free products/services, the key is to build customer numbers, gain feedback and iterate your product and service, gain repeat business from those customers, and tap into their networks to grow your core.
- Create partnerships with like-minded businesses that have the same target audience. Create referral and partnership schemes that incentivise them to either distribute your content or direct their customers towards you. As an example, if your business offers physiotherapy services, could you partner with Gym’s or Sports Teams to offer discounted rehabilitation services? Creating affiliations with similar companies builds your customer base while also adding credibility to your offer.
- Use referral schemes to quickly scale your business. There is no better business than that referred to you by a happy customer, this means now only are you delivering a great service, but that you are growing your business at the same time. By creating deals such as a free session or discount for the number of new customers referred, you can quickly drive business growth.
Conclusion: Launching a new business
Launching your new business is always tough, but these three tips will help you work smarter so that you launch successfully in 2022. My three-step plan also gives you a lot of considerations to ensure you have a strong insight into your customers, great brand and messaging and an intelligent launch strategy. By prioritising your energy in the right areas and maximising your networks to grow, you’ll quickly have a thriving business. I hope that you found these tips useful.
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts 🙂 Join us on Instagram for more marketing tips! You can also subscribe via email , or enter your details here to receive a free newsletter every week about business writing, blogging,
Keywords:
Strategy, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Strategy Guide, Strategy Advice, Business Strategy Guides, Marketing Technology, Launching a business, Branding
Credits:
Great read Joel, some great takeaways I can certainly use from this. Thanks!
Thanks so much for reading James!