How Do I Create My Business Startup Marketing Plan?

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computer_PhoneThere are many tasks to starting a new business besides registering business and domain names. Stores and restaurants need to be built and decorated. Supplies and products need to be ordered, then unpacked, and displayed. Employees will need to be hired. During all this time who will do your business marketing? If you have a small business you may not be able to hire someone full-time to do it. Do you want to risk it to your neighbor’s kid, or do you want to hire a qualified and professional business marketing firm such as the Direct West Media Group?

Many newcomers to business may not fully understand the intricacies of business marketing. They may believe that you can set up your Facebook and Twitter accounts and hope that one or two posts per day will draw them in. But it’s further from the truth.

You’re going to need to create not only a brick and mortar presence, but an online presence too. Most businesses rely on both sources of potential income. So many people don’t have time to visit in person—they’ll pick up the telephone to call—or they’ll place an order through a mobile-optimized site.

There is so much to do. Mobile optimize your website. Have someone post up to twenty or thirty times a day with interesting and engaging content. Have someone regularly checking email, social media, and telephone messages to see if customers/clients have any inquiries about products or services.

Plus you’re fairly certain that you should be inviting the media to attend an opening party, as well as placing ads in papers, and perhaps even have a local cable TV ad too.

When you hire an experienced business marketer such as Direct West Media Group you’re not only hiring someone to tackle this end of the work, but their vast experience as well. They’re knowledgeable about which services are effective for which types of businesses. Plan A may not work for all—perhaps your business needs Plan Z. They can advise you on how to get started.

Marketing plans can begin with an affordable plan to get you recognition in the busy marketplace. They can be as simple or as complex as needed for your type of business. The more services and products you sell, including from a number of locations, could mean that you need escalating marketing services to ensure that your business is bringing in the profits it deserves.

Please contact Direct West Media Group today and learn how our marketing services are the best solution to how to bring your business to the forefront in a busy marketplace.

5 Easy Steps to Achieve Your New Year’s Business Goals

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Direct_West_Media_Group_ResolutionsBusiness goals are always in the forefront of every business owner’s thoughts. Without them a business can remain stagnant and slowly fade into oblivion from lack of focus. While the small business can’t set unreasonable expectations that the large corporation can, it’s still possible to record ideas and stick to them. It’s a new year and 2016 is the perfect time to start thinking about where to take your business. Most business owners want to achieve greater profits, and that means a heavier hand on the marketing end. While you can tell your business colleagues all about your plans, many new year’s resolutions get pushed to the side before the month of January even ends.

Here are five easy steps to help you to achieve your New Year’s business goals.

  1. You don’t have time for marketing, so don’t add these tasks to your calendar. Chances are you’re already too busy with the other intricate operations of your business. Do you really have time to take on the added task of marketing to new and existing customers? Don’t set yourself up for failure.
  2. 
Let a marketing expert tackle your marketing needs. When you hire a business to handle your marketing it’s 100% guaranteed to get done, because A) You’ve paid someone to deliver, and B) They’re experienced and knowledgeable about how to market your business to the masses— including effective techniques and software to use and how to schedule these tasks into the day for the best response.
  3. Liaise with your marketing partner. Don’t just pass the entire project off to them and hope for the best. If you begin to see results, let them know what it was, and when it happened. Likewise if you see no results at all, perhaps it’s time to shift to a new direction. This enables them to adjust their efforts where needed. They also want to work with you, as they want you to succeed too.
  4. Focus focus focus. Don’t just announce that you plan on increasing quarterly business revenues by 20%. Decide how you will do it. Do you wish to focus on your business foundation, whether it’s retail, service, or wholesale, or do you want to create value added services?
  5. Your business marketer should be hitting on several key times throughout the week. Most likely you’ve been steadily posting once or twice a week on Facebook or Twitter, but that’s not really enough to meet the needs of your customers or clients who are browsing social media sites on a regular basis. You don’t want them to catch a post from your competition because “you didn’t have time” to post at regular intervals throughout the day.

If you’re finding that you have no time to spend on marketing and your employees never have time to do it either, contact Direct West Media Group to find out how we can help you to achieve your business goals in 2016.

Be Wary of One Size Fits All Advice

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startupgraphicIf there was a golden entrepreneurial template, everyone would be lining up for a share of the profits. Unfortunately, in today’s economic climate, there are no guarantees that what works for one entrepreneur will work for another. Two similar ideas may result in the clumsy business startup succeeding over the carefully crafted business plan, for no apparent reason other than one business opened at the right time. A budding entrepreneur may be facing some of their worst difficulties over the conflicting advice they’re receiving.

The best business plan begins with research. The new business owner will learn from authoritative sources, including books, journals, blogs, and successful entrepreneurs in a similar field. However, over time you may realize that common advice may be the worst thing for your startup launch. You’ll receive many tips during your new business launch, but not all of them will work for you. Be wary of one size fits all advice, particularly from the well-seasoned millionaires who have forgotten what it’s really like implementing startup tactics in today’s competitive market.

Delegate, while strategizing.
One of the main problems with the “delegate first” school-of-thought is that it doesn’t take into account that most new businesses today are lean startups, and there are few funds in the budget to include personnel. There’s nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty, after all it worked for Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The only person who understands your vision is you, not a CEO for a big box company.

Content marketing will pay off in the end.
Unfortunately, you could hire a celebrity writer to produce the best content for your website, but that’s not what’s going to attract customers to your door. Most new businesses work by word-by-mouth. You’ll get new business when your happy clients recommend you to their needy friends. Great content can attract the attention of your customer base, but don’t forget to focus on your great products or services first.

Buy a time travel machine.
Being everywhere, particularly when you’ve just launched your business is going to be both costly, and time-consuming. Focus on one particular region and find out where your customers are coming from. From there, decide whether it’s profitable to focus on a new target market, or to attract local customers.

Become a salesman.
Most entrepreneurs are not good with salesmanship, nor is it required to have a successful enterprise. Steve Wozniak preferred to stay behind the scenes, while Jobs went out to do the selling. If your products have value for your target market, they’ll sell themselves. Most customers are turned off by harsh elevator pitches anyway. The soft sell is what works today, and as you build trust for your potential client base, you’ll discover that you don’t really need to close the deal, so to speak.

If you need help planning effective marketing strategies tailored to your new business startup, please contact Direct West Media Group.