I am a new business owner and need to market. What are the basics of where to begin?

You went into business doing what you love and/or what you are good at, yes?

So when faced with everything a solopreneur is facing, you need to be clear on how you can develop and expand on your strengths.  Get some help from a trusted advisor on what weaknesses you need to get outside assistance with.

Marketing is about warming relationships up for the sales effort. It’s about communicating your story, your value and what makes you different. Keep this in mind as a do-it-yourselfer or when you choose to find a companionable professional to rock the segment you need help with:

#1 – Be clear on what your core competencies are, what are you really in business to do, your main objective that every other function or action should support.  But bear in mind, any thing you do is about sales and marketing too – “Because you can be fabulous but it only matters if you can be found.”

#2 – Understand your customer base. Where do they live? What does their family look like? What do they drive?  Do on the weekends?  What do they do for a living? What motivates them? What do they avoid? What problem or pain do they have that you can fix?

#3 – Understand your “competitors.”  I don’t say competition, because if you do this right – or get some help doing it right – you’ll own your own lane.  What is their price point? How clean is their facility? How quickly do they call back? How friendly and COMPETENT and EDUCATIONAL is their staff? What is their WOW factor? How do they go the extra mile? This helps you understand some of the unique selling propositions you HAVE or CAN HAVE to market.

#4 – Can you say your real mission – the reason you exist – in 4 sentences or less? If not, how can you accurately describe it to anyone else? How does the universe know how to support you?

#5 – Your 30 second intro. If you haven’t developed your technical one. Memorized it. Then made it a little more spot-on and creative. Then memorized it. Then finally incorporated narrative and made it memorable, entertaining, informative and compelling you are not ready to be in play yet.

#6 – For God’s sake, please go ahead and get a decent head shot and write up a 6-12 sentence bio. Write 2-3 articles…from your expert point of view on your industry, a how-to, what to look for when buying what you offer, etc. You’ll need it. I swear.

#7 – Commit yourself to a whole new level or initiative, learning, communicating, self-awareness and customer service. You are playing at a whole new level.  And all the good stuff? Your fault. All the bad stuff? Your fault. When you do turn on your marketing, you can’t afford to win those valuable first customers-to-be with bad behavior or lousy first impressions.

#8 – Take advantage of free consults and generous-with-their-time colleagues who offer free consults. Find a mentor.  Find your community. If you don’t know how, call me. Then, in a co-learning way, ask them about their pain points and figure out what your solutions would be. Make your peers part of your solution, share your plans when possible, make them your community and part of your market research program. Then reward, reward, reward with a generous discount or added value offering. See below.

#9 – Make sure you are pricing well – research your industry, shop your peers, research online. Don’t underprice yourself now when marketing, unless your intent is to compete on price. Look at added value, a great experience, reasonable rates, satisfaction guarantees as opposed to the big mark down. Giveaways, discounts, loyalty coupons, referral rewards are always a good idea, and better if they are for something everyone can use and also worth a certain amount. Most of us don’t blink an eye at 10% anymore.

#10 – Do as I say, not as I do. MARK OUT DATES with your family and make yourself a client with specified client time on your calendar. The danger of becoming all consumed and having your relationships suffer is completely real. If you don’t believe it, call me. Your marketing will become about getting it out the door, not crafting it well, if you let yourself get caught up in all things (family, product/service creation, shameless self-promoting) feeling equal in priority. Technically, I do know this is true and am still struggling to master it.

#11 – Do your homework on the most likely ad venue for you. Ideally, it would be an integrated mix of: social media, earned media, sponsorships, signature events, print/radio/tv/billboard media purchases, donations, website, article submission, direct mail, email blasts, co-op promotions, collaborative marketing, guerilla.

#12 – With your marketing rep, your media or account managers, your vendors (hell, anyone else as well) be generous and collaborative. Be nice, follow-up, keep your word, work from your gut/values/heart/center/morals or whatever YOU call them. Speak your truth, as kindly as possible, and avoid lying. You will NEVER be sorry in business or personal.

In the end, marketing is all about having a well-thought out plan and being consistent with your message and implementation. An integrated marketing plan can be creative and relatively inexpensive, but it does require savvy and a solid way to differentiate you from everybody else out there. It also requires you to be utterly honest with yourself with how much time you can spend, what your resources are, and how much you want to get the party started.