Starting a new business is the best way to become your own boss, and you may be already dreaming of the day when you turn your business into a global empire or sell it for a hefty sum. However, you'll be battling against the odds when you start a new venture. Depending on the industry, you only have a 30% to 50% chance of staying open through your first five years of operation. Starting on your marketing before the business is even operating, or at least as soon as you open, is essential for achieving success and surviving the first few years. Try these tips for raising awareness of your new business as quickly as possible.
Get Business Cards
Start with the simplest marketing tool of all: business cards. It's very inexpensive to have 500 printed up with the name of your business and your service areas. Whether you're a dog groomer working by yourself or the owner a retail store with 100 employees, a business card is the simplest marketing tool. You can hand them out to everyone you meet, add them to bulletin boards where a flyer would not be welcome, and leave them in small stacks at fellow businesses to work on cross-exposure. Keep the cards simple and splurge for professional design. A well-designed business card has a lot more impact than one printed from a template.
Print Tri-Fold Brochures
Once you've got a source of marketing in your pocket at all times, you can expand to materials meant for sharing specifically with potential customers and clients. Tri-fold brochures remain one of the best ways to explain what your company does, especially since you can include photos of products or services in action. Full color printing is far more affordable than it was in the past, so you can usually have 1,000 brochures printed for less than it costs to run an online or media ad campaign. Brochures make a bigger impact in the early days of a new business because you haven’t had the time to build the brand awareness to target marketing to people who already know about you. A stack of tri-fold brochures in glossy color catches the eye, so all you have to do is find a place to hand them out or leave them in a brochure holder, and you'll soon start to see results.
Plan a Direct Mail Campaign
Direct mail is far from dead. In fact, it remains a surprisingly viable marketing technique as consumers are now completely overwhelmed with email campaigns, pop up ads, and other forms of digital advertising. Receiving an old-fashioned flyer or postcard in the mail has become novel again. Of course, the advancements in technology have helped direct mail be more successfully implemented too. For example, you can now easily and inexpensively customize your printing plans so that each individual receives a card tailored to their particular needs and demographic.
For the most success with your direct mail investment, split your campaign into three distinct phases. First, open with a round of basic mailers that only state the essential information about your business and announcing that it's opening. Don't worry about packing this card with a ton of calls to action or overcrowding the flyer with too much information. Consider the first mailing round a teaser of sorts. Follow up with a second round of mailing that is more to the marketing point. Go into greater depth in highlighting the biggest advantages of your service or product with plenty of color and photos. Finally, use the third direct mailing round for your call to action and an incentive like a coupon, discount code, or free offer.
Blue Frog Marketing, headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, provides a wide range of superior quality professional printing services, from business cards to trade show banners and beyond. Our in-house graphic designers and writers can help ensure that your printed pieces look great and represent your fledgling brand well. Let us help you get started!
