There’s a misperception that marketing is something you do at the end after the product or service is created. Some startups and businesses think they shouldn’t actively market or promote until their product/service is “100% ready,” even though waiting around for some elusive perfect moment can ultimately hurt the business. Or, it simply gets lost in the planning process because the entrepreneur is busy thinking about everything that’s needed to get the business started or launch a new product/service like financing, personnel, operations, IT infrastructure, etc.
There are many reasons why you should think about marketing from the beginning instead of the end. When you don’t take into consideration who your customers are, what they want, and how to deliver that, your product/service can fall flat with customers rather than resonate. Additionally, marketing provides you more data which will help you make better, more informed decisions. Bolting on Marketing at the end, whether intentional or not, can end up being what holds your business back from a successful launch or long-term growth. See why marketing should be present from the start of any new venture to generate short term results and long term success.
Marketing helps you gain valuable insights into the target market
Marketing research and analytics allow you to understand the target market more deeply. Through these insights, you’re able to create a profile of your target buyer (also known as a ‘buyer’s persona’), making it easier to develop the website, content, social media, and other messaging to address the target buyer’s needs, interests, and concerns. Keep in mind, however, that your buyer’s persona can evolve since consumers’ tastes and preferences change. Your target buyer might be different years or even months from now. With marketing insights through site analytics and customer feedback, your business will be able to learn more about the target buyer and better anticipate future market changes.
Builds in aspects to make the product/service remarkable, shareable, etc.
Marketing not only helps you gain valuable insights, but it also gives you more time to consider what aspects to build in your product/service to make it stand out and drive the target buyer to take an action like buying, sharing, or reviewing the product/service. For example, people love taking photos of unique packaging and posting on social media, which essentially turns them into brand ambassadors. Instead of rushing through the development process, use marketing to see how your product/service will catch consumers’ attention and promote online conversations.
Establishes the brand’s value and reputation
By addressing the target buyer’s needs, interests, and concerns from the beginning, you’ll be able to establish value in your brand early on rather than scrambling to create it after the product/service has already been launched. With marketing research, you’re also able to see opportunities for disrupting the market and differentiating your brand. However, it’s crucial that your business doesn’t fail to live up to expectations in order to protect the brand’s value and reputation. If you end up promising more than you can deliver, customers will turn on your brand and it’ll be harder to regain their business.
Informs target buyers about your product/service
One of the major benefits of marketing is that it allows you to develop a strategic communications plan to reach and inform your target buyers about your product/service. With increasing competition, it’s getting harder to connect with prospects through all of the noise and convert them into customers. If you’re not able to reach and inform target buyers, then they won’t be aware of your product/service and your business won’t be able to grow. As great as it would be for customers to always seek us out, it’s not reality. You will have to be active about moving them along the buyer’s journey from awareness → consideration → decision.
Jumpstarts your Conversions
Marketing helps you determine how you will promote and advertise your product/service to generate conversions, which can be anything that’s valuable to your business like a purchase, quote request, event registration, newsletter signup, etc. There are a variety of marketing tactics you can use to get your conversions rolling like pay-per-click (PPC) ads, introductory offers, cold emails, referral awards, search engine optimized content, and more. Having a buyer’s persona prepared when you begin promoting the product/service will help ensure your messaging is relevant and drives conversions.
Offers a more reliable measure of your business’s performance
With digital marketing, you can now track, record, and measure more data about your business than ever before, giving you a deeper understanding of your business and market. There are tools you can use to assess your business’s performance and streamline processes to improve metrics. By having reliable performance measurements, it’ll be easier to brainstorm, develop, implement, and revise your marketing strategy. Additionally, when you have more historical records, the data will be more reliable and complete which allows you to make better-informed business decisions.
It’s never too early to think about your Marketing Strategy
You can’t slap together a marketing strategy at the end of the development process and expect that everything will turn out fine. It’s crucial for the success of a new venture to take marketing into consideration from the very beginning in order to learn about your target buyers, market, and business, and use those insights wisely. With marketing research and analytics, you’ll be able to see how you can differentiate your brand in a way that will attract customers and disrupt your industry.
However, it can be hard to know where to even start which is why partnering with marketing experts can save you time and resources in the long run. Mavericks Marketing offers a variety of marketing services to create comprehensive solutions for startups, entrepreneurs, and established businesses. Contact us today to schedule a marketing strategy session to get your new venture off to the right start.
