So, after long months or years of getting your business ready, you know think it’s time to show to the world this great project you have been working on.

A lot of people face anxiety about starting a business, so it is not strange if you find yourself going through it as well.

However, if you follow the correct process and generate enough hype, your business has a higher chance of surviving.

Nearly 90% of start-ups fail yearly. This figure should give you a hint about how creating hype before launching your business is essential.

Nevertheless, other factors can cause your start-up to fail, like using a wrong marketing campaign, amongst others. To this, I have prepared this as a guide to help you avoid these mistakes.

Source: Financeonline

Figure 1: Key facts about small businesses in the US

Source: Financeonline

WHAT MOST SMALL BUSINESSES ARE DOING WRONG IN MARKETING

Have you ever wondered why your sales never seem to grow, no matter what new method you try?

The problems with the marketing plan of many different small businesses range from not carrying out enough research, not having backup plans, wrong assumptions, and many others.

Improper marketing can cost you loss of funds and even some customers. The best way to prevent this is to know about the wrong marketing associated with most businesses so you won’t implement them.

1. Absence of Marketing Plans

Too many businesses lack a marketing plan, and it shows in how they carry out their marketing strategies.

A marketing plan needs to have enough information on your target audience and ways to showcase your product to them.

This way, you will reach a good quality audience that is more likely to patronize your business.

2. Low Marketing Budget

When planning a marketing strategy, you have to consider your budget. You need to have a realistic budget that covers all bases regarding your advertisements and reach.

Marketing generates more leads and brings in a lot of sales.

So, to maximize your business sales, you should allocate a realistic amount to how much you will spend subsequently on marketing monthly to give you a better result.

Source: Quoracreative

Figure 2: Chart showing how the different online media drive business

Source: Quoracreative

3. Poor Marketing Advice

The internet is a market hub that is bursting with marketing advice anywhere you turn.

Now, looking for tips on marketing online is not a bad idea, but you must be able to differentiate between good and unrealistic ones.

Instead of jumping on every marketing bandwagon, you can focus on courses and advice from certified and well-known marketing professionals.

Don’t think that you need to try every marketing advice on social media or the internet because what works for others might not work out for you.

So, your safest bet is finding online courses from any of the marketing experts across the globe.

Some have worked with large establishments, government corporations, fortune 500 companies, and some have built thriving businesses from scratch. I believe this will help you decide which strategy to choose.

4. Getting New Customers is Your Main Priority

The growth of your business is dependent on how many new customers you get. When setting up your business, you need to put in ways to build up your customer base.

At the same time, you should plan to retain your old customers as recurring customers are the most valuable customers.

Build up the communication with your returning customers.

Keep up with them and ask for their feedback frequently on the quality of your product or service.

You can do this in various ways starting from sending emails to them regularly, to get their feedback or organizing a customer survey.

5. Imitating the Competitors

Admittedly, many business owners think imitating their competitors makes them more accessible, and some believe that this tactic can help them steal some customers from their competitors.

On the contrary, many customers are not ready to leave a brand they’re accustomed to for a new brand that offers the same thing.

Therefore, you need to come up with something that separates you from the rest and gives you a unique position in the market. Try to invent your strategy and customers will flow in.

REASONS YOU SHOULD BUILD HYPE BEFORE YOU LAUNCH YOUR BUSINESS

Building hype before setting out to launch your new business or product is essential because it will help you to guarantee immediate sales or patronization. For example, Fortune500 company like Apple, Telsa, and Google have been doing this for years.

They always put in efforts to promote any new services or products they plan to release. Your business will benefit from this strategy too.

It will keep customers anxious to get a hold of what you have to offer. You need to create awareness and let people know about what is coming up.

1. It Increases Your Market Sales

Look at Apple’s track record, for instance. Before the launching of any apple products, you see the company hosting events where they showcase their new product to the world.

By the time they launch their new iPhone, and it gets to the market, crowds are queuing up to get the new iPhone.

Although this isn’t quite as easy for a small business owner, you can do this by creating awareness on social media platforms.

Online marketing has made things more accessible for smaller businesses that don’t have the large marketing budgets that larger establishments have.

Source: WebFx

Figure 3: The reach of social media among US adults

Source: WebFx

2. It Builds Credibility for You

The hype you build before launching your business will give you a lot of credibility among new and prospective customers.

Building hype brings more potential clients that will need to seek more information about your business and the quality of your product. You have successfully gained their trust if they got the right information about your business.

3. It is an Opportunity to Get to Investors

The best thing for you is to be able to create a lot of publicity while building your hype.

If you get a lot of inquiries, impressions, and engagements, it might prompt an investor to take a look at what you have to offer.

4. Less Expensive Marketing

Some start-ups indeed spend a considerable amount of money on marketing while building hype, but you can take a short cut where you won’t have to pay much to do these.

After much publicity, you can organize a referral contest among your audience, and the winner goes home with some prizes. Aside from the purpose of marketing, this strategy will bring in a lot of customers for you.

HOW TO HIRE THE BEST MARKETING TEAM

Finding the best talent is always not easy, especially when it comes to marketing. Marketing is an aspect of a business, and only those who are capable should handle it.

Promoting and persuading a customer and giving them a reason why they should buy your products over other competitors, is not an easy task.

To get this task done, your company needs a team of marketers who understands the inside out of marketing, what the consumer needs, and how they can serve them better.

So, how can you be sure of your employee’s expertise as a marketer?

To be confident of their skills, you need to do this when you are looking out to employ a team of marketers.

1. Create Publicity to Bring in Many Candidates

Advertising your job position to many interested applicants will give you multiple choices of choosing the best.

You should send out advertisements with detailed job descriptions that will keep interested candidates informed on what you expect of them.

During the interview, you should also take note of how they respond to questions, their manners, and their expertise.

2. Compare their Experience

You have to look at the applicant that has the best experience and achievements working as a marketer. Although experience doesn’t always determine their efficiency, but someone with experience is usually a better choice.

At the same time, you need to look at their achievements.

Someone with a lot of years of experience with minimal results doesn’t compare to someone with less than 2 years experience with many accomplishments and impact with the organization where they’ve been working.

3. Challenge them

When you have evaluated them base on their credentials, experience, and expertise, then you should proceed to give them a challenge.

This will provide you with insight into the person will handle your business when working with you.

You can give them a question like “How do we make our product the most sought after in the industry”? Watch how every one of them addresses this issue and the solution they bring.

4. Know Those Who are Ready to Learn

Marketing is broad and covers various areas, so you shouldn’t expect the same level of expertise from everyone.

Some may be experts when it comes to social media marketing but may lack knowledge when it comes to some other form of marketing.

If they show the zeal to learn, you should stick with them, and with time, they will be an expert. The best bet is to delegate projects according to their strengths.

5. Watch Out for Those Who are Strategic and Tactical

You need to have marketers who can handle long-range campaigns and short or current ones.

It is a good advantage if you have a chance to get a marketer with these two qualities.

Marketers who are tactical and strategic usually have foresight, and they can spot the benefits or consequences that come with it.

HOW TO BUILD HYPE BEFORE LAUNCHING YOUR BUSINESS

Building hype is essential when it comes to business. It is a form of marketing on its own. It has a high rate of conversion of sales, and it also showcases your product to the world for prospective customers.

So, you want to create enough hype that will get you as much attention as possible. Then you have to employ various means to achieve this goal.

If you do this right, be sure to have steady sales when your business launches.

Also, you need to be current with most of the marketing trends that are coming up so you can capitalize on the hype to promote your business.

Source: MarketingLand

Figure 4: Chart showing why digital marketing is the preferred marketing media

Source: MarketingLand

1. Start by Testing Your Product

No matter the industry you are in, your product needs to be tested. Testing your product will give you confidence in the quality of your product.

Once you are sure of the quality, you can test it out in front of a large audience (think Tesla). This will assure the audience that your product is safe to use.

2. Explain How Your Product will be of Benefit to Customers

Everybody wants to know what’s in for them. They don’t want to buy some new products without knowing much about the quality and features.

You should explain to people in detail what makes your product or service different from others and how it will benefit them when they buy it.

Once you identify your unique selling proposition, you should create a lot of publicity, focusing on that to generate interest among your target audience.

3. Know Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is important. Without it, you might be advertising to the wrong demographic.

Of course, you should be versatile in your market, and that will allow knowing the right tools and media channels you can use to advertise.

For instance, if you have a fitness and bodybuilding product, you should set your audience to those interested in bodybuilding and fitness.

In turn, advertise your product on bodybuilding websites and web pages.

Source: TrackMaven

Figure 5: The Marketing Funnel

Source: TrackMaven

4. Create a Website

Creating a website will not only give you publicity but also generate more leads for you.

The best way to tailor the website or webpage to your favor is by creating one with a signup page.

Make sure the page is user-friendly and straightforward and make sure it is easy to share to various social media.

It should also have enough information on your business and products, so your potential customers are satisfied and curious to try them.

5. Get the Right Influencer in Your Niche

Once you have successfully created your webpage, the next is getting traffic to it, and that is the most challenging part. Every business has a niche it falls into, and that is where you find your target audience.

Once you’ve identified what niche you fall into, you should look for influencers in that niche that have active followers.

This influencer can help you boost your publicity with engagements and impressions in exchange for some free products, and maybe some commissions.

Further on, they can help you with other projects like the giveaway and referral contest.

However, before you get an influencer, make sure you access their page and see how many followers and engagements they have.

Some may have a high number of followers with very little engagements; you don’t need this. You may have better luck with smaller, niche influencers with small pages filled with active followers.

6. Contest and Giveaway

Never underestimate the power of referrals and giveaways in building sufficient hype. It is a low budget marketing strategy that has a high ROI. Also, it is a fun way for your business to interact with its customers.

You have to have a purpose for your contest for it to be effective.

If you wish to generate more leads, you can build links to your website where you will tell participants to drop their emails to get in the contest.

Always make sure you follow through with rewarding the contest winners to build trust among people.

You can follow these other steps for a practical giveaway and referral Contest:

  • Determine what you want to give away: anything you plan on giving to the contest winners has to be of value to them. You can give out free samples of your product, but you have to use something else that is exciting enough to draw people’s attention, like the latest Smartphone or cash prizes.
  • Determine the time the giveaway would last: The time you decide should be enough for you to get the most out of the giveaway. Don’t allow it run for too long, so people don’t get bored. Also, make sure you have batches of winners during the contest so that people that were otherwise reluctant can get motivated.
  • Find a way to introduce people to your product: You can set contest rules that involve them buying or testing out your products to win. This way, they get to try your product, and if they like it, they’ll continue using it long after the contest ends.
  • Make the participants do more: You can make your participants promote your business more by updating the list of those who are topping the contest. This motivates them to do more and sharing your product around for them to win.
  • Monitor Your Progress: Don’t forget the aim of the giveaway. If you are not achieving the purpose, look at your strategies, and correct what you feel is not right.
Source: LYFEMarketing

Figure 6: Chart showing social media spending in the US

Source: LYFEMarketing

7. Blog About Your Business

Blogging has many benefits for your business. It will give you the advantage of reaching a wider audience around the globe. You can pay to get featured by other prominent blogs in your niche, as well as posting about it on your website.

Make sure you explain your business and product to the audience in an engaging way without sounding like you want to sell it. This will help generate more leads and traffic to your website.

CONCLUSION

Building hype before launching a business gives you a boost in the right direction, and it helps to sustain your business after it launches.

Make sure you are advertising to the right audience in your niche.

Every marketing campaign should be geared towards the right audience, starting from employing the right influencer, placing targeted ads, and others. If you follow this guide, you’ll be sure to have a successful launch.

7 Ways to Build Hype Months Before Your Business Launches

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