Business startups will have a hard time getting started because their customers will not know they exist. This is just another challenge for a startup business but it does bring up the question of what kind of marketing will a smart new business owner do? There have been many new businesses that quickly went under because they blew all their startup capital on worthless marketing.
Sadly, marketing is important and necessary. It is even more necessary for a new business as the word needs to go out that a business is open. Unfortunately, there are a lot of ways one can waste money on unprofitable forms of marketing. Marketing salesmen, when called on their marketing’s unproductiveness, will say that one has to stay with it to become effective. People have to continually see the message. That is how people can start wasting a lot of money on marketing- continually paying for something that is not bringing in more money than it costs. Many times marketing brings in no money.
To keep from wasting startup capital on marketing, one needs to choose their marketing very deliberately. And then they must make sure and track the success of that form of marketing. Does it pay for itself?
Obviously, the best forms of marketing for a startup business are those that cost little money. Things like business cards, cheap promotional products (pens, magnets, etc.), Internet marketing, telemarketing, etc. There is a large number of inexpensive ways to market, and to add fuel to these ideas be creative how you use them. Every form has a trick to add something extra to it. Like business cards, one trick is to write a personal note on the back and it makes it harder to throw away or just put away. So, always write a cell phone number on the back in the presence of the person you are giving it to. They will then feel they have something personal from you.
Caution is always necessary when a start-up is spending its capital on marketing. It is a place where money can go out the door and never come back.