Tradeindia Exim Newsletter, May 22, 2012

Exim Newsletter,May 22, 2012

CEO's Note

Marketing for start-ups: Be realistic, stay focused

Marketing is the lifeblood to any business, and it's absolutely vital when an enterprise is just getting started. Most start-ups are aware of this, and in fact, when starting their prospects, marketing is usually considered by them as a brain-thinking exercise. They start the ball rolling by setting goals, devising strategies, and hanging a lot of hope on it. But there are many examples where these efforts don't continue. As a result, success is hardly met.

Why does this happen? At the initial stage of their business, many entrepreneurs lure themselves to setting big goals, which sound good but are unrealistic. But sooner or later reality strikes, and when they start realizing that these goals are really unattainable, they lose their enthusiasm. And when the direction is lost, their marketing loses effectiveness. It's very important for start-up enterprises to set realistic goals, and pick the right direction from the beginning, and stick to it.

So, if you are like majority of start-ups whose marketing budget is limited, you can't spread your marketing activities too wide, and it's why you must be choosy enough while picking up the goals. I recommend to focus only on 4- 5 marketing objectives at the initial stage and make sure that you have the financial capability to achieve them.

Secondly, I think marketing objectives should be specific, measurable, and time bound. The plan should include a schedule of key tasks, what will be done, how and by when. In addition, it's always wise to set the goals in terms of customers. For example, you may set an objective to increase the number of your customers by 500 during a financial year. Here, market research (at least minimal) is crucial as only when you have the numbers, you can set realistic marketing goals.

Start-up firms, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) usually find it difficult to develop a marketing strategy as it demands time, resources and money to an extent they cannot afford. To get rid of this I think they should go for lean marketing approaches as much as possible. For example, relying on online B2B ads, expanding online presence, getting involved in social media, doing some public relations, going for e-mail marketing and guerrilla marketing tactics, etc. can help them a lot.

Starting a business can be wildly fulfilling, but at the same time business mortality rates have always remained high among start-up enterprises, and here I think poor, haphazard marketing is one of the biggest blunders. Of course, lack of funds is a curse a young enterprise cannot easily lift, but despite that successful marketing is possible – by setting realistic goals, choosing cost-effective tactics, and staying focused.

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