Are you trying to determine the ins and outs of marketing your business? It can often feel overwhelming—where do you start, who should you target, and how much should you spend on ads? Once upon a time, companies exclusively built successful businesses on word-of-mouth referrals—but marketing is paramount in today's digital age.
In this blog post, we'll show entrepreneurs just like yourself simple steps for attracting customers and converting them into loyal followers. You’ll gain lots of helpful information along the way, from creating compelling content to developing innovative campaigns that will help take your business from good to great! So let's get started!
What is Entrepreneurial Marketing?
Entrepreneurial marketing is a concept that involves developing and implementing marketing strategies with a focus on creating and delivering value to customers in innovative and unique ways while also building and sustaining a competitive advantage for the business.
It involves identifying opportunities, adapting quickly to changing market conditions, and taking calculated risks to differentiate from competitors. In addition, this type of marketing requires creativity, flexibility, and a strong customer focus.
Traditional Marketing VS Entrepreneurial Marketing
There are several differences between traditional and entrepreneurial marketing. First, traditional marketing is a more established approach, often relying on offline marketing channels and practices such as advertising through mass media, billboards, brochures, TV, radio, direct mail, etc. Marketers commonly use them to reach a broad and diverse audience.
In contrast, entrepreneurial marketing is a more dynamic and innovative approach that often involves exploring unconventional marketing channels such as social media and influencer marketing. Entrepreneurial marketing also emphasizes building customer relationships, leveraging technology, and adapting to changing market conditions.
Overall, entrepreneurial marketing relies on taking calculated risks and being agile, while traditional marketing is about consistency and stability.
What are the Careers for Entrepreneurial Marketing?
Entrepreneurial marketing is a field that requires a unique set of skills, including the ability to think creatively and strategically while being adaptable to change. With this in mind, the team can pursue several careers in this field.
Product Manager
One of the most prominent careers in entrepreneurial marketing is the product manager. Product managers oversee a particular product's development, marketing, and sales. They work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure the product meets customer needs, stays competitive in the market, and achieves revenue targets. A Product Manager must have strong communication and analytical skills and a deep understanding of market trends.
Strategic Planner
Another career option in entrepreneurial marketing is that of a strategic planner. Strategic planners work to develop long-term plans and strategies to achieve business objectives. They analyze market trends, competitor behavior, and consumer behavior to make informed decisions about product development, marketing campaigns, and overall business strategy. Strategic planners must be able to think critically, have strong analytical skills, and possess a deep understanding of the market and consumer behavior.
Marketing Manager
Lastly, marketing managers oversee all aspects of a company's marketing efforts, managing budgets and working with cross-functional teams to ensure the company's products and services are effectively marketed. Marketing managers must be creative, strategic, and adaptable to change. They must also have strong leadership skills.
Critical Characteristics of Effective Entrepreneurial Marketing
If you're an entrepreneurial business owner, you know there's more to success than having a fantastic product—your marketing strategy can make or break any venture. Marketing principles have remained constant despite the ever-evolving digital media and technology landscape. Here's some.
Proactive Orientation
The most successful marketers think outside the box and anticipate customer needs before they arise. Entrepreneurial marketing requires a proactive orientation: understanding current trends, adapting quickly to changing market conditions, and taking calculated risks to differentiate from competitors.
Innovativeness
Marketers must be able to think strategically and creatively. This means actively seeking new ideas, testing them quickly, and adapting as needed. Entrepreneurial marketing also requires understanding how technology can be leveraged to create engaging content and deliver personalized customer experiences.
Focus on Customers
Remembering the customer when crafting a digital marketing plan is always essential. This means understanding their needs and wants and how they prefer to interact with your business. Entrepreneurial marketers are adept at building relationships and creating meaningful experiences that resonate with customers.
Utilize Opportunities
A famous saying goes, “If the opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.” Entrepreneurial marketers are constantly creating and seizing opportunities to gain an advantage over competitors. For example, they may use a new platform or technology to promote their product, make a special offer for customers, or partner with another company to reach a larger audience.
Risk Management
Entrepreneurs must be comfortable taking risks and making decisions without knowing the outcome. Therefore, entrepreneurial marketing requires a high level of risk management: analyzing data, understanding the potential effects, and having an escape plan in case things don't go as expected.
Value Creation
Being a leader in the market means creating value for customers, not just by providing them with products and services but also through innovation. Entrepreneurial marketers look for ways to create value beyond what competitors are offering. This could be a new product, different pricing models, or improved customer service.
Proven Successful Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategies
From coming up with innovative ideas to leveraging technology, these tried-and-true approaches will provide valuable practical insights into what it takes to establish yourself as a leader in your industry. Read on for our go-to entrepreneurial marketing strategies!
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to reach out to customers and keep them informed about new products, special offers, and upcoming events. A targeted outreach strategy through email is preferable by small businesses as it comes with a lower cost in marketing campaigns. In addition, its personalized nature, directly communicating with the target audience, boosts brand awareness and nurturing leads, and builds relationships with prospects through closer customer engagement.
Here are some things to consider in setting up your email marketing campaign:
- Price - Opting to delegate the email marketing campaign to market agencies should cost you, which is something to consider in designing your marketing strategy.
- Volume - Determining how much the appropriate email volume is critical in increasing brand awareness without relegating your emails to their spam folder.
- Contacts - Your list of contacts should be grown organically and done so when they make consent through signups like newsletters. This is to estimate the number of emails sent and the basis of the personalization strategy in the email marketing campaign.
- Email design - Getting leads through email relies on the audience's interest, the visual aesthetic the email has, and the content it contains. Usually, email content is short and straightforward - make the little attention your contact has given your count.
- Automation - marketing agencies or mail automation companies provide services to automate the email process.
Relationship Marketing
While traditional marketing’s customer engagement often ends after the sale, relationship marketing seeks to build long-term customer relationships. This involves understanding their needs and wants, providing personalized experiences, and demonstrating loyalty to build trust with the customer. Moreover, having a better customer relationship reduces acquisition costs as it compels customers to talk about your product or service to their colleagues, with a higher chance of high-quality leads and brand trust.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is powerful for engaging customers and building relationships with prospects, from informative blogs to fun promotional videos. The target audience’s attention can disappear quickly if you sound like you are selling something right off the bat. Content marketing relies on the human nature of reciprocity, which means offering something first gives a better chance to return the favor.
Here are some marketing tactics of proven effective content for your marketing efforts:
- Blog Posts
- Free tools
- Templates
- User-generated content
Social Media Marketing
Real-time customer engagement is crucial in today's digital marketing landscape, and social media platforms are one of the best channels to do this. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are trendy among younger audiences and offer great opportunities for entrepreneurs to showcase their products and services.
Entrepreneurs, as mentioned, focus on a closer relationship with their target audience. Businesses often have this sense of separation between the company and the customer, and often the only personal interaction a customer has with the brand is the product.
Having a human face, at least in spirit, gives the entrepreneur an approachable and relatable aura through their posts and blogs that people can personally connect with.
Moreover, having a medium to receive direct feedback from the customer builds a closer relationship in which the product and service development comes not just on the business side but also on the customers. This increases brand loyalty, translating into increased brand awareness, ultimately returning to the entrepreneur’s bottom line.
Thought Leadership
It shouldn’t be a surprise if you present yourself as an expert in your industry with your product as a proof is met with doubt. People have more access to information and often learn audience prospects for multiple brands and companies to make a choice. Consider thought leadership in your entrepreneurial marketing strategy to build trust and credibility in your industry expertise.
Moreover, if your marketing strategy involves other marketing campaigns like content marketing, presenting yourself as a thought leader generates backlinks and mentions, further strengthening your entrepreneurial profile.
Here is the practical process to being a thought leader:
- First, do Research - If the development of your company already goes through the process of having a marketing plan, you already have an idea of your potential customers and customer preferences. But being a thought leader also involves researching industry, competitor, and audience trends. After all, being a thought leader means being a cut above the rest in industry knowledge and expertise.
- Identify the leaders - C-suite is expected to be thought leaders themselves, but having a team of experts working within a company also helps - it feels great that the brand your following is not only led by an expert but is a company full of it. The team must align with the core values. They are expected to be experts in their field (obviously) but also their innovative ideas and opinions about the industry. It is a good starting point that they are willing to be presented to the public and have a good following on their social media channels.
- Create Content - we have to come back again to do research - this aspect cannot be overstated how important it is - to create industry-related content. It could be a thought leader’s personal experience or opinion. It could be a presentation of data and statistics. Search engine optimization is also needed in the process to organically drive traffic.
- Distribute to multiple channels - Podcasts, interviews, website posts, social media posts - these are only some channels an entrepreneur can leverage to be a thought leader. Focus on digital channels as you can see the feedback directly from the audience and the customer reaches these channels.
Remember to set success metrics like the resulting traffic, backlinks, comments, shares, and other measurable data to determine if reassessing the marketing materials is needed. Always expect to make some changes and allow yourself to be open to audience insights. Experts can still learn from others, after all.
Final Thoughts
Crafting an effective brand is both an art and a science. Whether you are a new or established entrepreneur, learning the marketing techniques for entrepreneurs can be the difference between success and failure. Creating an impactful brand identity requires more than just a logo; it requires a deep understanding of the customer's pain points, your competitive advantage, and how to communicate it to existing customers and potential prospects.
At Evolv, we recognize that crafting influential brands can be daunting. Our team of industry experts provides specific tools and resources to help successful entrepreneurs effectively build and communicate your brand message. Take charge of your future today by utilizing our marketing expertise - get started now with Evolv!
