BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT


Online is now the most


dominant form of advertising, with UK spending hitting £10.5 billion


O How To Get Noticed


Now that you’re up and running, it’s all about shouting as loud as you can and getting your new venture to some paying customers. So, you’re going to need a marketing strategy…


Having set your company up and got all the necessary paperwork out of the way, you


will be keen to get cracking and start making some money. The next and rather obvious thing you’re


going to need is customers, which are…. kind of crucial to the success of your business, really. If you’re lucky, you may already have one or two that you have carried over from previous contacts you have made, which will give you a head start. Delivering great products and services is


the best way to ensure your business succeeds long term, but you will need a bit of a shove in the right direction. The balancing act that faces all start-ups is between income and investment. How to invest to grow the business when there is little actual cash coming in to begin with.


About Together Specialist lender Together has over 44 years’ experience in the fi nance sector, working with customers such as entrepreneurs, investors, property professionals, landlords and small businesses. Together takes a common sense approach to lending, considering an individual’s circumstances and reviewing their needs on a case-by-case basis. togethermoney.com


Getting the word out need not involve huge


expenditure on advertising or PR. But there’s no two ways about it, whatever your business is, you will probably need a website. The good news is that you don’t need to be a technical wizard who speaks fl uent HTML to set one up and it need not cost the earth. By using a templated service you merely have to pick the look you generally want and then customise it using your own words and pictures. Services such as Wix and


Themeforest are great at walking you through the process as you do it and the cost of set-up can be less than £100. Once


you have


a site, you can use it to gain customers through Google.


You


can either pay for an ad – to make sure you appear high up in any search – or if you’re able to generate plenty of traffi c for your site, because you’re a content creation expert, you will rise up the rankings automatically. According to one study, the fi rst page of


Google receives 95 per cent of web traffi c, with subsequent pages receiving fi ve per cent or less of total traffi c, so it’s a vital part of any marketing plan.


Social whirl For no cost at all you can make use of social media to get your message out. You may already be an avid Instagram, Facebook and


Twitter user. Simply set up an account dedicated to your business and you can begin spreading the word. Tell people what you do, showcase your work, give them free advice, run special off ers and so on. There is, however, one proviso – content on


social media doesn’t ‘cut through’ like it used to. Your excellent post may only have a fl eeting presence and may be missed by those that you really want to see it. To extend your reach


further you need to pay, but it can be worth it. You can use the amazing analytics of Facebook and Twitter to specifi cally target the people you want to reach for a very low cost. Online advertising is now the dominant form of marketing, with spend in the UK increasing to almost £10.5 billion last year, while newspaper expenditure has fallen


to £1.7 billion. Social media advertising expenditure now


matches newspaper print advertising, and with good reason. You can’t really control who sees a newspaper ad, but ads on Facebook, for instance, give you control over what you spend, how long the campaign runs for, and allows you to be very exact about who you want to reach. Want to talk to 18-25-year-old hockey players within a 25-mile radius? Not a problem and you can widen that globally if you really want to. You know what else is free? News. Advertising in your local papers will cost money, but


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Editorial coverage is free and much more


eff ective than advertising if you can secure some for your business


editorial coverage is always free. Newspapers need stories, more so than ever now that the online news agenda moves along so quickly. So, if you can be creative, think of an angle,


U


you can get your business some valuable coverage. As a general rule of thumb, a half page of editorial can be worth three times as much as a half page advert. You’re not going to get coverage just for launching a business, of course, but if your new business is sponsoring a kids football team for instance or is giving away free taster products or a trial of some sort in the local town centre, then you have a story that might get some coverage.


Trading places If your business is based around a trade then one quick and easy way to get some customers without setting up your own site is to join one of the many online trade directories such as Rated People, Check-a-Trade or My Job Quote, which puts your details in front of customers who are looking for your particular skills and services. Of course, if you have the budget available


then hiring a specialist PR or marketing agency will garner the best results for you, and help you establish a strong brand pretty quickly. Assuming the idea or product is sound, customers will follow soon after. But with so many free communication


channels available, it has never be easier or cheaper to reach your audience. B.


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