Marketing for B2B start-ups – what do you need before you launch?
6 April 2019
As a qualified B2B marketing professional with 15 years of experience under my belt, the one thing about setting up my business that wasn’t daunting was the marketing. I am not so familiar with writing Ts & Cs, figuring out what the tax man wants, bookkeeping etc, and it stands to reason that most start-ups are in the same boat when it comes to marketing so I am going to write a series of blogs for B2B start-ups. Here is the first.
Before you start investing in the promotion of your B2B business you need to answer some important questions:
Who are you speaking to?
For some of you It may seem obvious who your target audience is. For most start-ups your main audience is your potential customers, but you may well have to include other stakeholders, for example a high-tech start-up may also include investors.
For potential customers you need to find out who they are, where they are (online and geographically) and if you can make enough money from them. I will go into more detail about who your customer is in a later blog but before you can do anything you need to do your market research, otherwise all of the rest of your marketing will be a waste of time and money. If you don’t know where to start you may need to speak to a marketing professional or even a market research agency.
How much should you charge?
Many people think of price as purely a finance matter and marketing as just the promotion side of business (I’ve been referred to as the “brochure department” more than once) but price is very much a part of marketing. You may have heard about the 4Ps Marketing mix, Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. As a start-up you probably have product (or service) covered, but what should you charge and how do you find out? Obviously, you need to know you can make a profit, and enough profit to cover your living costs. In my case it was very easy to work out what the going rate for freelance marketers with my qualifications and experience – I found some who had been doing it for a long time and asked them. For launching a new product this is a lot more complicated, especially if it is completely different from anything else on the market. Again, market research is essential.
Bear in mind, it’s not just about making enough profit. Price also communicates something about your product or service to the customer. I will go into more detail about price as a communicator in another blog.
Where should you promote and sell your goods and services?
This is where the “place” in the 4ps come in and I’m afraid it comes back to market research. Once you know who your audience is and where they are though the answer should become obvious. For example, if they are FT readers who purchase online you know you should probably try and get your product into the FT and sell your goods on your website (simplified, but you get the idea). Your budget will also to some extent be a deciding factor.
Once you have answered these questions you should be able to get on with the “Promotions” P – the bit most people mean when they say marketing.
Creating a brand
I will go into more detail in another blog about what a brand is and how to go about creating one but these are the basics. The brand is not just a logo or a tag line, it’s not even your brand guidelines – it is the essence of your business and your visual and verbal identity reflect that.
What you need to do first it to distil what you are, and what you represent, into a paragraph that you, your staff (if you have any) and any external marketing resource can refer to. This needs to explain what you do and what value you offer to your customers. Don’t worry about it being a bit wordy, you’re not going to use the whole thing in any of your promotions, it will just help inform you of what the content should be. This is your brand proposition.
Visual identity
Whether you are setting up a manufacturing company with global reach or simply a professional setting up on your own, a visual identity will help you stand out from the crowd and communicate what you are about to the customer. I would never advise trying to do this yourself unless this is what you do for a living. You don’t have to go to a big agency, for most start-ups I would recommend finding a freelance marketer or a graphic designer whose work you like (look at their portfolios on their website). Many freelancers have special rates or packages for start-ups.
Design checklist:
- A logo (even if this is based on your name it will help you stand out and be recognisable)
- A font and corporate colours
- Business cards
- Letterhead (this may just be a word template that you can print/pdf yourself and as well as letters can be used for proposals, invoices, reports etc etc.)
- Website design (I say design here because there are very few designers who code well and very few web developers who can design well. For the actual build you or your marketing consultant will need to find a freelance developer. I would recommend staying away from the self-build web services, although it is possible to build something that looks OK, you will have far more flexibility, control and full ownership if you have a bespoke site)
Depending on your business you may need to consider other design elements such as packaging design, labelling or signage.
If, like me, you are based in Scotland make use of Business Gateway. It is the start-up wing of Scottish Enterprise and offers one-to-one support as well as training and workshops across Scotland, not just on marketing but on everything you need to know when setting up a new business.
There are two more blogs in the Marketing for B2B start up series "launching your business" and "Keep the momentum going".
If you need any more help with marketing your start-up call me on 07791 521439 or email me at samantha@labrakita.co.uk.