5 Modern Marketing Essentials for New Business Owners to Focus On

By: Brandon Yamamoto

Whether you have been in business for years or have just started, it is equally important and annoying to remember that selling your product or service requires marketing.

You have created the perfect solution for your market that will solve all their issues. Why are people not lining up and happily paying you for it?

Simple.

Customers don’t know you exist. If they are unaware of your business  and what you are doing, they will not buy. Strangely, capturing customer attention often takes more innovation than solving complex technical challenges. 

You didn’t go into business to become a marketer. However, it’s not as difficult as you think. The game is to cut through the noise and show your target audience what it is you are solving. The strategies below are easy to implement, wildly effective, and free or low-cost.

Understandably, you are buried in work and worried about how much time you have to spend on marketing. Fortunately, there are estimated times for each step.

Let’s do this.

5 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Focus On

1. A Website – Don’t overthink this. (2 Hours)

Yes, you need a website. No, it does not have to be a perfect piece of art that transcends beauty itself.

Value > Quality

You need to focus on the value you are bringing to your customers and show it on your website. When you are starting, the site doesn’t need video, eye-catching graphics, or a million testimonials. 

You need to display your product or service, explain how this will benefit the customer, and have a clear call to action. This can be a way to contact you for your service or a purchase page for your product.

Don’t overwhelm yourself because you’re comparing your website to Amazon.com

There are many website builders you can use that are affordable. Here are a few you can check out:

• • • • Weebly – $6 per month
      • Hostinger – $2.99 per month 
      • GoDaddy – $9.99 per month
      • 1&1 IONOS – $1 per month for the first 12 months
      • Squarespace – $16 per month 

The setup is quick and easy. The website builders are built for people like you. People who have never built a website before.

2. Google Analytics (15 Minutes)

As soon as you have a functional website, you need to set up Google Analytics. This tool tracks who is coming to your site, where they come from, and a deep analysis of the time spent on the site. 

This will show metrics for your marketing efforts to know whether they are working or not. Tracking and measuring your marketing strategies takes the guesswork out of any campaign. You will quickly know if a specific promotion is viable or needs reworking. 

Now that you have the analytics down, you can work on the things you need to analyze.

3. Social Media Pages (15 Minutes Per Page)

This is a no-brainer. Setting up socials for your business is free to do and potentially lucrative in ROI.

However, don’t waste time on platforms that are not going to help your business. For instance, if you are a B2B (business to business) company, it might make sense to just be on LinkedIn. 

You need to be where your audience is. If your audience is people in their 20s, making TikToks about your product might be the way to go. If you are selling your photography services, Instagram is a must to showcase your work. 

Each of these platforms has been optimized to make the signup process painless for you. Set up your business page and post on the platforms regularly. 

Don’t know what to post? Look at what people in your industry are posting to get ideas. Head over to Canva.com to see free templates that you can use and customize to your liking. 

The point is to stay present in the mind of your audience.

4. Email Marketing (2 Hours)

Email is one of the least utilized yet biggest returns on investment when it comes to marketing. 

Through email marketing, you can directly communicate with individuals who have intentionally subscribed to receive communications from you.

Most email platforms have templates you can choose from so you don’t have to start from scratch. But, you need to ensure that the emails you send contain value for your subscribers.

Send free information such as e-books, white papers, and articles to warm up your audience. Do not focus solely on sending sales emails to try and squeeze every dollar from your list.

There are countless email marketing platforms out there. Here are the top ones and the free plans that come with them:

• • • • Sendinblue – 9,000 emails and Unlimited contacts
      • Mailchimp – 1,000 emails and 500 contacts
      • ConvertKit – Unlimited emails to up to 300 contacts
      • HubSpot – 2,000 emails and 1,000,000 contacts
      • MailerLite – 12,000 emails and 1,000 contacts
      • Klaviyo – 500 emails and 1,000 contacts

All these platforms specialize in different aspects of email marketing. See what works best for you and start with the free version.

5. Digital Ads (1-2 Hours)

Once you have your footing with posting content regularly and engaging with your audience, it is time to reach out to more potential customers.

You can reach people who have never heard of you through digital marketing. This can be in the form of Facebook/Instagram ads, TikTok ads, influencer marketing, and so on. 

You can set a budget with all of these avenues of marketing. This means it is as costly as you want it to be. For example, Facebook ads research suggests that advertisers should expect to pay: $0.94 per click or $12.07 per 1,000 impressions. 

1,000 eyes on your company for $12. Pretty good deal.

These Marketing Strategies Feed into Each Other

These marketing fundamentals work best in tandem. If they’re set up correctly, you’ll achieve your end goal: earning a paying customer. 

Your social media pages produce content that provides value to potential customers. These pages distribute digital ads to reach brand-new people. 

Those digital ads can take this cold audience to an opt-in form for your email list. 

They will receive valuable emails about your company and the industry you are in. 

The emails link to your website where they can buy your product or get in touch with you for your service.

This is how you should think about marketing. Multiple systems working together to attract and maintain customers. It can take less than a day to set up and will provide you with a loyal customer base to make your business thrive.