5 guidelines for entrepreneur’s start-up Business for digital impact

5 guidelines for entrepreneur’s start-up Business for digital impact

Entrepreneurship

1. Unlearn: The first process is to be ready to ‘unlearn’. The moment you hear someone in today’s world saying, “No, that cannot happen, not according to my research” is when you should step out of that conversation. If history has taught us anything, it is that, it is only impossible till someone makes it happen. It’s good to have proven case studies and research. But depending ONLY on them and assuring yourself and your team that nothing else is possible, is a strict NO!

So step 1 in your process is to be ready to unlearn. 

• This does not mean that you need to stop using your skills and expertise that you have gained in this field over the years.
• Rather, have an open mind, be responsive and welcoming to new ideas and new age tools.
• The idea is to find a perfect balance between bringing together your offline consumers and your online customers under one single platform.

So keep an open mind and start afresh with any new campaign based on it’s core goals and expectations.

2. Have your Customers data with you:Always READY: Did you know, that a big percentage of brands today do not even have their own customers data in terms of contact numbers, email address, core demographics etc?

Today, with the power of technology, smartphones, social media etc the digital world has made it much easier to do the same.

So ensure as a brand, as a start-up to create a process and strategy wherein you have access to your customer’s contact information, email address, etc.

This will not only help you as a brand to showcase your future products to them, but also help you reach out to their contacts through influencer marketing campaigns, re-marketing ads, upgrades and add-on, referral programs etc.

You could also share useful updates on ‘how they could put your product to better use”.

Most importantly, the right feedback from your customers will not only help you create better products, add valuable reputation for your brand but also help you gain more business for a long term.

Few simple steps to help you plan it:You could use:

• Email subscription options
• Blog and newsletter subscriptions
• Website Opt-in features with customized functionalities
• Customized forms shared across social media as polls, etc to know your prospects and customers much better.
• Also, once they sign-up with you as customers, you could officially ask them to share information that would add value to not just you as a business, but also help you as a brand in CUSTOMIZING Solutions for their comfort and use thereby passing on the real value of that information back to the customer.

3.  GOALS: ROI ON Social Media and Digital Marketing: It is core to understand what is important while designing a campaign using digital marketing and Social media for you as a BRAND or an organization today? When you define ROI, what should you really measure with so much of information overload? (Read the post here for Clear GOALS)

Defining your goals clearly will also enable you to decide on your social media platforms, offers, deals, timeline, etc for promoting and truly creating a custom designed digital campaign for your prospects. 

4. Brand perception: At this stage, understand what and how does the real world out there perceive your BRAND.

May be you see your brand as a Cool brand or a Financial expert brand or a Power Fashion brand, but is that how your online prospect sees you?

Did you know that aligning your BRAND perception with how the world (consumer) views you will assist you to increase your Brand IMPACT, brand reach, loyalty, enquiries, mentions, actual sales conversions by 20-30 % in less than a year through digital medium alone. (Research stats Based on our award winning case studies)

Based on your study or research on HOW Your BRAND is perceived outside in the real world:

• Ask yourself, is that the way I want it to be seen?
• Do I need to change anything?
• If yes, what should it be?  
• So as a BRAND – What it means to the real world and how do you wish for it to be defined.

Once you are clear about your goals and how you would want your brand to be perceived, work towards creating a message, a content marketing strategy to deliver that impact, sincerely!

5. Data: Big Data: Marketing Metrics: Social media Analytics: Google Analytics: Web statistics etc:

So much data and so little time.

As an entrepreneur (especially of a start-up) the focus is sometimes too much on product perfection or only in sales. Many a times, the core which is data is ignored. And most of the times, it is ignored not because it is given less importance, but majorly because business owners and marketers at times find the data ‘overwhelming‘. 

Some core data that will be helpful across any business, country and industry and which one should always track are:

•  Website traffic – Location, Country, City, State 
• Demographics – Age group, interests of users, male-female ration
• Devices the web or blog visitors use – Smartphones (Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Micromax etc)
• Operating Systems – Windows, Android, IOS, etc
•  SEO: Core keywords – Top keywords and phrases which redirect to your site
• Social referrals – Which social networking site redirects maximum traffic
•  User behavior and site time – Their interest and how much time they spend online
• Most viewed and or downloaded content – PDF, Jpeg, Videos, etc
• Most viewed pages and their EXIT position – Eg. Most viewed is Page XYZ and most dropouts are from page AB etc
• Site referrals – Other than social sites, which other sites redirect back to you
• Most visited time and days – Very core: Tells you a great deal about when to make important posts, content, messages etc live on your blog or site
• GOALS – Your ROI based on your campaigns and spend. What return have you experienced based on your total spend and what could you do in the next stage to make it better

Hope you found these ‘5 guidelines for entrepreneur’s start-up Business for digital impact’ resourceful.

Do share your queries, comments, feedback as always with me here. Would love to hear from you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Be Well

Let’s connect – Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn –Amazon Social media Book

Ananth V