Entrepreneurship is always a hot topic of discussion. But recent entrepreneurial successes like Uber, Airbnb, Careem and more have made even more people anxious to jump into entrepreneurial waters and make it big. While there is nothing wrong with the desire, we must that remember passion alone isn’t sufficient for success. The right strategy coupled with the right brand is equally important. Something that is often overlooked in our initial excitement.
In the UAE we find that often many entrepreneurs never go through the pain of articulating or adopting clear strategies that will acquire trust, build customer relationships and generate sales. So when reality kicks in, which it eventually does, they falter.
Fewer than 50% of startups survive to celebrate their second birthday. Your company can buck the trend if it avoids these three costly mistakes most startups make:
Error 1: Quantity is Better than Quality
Targeting a huge audience sounds promising when you’re new to business. The line of thinking goes something like this: “We will contact a million (think of some arbitrarily large number) people. Even if one per cent of them decided to buy from us, we would be a million-dollar or a billion-dollar company in one year.”
If only! It doesn’t work in the real world!
In trying to reach out to an expanded audience, start-ups usually compromise on research and audience understanding. And a lack of research doesn’t impress prospects.
An alternative is to map your audience and spend some time on customer research. It’s the only way to build trust and outstrip your competitors.
Error 2: Relying on the Word of Mouth
It’s said that word of mouth is the best marketing money can’t buy. It’s true. But this strategy just doesn’t work that well for new companies. Word of mouth marketing will be far more successful when you have built a committed core audience. Otherwise, your brand ambassadors can be mistaken for paid marketeers from some shady agency.
Error 3: Reliance on Paid Traffic
Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are among the largest sources of paid traffic to websites. They are deceptively simple to use. The results are immediately visible. As a result, many entrepreneurs get hooked quickly and think that it makes sense to bring in visitors at an exorbitant price. Well, it isn’t.
While there is nothing wrong with those two and other ad platforms, relying solely on them is not a wise business decision, they need to work together with clear SEO tactics to build a noteworthy presence for you. Learn SEO (Google offers some free courses) or, if you are short of time, work with brand marketing consultants to ensure that you make the right decisions for your business.
Takeaway
A broad customer focus, an over reliance on word of mouth and a blind commitment to paid advertising can be lethal for a new business. It is worthwhile to prepare (if you have time) or speak to a good brand marketing consultant to help you identify the right strategies to turn your start-up into the next successful multimillion dollar company.
In the UAE we find that often many entrepreneurs never go through the pain of articulating or adopting clear strategies that will acquire trust, build customer relationships and generate sales. So when reality kicks in, which it eventually does, they falter.
Fewer than 50% of startups survive to celebrate their second birthday. Your company can buck the trend if it avoids these three costly mistakes most startups make:
Error 1: Quantity is Better than Quality
Targeting a huge audience sounds promising when you’re new to business. The line of thinking goes something like this: “We will contact a million (think of some arbitrarily large number) people. Even if one per cent of them decided to buy from us, we would be a million-dollar or a billion-dollar company in one year.”
If only! It doesn’t work in the real world!
In trying to reach out to an expanded audience, start-ups usually compromise on research and audience understanding. And a lack of research doesn’t impress prospects.
An alternative is to map your audience and spend some time on customer research. It’s the only way to build trust and outstrip your competitors.
Error 2: Relying on the Word of Mouth
It’s said that word of mouth is the best marketing money can’t buy. It’s true. But this strategy just doesn’t work that well for new companies. Word of mouth marketing will be far more successful when you have built a committed core audience. Otherwise, your brand ambassadors can be mistaken for paid marketeers from some shady agency.
Error 3: Reliance on Paid Traffic
Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are among the largest sources of paid traffic to websites. They are deceptively simple to use. The results are immediately visible. As a result, many entrepreneurs get hooked quickly and think that it makes sense to bring in visitors at an exorbitant price. Well, it isn’t.
While there is nothing wrong with those two and other ad platforms, relying solely on them is not a wise business decision, they need to work together with clear SEO tactics to build a noteworthy presence for you. Learn SEO (Google offers some free courses) or, if you are short of time, work with brand marketing consultants to ensure that you make the right decisions for your business.
Takeaway
A broad customer focus, an over reliance on word of mouth and a blind commitment to paid advertising can be lethal for a new business. It is worthwhile to prepare (if you have time) or speak to a good brand marketing consultant to help you identify the right strategies to turn your start-up into the next successful multimillion dollar company.
