The most prevalent objective for any business that considers itself a startup (less than 3 years into the business) is REVENUE. And not just revenue, but CONSISTENT CASHFLOW, because we know that cash is King in business, and it is the one thing that affords any business in any stage of growth, maximum agility.
Other concerns such as costs, business structure, and formal processes only become a concern when a business has a customer(s) and is able to serve them well. The catch however, when it comes to sourcing for business, is that there is such a thing as OVER-MARKETING. This happens when your marketing is so effective in generating demand for your products and services, to the point that you are not able to serve all of them because of limited capacity (especially solo-preneurs).
There is a need to assess capacity and to establish the realistic number of customers that you can serve at any one point or period.
Entrepreneurs should be keen to ensure that they scale not only at the speed of their cash, but also their capacity to deliver. Most startups are usually solopreneurs or two to three partners at the most, who are involved in both working ON the business, as well as in most cases, working IN the business, since most startups do not have enough capital to hire talent from the get go.
This presents a unique set of challenges for the entrepreneur including but not limited to:
- They have an unclear Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, and so they are sort of broadcasting their offer to everyone using the scatter-gun approach.
- They have low sales and slow growth partly due to insufficient marketing and a limited capacity to deliver beyond a certain point.
- They will usually have little or no insight on their business performance and beyond knowing their profitability, they don't have a proper handle on their critical KPIs.
- They are overwhelmed with the business planning and strategizing process due to limited time to work ON the business as they are also working IN the business.
- They are limited by capacity and resource constraints and they are constantly racing tight budgets.
So how do startups secure the first client and kickstart the building of their brands amidst all the challenges?
Efficiency and Cost management is key from inception, and if it were possible to secure the first set of clients without spending a dime, that would deliver an infinite ROI for your marketing, but this is rarely the case. As a business in the formative stages, you have got to spend money to make money.
Two conflicting priorities in the life of a startup are usually productivity (short-term revenue generating marketing to drive immediate sales) and brand-building (long-term establishment of customer loyalty with your business). It is unwise to focus on one and neglect the other, so an entrepreneur has to find a way to balance the two types of costs under their marketing budgets.
It is rarely infrequent that strategies and tactics can overlap in a complimentary fashion, albeit differing timelines, and this affords the startup entrepreneur the opportunity to achieve both objectives of short term sales and long-term brand building in this case, under a single marketing budget.
The entrepreneur should leverage these complementary strategies as much as possible especially because it enables them to conserve enough capital to push them through the runway before the business takes off and becomes self-sustaining.
Marketing should be part of a larger communications strategy, and before your marketing can kick off effectively, as an entrepreneur ensure that you nail the following:
- Define and articulate your proposed value clearly - what need of the market are you addressing.
- Define key characteristics of your target market (demographics and psychographics) - for whom is your business providing value.
- Who else is operating in your target space - and how can you ensure that your offering is significantly different from theirs.
Figuring the above three(3) things is very crucial in providing the linch-pin and the basis for all your marketing communications. All your marketing messages should be aligned to the mission of the business, and should contribute towards the achievement of your vision - a desired future state for your business and its impact.
The marketing messages should also emphasise the uniqueness of your proposal in order to stand out from the 'market noise' and trigger a response from your audiences that receive it. It should be able to resonate with their pain points as a highly potential solution.
Before ongoing marketing can become a key part of your business communications cadence with your target clientelle, there has to be a key market entry approach - what is variously called a Go-To-Market strategy.
A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is a comprehensive plan outlining how a business introduces and delivers its products or services to the target market, and it encompasses marketing, sales, and distribution strategies, ensuring a cohesive approach to maximize product visibility, attract customers, and drive successful market entry and growth.
At the very minimum, define your GTM simply as:
- Your introductory message.
- Your target ideal customer.
- The channels to engage them.
- The buying process.
- The delivery process.
- The maintaining process.
Without going into the details of how to define your GTM, (A single blog article may not be enough), Entrepreneurs who have an allocated budget for marketing should focus on low-cost entry strategies to maximize on the takeoff runway before they burn out their available capital and resources.
Ultimately a startup with sufficient capital should aim to setup the following digital assets within the first six months of their kick-off operations:
- A brand website.
- Messaging integration (SMS, Email, Social messenger, Whatsapp Business).
- Marketing Automation (Funnel design + Automation triggers).
- Content (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU, ROFU).
- Analytics integration and Google Search Console (GSC).
- SEO + PPC (Website search optimization and Ads).
- Social media presence.
- A marketing budget (with a runway of at least 6 months to build sustainable traction).
But all the above can be costly, and that without securing the first set of clients (who validate your value proposition in the first place), it can be a tricky affair to justify that level of investment.
A better option that achieves both revenue generation (opportunities to convert sales) and long term brand building at the same time would be BRANDED SMS.
Branded SMS has the following advantages for startup entrepreneurs:
- Lowest cost non-intrusive brand exposure entry tactic (which is basically a one off cost for the SenderID - your business name or Brand name, and a small budget for credits to send the messages).
- The first time your prospect engages with communications from your business, it identifies your brand and establishes authenticity. How? non-legit businesses are not allowed to register for SenderIDs with our local Telcos in Kenya.
- SMS is cheap and impactful, and even with a credit as low as Ksh. 1,000, your business has the capacity to impact more than a thousand recipients with a single message.
- SMS open rates is the confirmed highest established, followed by Whatsapp, and Email.
- You can collect contacts in your first series of networking and relationship building activities (which should be the primary focus of a startup entrepreneur in the first place), and exchanging contacts and business cards is a form of authorization for the prospect to be contacted by you or your business. What better way to start off than to engage through a branded SMS.
- SMS sending can also be automated, the only caution is to avoid spamming prospects as this will force them to opt-out which not only denies your business, but also impacts your brand negatively to begin with. Fairly spaced out communications (say once a week) allows you to establish a relationship between your prospects and your brand on a continuous basis on the lowest possible budget).
In another article, we will explore the various ways you can leverage SMS in your startup or small business.
If you need BRANDED SMS for your business, please reach out to us.
SenderID - Ksh. 8,000 per network (once off).
SMS - We can offer as low as 60 cents per SMS based on volume of credits purchased.
We can also help you design your kick off campaigns and automate your messsaging, tracking, and analytics.
To your success,
Wafula Mutekhele, Digital Strategist - Goraceit Technologies.