10 Things Every New Entrepreneur Should Know About Marketing by William D King

Entrepreneurs can’t handle every aspect of business, but there are 10 things every entrepreneur should know about marketing according to this expert.

It doesn’t matter if you are building a B2B SaaS startup, an educational website or even an eCommerce fashion store – one thing is certain…

You’ll need to learn the ropes of marketing sooner or later. It doesn’t matter if you hire a team to handle it for you either. As an entrepreneur you still need to understand marketing and more importantly how to market yourself or your business.

Marketing can’t be outsourced. Even if you hire the best of the best, it will only act as a catalyst for growth. The actual strategy needs to come from you!

So, what can you do? Well… I’m glad you asked.

I recently interviewed marketing guru, Willliam D King to see if he could break down everything an entrepreneur should know about marketing. The rest of this post is going to cover 10 essentials you must have knowledge about.

Here are 10 things I think every new entrepreneur should know about marketing according to William D King

1. Your customer is not your friend

You and I hang out; we watch movies and play video games together (well… maybe not). But your customers don’t do that. Think of them as an acquaintance you met on the street and instantly clicked with him/her. Now, the only thing you want to do is find out what they need and how can you help them.

2. “I don’t have any money” is not an excuse

If your business does not generate revenue, its future doesn’t look bright. Period! Don’t fall into this trap of thinking that it’s okay if you don’t have money. Making money is the goal of your business and it should be from day one!

3. Your family and friends will never become your customers

I’m sure some of them might want to test out your product or service, but if you expect any sort of sustainable growth… don’t rely on people closest to you for marketing purposes.

4. If your mailing list doesn’t have at least 10,000 emails, don’t even think about marketing

I get it… it might take a while to acquire such a large amount of emails from scratch. But if you don’t have proper email marketing strategy in place from the beginning, you’ll never be able to grow your startup without spending money on advertising.

5. Every successful business has an MVP (minimum viable product)

The minimum viable product is the bare bone version of your idea that can still retain its core value and achieve something in return for the customer’s hard earned money. You need to put yourself in your consumer’s shoes and come up with a solution that will solve their problem by giving them something valuable in exchange.

6. The #1 Marketing Tool you have is your website

Your website is your ‘online presence’. Even if you want to start a business offline, you’ll still need a website to represent your brand online. But there’s more… It can give users a sneak peek into your service or product and that in turn will help promote it to the right audience.

7. Don’t take “marketing” advice from marketers

Notice how I put “marketing” in quotations?

That’s because many marketers just don’t get it when they’re dealing with B2B businesses (products for other businesses). They might be great at attracting customers, but if they fail to close… all of their work goes down the drain! So make sure your marketer understands your business inside and out.

8. Social Media is a great way to get cheap traffic

I know there are all sorts of gurus that claim social media marketing won’t work for every business, but the possibilities are endless when you’re dealing with it from a consumer’s perspective. Platforms like Facebook have over 1 billion active users daily! Find out where your market hangs out and join them regularly. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

9. If you don’t generate leads, you don’t have a business

You need visitors to transform into leads, which in turn will help make more sales. Without lead generation ongoing through various channels, your business can die faster than Madonna talking about “Yoga”. That’s because leads will help you qualify buyers and boost your conversion rates!

10. If you don’t have a lead magnet, you’re doomed to fail

A lead magnet is an incentive that will entice visitors to give you their email address in return for something of value. It can be a free eBook, webinar or video… whatever it might be that benefits the visitor. The key here is to know your ideal customer inside out so that you can tailor something that directly appeals to them.

Conclusion

According to William D King, if you can’t follow these ten rules, then your startup probably has no future. It’s okay if you’re not perfect and at least you learned something from this article!

I had my fair share of screw ups when I was running my business, but in the end it was successful because I payed attention to the things I needed to.

There’s certainly no shortage of things every entrepreneur should know about marketing and business. If you find yourself with more questions, as I’m sure you will, check out some of the other valuable posts on this site for entrepreneurs in your shoes.

10 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Marketing