Marketing a business before it’s created isn’t something most people think about, but if you’re seeking funding, it can be a powerful tool to help transform your idea into reality.
Why? Well, you need to convince investors, a bank, or both that your idea is viable. If your business idea follows a disruption model and requires a fairly robust investment to get off the ground, you need to have evidence that people are interested in what you plan to offer.
Recently, we helped a client (and former employee) on this journey to acquiring funding. Here’s the journey so far.
An Amazing Business Idea… Is Still Just an Idea
Lots of people have had an idea for a new business before, but for most, it doesn’t go beyond that initial lightbulb moment of, “I bet people would pay for this! And it would solve many frustrations that I have!”
The client referenced in this particular case study had already gone beyond that point when she came to us for help. She had ideas for the type of people she wanted to go after. A specific physical space she was hoping to use as the business’s location. Ideas for branding. She’d even done some preliminary research on cost.
But all of it was still in that amorphous “idea” stage, lacking a concrete plan to get her from Point A (business idea) all the way to Point Z (functioning business) at the end of the journey.
How did we help?
Step 1: Helped Her Create a Marketing Plan
Even though she had put a good amount of thought into how her business would work and who she wanted to serve, we sat with her and took her through our Three Roots Process to fill in things she hadn’t fully considered and get it down in a more concrete form.
Here’s what that process looks like:
Root 1: Business Strategy
You need to have a clear idea of what your business is — and is not.
- What you do
- Who you target
- What your differentiator is
Many start-ups struggle at the start because they are constantly changing one or more of these three things.
The earlier you get clear on this, the better.
Root 2: Brand Strategy
A brand is more than colors and fonts. Put simply, it is:
- How you communicate what your business is to your audience
This means having a clear, consistent message that will resonate with your target audience.
That’s why it’s so crucial to define your business strategy first. You cannot communicate clearly and consistently if you are wildly changing what your business is.
Root 3: Marketing Strategy
- How you deliver that message and convert that audience into loyal customers
While doing this is important for any business, it was particularly useful in her situation because she knew that she was going to have to seek out significant funding to get started. When applying for loans, grants, or attempting to find other types of investors, having this kind of information written out as a business plan isn’t just helpful – it’s necessary.
Additionally, as we focused more on the last two bullet points, we realized that even though she had lots of branding ideas, she lacked many of the tools needed to bring them to life. To that end, we guided her step-by-step through the process of selecting colors and typefaces to represent her brand. This included things like typeface licensing, legibility, and accessibility in color contrast.
That last part may seem like it starts to spill over into implementation, but we believe it is vital to do this as early in the process as possible. Why? Because things like brand colors and fonts should be used in every single thing you create for the business.
This is also where we help you decide on the types of marketing tools you want to use to take people from the awareness stage all the way to becoming loyal customers. Depending on your specific needs and business, this could include things like utilizing social media, creating a website, building an email list, attending in-person events, sending out mailers, and more.
We not only work with you to determine which tools are best for you, but also prioritize which ones to focus on first – everything does not need to be done all at once.
Step 2: Connected Her with the Right Resources
As mentioned above, a big part of what our client needed was related to funding. To that end, we made sure to put her in contact with a variety of business resources – people who can help her get funding for her business – as well as connecting her with her local Chamber of Commerce.
There’s not a whole lot more to say about this part of the process, but when all is said and done, it may be the most important way we helped. Not only in letting her know what is out there and setting up those initial meetings, but because specific investors can tell you what they need to see from you in order to apply for funding. This informs the next part of the process.
Step 3: Implemented the Strategy
Over several months, we worked with our client to create a logo, build a website, and start collecting emails from potential customers.
Did it work? Her goal was to have 100 subscribers by the time she went to her first funding meeting in 2024, and we helped her achieve that before the end of 2023!
We said it before and we’ll say it again: Getting a new business off the ground is tough. But as we like to say, there’s something simple out there that triples your chances of success – a plan.
Here at WR Digital Marketing, we can help you turn your business idea into an actual business plan – then work with you to implement that plan by building the marketing tools necessary – making sure to measure everything to further determine what’s working and what isn’t so we can revise the plan going forward.
