Succeed by avoiding these three mistakes
Editor's note: Jamie Love is the CEO of Monumental.
Picture this: you’re launching a new product or service and have the right marketing strategy in place for your website, branding and design, but when it comes to keeping the momentum going once it’s out in the world, you’ve run out of budget. What happens then?
We see it all the time. The most common occurrence is that there is often an overspend in the initial stages of marketing then when it comes to amplifying those marketing methods, there are no funds to support it.
With new brands in particular, there is a mountain of work that needs to be completed to introduce a product into a new market, which requires a larger budget. Here is a breakdown of the most common no-no’s and ways to fix them to ensure budgets are correctly utilized to generate results from day one.
Mistake No. 1: Waiting to involve a growth marketing agency
Most companies will wait until all marketing setup is completed – i.e., branding and website – before engaging with a growth marketing partner. This creates a disjointed relationship, as the marketing agency will need to adjust very quickly to what has already been completed, meaning it could slow down the process.
By bringing them in sooner – maybe a few months after the start of the process – they can be involved with the process to help make things run smoother – for example, they can help support the website set-up with their knowledge of SEO and the proper architecture for a business site.
For branding, a growth marketing agency can help understand what channels need to be covered. Whilst you might think you have knowledge of all the avenues needed to launch, we guarantee that there’s something you haven’t thought of. A growth marketing agency can help refine the exact brief to ensure the creative can easily be deployed across channels, rather than having to engage in redesigning assets once they are on board.
This will waste not only money but precious time too.
Mistake No. 2: Assuming a beautiful website will equal sales
Another common misconception with marketing is that designing and building a stunning website will automatically attract the right customers to your business. Whilst we would love to say that is correct, it’s very far from the truth.
In fact, the website is just the beginning of the journey, helping to facilitate and create a landing page for your customers to go once they’ve discovered your brand. There’s a lot more that goes into it than that. It’s worth gaining a better understanding of the ecosystem that makes up growth marketing and how different channels are implemented; what is their place and purpose within that overall journey?
Having spoken to hundreds of startups, the misconception is that the investment in a website alone will generate growth, whereas it's a foundation for initiating and kickstarting that growth. This is a setup piece, and the focus needs amplifying later on – the spend is usually placed within the setup stage and clients have their hands tied when it comes to developing it further.
Start small with your website, just to create your designated landing page and then build up to a pricier one later down the line.
Mistake No. 3: Thinking everything should be perfect
Here’s a trade secret: perfectionism is overrated.
Nothing is ever perfect in business, especially in those start-up stages. So stop trying to achieve it.
To help with the scale-up process, and to rid the idea of perfection, think of building an MVP that can be used to gather feedback from a bunch of early adopters. This will provide you with valuable insight into your goods or services that can help with future product development.
By doing this, it will save you precious time and money as you can scale from this MVP, as opposed to having everything done and perfect before the launch. Not only that, but it will remove a lot of stress in these initial stages, as you’ll have an idea of what works and what doesn’t.