World Entrepreneurship Day: 10 Marketing Tips for Digital Businesses

It is well known that entrepreneurship requires effort and risk, so it is always recommended that before launching into action you build your business on solid foundations. It should be a priority to work on a business plan that gives a broad and clear vision of the advantages and risks, an in-depth market study, address tax and legal issues, among others.

Before showing the world your great product or service, you have to carry out this series of decisive steps for the future of your company, which, if made rightly, reduce the risk margin and allow you to enjoy the advantages of undertaking, which are valuable, on a personal and professional level.

The Association of Entrepreneurs of Mexico (ASEM) published an X-ray of the Entrepreneurship in Mexico , an overview of the area in Mexico. Some of the most recealin data is:

• 61% are men and 39% are women. Unfortunately, the world of entrepreneurship is not exempt from the gender gap, as it continues to face stereotypes, access to financing and lack of spaces, to name a few. However, es the entrepreneurship path grows and diversifies, it will offer the possibility of narrowing that gap, since it is increasingly common to meet women entrepreneurs who provide work and make other women visible. 
• 35% of entrepreneurs are between 26 and 35 years old, while 31% are between 35 and 45 years old. 
• 58% have undergraduate studies. 
• 68% had a previous business that failed.

• 80% of the companies invoice less than 2 million pesos and only 10% invoice between 2 and 4 million. 
• 45% sell products and 30% sell products and services. 
• The main causes of failure are lack of knowledge of the market (34%) and mismanagement (32%).

1. Know your product or service: In order to transmit the value of your offer to your target, you need to know in depth what you sell and why it differs from the competition. Set down in writing (within your marketing strategy) all the characteristics of your product and the value proposal you’re giving. From this text extract the keywords that define your product and always keep them present in your texts for networks, mailing and website. 

2. Define your buyer persona: One of the basic steps is to know your target audience to define your tone and communication style, so that your entire strategy revolves around your target and you can reach it effectively. We recommend you not to generalize, but to go to the particular. Give him/her a name, age, occupation, problems, aspirations, motivations, etc. You can start with one buyer persona and later (according to the data you get) create others that broaden the knowledge of your clients.

3. Don't sell all the time, share valuable content: Consumers are no longer close to companies whose sole purpose is to sell, but instead seek to identify themselves and learn from them. Your message should be clear so they know what you’re selling and the value of it, but it shouldn't be overwhelming. Alternate your offer with valuable content that teaches a skill, that provides useful information, that addresses topics of social interest, that inspires... you name it! A clear example is Dove with the success of its Real Beauty campaign, where it praised diversity and rejected beauty stereotypes.

4. Approach experts: If you have little to none knowledge about digital marketing, or if you want to obtain tangible results from your campaigns, you can approach expert teams with years of experience, such as Kaleidoscope. This will benefit your business in the long term and your investment in marketing will have an optimal return. 

5. Invest in a website: Even if you are starting your business, one of the short-term priorities should be to create a website. This will generate greater reach, it gives you the opportunity to create more varied and valuable content, and it gives confidence and security to your clients by presenting yourself as a professional and transparent business.

6. Define your channels: Digital marketing does not mean being in all the existing channels, but knowing where your buyer persona moves and being present there. Don't try to cover all networks or all digital channels, this will only become an exhausting and impossible task to cover.

7. Create campaigns with micro-influencers: Person-to-person recommendations are perhaps the best ways to approach new clients, which is why campaigns with micro-influencers (1,000 to 100,000 followers) are a great success, as they are figures that inspire confidence in medium-sized communities and they can directly expose the benefits of acquiring your product.

8. Measure and collect information: The monitoring of all the digital channels in which your business is present must be constant. The ideal is to generate periodic reports, where you can study the behavior of your audience and adapt your strategy.

9. Follow blogs specialized in digital marketing to keep up with trends: The digital world is always in motion, social networks change their algorithms and you have to adapt to it. In order to stay up-to-date in the digital world, you have to know it; otherwise your strategy will become obsolete over time.

10. Digital does not mean dehumanized: The fact that your business develops in the digital world doesn’t mean it should be dehumanized. Make the people behind your business visible, starting with you. Communicate warmly and don't forget customer service before, during and after every sale.