Introducing a new business to the world is a lot like meeting someone on a first date. You want to make a solid first impression from the very start. And if you mess things up, you probably won’t get a second chance. Do you have a plan?
The Weight of First Impressions
The average consumer is exposed to thousands of marketing messages and advertisements on a daily basis. The only way to process this information is to become proficient at making snap judgments. Anything that seems undesirable or irrelevant gets tossed to the side, while anything that appears useful and significant gets a few seconds of attention.
A new business will only find success if it’s able to master first impressions and appeal to prospective customers within the first few seconds. It doesn’t matter how useful your products are or how much unique value your services bring to the table, customers won’t give you a chance if you don’t impress them from the start.
While most businesses focus on how their brand looks, the truth is that customers are persuaded by how brands make them feel. As you introduce your new business to the marketplace, make sure you’re taking this into account.
Tips for Introducing Your Business
You’ve spent months transforming an idea into a living, breathing business. Now it’s time to introduce your baby to the world. Here’s how you can make the most out of this opportunity:
1. Claim Your Social Profiles
The process begins by claiming all of your social media profiles and handles — even if you don’t plan to use all of them right away. This includes branded profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok.
Rather than run a full court press with all of these platforms — which can quickly exhaust your resources — focus on building up your audience on just one or two of these social networking apps at a time. By channeling your efforts, you can increase your engagement and make a bigger splash. (But since you’ve already claimed your profiles on the other platforms, it’s easy to expand when you desire to do so.)
2. Get the Website Right
Your website is your home turf. It’s essentially your slice of virtual real estate. It’s the one digital asset that you have total and permanent control over. Make sure you get it right.
You don’t need a complicated website with hundreds of individual pages and 100,000 words of blog content. It’s much more important that you convey a clear and concise sense of what the brand stands for.
3. Use Video Promos
Is there any content medium that’s more effective at engaging and influencing people than video? If there is, we haven’t discovered it yet.
Promo videos are easy to create, yet pack a powerful punch for an emerging brand. You can share them via email, social media, or on your website. Consider creating a few short and simple videos to get the word out.
4. Set Up Interviews
You only have a limited circle of influence. In order to introduce your business to new people, you need to do a modern media blitz.
Whether you organize it on your own, or you hire a PR professional to act as your liaison, try to set up as many interviews and appearances with podcasters, bloggers, and journalists as you possibly can.
5. Do Something Different
At the end of the day, your business will get glossed over if it appears to be similar to what everyone else is doing. You need to do something unique.
What’s the one thing that separates you from the competition that’s already out there? This is the aspect that you need to focus in on during your initial launch. Otherwise, you’ll fail to gain traction beyond the first few days.
Set Your Business Up for Success
There’s no formula you can copy and paste into your business launch strategy to guarantee you get the results you’re seeking. Every brand must come up with their own proprietary strategy — one that’s tailored to the business, the audience, and the timing of the launch.
That being said, there’s a lot to gain from placing an emphasis on the principles outlined in this article. Use these tips as the foundation for your strategy and adapt accordingly.
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