3 Step Marketing Strategy for Brand New Businesses

Chris Walker runs Refine Labs, where he helps businesses accelerate their growth. He also has a unique way of looking at marketing. For example, most business owners are chasing the wrong goals in their marketing strategies. The first step to course-correct is to acknowledge that what you are doing is not working. The second step is to build a new strategy from the ground up–this time involving the entire company in the success of the marketing strategy. 

Your new marketing strategy can be crafted through these three steps. 

1. Understand your strengths as a founder

Some founders are good at marketing and not at sales. Some founders are natural-born marketers. You may be a product engineering person who doesn’t know how to make content. When you are starting your business, you are the most valuable asset, so take inventory of what you bring to the table, and start making hires to fill your blind spots. 

2. Involve yourself in sales conversations

The ideal process would be that the founder sells the initial deals. The biggest mistake companies can make is for the founder to step out of sales too soon. The sales process allows you to validate product-market fit and talk to customers.

The next step would be to hire a virtual expert or partner to generate leads while the founder continues to sell. Only when you have validated the product-market fit will you be able to hire a VP of sales to take over those sales conversations. 

This would be the ideal process, but it’s important to go back to step one and see how this can be modified to fit the specific skills you bring to the table. But the more you can be involved in sales conversations the better it will be in the long run. 

3. Tap into the power of word-of-mouth

Change is inevitable but growth is optional. Successful entrepreneurs are the ones that are always learning. And chances are, you have a lot of knowledge and insight that can be gained from tapping into your personal network. Reach out to your team for help and advice. Bounce ideas off them, ask them how they would approach certain solutions, and offer your own help in return. Networking is about professionals figuring out how they can help each other, and sometimes the best and easiest way to help (or be helped) is through teaching and learning.