Five Things Veteran Entrepreneurs Must Leverage In their Online Marketing Campaigns?

Going by the dictionary, Entrepreneurship is the willingness and ability of a person to start, manage and organize a productive venture. But I believe that diligence, intelligence, confidence, foresightedness, persistence and creativity are some vital qualities, a young entrepreneur must possess. A nice blend of these traits with an urge to earn profit will make a great entrepreneur. As they say, “You are never too young to succeed”. A lot of wannabe Zuckerberg’s are launching serious businesses with great potential. But do all of them taste the Holy Grail of success? Seems like a no brainer, right? Take the example of the photo sharing app, Instagram, which gained a worldwide popularity of late. I was awestruck to know that the founders of this app had no financial backing for marketing and its community of fans helped them spread the word. The moral of the story is- push marketing is out and building an online community is the easiest way to build trust. Facebook's buying this app for almost $1 billion is the best example of pull marketing. Are you a budding entrepreneur trying out some marketing stunts? Below are some of the things I believe every entrepreneur, young or old, must incorporate in their marketing strategies to make their start-up a grand success: Do your homework; conduct market analysisrnDon't bypass market research, as it may result in death sentence for your product. Neglecting this crucial step is a blunder, especially if you business is about selling products. Conducting a research will let you know if there is really a market where your product or service is desperately needed. You can always change gears in the beginning, also termed as pivoting by Forbes.com in one of its articles. Create an effective website Being a new age entrepreneur you must know that a good user-experience website is the backbone of a marketing campaign. Though, it takes a bit longer to visualize and present your business goal, mission and vision via a great user-interface design (website), but the reward is well worth the time invested. Design, colors, fonts does not make a great website, relevancy does. Build relationship Leaving a good first impression is the key to establish a healthy relationship with your customers. Remember that there are no closing hours online. Reach out to your constituents pro-actively in the social space 24 by 7. Keep an eye on your mentions, re-tweets, e-mails, comments, tags and replies so that you can do an immediate follow-up. Trust me; a pert reply can convert a browser into a buyer. Social Media is a marketing must While some believe that social media marketing is a must for promoting a new business online, I believe that social media marketing is an oxymoron. 'Social' and 'Marketing' are always juxtaposed with each other. You cannot influence your social circle, if you are always blowing your own trumpet of advertising and promoting. The correct phrase is social media sharing. Sharing is what helps you make a mark in the social world. Your Klout score improves when you share and not when you sell. Video Is the Way to Go Hire someone who is an expert in creating a wonderful video to market your product or service. If you are going to sell something which is hard-to-explain, a 'How To’ video can make a huge difference in your sales. Just creating a good video content and posting it online is not enough, you must optimize it for search engines. Interesting videos go viral on the spur of the moment. With more people sharing videos via their mobile devices, thousands of mobile video sharing apps are being downloaded everyday. Whether push or pull, marketing is indispensable for the success of a start-up venture. Though, one school of thought emphasizes that great product needs no marketing. On the contrary, the other opines that a good marketing campaign is the lifeblood of a business. What is your say on this?