First steps in branding
The first thing I recommend is to ask yourself if this product realistically has a chance in our market with this setup. If you’re going to sell mobile phone covers and the project isn’t interesting either in terms of packaging or price, it’s going to be very difficult to succeed, and even if you do succeed, it’s going to be just above zero.
Many e-tailers don’t realistically check the market space, but all you need to do is a basic search of competitors’ offerings and their capabilities. Often it’s obvious that with an initial investment of €5,000 it just won’t work.
As part of your branding, you should focus first and foremost on who you are and what you offer. Are you bringing a new product and educating the market? Are you offering an alternative to an existing product? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Who do you want to communicate with? What are your objectives?
Once you have answered these questions, you have a basic identity design. An identity is not a logo from Jaspravim. It may work for some segments, but not for most. The identity should reflect your values and the customer should be able to immediately place your communication in the segment.
Meet market standards
Once you have your identity and all your materials in place, focus on meeting basic market standards. This is the essential minimum you need to pass. Anything more is a plus and can set you apart from the competition from day one.
Does your competition advertise? If so, where? I often find that even relatively big players still don’t advertise on social media, yet it’s one of the cheapest way to get exposure.
Meeting standards is essential, but you can stand out from day one with the quality of your work. It doesn’t have to be complex, but feel free to have transparent terms and conditions, sizing charts, tutorials, the ability to get advice on the phone, whatever.
Cost per conversion
It’s highly likely that you won’t make a profit from day one. You don’t have to advertise everything and everywhere. Test the basics and find out where your target audience is. If you have a strictly search-based business – tyres with advanced filtering, for example – try Google first. If you sell fashion, try social media first. It’s perfectly fine not to advertise everywhere and do everything. There are segments that just don’t fit well into a particular medium, and you’ll either kick it to the curb or scale in a different direction.
Social proof
In most cases, social media is the best and cheapest way to acquire new customers. But first, focus on creating material that validates your product in the marketplace. Show it in a realistic light, how your customers use it, how satisfied they are with the delivery or the order. People tend to gravitate towards solutions that have been sanctified by someone else, even a stranger.
The next step is to prepare UGC (user-generated content) in exchange for a discount (or other benefit). From experience, the product can scale even if you only have this one type of creative.
Scaling
For scaling, I personally advise clients to take 2 different paths. Either go the way of more market share with us, or open another market for the same energy (and often finances).
To simplify, if you generate, say, 80% of the revenue in small market of what is the market maximum (you will never take over all the customers of yourativ competitors), the remaining 20% will be very difficult and expensive, and even with an uncertain outcome.
On the other hand, 20% of the energy in another market can open the door to a market twice the size with a completely different growth potential. Diversifying your sales across different countries is also a great way to spread the risk.