It’s a big, noisy world out there. How can you make your product or service stand out so you can draw customers to your company or social purpose organization?
Marketing is the answer to the question of how to attract your first customers. It includes a range of activities that raise awareness about what you have to offer.
Marketing works best (and is the most fun) when you tailor it to your ideal customer and tap into your personal strengths. In this module, you’ll learn how to:
- Define your target customer using buyer personas
- Develop a distinct (differentiated) brand identity
- Refine your Unique Value Proposition
- Explore the personal strengths you bring to marketing
- Approach marketing as both an art and a science
Attracting your first customers
Introduction: Making marketing work
Defining your target customer
Use the buyer persona worksheet (pdf) to aid in defining your target customer.
Developing your brand
Use the brand basics worksheet (pdf) to start developing your brand.
Marketing as art and science
What's your marketing personality?
Every marketer is different, use the my marketing strengths (pdf) worksheet to help develop a plan that will serve you best.
Quick refresher on UVP
Take Entrepreneurial Action
(Required activities)
- Create three different buyer personas.
- Use the Buyer Persona Worksheet to develop each persona.
- Validate your personas by conducting five to 10 customer discovery conversations. Structure those conversations to explicitly test the assumptions that have shaped your personas.
- Reflect on what you’ve learned through the research process. Here are some questions for you to explore through journaling or a conversation with a friend, family member, or mentor:
- Which of your assumptions have been confirmed?
- Which assumptions do you need to rethink?
- What new questions have arisen?
- What opportunities for potential sales have surfaced?
- Create a brief marketing plan to guide your marketing efforts through the next 12 weeks.
Use the One-Page Marketing Plan template as your base.
Reflection Questions
- What qualities of your brand are you proudest of? How do they benefit your ideal customers?
- What experience have you had with persuasive communication outside of your entrepreneurial venture? What skills have you developed through your university courses, your paid work experience, and your extracurricular activities? How can you build on those to market your product or service?
For Further Help
- (tips for creating your visual brand identity)
- (blog by marketing expert Seth Godin)
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