Marketing Tips for Senior Entrepreneurs
Senior entrepreneurs bring much to the table, including expertise gained and networks built over time. In fact, more and more older adults are engaging in entrepreneurship. But like all entrepreneurs, seniors face challenges, including marketing their businesses. By prioritizing inexpensive tools, continually learning, and constantly tweaking their approach, older entrepreneurs can create marketing approaches that stand the test of time.
Learn More Skills With an MBA
Earning an MBA is a great way to sharpen your business skills. MBAs come in a variety of concentrations, including marketing. MBAs can also boost your abilities in areas such as accounting, corporate finance, and strategic planning, to name a few. If you’re a busy senior worried about finding the time for school, consider an online program. They offer flexibility that makes it easier to meet family and business commitments.
Build Cross-Promoting Relationships
As a senior, your past business and professional experiences may have supplied you with quite a network of contacts from other companies. You can tap into that network to support your business’s marketing efforts through cross-promotion. And if you already own another business, consider if it makes sense to have it and your new venture cross-promote each other. One cross-promotion method is to have each business refer customers to the other when appropriate; for instance, a golf instructor might steer their students toward a specific golf gear outlet. Another tactic is for each business to supply customers with coupons to the other business.
Know Your Audience and Competitors
Knowing your audience makes it possible to put forth effective marketing efforts. That’s why it’s important to perform market research and competitive analysis as early as possible. Research methods include surveys and questionnaires, which can give you a sense of what people are looking for from a product or service. Competitive analysis, meanwhile, involves finding ways to positively differentiate your business from others targeting the same customer base.
Look for Cheap or Free Tools
When you’re launching a business, numerous costs can add to your overall tab, and those costs only tend to grow with time. One way to counteract profit-cutting expenses is by seeking out inexpensive or free tools that can aid your marketing efforts. For instance, many marketing initiatives involve lots of communication between people and teams, both inside and outside the organization. Communication is a good thing, but it can also lead to an overabundance of documents. A low-cost PDF merging tool may assist your business here, allowing for the combining and reordering of documents as needed. That will help your business keep documents in order and reduce digital clutter.
Know When To Evolve
It’s important for senior entrepreneurs to know when to change their marketing efforts. Luckily, keeping track of important metrics, including return on investment, return on advertising spend, and customer lifetime value can help you surmise when a change is necessary. For instance, if a specific ad starts out with a high ROI but has declining effectiveness over time, your audience may have become fatigued by the ad.
Getting the Word Out
Senior entrepreneurs have many skills and connections to tap into. Combining those with a strong understanding of your target audience, low-cost tools, and a willingness to keep learning and changing can set up your marketing plan for success. From web design to social media marketing, Tracie can help. Reach out today.
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