如果你正在筹划开办一家新公司，相信一份周全的财务支出及商业发展计划对你来说非常必要。此外，包括企业选址（实体店或网店）和市场营销策略等，都是对你至关重要的。关于企业起步阶段需要知道的一些市场攻略等问题，本文将介绍几位资深的营销策略专家，他们会为您提供一些比较有价值的参考意见。
•制定符合企业愿景的市场营销核心
有太多的企业家忽略甚至根本不在意制定市场营销策略的重要性。他们把关注的重点放在产品或潜在市场份额的大小上，而几乎不考虑能够帮助企业赚钱的利器，即：营销策略和销售计划。其实，从一开始，您就需要将企业创办人、产品开发者及技术团队聚合起来共同制定一套行之有效的公司发展计划。
•从“一句话描述企业定位”开始
这将有效的帮助客户和投资者在最短时间内了解您的公司主营业务，及其有用之处。当然，前提是您在客户心中的口碑保证良好。
•过早建起网站框架反而得不偿失
最佳的方案是搭建网站之前，先拟定一份周全的发展计划书。但是切记：在定位清晰明朗化之前，千万不要在主页的公司名称、标语及logo等问题上浪费太多时间。
•从基本做起，每个细节都不放过
每一天都为企业向着清晰的目标迈进而不懈奋斗。并时刻铭记：谁是你的客户？你为他们解决哪些问题？比起竞争对手为客户解决问题来说，你有哪些优势？你最希望向客户及市场展示企业的哪一面？想主导市场走向，你有哪些机会？如果企业创办人自身不精于营销技巧的话，他们往往容易混淆方向，比如公关服务及付费搜索的策略技巧。只要物尽其用，借助媒体对你的企业打响知名度会有着非常重大的作用。把市场营销当作同潜在客户聊天一样去做，但表达陈述之前最好三思。如何企业定位不清晰、没有针对性，客户和投资者也会感到迷惘，因为企业自己都还没有一个清晰的概述。综上所述，没有一套系统化的市场营销策略，等于生意场上必打败仗。
•聘请一位精通战略、躬亲示范的营销高人
你需要一位既精通战略战术，又愿意事事亲为的营销人才。他不仅有着丰富的专业知识，还能够亲自架构网站，事事无大小。因为，一旦你开始决策市场营销策略，你就需要信息和研究的整合，这些工作通常需要专业的经验丰富之人来做。这个过程是极其繁琐并艰苦的，因为与行业相关的信息库非常大，但你又必须全部吸取。只有这样，才有可能在市场上发展相对优势的企业地位。
•寻找启动点
善于发现市场机会，特别是当你处在市场拥挤的情况下。比如，我们的一家合作公司，名叫Crimson Hexagon。该公司就十分善于利用社交传媒分析客户观点，所以，公司的名称会经常性的出现在各大小媒体。他们真的由此拥有一个很好的事业启动点。
•创业型企业需要更努力的工作和不断改良
起步阶段的小企业和成熟大企业不同的是，你还没有树立起自己的品牌认知度；尚缺资金预算；你的人脉还不够宽广；CEO抑或缺乏营销实战经验。但无论它是科技、医学、互联网或快速消费品公司，营销策略都是必不可少的。所以，尽早的多花些时间做做这件事吧。
•一旦建立了营销计划，就下决心去做
要做市场，仅凭雇佣一位营销英才、想出一套营销计划，远远不够。除非你愿意每周都花上好几个小时进行讨论。优秀的市场营销专业人才需要拥有极高的奉献精神。同刚起步的企业家进行有效沟通并解决业务问题可能有些难度，所以当你缺乏某种专业人才所拥有的技能时，必须愿意倾听。
When starting a company, it’s important to come up with a financial and business plan, a location (in RL or online) and a marketing strategy. Both Anita Brearton and Sheryl Schultz (more below) are seasoned marketing professionals who have devoted their careers to launching ventures. Here, their best advice for businesses at the earliest stage of the formation of new companies.
•Make marketing central to your vision for your company. Too many entrepreneurs give little or no thought to a marketing strategy. They focus instead on products or the size of the market opportunity without defining the marketing strategy and sales plan that will help them capitalize on the opportunity. When they pitch investors, the marketing slide is an afterthought, and often consists of one bullet point, usually social media. Right from the start, you need a marketer at the table with the founder and product developer or tech team.
•Start with a one sentence description of what your company is and what it does. It will help customers and investors understand who you are and why you’re useful. And be sure your identity is credible and meaningful to customers.
•Putting a website up too early is starting in the middle. The message document must come first. Don’t spend time on company names, taglines, logos until you have developed your positioning.
•Begin with a stake in the ground! Work hard from day one on developing your corporate positioning. Who are your customers? What problem do you solve for them? How do you solve it better than your competition? How do you want your customers and the market at large to think about your company? Where do you have the opportunity to be a market leader? If founders don’t have marketing skills, themselves, they often confuse tactics, such as public relations or paid search, with marketing strategy. Media coverage can be extremely valuable, but only if it communicates your message. Think about marketing as a conversation with your prospective customers, but don’t talk until you know what you really want to say. If the company positioning is confused or unfocused, customers and investors will also be confused because the company hasn’t defined its core message. If you don’t have a marketing strategy, you don’t have a business.
•Hire a marketing professional who is both strategic and tactical, a hands-on marketer. You want someone who is both a strategic thinker and willing to put hands on the keyboard, someone who can actually do the wireframe for the website, still willing to get dirty hands. Once you are ready to execute your marketing strategy, you require help with synthesizing the information and research, which an experienced professional can do. This process is a grind because there will be barrels of information about the industry or about the competition, but you have to absorb it all so you can develop a distinct position in the market.
•Get out in the marketplace! When companies do positioning work, they often do it in the confines of a windowless conference room. Get out in the market to see the customers, to view your competitors and their marketing strategy first hand, to familiarize yourself with the industry. You may find out your tagline looks like everyone else’s. By concentrating on an internal focus without taking a broad view, it’s easy to set up straw man position which won’t hold up in the real world.
•Look for a launching point. Find opportunities to showcase what you do, especially when you’re in a crowded market. For example, one company we have worked with, Crimson Hexagon, which analyzes consumer opinions created in social media, monitored Obama’s first State of the Union speech for CNN; after that, the company name constantly appeared whenever their data was cited. The election provided a crucial launch point for them.
•Marketing start ups requires hard work and constant refinement. It’s not the same as marketing for more mature companies because you have no brand awareness; there isn’t any budget; you often don’t have people resources; the CEO may or may not have marketing experience. But whether it’s a technology, medical science, internet or consumer company, your ideas will go nowhere without a comprehensive marketing strategy. Take the time to forge one early on.
•Once you create a marketing plan, commit to it. It’s not enough to hire a good marketer or come up with a marketing plan unless you’re willing to spend several hours a week to sit down to discuss the execution. Good marketing professionals demand commitment from the highest level. It may be hard for first time entrepreneurs to communicate or get their minds around their businesses, so when you hire the skills you lack, you have to be prepared to listen.
