If you are an aspiring entrepreneur with no friends, family or colleagues who support your idea of becoming an entrepreneur; or you have tons of friends, but all of them are only interested in partying, celebrities, sports or other things, and nobody ever wants to talk about business, how do you get your business idea out into the global marketplace?.

You may have a business idea in your head, but when you try and share your plans, you get the cold shoulder.  No one is going to give you any feedback about whether or not your idea is any good.  But you are ready to launch.  You have a product or service you want to put out into the global marketplace, but you have no idea how to make sure your potential customers know about you.

How do you get started?

Product Launch

When you start a business you often do something called a product launch.  One of the best ways to think of it, is it’s like a movie premiere.  The final official launch of a new movie is a big party announcing the ‘product’ is now available for everyone to see. 

If you are a billion-dollar Hollywood studio, you throw a huge bash, invite all the stars, roll out the red carpet, tell the press, and bam! your product is launched, and gets mountains of free publicity.

Publicity that comes months after – trailers, bus side posters, interviews in the press, and many other promotional activities have already taken place.  If you are a Hollywood studio, you spend money to launch a product and you’re done.

But if you’re an aspiring entrepreneur and you don’t have the multi-million dollar budget, how do you get started?

If you would like to hear these strategies, check out the Ready Entrepreneur Podcast Episode 063:  How to Get Started with No Audience or Market on Apple Podcasts or wherever you enjoy your podcasts

Friends and Family

Many entrepreneur how-to gurus will tell you to start your promotion with friends and family.  If you can get the people around you to try your product or service, and maybe even review it, you can easily get started with immediate feedback and ‘social proof.’

The early support is helpful and inspiring, but really only works best when friends and family are your potential community.  If they’re not, the support your receive may not be genuine, as they may not be interested in contributing to your idea, or might provide a half-baked response.

Using friends and family works best for those who have strong, supportive and active friends and family.  If you belong to religious groups or organizations that support individual endeavors, you can leverage those connections.

If you don’t have a supportive immediate circle, you have to think like a Hollywood studio.

Publicity

When launching a new product or service, an entrepreneur needs publicity.  And you get publicity by creating a compelling story about your product or service, and then telling people who are, or can connect you with, media influencers.

There are many ways to start telling people about your product or service.  Start with social media.  Develop the message of your product or service and post about it on social media.  Different platforms perform differently for this approach.

If you use Instagram and your product or service can be displayed in pretty pictures, then go ahead and post attractive photos.  You can also use hashtags to highlight your product or service for people who are looking for something similar.  Instagram works best for this because it gives you the popularity of hashtags.

Twitter works in a similar way.  Sometimes people search for an idea, or phrase ,and you can lead them to your product or service if you are using a hashtag that is associated with your product or service.

If you use Facebook, you can write a detailed post, with links to your site. However, you may have a more challenging time circulating your posts to others.

If you have some friends or family who you know are not interested in your business, try and get them to circulate your message others by encouraging them to repost or pass it on to someone who may be interested.

Social media allows you to move forward if you have no other resources, and you just want to see what kind of an organic response your idea may receive from the marketplace.

Giveaways

Before a Hollywood studio releases a movie, they let a lot of people see it for free.  They hope those people enjoy the movie, write reviews and spread the word to others.  You can do the same with your product or service.

You can offer the product or service for free, or offer a portion of it or a companion product that prompts people to just pick up and try your idea. 

Free promos have been part of the marketing playbook for years. You may already be familiar with the practice inside your local Costco. There is a reason they are giving out free samples. The store is trying to prompt the customer to buy the whole product.  You can use the same tactic.

Depending on your product or service, you have to find the best place to provide your free offer. The aisles at Costco are controlled. But you may be able to find a local event or product fair that suits your style and business intent.

Online you can use tools like webinars, YouTube videos or Internet calls to provide free services that allow people to sample what you have to offer and how you deliver it. 

Once you are able to obtain a potential customer’s attention through a free offer, then you have an opportunity to retain them by collecting an e-mail address, and continuing to communicate and follow-up.

Blog, Podcast or Video posts

You can also build your audience through blogging, podcasting and online videos.  These platforms can be free to use, and provide you with an opportunity to present a more detailed and thoughtful message about your product or service.

Plan your ‘message’ from the perspective of the customer.  What would you want to hear about a new product or service that would peak your interest and stop you in your tracks?  You can write a story about your product, or the reason you decided to start your service, or a testimonial from someone else.  And if you come up with a compelling idea, you may even be able to leverage other people’s audiences.

Other people’s audiences

If your idea resonates with the audience of another blogger, podcaster or vlogger, you can ask to appear on their established platform.  These influencers are often looking for great new ideas for their audience.  If you can present your product or service in a way that appeals to them, you may be able to ‘launch’ to an established audience.

But make sure you do your research.  Do not approach influencers who have nothing to do with your product or service, or whose audiences would be completely different from your intended community.  When you reach out, make sure you have something to offer that’s compelling and interesting enough for the influencer to want to present you to their community.

Most businesses began with no visible market.  In fact, many aspiring entrepreneurs were told their idea would not work, and their business will not be successful.

The founding entrepreneur had to reach the people who would be interested in the product or service they had to offer.  Ben and Jerry drove around selling ice-cream out of the back of their van.  They took the product to the potential customers, and let them spread the word.

Summary: 

• You can start your own publicity machine with family and friends if they are supportive
• If the people around you are not your intended community, reach out to social media with your messages, photos and hashtags that appeal to the people you are trying to reach
• You can giveaway your product or service in the arena that is most appropriate, whether that be at a physical event or online.  Let people give your product or service a test run, and then become the testimonials for your future promotions
• Use online tools like blogging, podcasting or vlogging to create a compelling message about your product or service, and deliver it to a larger audience
• Reach out to people who have established blogs, podcasts or vlogs and let them know if you have a product or service that may be beneficial to their community.  You have to show them how you provide value.