Marketing Essentials for New Businesses and Entrepreneurs.

Starting a new business? Congrats! You're part of a large club of weirdos that are working way too many hours while surviving on caffeine and dreams. The cool part? You're the captain of your own ship, and part of the many admirable small businesses that prop up the Canadian economy. As a new business owner, your valiant efforts will help fill in the gaps where products and services are missing in your locale. Unfortunately, new businesses also come with the burden of high start-up costs. And at least some of those costs are going to be sunk into marketing and branding.

One of the biggest questions new entrepreneurs ask is: how much should you budget for marketing as a new business owner?

So what do you need? How much should you set aside? $100? $1000? $10,000? There are so many ways to approach this. After working in this industry (marketing) for 10 years, this is my take on exactly what new businesses need, and what they can expect to spend. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but for new businesses, there are some fairly standard basics that need to be covered.

This guide is based on real-world budgets and success rates for businesses and entrepreneurs in Red Deer, and across Alberta. However, entrepreneurs and new business owners across Canada can benefit from keeping budgets like these in mind. Here is our list of marketing essentials for new businesses and entrepreneurs.

Marketing Essentials for New Businesses - What do I really need?

Below is a standard list of what I believe every new business needs for marketing and branding. Feel free to steal my list and be on your way. If you want to read more and learn more about why you need these things, and what you can expect to spend, keep on reading below this list!

1. A Brand Kit

2. A Website (Desktop and Mobile).

3. A Professional Email

4. Business Cards

5. Social Media

6. A Pamphlet

7. A Marketing Strategy

That's it! That's the list. If you want to know why you need these things, and how much to budget for, keep reading.

1. Why Every New Business Needs A Brand Kit

This is an absolute non-negotiable. Without a brand kit, all you have is an idea. Your brand tells people who you are before they even interact with you. Your brand kit conveys meaning, creates recognition and familiarity, and builds hype. Are you strictly professional and neat, or are you a little more accessible and fun? A brand kit differentiates you from your competition, and makes every step of marketing easier. It's a banner that your business flies.

A brand kit NEEDS to contain at least the following:

1. Your logo - Broken down into full logo, icon, wordmark, and colour varieties (Full, black, white). These should also be on a transparent background, as vector files.

2. Brand colours, written in hex codes, CMYK, and RGB.

3. Fonts. You always need at least 2.

4. Brand voice and wording. This should include a slogan, any phrases that you regularly use, and what you don't say.

Bonuses include:

5. Patterns for website backgrounds, social backgrounds, etc.

6. Horizontal and Vertical alignment varieties for logos.

7. Brand standards package (informing other entities as to how your brand can be incorporated into outside work).

Some brand kits are built per hour, some are built al a carte. Minimum for a basic brand kit can be as much as $1000, and up to $3000. You will save some money if you have a clear vision and provide a strong creative brief. Note: Rambow Consulting Group creates brand kits on an hourly rate, and works to fit within your budget. We also offer payment plans!

Suggested budget for brand kits for new businesses in Canada: $1200, for a proper design with the correct file types.

2. New Businesses Need a Website (Mobile and Desktop).

This is pretty straightforward - your business needs to be found online! New entrepreneurs need to be wary about who they trust to build a website. Some website builders will charge very little ($100-$500) for an AI built website or a templated website. The issue with that is you don't get to change anything, and you often don't get support afterwards. Some website designers charge as much as $10,000 or more for a new website. But remember, a $10,000 website may not actually function better than a $2000 website. It really depends on what you need your website to accomplish.

Most new businesses need a website with a minimum of 4 pages: Main, About, Contact, and 1 other page related to products or services. That doesn't mean that's ALL you need, but those pages will be enough to get you by in the first 6 months.

SEO plays a factor here too. More pages, more specificity - better SEO. But SEO is as much an art as it is a science; Too many pages will bring you down, but too few will keep you irrelevant in searches. Websites also need to be connected to search engines, and need to be indexed. A proper search engine profile also helps.

New business owners should budget $1500 - $4000 for a new website. Often times you can get it for less, but for something custom-built and SEO ready, this is not out of line. (This should include the domain, hosting, and any other set-up required!)

Suggested budget for a website for new business owners: $1500 - $4000 for basic website, mobile configuration, and initial SEO setup.

3. Professional, Domain-Based Email Accounts Add Authority for New Businesses.

This is even more straightforward, so we won't spend too much time here. You gain immediate authority by emailing from a domain that matches your website. An email ending in gmail, yahoo, or hotmail simply won't cut it. Imagine emailing a dentist office, and getting a reply from "dentist@hotmail.com". Most people would be unlikely to trust that dentist. The same is true for your business!

Once your website is set up, get your dev to add a professional email in there. These typically look like gmail or outlook on the back end, but on the recipient end it will be @totallycoolbusiness .com. Pretty slick, and way better authority!

Suggested budget for domain-based professional email accounts for entrepreneurs: $265 a year, often split into monthly payments. Sometimes less if you pay annually.

4. New Business Owners and Entrepreneurs Need Business Cards.

I'll keep this short and sweet too. Yes, even in this modern day, a business owner needs business cards. There is a ritual among business owners to trade cards back and forth. While the process can seem dated, there are some great marketing opportunities with business cards. If you can't take part in the card handoff, you are more likely to be forgotten during in-person meetings and networking.

Obviously your cards should be branded and have the basic info (name, contact, website, QR code). Don't be afraid to have some fun and be creative with business cards!

Suggested budget for business cards for entrepreneurs: $300 at most for design, $50-100 for printing. $400 at the most, total, provided you have all of the marketing items above.

5. Your New Business is Invisible Unless it is on Social Media.

Ahh, social media. We love to hate it, we hate to love it. It's a necessary evil, and every social media platform is probably stealing all of our information and selling it to someone else. But without it, your business remains invisible.

This doesn't mean you need to have every platform, nor does it mean you need to dance or juggle just to own a paving company. This blog isn't meant to cover everything about social media, but let this be a reminder that authentic content is winning (right now), and anything too sales-y is falling flat. Consistency and quality are better than creating the perfect capcut creation.

You can run your own for free, or hire someone to manage it for you. Social media management can be expensive, so to start off it might be best to try it out on your own first. That being said - it is very time consuming, and it's way harder than it looks!

Suggested budget: Anywhere from $0 in the first few months to $1000 per month for management and content creation.

6. New Businesses Need Pamphlets.

Pamphlets are great for handing out at networking events, or for having at tradeshows. The reason new businesses and entrepreneurs benefit from having pamphlets is that there is often so much to say about your new business - too much for a social media post.

Blogs and web pages should focus on one topic - pamphlets can have a wide scope, and touch on everything you do. They should build intrigue, reinforce your authority as a business, and answer questions that prospective customers may have.

Keep them simple, not overly busy, and make sure they adhere to your branding!

Suggested budget for pamphlets for Canadian entrepreneurs: $300-$600, designed and delivered. Extra for printing. If you can design it yourself, you'll save money here!

7. New Businesses Need a Marketing Strategy.

This is the hardest pill to swallow; Everything above will mean very little if it is executed poorly. That's a lot of money down the drain for bad execution!

A good marketing strategy is a multipage document that highlights the risks and opportunities in the market, highlights your competition and any service gaps in the market, explains what platforms to use and what is needed to create a good sales funnel, and outlines goals for you to hit (typically quarterly).

Marketing strategies can be expensive. Marketing strategists can be expensive to hire. This part bites. But with consultants like Rambow Consulting Group, this can be broken into hourly strategy sessions that can be cost effective.

AI strategy is also growing, and it's often not too shabby. The point is to have a plan, know how to read the data, and make changes based on data and available analytics. Don't make too many changes all at once, but don't sit still for too long either.

Suggested budget: $600 - $5000 for a prepared document, $1000 - $3000 monthly for a retainer. Some agencies offer better deals and retainers.

Final Thoughts

If you're doing the math, then you see how your first year can cost more than $6000 just in marketing materials. That's a lot!

The good news is that you don't need it all on day one. It's better to start with what you can afford and grow from there. Over time, your branding and website and socials will change and grow, and no one will pay attention to what your marketing looked like when you started. Building a marketing plan for a new business or as an entrepreneur doesn't have to be overwhelming. Whether you are budgeting for branding, a new website, or ongoing marketing retainers, these basics listed above will help set you up for success.

If this all sounds a bit intimidating, we totally understand! Rambow Consulting Group works within your budget, and eliminates a ton of the costs listed above with our $0 retainer, and our hourly rate that is the same across all mediums. We even offer discounts for not-for-profit orgs making it even more affordable.

Why don't we start with a free, no pressure consultation! Reach out today, and let us help you navigate this crazy new world. And once again, congratulations on joining the entrepreneur club!

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