Opinion: Omnichannel marketing guide for Solopreneurs to scale businesses

Hiral Rana from Growfusely shares a step-by-step process for an omnichannel marketing guide catered at Solopreneurs venturing out in the industry.

A newly coined term “Solopreneur” has been making rounds in the market the past couple of years and gradually gaining popularity. Now we’ve heard of ‘Entrepreneurs’ already. But what does this new one mean?

A Solopreneur is an individual who starts and operates his or her business by himself independent of any partner, co-founder, or employee. While many entrepreneurs begin alone, only some keep on with their solo flight while the others readily onboard workers who could assist them in the day-to-day functioning of the enterprise.

Some major examples of professions that are being converted into businesses include:

• Social Media Manager
• Talent Manager
• Freelance Writer
• Graphic Designer
• Web Designer
• Business Consultant
• Accountant
• Market Analyst

And the list continues...

Solopreneurs Vs. Entrepreneurs

Although both begin their journeys at the same point, there are some key differences between the two.

Choice of a Team

When most entrepreneurs start their business from scratch, their aim is to make the company grow and become a name that customers choose above all and professionals would like to work at. Their enterprise expands with an increase in the workforce to cater to the demand-supply need. On the other hand, a solopreneur prefers working alone and performs all the required business functions by oneself instead of making anyone a part of their venture.

Branching Out

A solopreneurship is usually concerned with providing services closely bunched under one single head. For instance, an accountant may give consultation on how to save tax while also telling a client what documents he or she may need to register a partnership firm. This is because it is his or her expertise. On the contrary, an entrepreneur may want to broaden the scope of services delivered by his or her company in varied fields and industries. Amazon is a prime example of the same with its products ranging from an e-commerce website to a payment mode to video content streaming service.

Scale Up

Another thing to remember about a solopreneur’s concern is they are often not looking to become the biggest name in the industry. However, entrepreneurs more frequently dream of making their enterprise huge enough that industry leaders like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Accenture, and more view them as competition or would want to buy them out.

Real-Estate Requirements

A person who’s both the founder and the only employee of a business does not really require a lot of space to do their job. In fact, most such operations are usually home-based. An entrepreneur’s need for space and infrastructure, contrastingly, increases with the size of his or her company and team.

Also read: Opinion: 4 Steps to use content marketing to boost your brand

Omnichannel Marketing

An omnichannel or multichannel approach to marketing refers to the attempt of providing a customer with an integrated shopping experience. This focuses on not just promoting a product or service through various mediums, but also on ensuring that the offered services can be availed through multiple platforms.

This process gains even more importance with solopreneurship, as the proprietor is required to perform a series of business functions by oneself.

If you are a solopreneur too, here are some more tips to grow your business. The following tactics of omnichannel marketing demand minimal effort while working well for your brand.

E-mail Marketing

You can create an electronic mail list, comprising personal and professional contacts, as all promotions start there. While the compilation of such a list may take some time, once you have successfully built it, sharing regular updates, offers, and news with the prospects becomes easier. This list can keep on extending with the number of clients that come in or leads you to receive.

Conferences, Conventions & Exhibitions

Word of mouth is one of the fastest and most effective ways to let the market know about your concern. Email marketing is definitely going to do its share, but now it's time for you to get on the floor. Attend conferences and exhibitions where you feel you can find prospective clients for your services and engage in networking to get a suitable idea of not just the demand-supply gap in the market but also of your competitors.

Using Social Media

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Behance etcetera present some great opportunities for the promotion of one’s business while engaging with the potential customers to enhance their curiosity and willingness to work with you. Both B2B and B2C clients can be targeted here to ensure your efforts are reaching the intended audience and not being wasted on viewers who do not have any use of your services.

Create Online Content

To make sure your efforts are garnering the attention that you desire, the matter that you create has to be cutting edge. Instead of going only the traditional way with textual write-ups, make use of visual aids like videos, posters, memes, and even infographics. Various free editable infographic templates are available online that can help you with the same.

To Sum it Up

You are a one-person-army! Performing from the most basic to the most complex business operations, we know your time is completely tied up. We also know that you understand the importance of marketing holds. Thus we hope you do try these tactics to grow your concern and we’ll see you on the other side.

This article is authored by Hiral Rana, Co-founder, Growfusely.