Devising a successful marketing strategy to sell your products to local customersstarts with planning. It all starts with a marketing plan which should consists of your marketing objective. Then, you should address market segmentation and include your product positioning statement.

Marketing Mix

The first part of your marketing mix is to define your product mix. The journey begins with new product development including idea generation and idea screening. Then, your company can begin concept development and testing. Once this phase is completed, the founders of a startup will engage in marketing strategy development. It is recommended to complete a business analysis before proceeding to product development. Now, the fun begins. The next step is market testing. With successful market testing the startup can proceed to commercialization. Go to market strategy.

Marketing Communication

A Startups canadvertise its services extensively via digital marketing communications on the internet. It can use display (banner) ads, pay-per-click, paid search ads, social media, blogs, and articles on relevant websites. It can also use organic search (SEO), email, and its own website. In addition, a startup can advertise in relevant magazines, newspapers, billboards, cinema, radio and television.

Sales Promotion

A startup can offer sales promotions via its website, and affiliate websites. It can draw attention to the brand, company products, and its service offerings to induce potential customers to purchase the startup's product. A startup can offer some concessions as an incentive to invite new customers to purchase products and services. For example, the company can offer savings on purchases of bundled services as well as discounts of various
specific services.

Direct Marketing

Another great way to sell your products in the USA is via direct marketing. A startup can utilize our prospecting database and reach its target customers. It can then contact prospects via telephone, email, direct mail or in person. Startups can will actively seek to purchase lists of prospects that have purchased similar products in the last three months or have expressed interest in purchasing such products in the near future. When possible, startups should  customize its up-to-date message to appeal to prospects and interact with the prospects based on their response to the message.

Public Relations and Publicity

Startups entering the USA should actively use this form of marketing communication to challenge customers' misconceptions and build credibility around the services the company offers. Through press releases, written articles, broadcasted radio programs, and television shows startups can tell the story behind its products, services, the company, and the brand and reach more customers with news stories that are more authentic and credible.

Events and Experiences

Startups should participate in relevant, engaging and implicit events and experiences. If possible, startups can sponsor events and experiences such as mixers, networking, and career events that reach the target market. For example, a startup that has a product for business people can try to participate at events at business schools across the country, the Money Show, and other business related expos.

Interactive Marketing

Startups can engage customers through a variety of landing pages that are constantly tested for response and conversions. When designing the landing pages and website, startups should pay special attention to the following:

• Context: Layout and design
• Content: Text, pictures, sound and videos on the website
• Community: Enabling user-to-user communication
• Customization: Allow users to customize their experience
• Communication: User-to-site or site-to-user communication experience
• Connection: How the site is linked to other sites
• Commerce: Ability to transact business on the website

Word of Mouth

Startups entering the USA should be aware of the power of word of mouth. To take advantage of this marketing communication, startups can launch several social media campaigns that stimulate customer interaction and induce customer engagement with the company. When done well, such engagements can create enough buzz that customers will be eager to tell the world via their blog, Facebook page, Pinterest, Twitter, or in person how wonderful the startup is. In addition, startups can produce and release videos on YouTube that are geared towards the creation of viral marketing.

Sales Force

When entering the USA, startups must carefully consider how to use a sales force effectively. A good sales force excels in business development for the startup, and builds long term business relationships. The sales force has the task of creating demand by contacting prospects and pitching the company's services. The sales force shall focus on the prospect's needs, and the benefits the startup's products offer its customers. Experienced sales representatives know how to diagnose a customer's problem and propose a solution that can help the customer achieve its goals. On a daily basis, an efficient sales force spends its time prospecting for new business whenever it is not busy serving current customers.