Are you starting a new business in Finland? You have the money, the idea and a burning desire to leave your mark on the world? Great! You are on the right track.
In this article, we will go through a general overview of what a new business needs for its marketing. We’ll also list partners you can ask for help in different situations.
The article is particularly suitable for local businesses or smaller companies expanding to Finland. As scale increases, complexity often increases. At the end of the article is a checklist for a small start-up with prices and possible partners.
What is marketing?
On the Aalho Media website we have written about the differences between advertising and marketing.
A broad definition of marketing: marketing is about creating value for customers and partners.
Narrow definition of marketing: marketing is the enabling and promoting the sale of products and services.
Advertising is paid, targeted communication, often on third-party channels.
To sum up: marketing is everything you do to make a customer want to and buy something from you.
What does a new business need at least from a marketing perspective?
Everything a company does is marketing. So you need everything and nothing to get started.
The customer experience goes something like this:
temptation > payment > experience > sharing experience
The necessary marketing elements include, for example:
corporate identity > ability to sell > ability to deliver a service > ability to influence the message to be shared
And in practice, these are the things that fall into these categories:
- company name
- the product or service being sold
- price
- logo
- brand colours
- brand font
- brand message
- product images
- lifestyle images
- domain
- website
- emails
- online shop
- premises
- document templates
- ads
- social media channels
- customer service channels
What should a new business invest in?
Sometimes you hear wild whispers of companies that grew into the unucorn category without any marketing at all. It’s like saying you grew six feet tall without eating any food at all – when you’ve never eaten a potato.
However, not all companies can buy a branding starter set for a couple of million from the outset. Even a few grand can seem like a lot at first. A start-up company can get an indication of the appropriate marketing budget by mirroring it against the desired turnover.
Start with these and adapt them to your own situation:
- Invest 5–10% of your first year’s desired turnover in marketing
For example, if you were to reach a turnover of €100 000, the marketing cost for a start-up would be between €5 000 and €10 000. This amount is usually enough to go stand outside the most coveted brand agency in your town.
But there is nothing wrong with advertising agencies’ pricing. They’re in business just like you are, and you may well not be a good match.
Let’s sketch out some scenarios based on how much money you have.
What can you get for €10 000?
Creativity is born in tight spots. So let’s imagine a situation where a new company wants to take off and has set aside €10 000 for marketing. So this includes creative services and an advertising budget.
Let’s split it 50/50: €5 000 for materials and €5 000 for advertising.
You’ll need at least these:
- Company name
- Logo
- Brand identity (mainly colours and fonts)
- Domain (a dozen euros)
- Website
- Branding of the premises
- Social media channels
We’ve written before about affordable logo design. The cheapest way to get one is for a handful of euros is on Fiverr, for example. In most cases, the best value for money is to commission a logo from small local private entrepreneurs.
A brand identity is more than just a logo, but they should be defined in the same package. A small local private entrepreneur can help with this too.
Set aside €2 000 for the branding.
After that, there are still major investments in physical and digital office space. Invest in what matters most to your business. We also have an article on how to create a website for new businesses, which you should read.
If you’re not really doing business with your website, a simple Squarespace page is often enough, with a price range between time and money. You can make them yourself or pay someone a few hundred (or a few thousand) to make them for you.
But if your website is at the heart of your business, save on everything else and invest in your website.
- Clear messaging
- Unique, branded images
- Fast and foolproof technical implementation
- A clear purchasing path
- Search engine optimized content
So we put €2 500 into physical and digital space. You have to cut corners, but your customers may not notice.
The remaining €500 will be spent on all the little things. The €5 000 advertising budget will be used for Google Ads, some small ads in the local newspaper and Meta post boosting.
What can you get for €100 000?
Let’s increase the budget a little and see what the marketing budget could be used for, if we don’t have to spend our own money but can use inverstor’s money instead.
With this budget, you can already hire an advertising agency or creative agency. They are professionals and you pay them to see the job through to the finish line.
- Branding: €20 000
- Web pages: €30 000
- Shoots (stills and video): 20 000 €
- Influencers: €15 000
- Launch campaign (materials and advertising): €15 000
Whoops.
The budget’s already gone.
Marketing – like any other area of business – is something that you can spend as much as you want on. There’s an old saying that half of it is wasted, but nobody knows which half.
New business marketing checklist
Let’s get back to reality. You have to skimp on everything and not much money is flowing in. The assumption is that you do a lot yourself, or that you already have someone in your company who does a lot of grassroots marketing work.
Here’s a common sense marketing checklist:
- Branding from a local advertising agency or freelancer
- Budget approx. 1 000 – 2 000 €
- Includes logo type and logo mark
- Brand colors
- Brand font
- Partner proposal: Muotkava
- Squarespace website
- Budget approx. 1 000 – 2 000 €
- Includes basic website without online shop
- Monthly fee approx. 20 €
- Partner suggestion: search online for “squarespace website for business finland” and get a quote from a few local partners.
- For photos and video: ask for a quote from Feeniks Visual, for example
- Setting up and maintaining channels
- The budget varies
- Reserve your social media channels (you just reserve the handle but don’t actually do anything)
- Maintaining important social media channels
- Partner suggestion: recruit someone from within the company or close to the company
- Setting up and maintaining advertising channels
- Meta ads (Instagram and Facebook)
- Google Ads (display and search ads)
- Start with daily budgets that are in line with the cost per customer (if you sell a service that costs €100, you can spend, say, €10 on cost-per-acquisition).
- In competitive sectors and online shopping, it pays to hire a PPC (pay per click) marketing professional to set up and optimise campaigns.
- Partner proposal: ask a few operators (for example Kuulu or Daniliants Ventures) for a quote
- Fast-track SEO visibility
- Budget: couple of hundred
- Collaborate on a partner article here on allgoodgreat (you’re here too, after all).
- For example: (your company name) + experiences or (industry + best)
- If you are near Oulu, Finland, we can throw in a photoshoot (you can buy photos for your own use for 100 €/each (+ VAT 24%)).
- Read more about partnerships
- Partner proposal: Aalho Media
Branding and messaging clarity are worth investing in up front, because you get to work on them in the early days. Other things you can build and develop as your business grows.
When business is doing great, it’s worth trying the services of more traditional advertising agencies.
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