Archive for December, 2010
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It’s Business 101: Marketing and Sales are the two forces that drive business; whether it’s a small one-person operation or a global corporation, these are the two distinct channels of reaching customer and prospects. Or at least that’s the traditional thinking…
The problem is that this traditional approach creates a rift between two forces that should be working together. Sales often thrives on relationships that may or may not be beneficial to the companies overall growth goals. Marketing, on the other hand, may be producing leads but doing very little to close sales faster or help enhance already existing relationships. Integrating the tactics of these two traditionally separate elements into an Integrated Initiative can grow your share in the markets you need to grow in and close sales faster.
The good news is that creating an Integrated Initiative can be done from almost any level of an organization and in tandem with strategic partners such as design partners, advertising channels, and lead tracking mechanisms. In closing the loop between sales and marketing, there are some key strategies that help make the transition successfully.
Recipe for Better ROI
An Integrated Initiative redefines ROI by applying marketing and sales tactics together in a coordinated effort to reach goals in specific markets. Here’s an example:
Let’s say your company has a new product release next quarter and an ad has been created for the launch. A traditional definition of ROI compares the cost of creating and placing the ad to the sales generated. If you sold more than it cost – you had a good ROI. This is an important benchmark, but let’s look how an Integrated Initiative redefines it.
In our hypothetical Integrated Initiative, the ad doesn’t just sit passively in a magazine. It becomes part of the sales cycle. Reprints of the ad are used in direct mail pieces personalized from each member of the sales force to prospects in their territories. A press release previews the product in a wider range of trade media. That press release is sent to current customers in a preview email offering them special pricing or incentives. A unique URL is created incorporating the advertisement and the press release. Customer testimonials for related products can also be posted on the site. Downloads from the site can be tracked and again fed to sales. All of these materials are also provided to the sales force for leave-behinds and tradeshow handouts. Powerpoint slides also would be created to drop into presentations.
In other words, an Integrated Initiative is a coordinated push to garner more leads, continue ongoing relationships, close sales faster, and increase sales volume in the right markets. ROI is measured not just in how well the ad worked for you, but how well you worked the ad message through every possible channel of communication with your customers and prospects.
One of my clients recently told me that, through conversations with salespeople, he learned customers often refer favorably to a customer story that appeared in a trade publication. That’s a rare compliment in this business and I’ll take it — but not without asking: “How many of your salespeople are talking favorably to your customers about that article? Are they using reprints to build relationships? Can they mail out reprints to hot prospects to help close sales?” My client simply was looking at the quantified results – customers liked the article. He wasn’t considering that his sales force might be able to add to the momentum of this positive feedback. (By the way, we did use the article and an ad in a very successful direct mail campaign that garnered significant sales within days.)
Reaching thousands in an ad is very important, but ultimately it’s a single handshake that closes a sale. Integrating advertising, marketing, and PR into the sales culture of your company backs them up both in decade-long relationships as well as initial cold calls. If a marketing message can be part of the process throughout that entire sales/marketing spectrum, increased sales will follow.
Diversify Your Toolbox
Diversity is key to an Integrated Initiative. After all, if you’re going to integrate the tools you’re using, diversifying those tools will simply give you more to work with and more opportunities to succeed.
Take advantage of new technologies to expand the tools at your disposal. For instance, you might be able to negotiate a print ad program that provides you with pdf’s of all ads and news that appears in a publication. The material cost is little or nothing for the magazine, and it provides the sales force with an easily emailed piece to customers and prospects.
Another example is packaging editorial consultation with an advertising program. Advertising in a special issue focusing on a key market could warrant a conference between sales, marketing, and magazine editorial staff to preview the issue and offer perspectives on that market. A direct mail piece to a select list of readers/customers for that issue with a letter from regional sales personnel further concentrates efforts to target markets and helps boost the advertising impact.
In this case, advertising, public relations, direct mail and sales are all part of a loop that will ultimately reach prospects from several different angles. This in turn draws in leads and tightens sales cycles.
While these tools are not necessarily free, they are comparatively inexpensive. More importantly, they add significant value to elements that are already in place such as advertising and PR. Diversifying tactics is simply realizing the full value of core markets and sales tools that already exist.
Repetition Isn’t Always Bad
Repetition is known to be a highly effective means of communication. It’s how we learn as children and it’s how we remember as adults. An integrated marketing program ensures that your message is penetrating markets with repetition. If you have a customer testimonial program, for instance, reference those customers in press releases, trade show literature, your web site, industry speeches, annual reports, and ads. Even incorporate them as talking points in sales pitches and presentations.
Repetition such as this ensures that your message to market gains traction at every contact with customers and potential customers. Often, this is a simple, easily implemented element that can serve as a good first step to integrating a marketing program.
Close the Loop – Close Sales
Putting together an Integrated Initiative that intelligently closes the loop between marketing and sales harnesses the power of each and delivers results greater than the sum of its parts. More importantly, it refocuses the attention on the larger goal of strategic growth. Careful planning and execution are necessary (no one said it was easy to have each piece of an organization rethink its role) but the rewards can be an overall sales/marketing organization focused on the same set of priorities at the same time. In other words, by closing the loop, closes sales. And that’s good for everyone.
About ABI
Founded in 1980, ABI, Inc. specializes exclusively in business-to-business marketing public relations. ABI provides global market support services to companies in diverse industrial and technology market segments. Offices in New York, London, and Singapore provide rapid response to business and publicity opportunities for clients.
For more information on ABI please call James Krouse, Director ABI Europe at +44 207 031 4411 or visit http://www.abipr.com/
James Krouse has worked in marketing public relations for over 10 years. He has worked with business-to-business companies implementing marketing communication strategies that bring together public relations, direct mail, trade shows, and direct selling.
Mr. Krouse is currently the director of ABI Europe — part of ABI, a marketing public relations firm with offices in New York, London and Singapore
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Marketing is not rocket science. Anyone can do it and within any budget, even zero dollars. Marketing successfully, however, and maximizing your efforts, does require a certain amount of knowledge, research, planning and preparation. Marketing in the dark (without doing your homework) is both foolish and costly. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners have a minimal, if any, marketing budget. Choosing the right marketing strategies, form and placement is essential for both short- and long-term success.
Knowing how and where to market is only part of the equation. It must be combined with a clear understanding of why you are marketing and why a specific strategy is being used.
Each of the steps below can be performed individually, and should be used often. The knowledge you will gain about your self, business and market is invaluable. When these steps are combined, you have a recipe for successful marketing that will stand the test of time, even in changing markets. Use the 5 Easy Steps to Successful Marketing to develop marketing plans, campaigns, product promotions, marketing strategies and more to meet your specific business goals.
- Start with a goal. Before embarking on any marketing endeavor define what you’re selling and the desired end result or goal.
- Identify your market, or target audience. Who needs or uses your product or service?
- Flush out where your market is hiding. Combine research and creativity to discover the whereabouts of your market, or target audience.
- Strategize how to reach your market. Be careful not to let your circumstances drive this step so you can discover many ways to reach your market.
- Choose one or more strategies and begin marketing. Considerations may be timing, inventory, seasonal uses, cost, and so on.
© 2006 Gabrielle Melisende. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author credit and follow all of EzineArticles publishing guidelines.
Gabrielle Melisende, founder and creative director of Destination Graphix, offers affordable creative and editorial solutions for print and web design, advertising and marketing strategies helping businesses educate, promote and sell their products and services. She writes and designs Eye On Leander (dist. 14,000), a business publication for The Leander Business Circle promoting economic development in the city of Leander, Texas. Her industry experience includes publishing, commercial printing, high-tech engineering, entertainment (music), performing arts, construction, and business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketing and advertising design and copy for print and web. Visit http://www.destinationgraphix.com for more information and to read what customers are saying.
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Why Businesses Need Marketing Consultants Even During a Recession
Smart businesses know that clever and effective marketing is the key to success during both good and bad economic times. The problem is that many businesses are finding it hard to adapt their marketing strategies to today’s economic climate.
This is not surprising as successful marketing especially in a recession requires detailed marketing knowledge and experience that many businesses don’t have. Investing in good marketing consultants can help businesses reconnect with their customers or clients and promote their products/services more effectively.
This article provides a brief overview covering the following:
o What marketing consultants are
o What can businesses expect from a marketing consultant
o How they can help businesses during a recession
o What to look for when choosing a marketing consultant
What are Marketing Consultants?
A marketing consultant is a trained professional or company who can assist a business or organisation in creating and implementing effective marketing strategies to promote their products or services.
A trained marketing consultant should be able to view things from the target audience’s perspective including how they think and react to a business’s products or services.
Good marketing consultants are certainly worth the investment since they can handle all of a business’s marketing requirements leaving the client free to focus on other important business needs.
Whether a business is just starting up or has been trading for some time an experienced consultant can assist them in investing their marketing budgets wisely and creating strategies that working both in the short and long term to meet and in some cases exceed their expectations.
So what should you expect from your marketing consultant?
A good marketing consultant should:
o be experts in a number of marketing techniques and strategies
o provide creative, fresh and successful marketing strategies that are tailored to the businesses goals and target audiences
o assess current marketing strategies, identifying problems and suitable solutions
o handle any issues or problems that may arise during a recommended marketing campaign quickly and efficiently
o collate and analysis marketing data including providing campaign reports
o be in regular communication with the client being able to listen as well as make suggestions
How can Marketing Consultants can help businesses during a recession?
Recession is a difficult time for business suddenly customers aren’t as willing to part with their money as they used to be, plus existing marketing campaigns may have become much less effective.
What is often needed is a fresh approach, but where to start? No business wants to start risking their marketing budgets testing different strategies until they find the ones that work. What they need is someone who has the expertise to access the current situation and experience to suggest proven marketing solutions.
This is where a good marketing consultant or company can really help, finding ways to make marketing budgets stretch further and work more effectively to improve business ROI.
Yes hiring marketing consultants is an addition cost that needs to be carefully considered, but surviving a recession is not just about cutting costs it’s about using resources wisely. Investing in a consultant can help businesses review their current marketing identifying areas where resources could be saved and where existing or extra resources should be placed for maximum results.
What should I look for in a marketing consultant?
Hiring a marketing consultant can bring a business valuable expertise and a fresh successful approach to their marketing efforts; however, as with any industry it’s important to pick the right consultant for the job.
The following are a few points to consider when selecting a marketing consultant or firm:
o Recommendations – Make sure the consultant or firm can provide client recommendations. Ask for a list of current clients who can be contacted for references.
o Compare – It’s worth getting in contact with several different consultants and comparing them not only on price, but also experience and service. The right consultant is not always the cheapest or most expensive, but often the most experienced.
o Research – Do some independent research on marketing consultants. Businesses can use the internet to research individual consultants or companies and check if there are any complaints or issues they need to be aware of. Even the best companies may have disputes from time to time so if there are complaints businesses should try to find out more about them and how they were resolved.
o Rapport – It’s important to have a good working relationship with your marketing consultant. You want someone who will listen to you and communicate on a regular basis. If you have doubts about their ability to communicate with you then its best to look for another consultant.
o Creativity – Part of the job of a marketing consultant will be to come up with fresh new ideas and strategies and this requires creativity. If the consultant or firm don’t seem very creative or lacking in ideas you need to look elsewhere.
o Multiple Strategies – Never put rely on just one marketing strategy. Look for consultants who will offer a number of carefully planned strategies that can be put to the test and provide clear results in both the short and long term.
No one can be an expert on everything and in business it’s important to recognise an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and use them accordingly. Marketing is a specialist field and it is unlikely that most businesses will have individuals with all the expertise needed in this area so hiring a marketing consultant or firm provides an excellent solution.
However, it’s important for businesses to approach hiring a marketing consultant carefully, taking the time to find the right consultant for them to ensure their business is successful not only today, but long into the future.
Recession is a difficult time for everyone, but by spending marketing resources wisely and getting the right expert help many businesses can actually become stronger and more successful.
Hedley Basford skilled and experienced marketing consultants are committed to making your business more successful by offering you a personal service with honesty and integrity.
E SPOT PROMO VIDEO
Well, the New Year is upon us and that means it’s time for a fresh start. Time to set new goals. Time to get excited about all the possibilities for our business. Time to put the wheels in motion on all our new product and service ideas. And time to get down to the business of marketing our business.
So … are you ready? Ready to launch a fresh marketing attack for the new year? Before you rush out and just start marketing, here are 10 steps to take first to ensure your marketing gets you the results you want. Take the time to take these 10 steps now and you’ll reap the rewards all year long.
1) Review your results from last year
If you haven’t done so yet, now’s a great time to review last year’s results. Take a look at your financial reports. How does each month measure up against the marketing you did? Look at your most successful months and take note of the marketing you did to generate those sales. Review your marketing tracking reports, too, to determine what worked well and what fell short of delivering the results you wanted.
2) Create a clear vision for your business
What kind of success do you want to create with your business this year? How does it compare with your vision for last year? Take last year’s learning and experience and create a new and improved vision for the coming year.
3) Set new goals for the year, based on your vision
Once you’ve clarified your vision and the success you want to achieve, write down a few goals that represent your vision. For example, your goals may include launching an ezine, creating and offering new products or services, how big you want your business to become or how and where you want to work.
4) Establish at least one, measurable objective for the year
Out of your vision and goals, write down one objective that you can easily measure. Your objective may represent how much revenue you want to generate or how many clients you’d like to have or how many hours per week you want to work.
5) Compare last year’s goals and results, with this year’s goals
If you were in business last year, you have a track record for the marketing you did and the results you achieved. Use last year’s track record as a benchmark to help you create this year’s marketing plan. Scale your marketing up or down to help you reach this year’s goals.
6) Ditch, or revamp, the marketing activities that didn’t deliver last year
If you tracked your marketing and results, it should be very clear which marketing activities generated the biggest results and which ones fell short. Now’s the time to take a good hard look at those that didn’t deliver and either make them over for 2006, or drop them from your plan. If you didn’t track last year, make a note to do so this year.
7) Beef up the marketing activities that worked well
Hopefully at least one thing you did last year worked well. Now’s the time to consider spending more time and energy on this activity to see if you can generate an even greater return.
Add new marketing activities to replace those you retire
If you’ve chosen to retire a few marketing activities, replace them with something new. Consider other ways you can reach your ideal clients and build these into your new plan.
9) Create your marketing calendar for the year
Once you’ve decided what you want to do this year to market your business, map it all out on a 12-month calendar. This will help ensure you’re covered all year long and it will make it easier to manage your marketing tasks.
10) Create a corresponding marketing budget
Assign dollar amounts to every marketing activity you have scheduled and create a marketing budget to help you manage your cash flow throughout the year. Now’s the time to make sure you’ve got the budget available to support the marketing you have planned, and if necessary, scale up or back your goals and your plan to fit the budget you have available.
Once your plan is done, it’s time to get working on all those activities you have scheduled. If you stay on top of your marketing calendar and activities every month, you’ll find it a lot easier to manage and you’ll start seeing your goals and vision come true as the year progresses.
(C) Copyright 2006 Debbie LaChusa
Debbie LaChusa is the founder and president of DLC Marketing, Inc. and The National Association of Home-Based Business Moms. She is also the author of The Career-at-Home Mom: Secrets for Earning a Six-Figure Income While Having Time for Your Family. She’s a marketing and home-based business coach and international speaker who has shared the stage with celebrity teachers from “The Secret.” You can register for Debbie’s free special report, “Why Marketing Isn’t Enough” and get a complimentary subscription to her ezine, Stepping Up! at http://www.debbielachusa.com
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Columbus AMA April 2010 Luncheon.AVI
Are you a mastermind marketing genius or are the marketing techniques you use as old as a mummy in a tomb. Do you know what the latest marketing tools are that are helping businesses thrive and building them to last? We are going to test your knowledge and see what you know. Answer these 7 questions and get a pen and paper as you will be grading yourself on your skill level. This will help you identify whether you are a marketing mastermind or whether you are a marketing mummy.
Do you have a marketing plan? My business has a marketing plan that we look at and update yearly. We utilize our resources in marketing strategies that produce low cost and high profits. We are always open to marketing strategies that will produce wealth fast and keep our company growing. Grade yourself 1 to 10 (10 being highest)
Do you employ the marketing strategy that keeps your company safe during all economic conditions? I use joint venture marketing strategies with my company because they keep my risk low, costs low and profits high. I bulletproof my business using this cooperative marketing strategy. I have learned to do a proper joint venture. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Do you no longer use competitive marketing strategies? I no longer use competitive marketing. I understand that everyday entrepreneurs create win/win business deals where everyone gains. I know this is called cooperative marketing. I understand that the dog eat dog marketing tactics is the “old way” of doing business. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Do you use cooperative marketing strategies? I utilize cooperative marketing strategies where I work together with other entrepreneurs who once were considered competition. We only create win/win business deals and use the joint venture structure to conduct our business strategy. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Do you grow both of your networks? I understand in a cooperative marketing model that I must build both of my networks. I understand that my network = my net worth. I belong to a community of entrepreneurs who utilize joint venture marketing strategies to create products, customers and sales with. I have access to this network 24 hours a day. I have global community because my network extends around the world. I also grow my customer network and service them with consistent customer care. I gather testimonials and listen to my customers concerns openly. I look for products that benefit my clients. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Do you have a place you can go to get new clients? When I need new clients I utilize my business community network and am introduced to someone who has a big data base full of thousands of people and is looking for a new product to market to that data base. We create a joint venture and I provide that new product. I receive new clients as well as splitting the profits between myself and my business colleague. I joint venture twice a month so that I build my business quickly. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Do you keep track of when the last joint venture marketing strategy was done with your colleague so you know when to do another Joint Venture? I keep track of when my last joint venture was done with my colleague so that I can schedule the next joint venture and work on creating a new product with them. Grade yourself 1 to 10
Grade yourself 7 to 55 then you are a mummy who may want to learn more about how cooperative marketing strategies can benefit your business. However, 70 is the highest score which means you are a marketing mastermind and know that the cooperative marketing strategies such as joint ventures are what is here now and will be for a long time in the future. You are utilizing powerful connections that can transform your business overnight.
Vickie Jimenez is the author of “Champgane thoughts and Caviar power The Science of Results Oriented Thinking” and has over 20 years in the Personal Development field. She is an expert in personal and business mind set performance as well as work enviornment management. She is a speaker, corporate trainer and the CEO of Success Systems Seminars. She teaches companies and individuals how to raise accountability and performance through self-command. increasing production, revenues, culture, sales and career satifaction. To learn more visit http://privatejvclub.info or http://successsystemsnow.com
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Columbus AMA April 2010 Luncheon.AVI
Have you asked a Marketing Agency to quote you for drawing up a Marketing Plan recently? If, like me, you own a small business, then it is hard to justify spending the £600 a day I was asked for here in Britain. I have to watch my bottom line like a hawk, especially in the difficult-trading-conditions we seem to be in. But here is a dilemma! A Marketing Plan is a really essential tool that will show a small business owner where their business is and map out where it needs to go. It is vital in today’s competitive environment that even small business should have one.
When you overdraft or financing facilities come up for renewal and your bank manager has to justify lending the bank’s money to your business, think how much easier it would be to convince him to continue backing you with a plan laid out in neat systematic form.
It is probably the case that far too many small companies don’t have a Marketing Plan, or the owner has it locked in his head. A place of storage that is really difficult to access when you need to show it to the potential investor or the bank manager. And inevitably this event usually occurs when you are really busy and committing your plan to paper, or computer file, is added pressure that you really could do with out. I run a small retail business – an independent bookshop and a Collectables gift business on the Internet.
Recently I studied for, and obtained, the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing’s “Professional Diploma in Marketing” by doing a convergent learning course on the net and in four intensive workshop days in my local town. It brought home to me that what we did in our own business was fine up to a point. As the course was very practical, with the chance to use any organisation of the student’s choice in the assignments that we had to submit, I ended up formally setting down the Marketing Plan on paper, that had been up there in my head for no one to see!
So what is a Marketing Plan for?
Well, its purpose is to lay down, direct and co-ordinate all your marketing activities and events. Think of it as a map. With a map it is easier to get some place. With a marketing plan it is easier to get the business to where you want it to head. This is, hopefully, to huge profits!
Perhaps you are the owner or director of a company seeking backing or further investment? Well a good marketing plan can be really important in attracting new investment or better bank facilities.
Perhaps you need help in making choices regarding which parts of the market to focus on and how to compete in that target market (Marketing Strategy)?
Often the mere process of preparing a marketing plan will help you to develop a successful marketing strategy through the discipline and process that you go through.
A good marketing plan will describe all the marketing actions to be carried out within a specific time period. It will contain details of your company, its products or services, its marketing objectives and strategies and information on how to measure the results of the marketing activities.
It might help if I give you a framework of basic elements that a Marketing Plan should include.
Basic Elements of a Marketing Plan
So what do you need?
1.Executive Summary – introduces and explains the major features and recommendations to executives (or your bank manager).
1.1 Introduction – a brief description of your organisation, its products and or services.
The context and objectives of the plan should be described and a description of what your business activities are. You should include current revenues, customers and your market position. You can also blow your own trumpet here! Note your accomplishments and successes to date.
If it is a new market entry or entirely new markets you are going for, then here is the place to describe any experience, training or competencies that your company has.
1.2 Vision, Mission Statement and Objectives
Mission statements focus on the long-range purpose of your marketing plan.
“To educate entertain and enlighten our clients so that they become more successful Marketers.”
Company objectives should be more specific and oriented towards action.
“We will deliver a balanced range of Marketing Solution Publications to the U.K. and Europe through mail order and Internet.”
1.3 Team description
Who will deliver the plan? What are the resources and structure of the team who will do so?
Management skills and capabilities. List any Marketing knowledge, sales skills, copy-writing ability, etc.
Agencies – Include any Marketing consultants, PR agencies you are using.
If there are any gaps honestly point them out and do a Training Needs Analysis.
1.4 Main marketing objectives
You need only give a brief statement of these here to close the Executive summary.
2.1 Current market conditions
What are the trends in your market?
What are the dynamics facing businesses such as yours?
Who are your target customers?
What competition do you face?
2.2 Market trends:
You should describe the macroeconomic trends that directly affect the target market that your marketing plan is aimed at.
This is where the PEST Framework is useful to include. (Sometimes referred to as PESTEL, SLEPT or PESTE) the components are:
Political
Economic
Social
Technological
Environment
Legal
2.3 Target market
It goes without saying that you should be aiming all your marketing efforts precisely at a target market or you are heading for a disaster.
All good marketing planning should follow from a very detailed segmentation of the market.
Size? Is it growing, staying the same, or shrinking?
Customer characteristics e.g. age, sex, income level, location, marital status, number of children etc.
Habits, patterns and values of target customer.
What are their wants, needs and desires?
What are their buying habits? – How do they spend their disposable income and when do they buy and how do they buy? How many times and when?
2.4 Competition analysis
In the micro environment analysis of a Marketing Audit you will hopefully have identified your present and potential competitors. What are their key products / services? How do they differentiate them selves? You should briefly explain the actions that you will take to oppose or overcome your competitor’s offerings.
I highly recommend you use Professor Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model for this and the four other threats he identifies. Space does not allow me to go into detail here although I have written a more comprehensive report in which I include a diagram of the Five Forces Model available from my own website.
2.5 Issues analysis
You should briefly list such key external issues as government legislation affecting your business, or new technological development that impinges on your product.
3.1 SWOT analysis
Strengths
Weakness
Opportunities
Threats
A major component of any marketing plan is the SWOT analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are born of internal elements while opportunities and threats come from outside.
When opportunities and threats are recognised they can then be examined from the point of view of your product strengths and weaknesses.
What could we change or improve about our product to make it easier for the customer?
What are our customers’ wants and desires? – We may possibly find new opportunities by thinking about such questions.
It is worth remembering that a threat can also be an opportunity to you, while a strength may also be a weakness depending on your point of view!
A business offering a vast selection of products may see this as one of their strengths. But for the customer, confused by the bewildering array of options as they try to find what they need, sees it as a weakness.
4. Positioning Strategy
Decide how you want your clients to perceive you in your marketplace.
Lowest price?
Best service?
Highest quality?
This is all part of the differentiation process.
5. Differentiation
You want to ’stand out from the crowd’ so you need to make some decisions on segmentation and the positioning of your business. Combine this with your competitive analysis and you should be able to differentiate yourself from the competition.
6. Key messages
Thinking about differentiation should also help you to decide on your ‘Key messages’. Be warned that it usually takes time for these to make an impact, to ’sink in’, as it were. This means it is important to keep repeating your consistent messages throughout any marketing campaigns.
7. The Marketing Mix
The 4 P’s.P is for:
Product – List your companies products and services. Include their key features. Is there something unique about them? If you are launching a new product or service include it here.
Price – There are many ways to set a price, some more scientific than others are! Remember that pricing is an integral part of the marketing strategy. Ask yourself is the customer willing to pay the price proposed and will it give you any profit? Some prices may be set on a cost-plus basis – adding a profit on to the costs of producing the goods or services. A better way is the ‘market-based’ price because it takes into account what your competitors are charging.
Place – where do you sell? Direct, through an intermediary? Bricks and mortar or virtual outlet?
Promotion – what activities are you going to use to create awareness of your product or service to generate sales? This is also referred to as Marketing Communications and includes direct selling, corporate events, brochures, web-sites, advertising. You should be warned that many inexperienced marketers think that the promotional plan is the entire marketing plan. It is, as you can see, but one component of the marketing plan.
7a. Integration of Promotional activity
Have you got a consistent look and feel to all your marketing mix? It is wise to make sure all your communications, brand positioning, propositions, messages, etc are derived from a single brand position so it is not confusing to the consumer by being fragmented. Also are there cross selling opportunities for you to exploit?
Only 4 Ps? – Funny, I thought I heard there were 7!
Before leaving the marketing mix I need to tell you about the Extended mix, which adds People, Process and Physical evidence to Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
If you are a service, or a not-for-profit organisation, then the extra three Ps are most important for you. But don’t just assume that because you are not, that they don’t apply!
People oriented organisations have to consider how their personnel make the marketing activities more, or less, effective when dealing face to face (or on the phone) with their public.
Process makes it easy for you to deal with the organisation. If it is a charity, for example, today people expect to be able to go on-line, set up direct-debits, pay by card and not just put money in the street collectors tin.
Physical evidence is expected to result from paying for a service or donating to a charity. You expect to see some physical evidence of the use your money has been put to.
8. Marketing Budget
You need a detailed budget for the next year showing the budgeted costs for each of your promotional items.
9. Measurement
Results and feed back must be gathered each month and compared with the marketing plan. When they are going astray you need to take corrective action.
Another tip is to ask your customers how they found you so that you can monitor what parts of your communications plan are working. Note this and include this in your measurements.
10. Milestones
It is a good idea to announce in the plan some marketing milestones you will strive to achieve. When you pass them celebrate!
So there it is a step by step process to create yourself a professional Marketing plan.
“A Marketing Plan to Copy” a more detaled report, is also available from the author, Nicholas Thorne, at http://www.promarketer.co.uk You see the marketing theory and models to use, plus a Free template and a copyright-free cut and paste plan. Nicholas Thorne holds a degree in Business Studies and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the United Kingdom. He is a business man with interests in bricks-and-mortar retail as well as on the Internet.
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The world of marketing has changed. With increasingly better educated and more skeptical consumers, marketing methods must be increasingly accountable.
Questions being asked by CEOs and business owners from the largest companies through to the smallest solo operators include:
· How can you be more confident about your ability to quantify your return on your marketing investment?
· How can you prove the effectiveness of your marketing?
· How can you define, measure and take action on your return on investment?
· How can you match your marketing to meet your corporate goals and expectations?
· How can you predict what would happen to sales if the marketing budget were cut?
· How can you forecast the impact of your marketing program on your sales?
· How can you integrate modern marketing methods into your existing marketing plans?
· How can you convince your boss that marketing does deliver measurable results?
· How can you convince your boss to increase and not decrease your marketing budget?
One of the emerging tools that answers these questions is viral marketing. Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence
Word of mouth marketing and personal referrals or recommendations from peers are the most powerful marketing tools. Email and the Internet have extended this by providing technology that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message’s visibility and effect.
A sort of word of mouse!
And this is easily measured through using web statistics and sales data. So how do you get results by your customers, clients, subscribers or program members promoting your service for you?
Here are five easy ways to turbo-charge your viral marketing efforts and quickly spread enthusiasm about your product or service.
1. Collaborate With Thought-leaders In Select “Communities” of Influence
The more influential the group and aligned with your target market, the more likely you are to have success. This requires research, communication and understanding of your target market and affiliated, or potentially affiliated, businesses.
2. Offer An Incentive
Most people are motivated by rational self-interest. Offer something they really want like a holiday, free knowledge or education, discounts, or package deals. Just as your company will benefit from their involvement, offer a benefit in return.
3. Follow-up With A Personal Approach
Relationships are always strengthened by personal interaction. Often your emailed expression of interest or offer may be one of thousands received daily by a company. A follow up phone-call or meeting will develop a more personal relationship and strengthen your company’s involvement. This also allows time to negotiate with the company directly and better identify with their needs.
4. Make It Immediate
Viral marketing works when you consider news values such as drama, consequence and immediacy. Be aware of what’s happening in the community and the world and try to tie in with recent dramas.
An example of effective viral marketing in the wake of the London bombings is demonstrated by the following email widely distributed around the world:
“Hi All,
Don’t usually forward emails but thought this may be a good idea.
Following the disaster in London . . .
East Anglican Ambulance Service have launched a national “In case of Emergency (ICE ) ” campaign with the support of Falklands war hero Simon Weston.
The idea is that you store the word ” I C E ” in your mobile phone Address book, and against it enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted “In Case of Emergency”.
In an emergency situation ambulance and hospital staff will then be able to quickly find out who your next of kin are and be able to contact them.
It’s so simple that everyone can do it. Please do.
Please will you also email this to everybody in your address book, it won’t take too many ‘forwards’ before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest.
For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc.”
By acting on the incident, viral marketing has spread this message quickly, and cheaply, around the globe.
5. Make It Interesting To Create Buzz
We have become rather immune to a number of tactics commonly used to generate attention. Spam emails, free offers etc. are often overlooked in a sea of similar materials received daily. Always think outside the box in order to make and impact.
A good example of this is the recent US made TV commercial featuring Paris Hilton for a burger chain.
PR expert Don Crowther said recently “it cost the chain eight to ten million dollars to air the commercial, plus, probably another million or two in production, Paris’s fees, and website production fees.
But what did it do for sales? Same store sales revenues at Carl’s Jr. increased only 1.7%, at Hardee’s just 0.7%.
Sounds like a great investment to me – Spend 8 to 12 million dollars, get back $1.1 million in sales.”
On positive side Don adds “the ad has generated a significant amount of controversy, a reported 802% increase in web searches (though I seriously question how many people were coming to the Carl’s Junior and Hardee’s sites before…), 4 million hits on the spicyparis website, free showings on news shows, several petitions against it, and some franchisers refusing to run the ad.
So, unquestionably, it generated buzz.”
Whether scandal, drama or incentives are being utilised it is important to capitalise in order to make your viral marketing effective, measurable and noticed.
Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.
You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com. Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com.
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