’tis the Season for Marketing Planning

October 3rd, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (2 Comments)

For many businesses, the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year. For others, the holidays are a bit slower. Regardless of which category your business fits into, you should be looking ahead to 2008.

Why now? Year end is ideal for reflecting on what you’ve accomplished during the year. What new products, services or programs did you implement? What customer service strategies did you employ that increased business? Which marketing strategies successfully put your business in front of your target customer, and what didn’t work and why?

Armed with this information, take a look at your goals for next year. What do you want your business to accomplish next year? Do you want to increase revenue? Grow your client base? Venture into a new niche market? Now think about how you’re going to get there. This is where your marketing planning for 2008 comes in. Spend some time thinking about what marketing tools you can implement next year that will help you to reach your goals.

Although some marketing planning techniques are complex and require weeks to fine-tune, I’ve found that a simpler method works for my clients. To develop a marketing plan that will work for your business, try the following.

First, identify the types of marketing you want to do next year such as advertising (print and online), events, promotions, referral programs, newsletters, press releases, coupons, online marketing, direct mail, e-mail marketing, etc. Choose methods that have worked well for you in the past as well as ideas you’d like to try.

Next, decide how often you will do each type of marketing. Some methods like advertising, newsletters, and online marketing will require consistent use and implementation to be successful. Others (press releases, events and promotions) can be done less frequently or can be implemented when you’re expecting a cyclical slowdown in activity.

Third, pull out your calendar and start penciling in marketing ideas. As you tentatively post items to your calendar, consider what marketing methods are going to yield the best results. Most of my business, for example, comes from my website and client referrals, so I want to focus my efforts on posting new content to my website, networking with potential business partners and clients, and regularly communicating with my existing client base (newsletters, postcards, referral program, etc.)

Here’s a sample to get you started:

January: Send cards to clients thanking them for 2007 business and wishing them well in the New Year (2nd) Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

February: Hold customer appreciation open house (5th) Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

March: Distribute press release about latest award won or new product/service launched Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

Now compare your ideas and your initial marketing schedule to your budget and staff. Can you afford to do all of the marketing you’d like to do? If not, scale back the list. Retain items that will most often put you in front of your target customer and that offer the best return on your investment. If you have a wildly successful year, it is much easier to add a marketing tool than to take one away, especially if your customers have gotten used to it.

Based on what’s left on your list, do you have the staff to implement your ideas? For example, who will write your monthly newsletter? Who will make sure postcards get mailed to prospects, and how will you get website content updated regularly? If you don’t have the staff or you are a one-man show, can you hire an intern to help out, exchange services with a colleague or hire an independent contractor to fill in the gaps?

Finally, review your 2008 marketing plan on a quarterly basis to see what’s working and what may need tweaking. The document can be adjusted as needed, depending on your changing needs. As you evaluate your plan, be sure to note which marketing methods worked well for your business and which ideas didn’t yield the expected results. Keep this in a folder marked “2008 Marketing Results.” Also, note the items that you would like to try and save them in a folder marked “Marketing Ideas.” This information will help you to plan for subsequent years.

For small businesses, this simple marketing planning formula is an easy way for you to look ahead to 2008 without distracting you from the holiday business at hand.

Here’s to an incredibly successful 2008!

Virtually Yourz,

Dana Blozis

Copyright © 2007 by Dana E. Blozis

Dana Blozis of Virtually Yourz is a freelance writer, editor and marketing professional based in the Seattle area. In addition to writing for publication, she offers writing, editing and marketing services to small businesses and nonprofits. For more marketing ideas, subscribe to Dana’s monthly marketing newsletter.

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Marketing Plan Blueprint: Do you Really Have One?

October 2nd, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

In conducting workshops, speaking and working with clients there is a great deal of confusion about marketing vs. selling. Many business owners mistake marketing with the process of going to the market to sell your service or product. As a result very few small business owners have a written marketing plan. In the competitive and crowed market place many of us operate in the lack of a plan is a recipe for FAILURE!

So what is a marketing plan? It is a well thought out written document that is a roadmap to drive your activities that result in securing new clients. Without a precise evalutation of exactly what is your target market, what they desire and how to differentiate your company from the competition, your business will get lost in the crowd. This leads to an anemic prospect pipeline and inability to achieve your goals.

If one wants to construct a more complete marketing plan, her is a sample of the questions to ask yourself:

What need in the market place are we fulfilling?

What need or desire is not being met by our competitors?

How can we position ourselves to meet this need?

Do we have a clear concise plain language message?

What specific niche or market are we serving?

How do I identify and communicate our unique difference?

How do I package my business?

Do I really have a ‘system” for lead generation?

The answers to these questions and many others can change the entire face of your business. One example is in networking. The most frequent complaint is ” I go to all these events and meet a lot of people but it rarely brings me any business.” What can we expect, if we have not answered the questions above and have not identified our market then how can we expect potential prospects or networking partners to do that?

One other important challenge is that most small businesses do not have a broad marketing action plan to build their awareness. Most of their marketing is what I call “me too” marketing which is simply copying what everyone else is doing and is not working. A solid and successful action plan can only be built after answering the key questions above. While this process can be time consuming the return on investment will be extraordinary.

In summary, if you want to make a significant leap forward in your business then begin by developing a written marketing plan.

David Eissman founder of Guaranteed Growth Systems and the creator of the Growth Accelerator System – “The fuel to get you there faster “teaches business owners and independent professionals how to create a step by step lead generation and sales conversion system resulting in increased revenue and profits. For FREE content rich information on how to accelerate the growth of your business visit, http://www.GuaranteedGS.com

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Creating a Marketing Plan

October 2nd, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

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One of the most important aspects of making your business successful is creating an effective marketing plan. The type of business you have will have a part to play in the actual marketing plan and how you present it to prospects. You may choose from many different options including video presentations, brochures, custom poster printing, billboards, and media coverage. The size of your marketing budget also has some effect on the marketing plan you utilize. The higher your marketing budget, the more options you have in the creation of a marketing plan. If you are on a limited budget you may need to substitute custom poster printing for color poster printing or even black and white poster printing. Though not as eye-catching as some other marketing plans, the overall effect will be the same.

It will help you develop a creative marketing plan if you look at some of the advertising ploys that are being used currently and have been used effectively in recent months. That doesn’t mean you want to use the same idea, but you want to take the advertising schemes that have appealed to a large audience and create your own plan using a similar concept. We have heard talking cars, talking sandwiches, dancing animals, and much more. All of these are effective in their time and for the product for which they were intended, but they will not work if they are used over and over. Even old campaigns will not work if they are brought back to life again—would the Life Cereal commercial with Mikey work today? Probably not because time has passed and concepts that once worked are no longer effective.

One plan you might want to try is using color poster printing to draw your target audience to a video display you have created on your website. Don’t present the entire marketing plan in your poster printing but give prospects enough of a glimpse to make them want to see more. The entire purpose of any marketing plan is to inspire prospects to look at what you have to offer—to try your products or services. It is proven that people in general are more drawn to a visual concept of an offering which is why television advertising is more effective than radio advertising.

Animated creations will also appeal to your target audience more than posters and sales letter. That doesn’t mean you have to create a video with animated characters but having a video with movement and talking will be more effective than printed material alone. You can use the printed products to entice your audience to watch the presentation you have prepared to support your products or services, but giving them something to which they can relate or that they can watch will keep their attention focused for a longer time.

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Visit these sites for more information on custom poster printing, poster printing and color poster printing

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Free Sample Marketing Plan to Develop a Successful Online Business

October 2nd, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

This sample marketing plan will show you how to get your new online business off to a great start by preparing for marketing, establishing your website in the marketplace and then to penetrate the market.

Most sample marketing plans I’ve come across so far have everything backwards.

Plans like that do not work because you cannot just set up an expensive website, with an expensive advertising campaign, with the hope that your product will sell. Find out first if there is enough demand to keep you going (even in the leanest times – or have a backup plan) BEFORE you go and blast away all your money on empty promises.

Let’s look at the key components of our sample marketing plan:

1.  Market Research

A) Target Market: “My site will cater for Chefs”

First, focus on finding a niche that will create good demand for different profitable products. Do some internet traffic research using relevant keywords for the niche market that you are interested to sell to. Only once you found a profitable niche market can you research a profitable product for that specific niche.

It is better for a new business to start off using keywords with less competition first, to give you a head-start in your ratings.

This strategy will save you a lot of money and your efforts will have greater impact.

B) They will need, knives, spatulas, pots, pans..

If you are happy that the niche market you want to sell to has enough profit potential, and you have double checked that it receives a lot of visitor attention, you can continue to step 2. If not, find and research a different niche market. It’s no use starting of with a bang if that market is dead and doomed from the beginning.

For example: It’s like still trying to sell one of those old cassette tape decks, but everyone is only interested in mp3 players nowadays.

2. Objective: “The profits will finance a new kitchen”

What is your objective from using this marketing plan? Make enough money to pay for college or replace your salary? Be able to stop the commute to work and rather work from home? Only work on your website as a hobby? Spend 2 hours a week on your site?

Pick a specific objective, and set a S.M.A.R.T target.

(S – Specific, M – Measurable, A – Achievable, R – Realistic, T – Timed)

Don’t be vague like: “I want to make as much money as possible”

It’s easier to achieve specific goals.

3. “$1000 will be used for advertising”

Setting a budget is a very important step. There are a vast amount of ways to drive traffic to your website. Some are free, some affordable and some are expensive.

Calculate and then decide what amount of money you have available and this will help you to determine what tools and strategies you need to use to drive traffic to your website.

4. Tools: “Hand me the eggs and onions, please”

Invest in the necessary tools that you need to promote your website. For example: you must be able to capture leads and follow-up with your prospects. Get a reliable auto responder for this purpose.

You must also be able to research new keywords with ease, monitor your site in different ways and track the source and behavior of visitors.

5. Goals and Strategies: “Queen to H2, Checkmate!”

Decide what your short term and long term goals and strategies are going to be.

The quickest and easiest but expensive way to generate traffic and leads for any business is pay per click (PPC) advertising because it can bring you immediate results.

PPC can also help you drive targeted traffic to your website. The downside of this strategy is that when you have no money to advertise, you also have no traffic.

Pay per click marketing can only be considered as a short-term solution for generating targeted traffic and leads fast, but it is also one of the most expensive ways to advertise your business.

However, if you also use other marketing strategies it will generate traffic to your website in the long term. This can be accomplished with very low or even no cost at all.

It is therefore important to have other affordable, but very effective ways of generating traffic to your website, sending traffic to your site in the long term. Article marketing, blogging and forum participation are some of these less costly ways of generating traffic to your website.

Make the most from your marketing efforts by implementing the steps given in the sample marketing plan.

Read more Internet Marketing articles and get more info about Marion at get-that-click.com

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How An Internet Marketing Plan Template Assures Immediate Income

October 1st, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

The Internet holds many promises of providing long term income for thousands or even millions of people around the world, if they have the knowledge of how to leverage online tools effectively. With the Infinity 800 system, customers can make money on the internet almost immediately without even selling a physical product or service. With the internet marketing plan template included in the system, you don’t need to spend time finding someone else’s product or developing your own product. If you already have a product, you can use the internet marketing plan template to augment your existing system and improve sales and the money you take home. This internet marketing plan template shows how you can make money on Auto-Pilot, with no babysitting of a website or blog necessary.

 

Although the internet marketing plan template contains all you need to get started, including the Step-by-Step Blueprint for success and a series of proven success stories of others that have implemented the internet marketing plan template, the introduction to the system also includes support available to you in case you are struggling with any aspect of the marketing plan. Most customers however, see immediate impact to their traffic and driving new leads to their online websites, and thus they improve their profits as well.

 

Although really anyone can operate this system, the ideal customer does have some basic traits. The ideal customer that uses this internet marketing plan template is self motivated, and is striving to make more money without large investment. The internet marketing plan template works well for anyone, whether you have existing sources of income or you are looking to reinvent your income sources.

 

If you have an interest in selling products, or services online and you don’t purchase the internet marketing plan template that comes along with every Infinity 800 system, you really run the risk of spending thousands of marketing dollars and not seeing a profit. No Boundaries, LLC brings that amazing internet marketing plan template to you. The internet marketing plan template that generates internet income into the homes of ordinary people, who are driven enough to simply implement it, will change their lives.

Would you too like to make more money and have a bigger slice of that ?Great American Pie?? Maximize your time and money with this proven internet marketing plan template. It is a step by step process that teaches you how to maximize your internet presence and generate more income quickly and easily. For more information you can contact Phil at noboundariesonline@gmail.com or visit his website at http://www.infinite800plus.com

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