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Does Your Business Have a Marketing Plan? Elements to Consider Part 1

Posted by in Internet Marketing on August 9, 2007

As we all know, you need to market your business to make money. There are several ways to do this and each way has multiple options to choose from, but what steps should you take? I had an advertising consultant I work with give me his thoughts. Geoff Levin has 23 years of experience in Multimedia Advertising. If you want a consultant with knowledge this is the guy!

Important Elements of a Marketing Plan by Geoff Levin

  • Resources- Make certain you have the personnel and resources available to execute your plan

  • Determine how and why your product or service is unique or different from your competition

  • Determine what the best way is to communicate this to your target market.

  • Do a market analysis– This doesn’t have to be a major research project, but the more information you have the better.

  • Are you going to be promotionally driven (pricing) or Brand driven? You need to decide.

  • Make sure you have the infrastructure in place to execute the plan.

  • Create an Advertising Plan

  • Have a sales strategy in place

  • Once you have established a plan, be patient! It will take time. Any major digressions from your plan will cost you!

Advertising Plan

  • Put an infrastructure in place to accommodate your advertising.

  • This could entail having extra salespeople or people who are exceptional at handling phone calls or making certain you have a distributor who can supply additional products in a timely fashion.

  • Have a process in place to take a potential customer from inquiry to sale to service, seamlessly. Any cracks here will cost you business.

  • Pre-determine your advertising budget and stick to it.

  • Establish sales goals.

  • Consider employing an advertising consultant or agency if you don’t have experience.

  • If you decide to go it alone make sure you have access to companies that can execute your advertising plan.

  • Consider your message  and which medium best conveys that message.

  • CREATE A SOLID INTERNET STRATEGY– It is imperative to have a web site and Internet strategy. If only for credibility; you can’t do without in this day and age. It will act as a basis for the rest of your advertising and might just be the best investment you make in advertising.

  • Consider the seasonality of your business. If summers are not good selling times don’t devote as much resource to it. Spend your budget when you know your customers are buying your product or service.

  • Again, is the advertising plan going to be promotionally driven or Brand driven?

  • Be patient! If you are new to advertising it is doubtful it will change your business in a week. In most mature industries, it usually takes 6 month’s to a year to gauge what your advertising is doing for you.

  • Don’t be afraid to be different! – Being unique makes your more memorable to potential clients.

 This is part one of Does your Business Have A Marketing Plan. More is coming soon!

 

Melissa- SEOAware.com

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