Planning Your Marketing Strategy

By answering these 7 questions you will have created a preliminary marketing plan.

1. What do you want to achieve with your marketing?
2. How will you meet your goals? (hint: Stress your benefits.)
3. Who is your target market?
4. What tools will you use to reach your target market?
5. What makes you different from your competition?
6. What is your identity (who are you to your customers)?
7. What is your daily implementation schedule?

Print your plan and keep it where you can see it. It will help you stay on track.

Planning is critical to the success of your marketing campaign. Write down your vision of where you are going, when you want to get there, and how you'll do it. Keep this vision statement posted in a visible place that both you and your employees will see every day. Every day, repeat your vision out loud.

Our clients that start with a written plan see faster and stronger growth than those who just start marketing because business is slow for them. For example, a computer training company we work with has been growing steadily since they implemented a written marketing plan.

Their planned, constant promotions have helped to keep a steady stream of customers coming through their doors.

A plan should include a good look at your company, what services you offer, your goals, and explicit activities that will accomplish your marketing goals. You should look at who you are going after: choose two or three categories of clients (target markets) -- be specific! If it's engineers, then what size company? What is their location? What is their product or service? -- again, be specific.

Why should your prospects choose your company? There's probably lots of competition in your area. What makes you different? What sets you apart, makes you unique? Why should your prospects buy from you?

How will you reach your prospects? Would they read written marketing messages? Would they like to receive information by fax? Or will you have to plan a telemarketing program? Examine all of these, it never hurts to ask a prospect how they would like you to contact them. Maybe you'll find that none of them will work. Then keep digging, find what will work. They're buying now...figure out what will get them to buy from you.

How will you track your marketing success? Will you feel satisfied if you increase the number of product inquiries or sales closed? Or are you looking to keep the same number of sales but increase the profitability of each sale?

Our computer training client has three separate areas of business. Before working with us they were unsure as to which area should receive the most marketing and sales attention and how to make best use of their limited marketing budget. We developed a hierarchy of service areas based on each area's profitability, with first emphasis going to the most profitable service area. Then we developed a written plan for each area that includes tools to use and how to measure success.

We implemented the plan in stages so we could rejuvenate the marketing budget as we went. Here's what we did...

Before the computer trainers worked with us, they were sending out about 2,500 promotional mailings twice a year to businesses in their town. They celebrated when they meet their annual sales goals, but they couldn't increase their sales from year to year. They had a "feeling" that the semi-annual newsletters and class schedules brought in the bulk of their class registrations, but they couldn't quantitatively prove it.

We first wrote down an activity sheet, complete with time line and clearly defined measurement tools. Then we helped them develop a quarterly newsletter program that started with a mailing of only 500 pieces. Every salesperson was instructed to ask what prompted the student to register for class. When four students (the number required to profitably pay for a 500-piece mailing) registered based on the most recent mailing, we mailed newsletters to the next 500 names on their list. We repeated until all 2,500 pieces were mailed.

Now, our client is able to prove that the newsletter brings in customers. We've since expanded this marketing plan to include weekly 1-page fax newsletters and updates to their seasonal class schedules. Again, every registrant is asked what prompted them to call, and we track it down to the person. This goes on and on, and our client has seen a 50% growth in profit this year because they are able to spend their marketing dollars only on the activities that work best.

You can benefit from our client's experience if you decide how you will measure your success. Ask each prospect and client what brought them to you. It's critical to track what works for you and what doesn't. Marketing isn't always an exact science, so it's important to plan, check, modify the plan, check again before you go to the bank with your bag of cash.