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Title: Business Marketing Strategy
Author: Joy Gendusa
Article:
What is it and who needs one?
The term business marketing strategy might sound like it is
esoteric or stratospheric, so let's take the mystery out of it
so you can devise and implement your own business marketing
strategy that fits in to your small business plan.
Strategy comes from a Greek word "stratagein" meaning "to be a
general". Think of a strategy as an overall plan of action
needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called
tactics. You can have tactical plans which help you achieve your
strategic marketing plan or overall business marketing strategy.
That's simple enough, isn't it?
A business marketing strategy or strategic marketing plan is an
overall plan of marketing actions you intend to take in order to
accomplish a specific goal for your company.
Start with a goal: $2 million in sales this year; expand into
new premises by a certain date; double the size of the company
in 2 years… whatever the goal may be. Something realistic but
challenging. That's the "war" you want to win. Guess who the
general is.
Then work out a simple, overall plan of the major marketing
steps needed to accomplish that (for example):
1. Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and mail out
quarterly.
2. Work out 4 special offers in the year and promote them to all
our customers.
3. Set up on-line shopping and expand the web site.
4. Direct mail campaign promoting the web site to all customers.
5. Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of 3
mailings of postcards to them and follow up on and close all
leads.
6. Etc.
You get the idea. Don't rush this. Do your homework. What worked
in the past? Read up on successful marketing campaigns. Your
business marketing strategy needs to be laid out in the right
sequence and you should have some idea of budget when you write
it. "Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the Superbowl"
might sound like a good thing to do but can you afford it? On
the other hand, when you build your business marketing strategy
you mustn't try and cut corners. If you don't promote heavily,
it doesn't matter how good your product or service is, no one
will know about it and you will go broke. What really works when
it comes to marketing?
Many business owners don't have a good enough answer to this
important question. I learned by a combination of study and
trial and error.
From my own hard won experienceI have discovered that a real
marketing campaign will take into consideration at least the
seven points which are outlined below:
1. Target Your Market
Your marketing will produce the best results for the lowest cost
when you target prospects with the greatest need for what you
offer.
Identify the best people to send your postcards to. Design your
postcards to appeal to their greatest need.
If you are able to break down your target market into sub
markets you can then write postcards that specifically speak to
the needs of those people (an example is breaking down your own
customer list into customers who buy most often, customers who
spend the most money with you, customers who have been your
customers the longest and then making them special offers based
on the category they fit into).
2. Create A USP For Your Business
USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition".
It is a statement of what is different about your company and
its products. Your USP gives the reason people should do
business with you. It amplifies the benefit of doing business
with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING EXPERTS.
Create your own USP and put it on all your promotional
materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.
Use your USP to communicate the benefit of doing business with
you and why you are better than any of your competitors.
3. Always Make an Offer
Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to do something
when they receive your postcard. By offering them something you
know they are likely to want and giving them a smooth path to
respond on, you are making it easy and desirable for them to
respond.
4. Create and Maintain a Database of The Customer Information
You Collect From The Responses To Your Mailings
Most people who receive a postcard from you won't contact you
the first time they receive one.
But once they contact you, you must create and maintain a
database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with offers
to respond to.
Fifty percent or more of many businesses' sales come as a result
of following up with people who were previously contacted, but
didn't buy right away.
No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings
can get response, but are bound to leave sales on the table.
Those sales can be picked up with repeated mailings.
5. Take Away the Fear of Loss
People don't want to be fooled, plain and simple. Unfortunately
trust does not run high today between customers and businesses
in general. People have been disappointed too many times by
being sold one thing and getting another.
A guarantee or warranty is a good way to reduce or eliminate the
customers' risk of getting something other than what they
bargained for.
Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by
reducing customer risk.
6. Expand Your Product Line
Getting new customers is more expensive than selling to existing
ones. By regularly developing new products and services to sell
to your customers and offering these new products and services
to them, you can expand your business efficiently and easily.
7. Test Your Postcard Promotions
Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. How many
people responded to your mailing? What dollar amount of sales
resulted from those responses?
Is the money you are spending to attract new business giving you
a good return? What can you do to make your marketing more
effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of
your offer. When you do track the results and improve your
response.
These are the points to follow when designing your own marketing
strategy. When you are done, you will have laid out the steps
needed to accomplish your goal using existing resources to
achieve a great marketing ROI (return on investment).
After that, you simply have to get those steps executed and that
might require further planning but it is all in the context of
your main business marketing strategy.
About the author:
Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a
computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in
sales and employed over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive
growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate
marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with
others. Visit <A
HREF="http://www.postcardmania.com">www.postcardmania.com</A>
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