Eastside Business Assistance Center

Strategic Marketing

Having a sounded "strategy" for your marketing plan is as important as its execution. Below are some strategies that will help you put together a fundamentally strong marketing plan.

Why Marketing is Important to You?

Peter Drucker, a world famous business professor and author, one wrote that the main purpose of all businesses is to create customers. If you think about it, without customers, you have no business even if you have a nice building, good employees, good products or services. So "creating customers" is why marketing is important to you and to your competitors.

You probably know that marketing is not the same as sales. Sales is the final act of having a customer buy your product or service, but there��� a lot of planning and hard work that goes into preparing to make the sale. The planning and work that lead up to the sales transaction are called marketing.

Example: Think of a movie: one sale is a customer buying a ticket to see the movie. But marketing involves many other things: casting the movie to appeal to certain audiences, designing the TV advertising, creating the display ads for newspapers, deciding how to price the movie (for example, should it have reserved seating at higher- than normal prices?), making arrangements with movie chains to show the movie, creating tie-ins with toy companies based on the movie, making deals with record companies to sell the music, making deals with TV networks, cable/satellite networks, video and DVD distributors, etc.

The 4 P's of Marketing

  1. Product/Position -- What do we make or what do we do? How to match the benefits of the product to a particular group of customers. High quality/high cost, inferior quality/low cost, commodity.
  2. Pricing -- Demand pricing a higher price set for a lower level of demand (common in luxury items). Cost plus Pricing all costs are covered, and a percentage profit is added. Markup Pricing all costs are covered, and a certain dollar amount of profit is added. Competitive Pricing Prices are set to undercut the competition (used in commodity type items).
  3. Promotion -- Everything you do to contact and persuade people to become your customers, and to buy from you and stay with you. Advertising, public relations, packaging and presenting, sales promotions: and personal sales. Stress the benefits of the product, and the benefits of dealing with your company.
  4. Place (distribution) -- How will you get your product or service to your customers? When does the product have to be in place? Where are the customers? Where are the sales outlets that are near your customers?

Questions to ask your self that will better assist you in Understanding your Market and Competition:

  • Are the segments of my market for my product or service big enough to make money?
  • Is there too much competition in the segment of my market to be competitive?
  • How much share of that market do I need to capture, to just break even?
  • What are the weaknesses in my competition��� offering that I can capitalize on?

Understanding Your Customer

  • How does my potential customer normally buy similar products?
  • Who is the primary buyer and the primary buying influencer in the purchasing process?
  • Where do my customers get their information?
  • What are m target customer��� primary motivations for buying?

Pick a Niche

Carve out a specific niche and dominate that niche.

Choose a niche that interests you and that is easy to contact.

  • Ex.) Lawyer that specializes in child accident liability
  • Ex.) C.P.A. for used car dealers
  • Ex.) Dry cleaner for the Heritage Park subdivision in West Oaks, Ca.

Develop Your Marketing Message

An explanation of your target prospect��� problem. An explanation about why you are the only person/business An explanation of the benefits people will receive from using your solution. Your unconditional guarantee.

Determine Your Marketing Media

Match your message to your market using the right medium.

Example: Would you advertise to a niche of retired citizens using a fast-paced, loud radio spot on a heavy-metal radio station?

Set Sales and Marketing Goals

Ensure that your goals are:

  1. Sensible
  2. Measurable
  3. Challenging
  4. Realistic
  5. Time Specific

Financial Goals

  1. Monthly and annual sales revenue
  2. Gross profit
  3. Sales per sales person
  4. Others specific to your business

Non-Financial Goals

  1. Units sold
  2. Contracts signed
  3. Clients acquired
  4. Articles published
  5. Market share captured
  6. Others specific to your business

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