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The Basic Marketing Plan
by Diana Barnum
Published on this site: December 7th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an outstanding
resource for the small business owner. Whether you are thinking
of starting, or are already running your own company, it is one
of the essential websites to visit for information and tips on
nearly any issue that you are likely to come across.
Back to Basics
To increase your business, the SBA offers a "Tools" section
that is extremely comprehensive and offers a wealth of advice.
For example, a good marketing strategy is essential for any
business to be successful so the SBA emphasizes the importance
of a sound marketing plan.
Three basic features to include in
your business marketing plan are:
- Description of the business
The description of a business encompasses a number of items;
for example, staffing, company profile, industry overview and
more, and should be as detailed as possible. This is essential
to help you to establish what the unique selling point or USP
is. This will be what puts you above your competition, and as
such, your USP will involve analyzing the competitors' products
and their methods of promotion.
The key to define your USP is to perform as much research as
possible at this stage to really give your business the edge.
And regardless of the size of your company and your location
there are numerous opportunities for research. The local Yellow
Pages are a good place to start your search for competitors. And
the Internet also gives you a valuable insight as to what is
available in your area as well as in other geographic
locations.
- Definition of customers
Your customers are the most important part of your
business. Without them you have no business. So it is important to narrow
down who your customers currently are and who you want to target
in the future. This will help you assess how you need to promote
your products and services.
Also assess the qualities that keep your existing customers
ordering from you. You can then use this information to
discover what you need to develop to attract new customers.
To attract new customers and bring back previous clients, there
are many popular means of advertising like classifieds, direct
mail, online promotions, etc. However, keep in mind the one
that is often underestimated is the power of 'word of mouth.'
Happy customers are likely to tell others about your company
but so are unhappy ones. So use surveys if you need to so that
you can get feedback regularly and monitor how your company is
doing.
- Finalization of plan and budget
Finally, you reach the stage where you are ready to
begin finalizing your marketing plan and your budget. There may be so
many marketing plans and strategies that you want to address,
but realize it is impossible to do so within the constraints of
most budgets. So you need to prioritize where you will spend
your money.
To help out, there are low cost methods of assessing the
effectiveness of current marketing campaigns and project
results or ROI (return on investment) via new avenues of
advertising. For example you can use tracking links and special
promotional codes, both with offline and online marketing, to
monitor response rates and sales.
In addition, the Internet offers many areas of promotion that
are free, including discussion boards and link exchanges with
complimentary businesses or services. It can very well be worth
spending time investigating other avenues at no charge before
spending your budgeted dollars on any one particular method of
advertising before testing it online here first.
Helpful Marketing Plan Resources
For more help with your marketing plans, you can head to the
SBA website, chock full of plenty of suggestions and useful
links to give your business marketing plan the best chance of
success.
Contact them at:
SBA Answer Desk
6302 Fairview Road, Suite 300
Charlotte, North Carolina 28210
1-800-U-ASK-SBA (1-800-827-5722)
Send e-mails to: [email protected]
Answer Desk TTY: (704) 344-6640
Visit them online at: http://www.sba.gov
For more help, grab a copy of "MAP: Moving Ahead Plan," an
easy
all-in-one business, marketing and advertising plan jam-packaged
with lots of information. The new book features tips,
downloadable tools, SBA-based worksheets and special sections
from Tom Hua's eBookWholesalerT online program and Internet
Marketing Expert Willie Crawford to and more to advance your
business. It's available at http://Booklocker.com:
http://www.booklocker.com/books/2715.html or
check soon with http://Amazon.com and
http://BN.com (Barnes and Noble) and your
local library.
Diana Barnum - is a freelance writer and the
president of Moving Ahead Communications, offering affordable
business support services since 1984. Contact her at: (614)
529-9459 EST and sign up for her complimentary ezine, tips and
more by visiting: http://movingaheadcommunications.com
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