What do you hope to accomplish through your marketing strategy? Your market research, advertising campaigns, sales incentives, public relations efforts, and networking plans should all move your business in the direction of achieving your marketing goals. Many companies hope to expand their customer base, increase sales, achieve profitability, promote new products and services, and other similar idealistic objectives. Not every business owner, however, can articulate precisely what these goals mean for his/her own company.
The best marketing plans are results-oriented; they define specific, realistic, measurable goals within time parameters. All sales, advertising, and public relations efforts are then
designed to work together to achieve these goals. If the goals are not accomplished within a planned schedule, individual components of the marketing plan should be reassessed and redesigned.
Goals of your marketing strategy, for example, could include creating a strong brand, building a strong customer base, and increasing product/service sales. Each goal should be explained in specific terms, that is, what do these goals mean to your company? As an illustration, let’s examine three examples of goals:
• Create a strong brand. What is the current level of brand awareness for your company/product/service? Are you starting from scratch or building on a familiar name? What are the characteristics of this brand that you want to reinforce in the minds of consumers? What level of brand awareness do you hope to achieve?
• Build a strong customer base. Who are your best customers? What customers are most likely to spend money, and return? What is the profile (demographics, psychographics) of your ideal customer? How can you reach this market, online and offline? What particular characteristics of your company/product/service are most likely to inspire loyalty in your ideal customers?
• Increase product/service sales. If this is an existing business, what is your current level of sales? If this is a start-up, or new division of an existing business, how can you predict the future demand for your product/service?
What new level of sales growth can your business handle? What quantities of your product can you produce/distribute? What level of service can you support through existing or additional staff?
Your marketing activities will comprise a significant portion of your overall business expenses, so investors and bankers will need to understand the importance of the results you are seeking. Make it clear in the statement of your marketing goals that the expenditures you are about to delineate are crucial to the development and growth of your company. By clearly identifying the goals of your marketing plan, you will make a convincing case to support your financial projections.
Basic Marketing Questions
Four fundamental questions should be answered in order to identify your marketing goals: Who, what, where, when, and how? Specifically:
Who are your customers? Who are your competitors?
What are you selling? What quantities and prices of your products will you sell?
Where is your target market located? Where can you reach your target market?
When are your customers most likely to buy? When are your busy seasons?
How will you reach your customers (stores, offices, web site, catalogs)?
Marketing Musts
Four activities will help you organize your marketing efforts in the most effective direction to achieve your goals. Worksheets are available at the end of this section for each of the following “marketing musts.”
1. Sell selectively. This will help you define your market niche. What will you offer that is distinctly different (better, less expensive, faster, higher quality, etc.) from your competitors? Why should anyone buy from you?
What market share can you seek?
2. Know your niche. What type of individuals and/or businesses do you plan to serve? Start by answering in general terms (professionals, service companies, manufacturing, retail, etc.), then try to be very specific. Spell out the demographics first—age, sex, income, etc. Then you can move on to psychographics, or lifestyle considerations. When you clearly define the population you hope to sell to, you’ll have a better view of what services they require. Where do they spend their free time? What activities are they involved in? How do they spend their disposable income? This information leads you to details about what they read (therefore, where you’ll want publicity and advertising coverage), where they hang out (for promotions and appearances), what they watch and listen to (if television and radio spots are on your mind). Then go out and ask them what they want. Don’t try to guess. Find out what they really need. If your market is local (and where is local, anyway?), your small local newspapers probably offer affordable ad packages; chambers of commerce and professional organizations have newsletters that offer insert opportunities. But if you don’t know exactly where your market is, you can’t determine what your market reads.
3. Create your pitch. Define precisely what “your product/service attributes” mean so that your product or service comes alive for your prospective clients. Make it so important that they will no longer want to live or work without it. Appeal to their individual needs.
4. Price for profits. The goal of your business is to make a profit. Many start-up businesses fail to make a profit as early as projected because they didn’t price properly. Know what your competition charges, and determine if you should be less than, equal to or higher priced. Be sure for product pricing that you have covered your materials, labor and overhead costs.
Don’t forget shipping, handling or storage in the total price. Service, like consulting, can be difficult to pinpoint. Some products and services will fall into an hourly rate structure; others are better-suited to a service fee. If you provide a service, you may even be on-call for a monthly service fee.
Remember that small businesses often do not have big budgets, so if this is your market, your pricing decisions will have to take into account what your market will bear. Learn what your competition charges.