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What is it and who needs one?
The term business marketing strategy might sound love it is esoteric or stratospheric, so let’s take the mystery out of it so you'll devise and implement your own business marketing strategy that matches in to your small business plan.
Strategy comes from a Greek word “stratagein” meaning “to be a general”. consider a technique as an overall plan of action needed to win a war. The smaller, detailed actions are called tactics. you'll have tactical plans which assist 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 selling actions you plan to require so as to accomplish a selected goal for your company.
Start with a goal: $2 million in sales this year; expand into new premises by a particular date; double the dimensions of the corporate in 2 years… regardless of the goal could also be . Something realistic but challenging. that is the "war" you would like to win. Guess who the overall is.
Then compute an easy , overall plan of the main marketing steps needed to accomplish that (for example):
1. Publish a newsletter for all existing customers and send quarterly.
2. compute 4 special offers within the year and promote them to all or any our customers.
3. found out on-line shopping and expand the online site.
4. spam campaign promoting the online site to all or any customers.
5. Get mailing lists of (target markets) and do a series of three mailings of postcards to them and follow abreast of and shut all leads.
6. Etc.
You get the thought . Don’t rush this. Do your homework. What worked within the past? Read abreast of successful marketing campaigns.
Your business marketing strategy must be laid call at the proper sequence and you ought to have some idea of budget once you write it. “Run a series of 30 second TV ads during the Superbowl” might sound sort of a good thing to try to to but are you able to afford it? On the opposite hand, once you build your business marketing strategy you mustn’t attempt to perform . If you don’t promote heavily, it doesn’t matter how good your product or service is, nobody will realize it and you'll go broke.
What really works when it involves marketing?
Many business owners do not have an honest enough answer to the present important question. I learned by a mixture of study and trial and error.
From my very own hard won experience I even have discovered that a true marketing campaign will take into consideration a minimum of the seven points which are outlined below:
1. Target Your Market
Your marketing will produce the simplest results for rock bottom cost once you target prospects with the best need for what you offer.
Identify the simplest people to send your postcards to. Design your postcards to appeal to their greatest need.
If you're ready to break down your target market into sub markets you'll then write postcards that specifically speak to the requirements of these people (an example is breaking down your own customer list into customers who buy most frequently , customers who spend the foremost money with you, customers who are your customers the longest then making them special offers supported the category they fit into).
2. Create A USP For Your Business
USP stands for "Unique Selling Proposition".
It is a press release of what's different about your company and its products. Your USP gives the rationale people should do business with you. It amplifies the advantage of doing business with you and your company. My USP is POSTCARD MARKETING EXPERTS.
Create your own USP and put it on all of your promotional materials, invoices, shipping labels etc.
Use your USP to speak the advantage of doing business with you and why you're better than any of your competitors.
3. Always Make a suggestion
Make sure you ask your prospects and customers to try to to something once they receive your postcard. By offering them something you recognize they're likely to require and giving them a smooth path to reply on, you're making it easy and desirable for them to reply .
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 will not contact you the primary time they receive one.
But once they contact you, you want to create and maintain a database which allows you to repeatedly contact them with offers to reply to.
Fifty percent or more of the many businesses' sales come as a results of following up with people that were previously contacted, but didn't buy directly .
No kidding, repeat contact does drive sales. One-time mailings can get response, but are sure to leave sales on the table. Those sales are often picked up with repeated mailings.
5. deduct the Fear of Loss
People don't need to be fooled, plain and straightforward . Unfortunately trust doesn't run high today between customers and businesses generally . People are disappointed too repeatedly by being sold one thing and getting another.
A guarantee or warranty may be a great way to scale back or eliminate the customers’ risk of getting something aside from what they bargained for.
Guarantees and warranties increase response and sales by reducing customer risk.
6. Expand Your line
Getting new customers is costlier 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'll expand your business efficiently and simply .
7. Test Your Postcard Promotions
Track the effectiveness of your postcard mailings. what percentage people skilled your mailing? What dollar amount of sales resulted from those responses?
Is the money you're spending to draw in new business supplying you with an honest return? What are you able to do to form your marketing more effective? Change your offer, headline, price, the timing of your offer. once you do track the results and improve your response.
These are the points to follow when designing your own marketing strategy. once you are done, you'll have laid out the steps needed to accomplish your goal using existing resources to realize an excellent marketing ROI (return on investment).
After that, you merely need to get those steps executed which might require further planning but it's beat the context of your main business marketing strategy.