Scuse Me Again
Sorry to the people waiting for the latest Krystal Fernandez news, but for me, this is actually fun reading. From about.com:
Your target customers need to hear your marketing messages at least 7 times to influence a buying decision. Using marketing & sales strategies outside your budget, does not allow you to repeat your message often enough to make an impact....
Hitching a ride on the marketing of another company can save your small business time and capital. When computer reseller franchise, Computer Exchange, was looking for methods to reach price conscious consumers on a low budget, the company followed Wal-Mart openings. Wal-Mart`s big budget marketing department would carefully select the new store openings based on demographics and other costly analysis. Cyber Exchange opened stores in the vicinity of Wal-Mart saving real-estate selection costs and piggy backing on Wal-Mart`s marketing plan....
Joint ventures are too powerful for small business to ignore. Forging an alliance with a group of small companies or a large corporation can give your marketing plan the ultimate "bang for the buck." A joint venture will lower your costs, enabling you to enter into new markets and create new distribution opportunities....
From marketplan.us:
Everyone needs a marketing plan; we build and maintain them for a living. However, surprisingly few executives can actually define a marketing plan when asked....
Marketing tools, like IT tools in the early 90’s, have gotten remarkably better and cheaper. Yet businesses still rely on a patchwork of solutions for “marketing” problems just as they did for IT problems. The marketing toolbox has grown rapidly at precisely the time when companies have had to eliminate strategic marketing planning from their budgets. The result is the sort of makeshift marketing that does nothing to further the strategic goals of the company, and is ultimately confusing to the company’s constituencies of customers, investors, and community....
So how do we build a Marketing Plan? Even if we agree on a concise definition of “Marketing Plan”, we can still ask, “What is a marketing plan?” Or more directly, “What is in a marketing plan?”
The marketing plan elements include budgeting and project planning for:
1. Tradeshows, expos, and conferences
a. Exhibits
b. Sponsorships
c. Press events
2. Press releases
3. Web advertising
a. Website
b. Email Newsletters
c. Paid placement advertising
4. Print advertising
a. Ad messaging and layout
b. Industry trade journals ad placement
5. Press editorial coverage
a. Interviews
b. “Expert” profile maintenance for journalism sources
6. Analyst and investor presentations
7. Speaking and writing opportunity sourcing and management
8. Ongoing sales tool development and revision
a. Brochures
b. Sales slicks
c. Case studies
d. Application notes
e. Customer testimonials
f. Annual report (non financial writing)
g. Consistency of message across all external communications
9. Website annual plan for inclusion of new “fresh” content
The above non-exhaustive list is sometimes called the “Marketing Mix”. Like the list of ingredients for a cake, it may be complete but is not usable without the knowledge of how to blend it all together....
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