Tag: business plan

5 Secrets to Marketing Magic

"…Because its purpose is to create a customer, business has two—and only two functions: Marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs." Peter Drucker

1. Understand Your Product

If you can’t state it, your customers won’t see, understand, or want it

  • What are you REALLY selling?
    You must be able to articulate this is a way that makes others want to buy from you.
  • Features vs Benefits
    Always focus attention on the benefit to your customer as a result of using your product or service.
  • Unique Selling Proposition/Competitive Advantage
    What makes you/your product distinctively different?

2. Have a Marketing Plan

Whatever marketing plan you intend to roll out, test first to measure your success probability and to reduce the risk of failure. Test prices. . .Test product. . .Test headlines. . .Test everything. Have a diversified effort and then continue to test EVERYTHING. Some areas to consider:

  • Public Relations
  • Publicity
  • Direct Mail
  • Personal Selling
  • Trade Shows/Industry Participation
  • Newsletters
  • Specialty Items
  • Articles, Books, eBooks & eProducts
  • Speeches, Seminars, Workshops
  • Referrals
  • Networking
  • Ads – newspapers, signs, flyers, radio, TV, Yellow Pages, etc.
  • Thank you notes & gifts
  • Coupons, Special Offers, etc.
  • Websites, email signatures, etc.

3. Understand Your Customer

How do you create real value? By understanding what's important to your customer or client…and then providing it

  • Who is your “ideal” client?
    Ask yourself:
    "What do I know about them, their buying/spending habits?"
    "Where would my customer look for me?" Then make sure you put "yourself" (your coupons, advertisements, website address, etc.) in the places where they can find you.
  • What do your clients need? How can you find out?
    Ask your clients:
    "How can I help you?"
    "How can I make it easy for you to buy from me?"
    And of course: "What else?" (do you want, need, wish to tell me…)

4. Value Existing Customers

  • Follow their needs
    You can use a simple data base to track customer buying patterns as well as the effectiveness of your marketing plan. Determine the "lifetime" value of your customers and clients, and continue to find ways to keep them loyal by providing what they want and need.
  • Special offers/preferential treatment
    Existing customers have already made a commitment (they've spent money with you), don't reserve your “specials” just for new customers – reward the loyal (existing) ones, too. It's much easier and more cost effective to sell to existing customers than to try to find new ones. Surprise and delight your existing customers by giving them "freebies" or added value from time to time.

5. Collaborative Marketing

  • Networking

    • Networking is really relationship building. When you want to expand your market, an effective way to have instant credibility is to use the influence of someone who is well respected. Remember to provide value, not only in the product or service you are offering to the "new" network, but also to the person who is introducing you to their network.

  • Host/Beneficiary Relationship
    Consider who you know that you could "team up with". People with complimentary businesses (those who market to similar customers) provide a great non-competitive way to expand your own customer base. (It works the other way, too!) By the way, have you ever asked your suppliers or vendors for help in growing your business? They have an interest in keeping you in business, too.
  • Referrals
    Remind your customers that your business grows through their referrals. And then, make sure you thank and give value back to those who are willing to share their satisfaction of your services with others.

What makes some businesses more successful in the marketplace? They continue to explore new ways to bring in business. Remember what marketing guru Jay Abraham has to say about your marketing plan:

When you limit your business to doing things the same way every other competitor of yours does it, you can only produce modest, incremental gains at best.

© 1998-2001 – Katie Darden, Career Life Institute

Refresh Your Business Plan

When is the last time you reviewed your business plan? Do you even HAVE a business plan? Many businesses sprout from someone's "good idea", by an entrepreneur who either didn't know about business plans, or simply didn't have the time to complete one.

While the idea of a business plan may seem overwhelming at first, many businesses end up hitting that wall when it's time to expand or they need financing. Anyone who wishes to attract funding quickly understands that without a business plan, commercial lenders won't even talk with you.

Yet business plans serve a much larger purpose, too. They allow the owner to really understand their business. Developing the plan requires a certain amount of research into the general industry as well as the business itself. Delving into the intricacies can give the business owner a new perspective on what's working and what needs to be improved in their own business. It also helps identify new or unexplored trends in the industry. New ideas and possibilities pop up when you are clear about what works.

There are several good software packages that can help you develop your business plan or you can simply start with a good business plan outline of categories and "fill-in-the-blanks". Either way you will be broadening your understanding of what's possible and probable in your business.

The approach we've taken in most of our "Writing a Business Plan" classes has been to divide the traditional plan into individual parts and focus on each section in turn. Even with the focus and group interaction, few participants were able to complete more than 60-75% of their plans by the end of the 7-10 sessions. Recently, however, I've come across a wonderful new book that takes a slightly different approach.

Using Jim Horan's "One Page Business Plan", I've been able to help one of my coaching clients complete her initial draft of a viable plan in three sessions. Jim Horan is a San Francisco Bay Area small business expert who has taken the complexity of business plans and demystified the process. My client had already done some work on vision and mission, and had a fairly clear idea about what she wanted to create, but she seemed stuck as she struggled to complete the formal business plan.

Jim's book offers several interactive exercises that are more interesting and enjoyable than straight research. The exercises are designed to get you thinking about key elements of your business, from vision and mission through strategies and plans. All the elements are still there, but with the One Page Business Plan(sm) they are simplified down to their essence.

Having the resulting business plan on a single page helps the business owner focus on the essentials of what will make the business work, rather than getting trapped in the verbage that makes up a more traditional plan. And it provides a document that can start the dialogue with bankers or venture capitalists.

My client's response to the One Page Business Plan? Now she's excited about her business again – she sees that it's doable, she has specific milestones to aim for, and best of all, a plan that will help her focus!

Whatever your approach, taking the time to develop your plan more fully will help you refocuse on your strengths and remember your vision. Whether you are starting a new business or expanding an existing one, a well thought-out business plan will add to your success.

_____For More Information_____
Contact the Career Life Institute to find out more about small business coaching, our Biz Plan In a Week Program and other upcoming classes.

©2000 Katie Darden, Career Life Institute

This book is available at Amazon.com. Click below to find out more:

The One Page Business Plan – Start with a Vision, Build a Company
– James T. Horan, Jr.