Creating a Marketing Plan

1. Action steps.

In order to accomplish your objectives and ultimately, your goals, you will need to schedule time each day (or whatever timeframe works for you) to do whatever it is that will move you towards your ultimate goal. Consider this time as you would an appointment with someone that you would never cancel or stand up -- such as the President, the Pope or any V.I.P. that you admire.

It’s common for small business owners, especially new ones, to put the needs of their business second while putting the needs of their clients first. In order to succeed, you must carve out time on a regular (preferably daily) basis to continually advance your goals and your marketing plans.

2. Identify the obstacles.

I am a strong proponent of positive thinking and visualization, and believe it critical to the success of any entrepreneur -- I sincerely doubt that this surprises you given my choice of goal format (lol)!

However, it is naive to believe that positive thinking alone will get you where you want to go. Successful entrepreneurs identify and list the obstacles to their goals and have a plan to overcome each one. The worst (and best) that can happen is that you don’t need your "Plan B."

3. Schedule your day.

Have you ever finished the day feeling that you’ve done nothing toward your objectives? Or worse, that you worked your butt off and feel there is nothing to show for it?

In reviewing each day, you should take a few minutes to plan the next day and identify steps that move you closer to your goals. Doing so is good for several reasons, but most especially it: 1) puts your subconscious to work "behind the scenes" on those tasks while you enjoy your evening and 2) eliminates that "what do I do first" feeling that prevents most people from diving into their day.

You now have all the tools you need to create a dynamic marketing plan which will move you closer to your ultimate goals. Armed with these tools, next week we’ll examine the most productive way to manage your day and bring yourself even closer to achieving your goals.

Business owners often find it difficult to know whether their marketing tactics are working. This can be especially tricky when you use a combination of marketing activities simultaneously, or if using personal-contact tactics such as networking.

No matter what business you're in, your marketing should be accountable. So here's a few ways to evaluate how well you're doing. Look at your sales (or fee income).They should be going up! But be careful about what you measure. Some firms have a longer sales cycle than others. To get an accurate picture you might need to also measure the number of new leads being generated, or the number of appointments, or the number of billable hours achieved. Remember discounts or variances in fees will affect total sales values. Ask your clients. Check to find out where they heard of you. Most businesses never ask this question and miss out on gleaning valuable insights into how clients select a service provider. Does your advertising and/or promotional activity produce direct responses?

It should. If your answer is "I don't know" then you've got some work to do. In addition to 2) above, there are some things you can do to improve response rates. Firstly, make sure you are advertising in the right media. Choose media to suit your selected audience. Be as specific as possible. And avoid rejecting options just because they don't look "exciting", such as trade journals that might have relatively small readership. Importantly, check with your audience to make sure they actually do read the publication.Use a strong headline that asks a pertinent question, or gives a solution-oriented statement.Include a clear call-to-action.
Tell people what they should do. For example: Ring today for your free appointment; Ask for our free information sheet.Include multiple methods of contact. Phone, email, and web site are all important. Give prospects a choice of how to contact you.Do your networking activities create new opportunities for you?One of the major principles of effective networking is to "give" rather than "sell". That is, you should look to help others as you spread word about your services. But this softly, softly approach can make it hard to measure effectiveness.To measure your networking activities make sure you track the source of incoming enquiries. Then see if any of your visible/tangible tactics can be credited with generating the enquiry. If not, then maybe you can safely say it was a referral generated by networking.
This is made a lot easier if you're a member of a lead-generating club such as BNI or Leads. You'll get specific feedback each week from these groups.Do your marketing tactics make it easier to sell your services? To do this your marketing activities and/or material should do the following:Attract qualified prospects (who have shown a specific interest in your services).Anticipate and diffuse potential questions/concerns from prospects.Be easy to use when personally selling to prospects. For example: material should be relevant; images/charts easy to understand; and be presented in a format the prospect will be likely to keep.Focus on your client needs and your points of difference (Unique Selling Proposition).
Check your sales conversion rate.The best approach here is to look at your historical records and determine whether your conversion (or closure) rate has improved. "Selling" is an important part of the "marketing" function, so make sure you assess your success at closing the sale, rather than just focus on generating new leads.Does your plan have a positive return on investment Does it bring in enough new/repeat business to justify the expense? Rather than just look at the "marketing budget" as one total, you really need to evaluate the cost effectiveness of each specific marketing activity. Even if you think you're getting a great ROI overall, maybe you can do even better by changing or eliminating unproductive tactics.

What Inexpensive and Free Marketing Ideas Do You Recommend?

What small business isn't looking for free marketing ideas or at least marketing ideas that are inexpensive that they can use to get the word out about their products and services? Small businesses often have correspondingly small marketing budgets that get stretched pretty thin over the course of a year. What inexpensive and free marketing ideas do you recommend?

Pass on the freebies you get.

My medical supply companies use great free gifts to entice us retailers to purchase volume. I do it ... and give my medical clientele a great gift when they make a purchase at my store. They love me for a snuggly blanket, a beach bag, pewter knick knacks, pins, pens and much more.

Business Promotion

Business Promotion

Use www.myemark.com/? for location id and for driving customers to your doors. Also emark is really good aa a signature in email.

—Guest Pilot

Marketing Idea

Specify the special features and promote .Find the real/genuine custmers. Spend on advertising and stick on quality.

—Guest Winson.D.Komban

Marketing Ideas

Contact all local schools and ask to advertise in their newsletter. Usually they will do it for a tiny fee or for free.

—Guest Angela White

List on a free mobile business directory

www.milesurfer.com is a recently launched website that is offering free business advertising on their mobile phone portal for Interstate Highway roadside businesses. The business information will be available to the millions of interstate travelers who journey down the highways of the US. The technology is designed to be able to work on most of the cell phones in use today with internet access. Not just iphones or smart phones. No GPS required either. Which means your ad can reach many more people. Its a great marketing and advertising opportunity for these type of businesses. Its FREE and its easy to sign up with the online form. Check out the site for more information.

—Guest Rocky

Free Marketing Strategies

When I attended the Self Employment Assistance program, one of the first rules for marketing your business was to get the word out to your friends, family and personal business contacts. If you go to the doctor, mention your business to the secretary. If you are in a line-up at the grocery or department store, strike up a conversation and casually mention you own a business and what you do. Similarly the dentists office, the veterinarian, the people who provide services to you like a handyman, painter, carpenter, your neighbourhood restaurant.....have your bus. cards handy if they ask for one. You can probably count the number of friends, family and business contacts you have to maybe 100+ but then add all the people THEY know and your contact list can build to thousands. Referrals make up the majority of new clients you receive. Use customer service skills to further market your business with present customers by doing follow-ups, asking for feedback, mailouts or newsletters.

—DianeCoville

Ask for Referrals

I've had a fair bit of success by just coming out and asking clients for referrals. I ask them too if there's anyone they know who might be interested in my services and if they're reluctant to give me names, I ask them if I can leave them extra marketing materials to pass along. Even if I don't get any specific lead though I've put the idea of passing my name along to someone in their head- but you have to ask!

—Guest Diva1

7 Ways to Evaluate Your Marketing Plan

Business owners often find it difficult to know whether their marketing tactics are working. This can be especially tricky when you use a combination of marketing activities simultaneously, or if using personal-contact tactics such as networking.

No matter what business you're in, your marketing should be accountable. So here's a few ways to evaluate how well you're doing.

1) Look at your sales (or fee income). They should be going up! But be careful about what you measure. Some firms have a longer sales cycle than others. To get an accurate picture you might need to also measure the number of new leads being generated, or the number of appointments, or the number of billable hours achieved. Remember discounts or variances in fees will affect total sales values.

2) Ask your clients. Check to find out where they heard of you. Most businesses never ask this question and miss out on gleaning valuable insights into how clients select a service provider.

3) Does your advertising and/or promotional activity produce direct responses?
It should. If your answer is "I don't know" then you've got some work to do. In addition to 2) above, there are some things you can do to improve response rates.

Firstly, make sure you are advertising in the right media. Choose media to suit your selected audience. Be as specific as possible. And avoid rejecting options just

• because they don't look "exciting", such as trade journals that might have relatively small readership. Importantly, check with your audience to make sure they actually do read the publication.
• Use a strong headline that asks a pertinent question, or gives a solution-oriented statement.
• Include a clear call-to-action. Tell people what they should do. For example: Ring today for your free appointment; Ask for our free information sheet.
• Include multiple methods of contact. Phone, email, and web site are all important. Give prospects a choice of how to contact you.

4) Do your networking activities create new opportunities for you? One of the major principles of effective networking is to "give" rather than "sell". That is, you should look to help others as you spread word about your services. But this softly, softly approach can make it hard to measure effectiveness.

To measure your networking activities make sure you track the source of incoming enquiries. Then see if any of your visible/tangible tactics can be credited with generating the enquiry. If not, then maybe you can safely say it was a referral generated by networking. This is made a lot easier if you're a member of a lead-generating club such as BNI or Leads. You'll get specific feedback each week from these groups.

5) Do your marketing tactics make it easier to sell your services? To do this your marketing activities and/or material should do the following:

• Attract qualified prospects (who have shown a specific interest in your services).
• Anticipate and diffuse potential questions/concerns from prospects.
• Be easy to use when personally selling to prospects. For example: material should be relevant; images/charts easy to understand; and be presented in a format the prospect will be likely to keep.
• Focus on your client needs and your points of difference (Unique Selling Proposition).

6) Check your sales conversion rate. The best approach here is to look at your historical records and determine whether your conversion (or closure) rate has improved. "Selling" is an important part of the "marketing" function, so make sure you assess your success at closing the sale, rather than just focus on generating new leads.

7) Does your plan have a positive return on investment (ROI)? Does it bring in enough new/repeat business to justify the expense? Rather than just look at the "marketing budget" as one total, you really need to evaluate the cost effectiveness of each specific marketing activity. Even if you think you're getting a great ROI overall, maybe you can do even better by changing or eliminating unproductive tactics.

51 Online Marketing Techniques to Improve Your Website's Success

There is no single "magic formula” to a successful Website. You can, however, make your own magic with a mix of marketing programs that is right for you. Your choices depend upon your overall goals and strategies. A laundry list of marketing tactics that have worked for others -- and some of the benefits or features of each -- is below. They are in no particular order because each Website is unique. The tactics that will help you reach your goals may be completely different than the tactics that are right for another Website.

1. Write and distribute articles available for free republication -- Provides a "sample” of your writing or knowledge and creates inbound links to your Website.

2. Write and publish your own ezine -- Develops a list of interested prospects and provides a way to communicate directly with subscribers.

3. Distribute Website or newsletter content via RSS (xml) feeds -- Provides a way to reach prospects without email and creates more ways for potential prospects to find your Website.

4. Rewrite sales page(s) -- Increases conversion rates for your product.

5. Start an ongoing SEO campaign -- Improves organic search engine rankings and increases number of visitors.

6. Test different Website configurations -- Improves conversion rates and profit.

7. Send postcards or notes to Website customers/visitors via "snail mail” -- Additional point of contact improves conversions and recall.

8. Add a signature to your email -- Increases exposure to your site and communicates your marketing message.

9. Spend one hour each day on prospecting new customers or visitors -- Spreads the word about your product/service/Website and improves awareness.

10. Offer a podcast -- Recipients can listen to the mp3 file while away from their computers. A way to verbally communicate with prospects.

11. Blog -- You can easily share thoughts and resources up to several times a day.

12. Audio message on Website (With start and stop under visitor control) -- An additional way to verbally communicate your message.

13. Online radio show -- Attracts visitors to your Website on a regular basis and is a way for visitors/listeners to know the "personality" behind your Website.

14. Survey visitors as a research method -- Helps you understand the needs and problems of your visitors.

15. Include a daily (weekly, monthly) interactive survey for visitors -- A way to make your Website "stickier” and is a reason for repeat visits.

16. Provide a discount coupon, available only online, and advertise it offline -- Pulls new and repeat visitors to your Website.

17. Offer a free ebook that you wrote/developed and allow reprints -- Creates a viral marketing effect and provides a sample of your work.

18. Show others’ advertisements on your Website (examples: AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network) -- Adds a source of revenue for you and more research options for your visitors.

19. Implement a customer loyalty program -- Increases repeat purchases and builds a more loyal customer base.

20. Offer a gift with certain orders over a certain amount -- Increases average order size.

21. Write press releases to announce important news -- Spreads the word about your business and creates additional avenues of contact with those interested in your industry.

22. Hold an online chat -- Interactive way to communicate with prospects and draws visitors to the site.

23. Launch a direct-mail campaign, sending 3 to 6 postcards - spaced a week or so apart - to prospects - Draws new visitors to your Website.

24. Partner with other online businesses by mentioning each other's products/services in your ezine Websites -- Opportunity for synergies between businesses.

25. Launch an affiliate program -- Creates a sales force for your product.

26. Offer different versions of your product -- Provides a "tiered” choice for customers.

27. Participate in others’ affiliate programs -- Develops an additional source of revenue and expands your product offerings.

28. Open a merchant or third party processor account -- Increases your ability to take payments online and improves customer service.

29. Offer free shipping -- Improves customer service.

30. Have a limited-time offer -- Encourages customers to buy now rather than later (or never).

31. Conduct a workshop or class -- Builds credibility and attracts prospects.

32. Add testimonials to your Website -- Helps establish credibility and shows experience.

33. Participate in interviews -- Displays your expertise and attracts new customers.

34. Study your competition -- Helps you understand what is happening in your industry and better address important issues and needs.

35. Launch a pay per click advertising campaign -- Attracts new prospects to the Website pages you want.

36. Hold a teleseminar -- Provides a way to attract potential prospects and customers get to know you better.

37. Put a "refer-a-friend” link on every page -- Reminds people to tell others about your site and encourages viral marketing.

38. Set up an autoresponder course -- Is a value-added service to visitors and increases exposure to your product and Website.

39. Continually split-test your sales page(s). Change a single element (headline color, for example) and test against the current version. Replace anytime you get a page that converts better than the current - Over time, this dramatically improves profit.

40. Develop a mailing list of "hot prospects” and send them a brochure about your Website -- Improves awareness and attracts new customers.

41. Communicate your URL and tag line at every point of contact with customers and prospects -- Increases awareness and interest; improves recall; and attracts new customers.

42. List your Website in appropriate directories -- Provides more points of contact with potential customers, helps search engine rankings.

43. Install a "bookmark this page” script on each page -- Encourages repeat visits.

44. Improve a marginal product -- Increases sales and provides an additional opportunity to communicate with customers.

45. Provide a "co-branded” product or service -- By partnering with another Website to create a new product, improves both businesses .

46. Offer a contest -- Provides additional "stickiness” and encourages repeat visits.

47. Become active in online forums and groups -- Establishes you as an authority on your subject, improves credibility, and increases points of contact with potential prospects.

48. Move your primary call-to-action "above the fold” and test different page positions -- Can dramatically improve Website conversions.

49. Install live customer service on site. Staff with knowledgeable people so potential customers can get immediate answers - Improves customer service and conversion rates.

50. Develop different versions of your products (example: print book, audio book, ebook, etc.) -- Meets needs and preferences of customers in more ways.

51. THE MOST IMPORTANT ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUE: First, implement to your greatest ability. Then, persist. Improve upon and tweak implementation of each marketing program until it works for you.

Finishing Your Marketing Plan

Marketing plans can feel like a pain in the neck (not to mention other body parts). Reality is quite the opposite. Small business owners, and others without a boss to impose a due date, often find themselves "too busy" to complete a marketing plan or update the existing one. If this sounds like you, then you are leaving profits on the table and the best thing you can do for your business is finish a 2007 marketing plan. Here are five tips to help you follow through with planning:

Have an Approach To Planning

Before you begin, research different options and tools for writing your marketing plan. There are several correct ways to complete a plan.

Once you have chosen your approach, stick to it. If you begin pulling procedures from several different methods, you may become overwhelmed and never finish. The critical part is completing the plan so you have a strategic document to act from.

Make Time To Finish a Formal Plan

If you do not set aside dedicated time for completing your marketing plan, it will always be pushed to the back burner and never completed. Schedule marketing plan development as you would a meeting. Block time out on your calendar and keep that appointment.

Build in Implementation Timelines and Evaluation Measures

Your marketing plan isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on (or the drive it’s stored on) without strong implementation. Following timelines leading up to and evaluating performance during execution can make for smoother implementation.

You can use specialized project management tools to automate timeline creation or do it manually in a spreadsheet or text document. If you are completing a timeline manually, start with the due date and work backwards. Note each major project milestone leading up to completion and the time needed for each component. This will give you intermediate deadlines, so you will know if you fall behind schedule. Leave room for comments and notations about who is responsible for each aspect of implementation.

Also, know how you will measure success, and set up ways to monitor project results. Problems are easiest to solve early on, before the entire budget has been spent and there is time to adjust for improvement.

Execute Year Round

The place for your marketing plan is "front and center," not in a drawer next to the tax returns. Refer to it often throughout the year as you execute the marketing programs you've planned. This keeps you focused on programs in the plan.

Measure Opportunities Against Strategies

New marketing opportunities present themselves often. Without a visible plan, you may find yourself darting after opportunities instead of following a strategic plan. Whenever a new opportunity arises, refer to your marketing plan and ask yourself if it fits with one of your marketing strategies. If so, decide (1) which program in your plan it will replace and (2) if funds are best spent on the original or new project. By going through this exercise, you will be less inclined to make poor marketing decisions.

Take these tips to heart and you’ll find your business running more smoothly and profitably.

Small Business Marketing Mentors - story

Success comes from visualizing and manifesting treasures from what others see as common useless rocks. Looking at things in a different way, being positive and learning from the experiences of others can help.

Having a mentor available can bring years of experience at your disposal so that you can accomplish unimaginable task in a very short time. A mentor can show you how to use tools and talents you have never seen before. Guide you through the steps necessary to an end result you never even thought was possible.

A mentor can provide a safety net of courage where you have none and provide the strength of knowledge to replace the ignorance of doubt.

To illustrate this I would like to tell you a story of how I turned rocks into treasures many years ago without even knowing I had the slightest shred of skill to do so. How I was taught to spend my money and get a world of benefit from it.

When living in Clovis, NM I met an interesting elderly gentleman, he was tall and thin with a very long handlebar mustache a classic miner type old timer.

By sticking a rock in my face, he surprised me while I was working on a picture frame in a craft shop. He said with a very gruff voice "look at at" and pulled it back, then licked it. He then stuck it back in my face saying "At's wha it gona look like when it all shine up"

I was a little taken aback from his in your face approach and slightly irritated from his interruption on my very delicate woodwork. So I answered with “Yea right, that’s nice”. He smiled as he twisted the end of his mustache and said “See ya later” then walked off to another part of the craft center. I got right back to work and soon forgot about the man.

About two hours later I decided to take a break from my woodwork and stretch my legs. I walked trough the building to see what kinds of crafts the others were doing. There was a photography darkroom, a ceramics shop, painting etc. on my way back to the woodshop I passed a door where the old man shouted out “Com in heer, et me sho ya sumpin”.

Not wanting to offend the man I stepped in the door and took interest at what he had to show me. I was shown some polished rocks he called Jasper, Moss Agates and Fire Agates. I actually did find them beautiful with colors and shapes that could only be painted by god himself.

He then picked up a dusty gray rock and put it in my hand as we went over to a very dirty machine. It had mud and water all over it. He explained the water was to keep the blade of the saw cool. Turning it on, he told me to cut the rock and see what I could find.

I sliced the rock right down the middle and again cutting a piece about a quarter inch thick. It was a piece of Moss Agate which is milky white with green copper deposits running through it. The veins of green looked like Moss which grows on the trees in the southern USA. This is how it gets its name.

You could find all sorts of shapes and designs, like looking for objects in the clouds; your imagination was free to see what ever you wanted. After a few minutes of studying the rock I found that right near the center and off to the right a bit, was the most perfect oak tree sitting on a hill.

I imagined a green field of grass with a gently curved hill on the horizon, a single tree growing strongly and spreading its limbs in the sky. It was the perfect shape of a fully matured oak tree. I showed it to the old timer and he shouted “Perfect!... ets cutter out”.

He handed me a template with different shapes on it and asked me to choose the one I thought was right. After laying the template on the rock I soon found an oval shape which framed the tree as if it were a picture.

“This one” I said as I showed it to the wrinkle faced man.

Handing me a piece of aluminum wire with the end sharpened like a pencil, he explained that the aluminum would mark it and would not wash off when cutting it on the wet saw.

He showed me how to trim the excess away and get close to the line. We then heated a glob of hard wax on the end of a piece of dowel rod which was about six inches long then stuck it to the opposite side of the rough cut oval slice.

After cooling, it then had a very sturdy handle for the next step.

Moving to another odd contraption an axle with four or five wheels of different abrasives going from rough to an almost smooth texture I began to shape the slice to its final shape. First taking off the rough corners left from the wet saw. Then taking off the excess and getting as close to my line as I could without grinding it away.

Starting from the roughest wheel and working to the smoothest I ground it so the sides were thin and the middle was thick, to the shape of the oval outline. The tree was in the center standing proudly on the hill. It became a smooth mounded stone with a dull finish.

At the end of the grinder was a spinning disc of what looked like rubber or leather. A small jar of polishing compound was nearby so I could occasionally dip my piece of art in and replenish the polishing wheel. After polishing we changed the disc to a buffer pad and in quick order it was a shining masterpiece.

My mentor inspected my work and slowly his long mustache began to rise from the grin beneath. ”Wonderful job!” he declared. “Let go fine a prop er setin fer it”. He quickly guided me to the display counter I was asked to pick one out. I found a gold oval setting that looked as if it were two gold ropes framed around the shinny oak tree sitting on a hill. Kind of like a cameo necklace.

I was instructed how to install it permanently and was given a moment to admire my newly created master piece. The attendant then told me the price of the setting. I quickly dug out my wallet and delivered the cash.

I thanked the old man for the lesson and headed back to the woodshop to pick up my picture frames. This was the first of several trips to the lapidary shop and I made many pieces of jewelry from old dusty rocks.

Now you may think that the old man had found a way to relieve me of my money but the experiences I had and the knowledge I gained was priceless. I found some wonderful landscapes and hidden remnants from the past.

The family times I would not trade for all the money in the world. My Kids and I spent a many a wonderful day scouring the New Mexico countryside for hidden treasures. I gave my wife the proud oak and had great times learning from the long mustached old timer.

Sure he talked funny and looked funny, but he was filled with a wealth of knowledge gained from an interesting and long life. I learned lessons in marketing and lessons of life that I would not have learned in any other way.

The moral of this story is “You never know what gems are inside of a common rock, until you look deep inside the rough exterior”

Success comes from visualizing and manifesting treasures from what others see as common useless rocks.

Obstacles to Effective Communication

While a message source may be able to deliver a message through a transmission medium, there are many potential obstacles to the message successfully reaching the receiver the way the sender intends. The potential obstacles that may affect good communication include:

• Poor Encoding – This occurs when the message source fails to create the right sensory stimuli to meet the objectives of the message. For instance, in person-to-person communication, verbally phrasing words poorly so the intended communication is not what is actually meant, is the result of poor encoding. Poor encoding is also seen in advertisements that are difficult for the intended audience to understand, such as words or symbols that lack meaning or, worse, have totally different meaning within a certain cultural groups. This often occurs when marketers use the same advertising message across many different countries. Differences due to translation or cultural understanding can result in the message receiver having a different frame of reference for how to interpret words, symbols, sounds, etc. This may lead the message receiver to decode the meaning of the message in a different way than was intended by the message sender.
• Poor Decoding – This refers to a message receiver’s error in processing the message so that the meaning given to the received message is not what the source intended. This differs from poor encoding when it is clear, through comparative analysis with other receivers, that a particular receiver perceived a message differently from others and from what the message source intended. Clearly, as we noted above, if the receiver’s frame of reference is different (e.g., meaning of words are different) then decoding problems can occur. More likely, when it comes to marketing promotions, decoding errors occur due to personal or psychological factors, such as not paying attention to a full television advertisement, driving too quickly past a billboard, or allowing one’s mind to wonder while talking to a salesperson.
• Medium Failure – Sometimes communication channels break down and end up sending out weak or faltering signals. Other times the wrong medium is used to communicate the message. For instance, trying to educate doctors about a new treatment for heart disease using television commercials that quickly flash highly detailed information is not going to be as effective as presenting this information in a print ad where doctors can take their time evaluating the information.
• Communication Noise – Noise in communication occurs when an outside force in someway affects delivery of the message. The most obvious example is when loud sounds block the receiver’s ability to hear a message. Nearly any distraction to the sender or the receiver can lead to communication noise. In advertising, many customers are overwhelmed (i.e., distracted) by the large number of advertisements they encountered each day. Such advertising clutter (i.e., noise) makes it difficult for advertisers to get their message through to desired customers.

Keys to Effective Communication

For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of their message. From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted audience:

• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended. This means having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols, sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was decoded and interpreted properly. Feedback can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control over interference with their message. However, there are a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise level. For instance, salespeople can be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a conference facility. Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in magazine ads.
• Choose Right Audience – Targeting the right message receiver will go a long way to improving a marketer’s ability to promote their products. Messages are much more likely to be received and appropriately decoded by those who have an interest in the content of the message.

Communication Delivery

Communication takes place in the form of a message that is exchanged between a source and receiver. A message can be shaped using one or a combination of sensory stimuli that work together to convey meaning that meets the objectives of the sender. The sender uses a transmission medium to send the message. In marketing the medium may include the use of different media outlets (e.g., Internet, television, radio, print), promotion-only outlets (e.g., postal mail, billboards), and person-to-person contact (e.g., salespeople).

Additionally, communication can be improved if there is a two-way flow of information in the form of a feedback channel. This occurs if the message receiver is able to respond, often quickly, to the message source. In this way, the original message receiver now becomes the message source and the communication process begins again.

Communication Participants

For communication to occur there must be at least two participants:

• Message Source – The source of communication is the party intending to convey information to another party. The message source can be an individual (e.g., salesperson) or an organization (e.g., through advertising). In order to convey a message, the source must engage in message encoding, which involves mental and physical processes necessary to construct a message in order to reach a desired goal (i.e., convey meaningful information). This undertaking consists of using sensory stimuli, such as visuals (e.g., words, symbols, images), sounds (e.g., spoken word), and scents (e.g., fragrance) to convey a message.
• Message Receiver – The receiver of communication is the intended target of a message source’s efforts. For a message to be understood the receiver must decode the message by undertaking mental and physical processes necessary to give meaning to the message. Clearly, a message can only be decoded if the receiver is actually exposed to the message.

The Communication Process

The act of communicating has been evaluated extensively for many, many years. One of the classic analyses of communication took place in the 1940s and 1950s when researchers, including Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, Wilbur Schramm and others, offered models describing how communication takes place.

In general, communication is how people exchange meaningful information. Models that reflect how communication occurs often include the elements shown below:

Types of Promotion Objectives

The possible objectives for marketing promotions may include the following:

• Build Awareness – New products and new companies are often unknown to a market, which means initial promotional efforts must focus on establishing an identity. In this situation the marketer must focus promotion to: 1) effectively reach customers, and 2) tell the market who they are and what they have to offer.
• Create Interest – Moving a customer from awareness of a product to making a purchase can present a significant challenge. As we saw with our discussion of consumer and business buying behavior, customers must first recognize they have a need before they actively start to consider a purchase. The focus on creating messages that convince customers that a need exists has been the hallmark of marketing for a long time with promotional appeals targeted at basic human characteristics such as emotions, fears, sex, and humor.
• Provide Information – Some promotion is designed to assist customers in the search stage of the purchasing process. In some cases, such as when a product is so novel it creates a new category of product and has few competitors, the information is simply intended to explain what the product is and may not mention any competitors. In other situations, where the product competes in an existing market, informational promotion may be used to help with a product positioning strategy. As we discuss in the Targeting Markets tutorial, marketers may use promotional means, including direct comparisons with competitor’s products, in an effort to get customers to mentally distinguish the marketer’s product from those of competitors.
• Stimulate Demand – The right promotion can drive customers to make a purchase. In the case of products that a customer has not previously purchased or has not purchased in a long time, the promotional efforts may be directed at getting the customer to try the product. This is often seen on the Internet where software companies allow for free demonstrations or even free downloadable trials of their products. For products with an established customer-base, promotion can encourage customers to increase their purchasing by providing a reason to purchase products sooner or purchase in greater quantities than they normally do. For example, a pre-holiday newspaper advertisement may remind customers to stock up for the holiday by purchasing more than they typically purchase during non-holiday periods.
• Reinforce the Brand – Once a purchase is made, a marketer can use promotion to help build a strong relationship that can lead to the purchaser becoming a loyal customer. For instance, many retail stores now ask for a customer’s email address so that follow-up emails containing additional product information or even an incentive to purchase other products from the retailer can be sent in order to strengthen the customer-marketer relationship.

Targets of Marketing Promotions

The audience for an organization’s marketing communication efforts is not limited to just the marketer’s target market. While the bulk of a marketer’s promotional budget may be directed at the target market, there are many other groups that could also serve as useful target of a marketing message.

Targets of a marketing message generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Members of the Organization’s Target Market – This category would include current customers, previous customers and potential customers, and as noted, may receive the most promotional attention.
• Influencers of the Organization’s Target Market – There exists a large group of people and organizations that can affect how a company’s target market is exposed to and perceives a company’s products. These influencing groups have their own communication mechanisms that reach the target market and the marketer may be able utilize these influencers to its benefit. Influencers include the news media (e.g., offer company stories), special interest groups, opinion leaders (e.g., doctors directing patients), and industry trade associations.
• Participants in the Distribution Process – The distribution channel provides services to help gain access to final customers and are also target markets since they must recognize a product’s benefits and agree to handle the product in the same way as final customers who must agree to purchase products. Aiming promotions at distribution partners (e.g., retailers, wholesalers, distributors) and other channel members is extremely important and, in some industries, represents a higher portion of a marketer’s promotional budget than promotional spending directed at the final customer.
• Other Companies – The most likely scenario in which a company will communicate with another company occurs when the marketer is probing to see if the company would have an interest in a joint venture, such as a co-marketing arrangement where two firms share marketing costs. Reaching out to other companies, including companies who may be competitors for other products, could help create interest in discussing such a relationship.
• Other Organizational Stakeholders – Marketers may also be involved with communication activities directed at other stakeholders. This group consists of those who provide services, support or, in other ways, impact the company. For example, an industry group that sets industry standards can affect company products through the issuance of recommended compliance standards for product development or other marketing activities. Communicating with this group is important to insure the marketer’s views of any changes in standards are known.

Objectives of Marketing Promotions

The most obvious objective marketers have for promotional activities is to convince customers to make a decision that benefits the marketer (of course the marketer believes the decision will also benefit the customer). For most for-profit marketers this means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. For other marketers, such as not-for-profits, it means getting customers to increase donations, utilize more services, change attitudes, or change behavior (e.g., stop smoking campaigns).

However, marketers must understand that getting customers to commit to a decision, such as a purchase decision, is only achievable when a customer is ready to make the decision. As we saw in the tutorials covering Consumer Buying Behavior and Business Buying Behavior, customers often move through several stages before a purchase decision is made. Additionally before turning into a repeat customer, purchasers analyze their initial purchase to see whether they received a good value, and then often repeat the purchase process again before deciding to make the same choice.

The type of customer the marketer is attempting to attract and which stage of the purchase process a customer is in will affect the objectives of a particular marketing communication effort. And since a marketer often has multiple simultaneous promotional campaigns, the objective of each could be different.

What to Include When Writing a Marketing Plan

For those new to marketing plans, the thought of writing a marketing plan from start to finish may feel daunting. It need not. The level of detail you choose to include will depend on your resources and situation. If you have extremely limited manpower or other resources, you may be constrained to a "broad brush," basic marketing plan approach. If your plan must support your claims to others in the company, more back-up detail in your marketing plan may be appropriate.

Writing a Basic Marketing Plan

Include a summary at the beginning. Like any business report, your plan write up should begin with a summary. The traditional executive summary is one option.

I prefer to include - either in addition to or instead of the executive summary - a one-page table. The table makes everyday use of your plan easier. In one glance you can be reminded of your marketing challenges, objectives, strategies, and tactics as well as budgets and deadlines. Also, as your plan evolves throughout the year, the table makes it easier to modify the plan.

Other features of a basic plan include the following:

• Explain your reasoning. Make some reference to why you chose the specific objective(s) and strategies in your marketing plan. This will make it easier to justify the plan to others (if necessary). It will also help you make smarter, strategic decisions.

• Identify your target customers. By doing so, you will be better able to develop effective advertising messages.

• Write one or more positioning statements. In the statement(s), specify the customer needs you are fulfilling, benefits your products/services offer, and features that deliver those benefits.

• Explain key issues and opportunities when you write a marketing plan. These can best be identified through industry and/or competitive analyses.

• Include preliminary budgets and timelines for your action plans / programs.

Write an Advanced Marketing Plan - Expanded Content

By including detailed analysis and arguments to substantiate your plan, you can write an expanded marketing plan:

• Describe the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats your business faces (SWOT analysis).

• Explain the business environment. What are your competitors’ strategies? What potential substitutes are available?

• Include the trends in your industry and how they affect both online and offline activity. Show growth projections.

• Detail the financial aspects when you write the marketing plan. Include break even analysis for your products or company as well as for the tactics included in your plan. Discuss assumptions made when completing your financial analysis. Show how implementation of your plan will be profitable to your business.

• Include a calendar of events that shows milestones in the coming weeks or months.

You can be as detailed or top-line as needed when you write a marketing plan. In any case remember that your marketing plan is always a work in progress. It may be current, but it is never "done."