Build a great marketing plan

There are four essential areas:

• publicity
• promotion
• merchandising
• market research

 

The first step is to define your market. Who is your targeted audience? Know its inclinations, its needs, and its dispositions, then gear your product to fit these. Put yourself in your customer’s place: Where do I go to buy it? What makes me buy it? What media do I watch, read and llisten to that makes me decide to buy.

Carefully consider the followeing ideas and strategies and implement each one into your plan:

• develop marketing strategies by acquiring marketing information, by implementing feasibility testing, by accessing competitor track records, and by generating insight into the market future.
• Pricing: charge what the market will bear. Basis of pricing should be consumer research and competitor track record.
• Channel of distribution need to be effectively established if you are going to get your products and services out into the market. This includes production, transportation, materials handling and product packaging.
• Promote your product or service to your target market. Include the media you will use to promote your enterprise, related costs and anticipated benefits.
• Your marketing budget must be realistic and clearly communicated.
• Your timetable needs to be accurate and plausible.
• Warranty and guarantee policies need to be defined.
• Consider what professional resources you need to implement your plan.
• Consider how you will monitor the response of the market to your campaign.
• Testing one approach alongside another will provide direction for future plans.

 

 Selling tactics

 Identify your sales force. Think about the advantages and disadvantages of commissioned versus salaried sales people. You may consider offering a combination.

• What type of training will you offer for sales staff? Identify the need to increase sales staff as part of expansion and analyse the nature of future staffing.
• Will you have only sales people who have a college degree?
• Will you be selling your products/services through a network of dealers or distributors?
• Will your salespeople have protected territories?
• What is the total cost of the sale?
• Will your salespeople be able to compete with the prices that you have established?
• Communicate your Unique Selling Proposition.
• What are some of your competitiors’ wealmesses? Take these and turn them into strengths for your company.