Description
Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of email marketing, although other media can also be used.
WHAT IS DRIP MARKETING? Drip marketing is a direct marketing strategy that involves sending out several promotional pieces over a period of time to a subset of sales leads. Is this process effective and how can you begin planning your drip marketing campaign? The phrase drip marketing comes from the common phrase used in agriculture and gardening called "drip irrigation." This is the process of watering plants or crops using small amounts of water over long periods of time. It was developed in response to the "Law of 29" in which many marketers believe that an average "prospect" will not turn into a client until they've viewed their marketing message at least 29 times. While I do not necessarily agree with the Law of 29, I do believe in the need to stay in touch with your current and prospective clients in order for them to purchase from you. There are way too many competitors out there, not to. The method of drip marketing can help you avoid the sell-produce curve. An effective way to use drip marketing is to consistently do something each month to keep your name in front of your current clients and prospective clients. By doing this you diminish the sell-produce curve and will find that you will have a steady amount of business coming in the door. The best thing about drip marketing is it requires a plan of action. By creating this plan and following it throughout the year you can guarantee that you will be consistent with your marketing all year long. I suggest that you develop your drip marketing campaign when planning your yearly marketing calendar. It all sounds great, but where do you start? To help you I've listed a plan of action to get you well on your way to developing a productive drip marketing campaign: • • • Step 1: Develop your Plan (Plan something EVERY month) Step 2: Strategize the Execution of Your Plan Step 3: Decide who your Target is.
• Step 4: Create consistency by developing your slogan or phrase. Then place it on every promotional and marketing piece. What methods can you use for your drip marketing campaign? Here are a few that will get you started: • • • • Postcards Newsletters Email Newsletter (You'll have to be careful of spam filters) Promotional or Sales Brochures
Think of your drip marketing campaign as a way to nurture your current and potential clients. You campaign should keep them aware of your products and services. With this thought in mind your campaign will succeed.
1
A 5 STEP INTERNET MARKETING PLAN THAT’S AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE Are you planning for explosive sales this year through an effective, organized Internet marketing campaign or are you maintaining your status quo and hoping for the best? A planned, organized Internet marketing campaign with rotation through a variety of targeted sites, directories and venues is not hard to coordinate, does not need to cost a great deal of money and can generate traffic and sales faster than search engine submissions alone. It takes a bit of research and a solid knowledge of your target customer, but you can plan and implement a simple marketing campaign in the space of a dedicated day. A Five Step Marketing Plan follows, created by in the trenches experience with Internet marketing for small business. By doing each of the actions, you'll end up with an effective holiday marketing campaign, creating a marketing plan that can be implemented immediately and begin reaping you sales successes. Internet Marketing Plan Step 1 - Defining Your Customer Defining your customer is as important as defining your products or naming your business. If you have not yet done a marketing plan within your business plan, then you need to do this exercise. If you already have this in your business plan, you can skip ahead to Step 2. Action: Answer these questions as honestly as you can. In other words, don't project your expectations or hopes on them. What is your perfect, solid customer really like? • • Is my perfect customer male or female? Does my perfect customer work out of the home or in the home?
• What is the job profile of my perfect customer - an executive, manager, worker, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent, etc. • • What is the net household income of my perfect customer? What level of education does my perfect customer have?
• Does my perfect customer have room in her spending budget for my product/service on a one time, occasional or constant basis? • How do my perfect customers use my product/service - do they buy it for themselves or as a gift? • Does my perfect customer spend a lot, some or minimal time on the Internet? • Where does my perfect customer look for my product/service? Both online and in physical locations? Once you have this written out, you should have a good picture of where to start looking to place your message and how to write your message copy. Internet Marketing Plan Step 2 - Choosing Your Targets Now, where are you going to post your ads? A coordinated effort across several sites and venues commonly frequented by your customers is the most effective
2
marketing campaign. If you are seen in several places your visibility and retained message is much stronger. Complementary sites that you can help cross-promote to your visitors, who will then see you there too, will provide excellent reinforcement of your message. Holiday specific sites that are well promoted are excellent areas to consider. When considering a site or newsletter for your ad, look at factors such as traffic, search engine placement, external linking (how many places link to it), quality of current ads and types of messages being presented in current ads. Are there many competitors of yours already or is the advertising of a complementary nature to your business? Are the ads completely unrelated to your business and to the intended traffic of the site? These are all clues to measure a best fit of your message to the traffic of the site. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is another consideration for your Internet marketing campaign but can be daunting for someone new to this form. If you're new to PPC, stick to places that allow you to set limits on daily expenditures. Google is a good example. This will also help you to experiment and determine the most effective keywords by paying close attention to the statistics of the PPC campaign. Conversion rates are an important measuring tool. What you need to do is determine what exactly you want to measure for your marketing campaign. Is it sales orders? Newsletter subscribers? Downloads of your free e-book? A conversion rate is the number of click-throughs it takes to achieve your target measurement. Your page may have 1000 hits, 14 clicks and 1 sale in a day. Your conversion rate is 1:14 or 7.1%. In other words, 7.1% of the clicks are generating a sale during this period. Close monitoring of your conversion rates will quickly tell you what is working and what is not. Don't hesitate to change, tweak or modify your ads if needed. This is a process in constant motion until you find the best fit. Remember too, an ad may work superbly in one place but not in another. Action: Create a spreadsheet or document that you will enter in all the sites and venues that are a consideration in your Internet marketing campaign. You can find a free version of a spreadsheet file called the "Ad Planning Guide" to help you get started at Under the Awning and look under "Gifts & Specials". Part 2: More of The 5 Step Internet Marketing Plan Here are the last three steps for creating an effective Internet marketing campaign. Internet Marketing Plan Step 3 - Budget While some folks think this should be the first step, realistically you can better create the budget for your marketing plan when you have a good idea of the costs involved. That can only be done once you've figured out your targets. You probably already have a figure in mind of how much you can really spend, so go back to your marketing campaign sheet and total up the costs of all the ad spots you'd like to do. Chances are that total will exceed your overall spending limit. Action: Now go through that list and prioritize the ads in terms of where you think you'll get the most exposure and results that fit within your budget. Move the others into a holding list. Remember, as the ads start to pull in results you can always go back and expand your marketing campaign from that holding list. If you are engaged in pay-per-click advertising, check in daily for the first week or so and monitor your results to ensure you are paying for results.
3
Don't forget to consider ad swaps and bartering as part of your payment and marketing budget. Many sites will swap newsletter ads or banner ads for similar placement on your site. It never hurts to ask. Internet Marketing Plan Step 4 - Creating Your Ad Content Internet marketing works best when you focus only on one or two things. You may have a variety of products but pick one or two items that are good sellers and have a solid appeal to your target market for your marketing campaign. Next ask yourself, "What am I selling"? It's rarely the product or service. You are selling a benefit, something that registers at the emotional level. If you are selling fishing rods, for example, you're selling the excitement of successfully landing that monster in the lake. If you are selling cosmetics, you're selling beauty. The most successful ads use words that relate to the customer. Use You and Yours and never put the focus on Me, Mine, Our, My or We. Create several emotional words associated with the product - fun, comforting, relaxing, stimulating, addictive - and use at least one of them in the ad. Coupons are also an effective marketing tool. They can be easily tracked either manually or by an automated shopping cart system. Use different codes for different advertising locations and you'll quickly see which ones get the best attention. Action: Create a text ad for each item in your Internet marketing campaign, making sure to hit at least one to three prime keywords in the text. Text ads typically run 60 characters wide by 3, 5, 7 or 10 lines long. Once you have your text ads, go through your banner inventory. Do you need to update them with a holiday specific message? Does every image have an appropriate ALT tag? Is the graphic properly optimized for size (under 20-50kb) and resolution (72dpi)? Internet Marketing Plan Step 5 - Tracking & Monitoring Your Ads Tracking and reacting to your campaign's successes are critical in maintaining an effective marketing campaign. From your website stats to PPC stats, there are many ways to determine what is working and what isn't. By paying attention you'll learn volumes about your ads and how to hone them for best results. Tracking tricks include using specific coupon or sales codes for each ad placement, setting up separate entry pages on your site for each ad, and utilizing a service that helps track activity. For example, a mall directory like Under the Awning gives you performance stats on your product listings. There are advertising management services that help you to track ad performance, such as phpAdsNew, a free service that is relatively easy to implement and gives powerful ad tracking management and support. Action: On a daily basis for the first two weeks, review the results of your various ads. Write them up in your tracking sheet and look for any trends or patterns. Which ones are performing, where and why? If some aren't working, replace them with others that are or try another from your hold list. Once you settle into a pattern of review and ad management you'll know better how often you need to monitor your marketing campaigns. Successful holiday Internet marketing campaigns are within the reach of any business, no matter what your budget. By following these basic marketing plan steps and committing to the follow-through, you can create a cost effective marketing campaign with a substantial return on investment.
4
Good sales to you this year!
5
PART 1: THE MARKETING PLAN SECTION OF THE BUSINESS PLAN When writing the business plan, the Marketing Plan section explains how you're going to get your customers to buy your products and/or services. The marketing plan, then, will include sections detailing your: • • • • Products and/or Services and your Unique Selling Proposition Pricing Strategy Sales/Distribution Plan Advertising and Promotions Plan
The easiest way to develop your marketing plan is to work through each of these sections, referring to the market research you completed when you were writing the previous sections of the business plan. (Note that if you are developing a marketing plan on its own, rather than as part of a business plan, the marketing plan will also need to include a Target Market and a Competitive Analysis section. Products and/or Services This part of the marketing plan focuses on the uniqueness of your product or service, and how the customer will benefit from using the products or services you're offering. Use these questions to write a paragraph summarizing these aspects for your marketing plan: What are the features of your product or service? Describe the physical attributes of your product or service, and any other relevant features, such as what it does, or how your product or service differs from competitive products or services. How will your product or service benefit the customer? Remember that benefits can be intangible as well as tangible; for instance, if you're selling a cleaning product, your customers will benefit by having a cleaner house, but they may also benefit by enjoying better health. Brainstorm as many benefits as possible to begin with, and then choose to emphasize the benefits that your targeted customers will most appreciate in your marketing plan. What is it that sets your product or service apart from all the rest? In other words, what is your Unique Selling Proposition, the message you want your customers to receive about your product or service that is the heart of your marketing plan? The marketing plan is all about communicating this central message to your customers. Part 2: The Marketing Plan - Pricing Strategy Pricing Strategy The pricing strategy portion of the marketing plan involves determining how you will price your product or service; the price you charge has to be competitive but still allow you to make a reasonable profit. The keyword here is "reasonable"; you can charge any price you want to, but for every product or service there's a limit to how much the consumer is willing to pay. Your pricing strategy needs to take this consumer threshold into account. The most common question small business people have about the pricing strategy section of the marketing plan is, "How do you know what price to charge?"
6
Basically you set your pricing through a process of calculating your costs, estimating the benefits to consumers, and comparing your products, services, and prices to others that are similar. Set your pricing by examining how much it cost you to produce the product or service and adding a fair price for the benefits that the customer will enjoy. Examining what others are charging for similar products or services will guide you when you're figuring out what a "fair" price for such benefits would be. You may find it useful to conduct a Breakeven Analysis. The pricing strategy you outline in your marketing plan will answer the following questions: What is the cost of your product or service? Make sure you include all your fixed and variable costs when you're calculating this; the cost of labour and materials are obvious, but you may also need to include freight costs, adminstrative costs, and/or selling costs, for example. How does the pricing of your product or service compare to the market price of similar products or services? Explain how the pricing of your product or service is competitive. For instance, if the price you plan to charge is lower, why are you able to do this? If it's higher, why would your customer be willing to pay more? This is where the "strategy" part of the pricing strategy comes into play; will your business be more competitive if you charge more, less, or the same as your competitors and why? What kind of ROI (Return On Investment) are you expecting with this pricing strategy, and within what time frame? Part 3: The Marketing Plan - Sales & Distribution Plan Sales and Distribution Plan Remember, the primary goal of the marketing plan is to get people to buy your products or services. The Sales and Distribution part of the marketing plan details how this is going to happen. Traditionally there are three parts to the Sales and Distribution section of the marketing plan, although all three parts may not apply to your business. 1) Outline the distribution methods to be used. How is your product or service going to get to the customer? For instance, will you distribute your product or service through a Web site, through the mail, through sales representatives, or through retail? What distribution channel is going to be used? In a direct distribution channel, the product or service goes directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. In a one stage distribution channel it goes from manufacturer to retailer to consumer. The traditional distribution channel is from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Outline all the different companies, people and/or technologies that will be involved in the process of getting your product or service to your customer. What are the costs associated with distribution? What are the delivery terms? How will the distribution methods affect production time frames or delivery? (How long will it take to get your product or service to your customer?)
7
If your business involves selling a product, you should also include information about inventory levels and packaging in this part of your marketing plan. For instance: How are your products to be packaged for shipping and for display? Does the packaging meet all regulatory requirements (such as labelling)? Is the packaging appropriately coded, priced, and complementary to the product? What minimum inventory levels must be maintained to ensure that there is no loss of sales due to problems such as late shipments and back orders? 2) Outline the transaction process between your business and your customers. What system will be used for processing orders, shipping, and billing? What methods of payment will customers be able to use? What credit terms will customers be offered? If you will offer discounts for early payment or impose penalties for late payment, they should be mentioned in this part of your marketing plan. What is your return policy? What warranties will the customer be offered? Describe these or any other service guarantees. What after-sale support will you offer customers and what will you charge (if anything) for this support? Is there a system for customer feedback so customer satisfaction (or the lack of it) can be tracked and addressed? 3) If it's applicable to your business, outline your sales strategy. What types of salespeople will be involved (commissioned salespeople, product demonstrators, telephone solicitors, etc.)? Describe your expectations of these salespeople and how sales effectiveness will be measured. Will a sales training program be offered? If so, describe it in this section of the marketing plan. Describe the incentives salespeople will be offered to encourage their achievements (such as getting new accounts, the most orders, etc.). Part 4: The Marketing Plan - Advertising & Promotion Plan Advertising And Promotion Plan Essentially the Advertising and Promotion section of the marketing plan describes how you're going to deliver your Unique Selling Proposition to your prospective customers. While there are literally thousands of different promotion avenues available to you, what distinguishes a successful Advertising and Promotion Plan from an unsuccessful one is focus - and that's what your Unique Selling Proposition provides. So think first of the message that you want to send to your targeted audience. Then look at these promotion possibilities and decide which to emphasize in your marketing plan: Advertising - The best approach to advertising is to think of it in terms of media and which media will be most effective in reaching your target market.
8
Then you can make decisions about how much of your annual advertising budget you're going to spend on each medium. What percentage of your annual advertising budget will you invest in each of the following: • • • • • • • • • • the Internet television radio newspapers magazines telephone books/directories billboards bench/bus/subway ads direct mail cooperative advertising with wholesalers, retailers or other businesses?
Include not only the cost of the advertising but your projections about how much business the advertising will bring in. Sales Promotion - If it's appropriate to your business, you may want to incorporate sales promotion activites into your advertising and promotion plan, such as: • • • • offering free samples coupons point of purchase displays product demonstrations
Marketing Materials - Every business will include some of these in their promotion plans. The most common marketing material is the business card, but brochures, pamphlets and service sheets are also common. Publicity - Another avenue of promotion that every business should use. Describe how you plan to generate publicity. While press releases spring to mind, that's only one way to get people spreading the word about your business. Consider: • • • • product launches special events, including community involvement writing articles getting and using testimonials
• Your Business' Web Site - If your business has or will have a Web site, describe how your Web site fits into your advertising and promotion plan. • Tradeshows - Tradeshows can be incredibly effective promotion and sales opportunities - if you pick the right ones and go equipped to put your promotion plan into action. My article "Trade Show Tips" explains how to choose appropriate trade shows and gives display tips to make the most of your trade show experience. Read more about trade shows in the Trade Show Library. • Other Promotion Activities
9
• Your promotion activities are truly limited only by your imagination. If you plan to teach a course, sponsor a community event, or conduct an email campaign, you'll want to include it in your advertising and promotion plan. Remember, sporadic unconnected attempts to promote your product or service are bound to fail; your goal is to plan and carry out a sequence of focused promotion activities that will communicate with your potential customers. • While small businesses often have miniscule (or non-existent) promotion budgets, that doesn't mean that small businesses can't design and implement effective promotion plans. Visit the Business Promotion Library for a host of inexpensive ideas to get your promotion plan off the ground. • No business is too small to have a marketing plan. After all, no business is too small for customers or clients. And if you have these, you need to communicate with them about your products and/or services.
10
doc_482456105.doc
Drip marketing is a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time. These messages often take the form of email marketing, although other media can also be used.
WHAT IS DRIP MARKETING? Drip marketing is a direct marketing strategy that involves sending out several promotional pieces over a period of time to a subset of sales leads. Is this process effective and how can you begin planning your drip marketing campaign? The phrase drip marketing comes from the common phrase used in agriculture and gardening called "drip irrigation." This is the process of watering plants or crops using small amounts of water over long periods of time. It was developed in response to the "Law of 29" in which many marketers believe that an average "prospect" will not turn into a client until they've viewed their marketing message at least 29 times. While I do not necessarily agree with the Law of 29, I do believe in the need to stay in touch with your current and prospective clients in order for them to purchase from you. There are way too many competitors out there, not to. The method of drip marketing can help you avoid the sell-produce curve. An effective way to use drip marketing is to consistently do something each month to keep your name in front of your current clients and prospective clients. By doing this you diminish the sell-produce curve and will find that you will have a steady amount of business coming in the door. The best thing about drip marketing is it requires a plan of action. By creating this plan and following it throughout the year you can guarantee that you will be consistent with your marketing all year long. I suggest that you develop your drip marketing campaign when planning your yearly marketing calendar. It all sounds great, but where do you start? To help you I've listed a plan of action to get you well on your way to developing a productive drip marketing campaign: • • • Step 1: Develop your Plan (Plan something EVERY month) Step 2: Strategize the Execution of Your Plan Step 3: Decide who your Target is.
• Step 4: Create consistency by developing your slogan or phrase. Then place it on every promotional and marketing piece. What methods can you use for your drip marketing campaign? Here are a few that will get you started: • • • • Postcards Newsletters Email Newsletter (You'll have to be careful of spam filters) Promotional or Sales Brochures
Think of your drip marketing campaign as a way to nurture your current and potential clients. You campaign should keep them aware of your products and services. With this thought in mind your campaign will succeed.
1
A 5 STEP INTERNET MARKETING PLAN THAT’S AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE Are you planning for explosive sales this year through an effective, organized Internet marketing campaign or are you maintaining your status quo and hoping for the best? A planned, organized Internet marketing campaign with rotation through a variety of targeted sites, directories and venues is not hard to coordinate, does not need to cost a great deal of money and can generate traffic and sales faster than search engine submissions alone. It takes a bit of research and a solid knowledge of your target customer, but you can plan and implement a simple marketing campaign in the space of a dedicated day. A Five Step Marketing Plan follows, created by in the trenches experience with Internet marketing for small business. By doing each of the actions, you'll end up with an effective holiday marketing campaign, creating a marketing plan that can be implemented immediately and begin reaping you sales successes. Internet Marketing Plan Step 1 - Defining Your Customer Defining your customer is as important as defining your products or naming your business. If you have not yet done a marketing plan within your business plan, then you need to do this exercise. If you already have this in your business plan, you can skip ahead to Step 2. Action: Answer these questions as honestly as you can. In other words, don't project your expectations or hopes on them. What is your perfect, solid customer really like? • • Is my perfect customer male or female? Does my perfect customer work out of the home or in the home?
• What is the job profile of my perfect customer - an executive, manager, worker, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent, etc. • • What is the net household income of my perfect customer? What level of education does my perfect customer have?
• Does my perfect customer have room in her spending budget for my product/service on a one time, occasional or constant basis? • How do my perfect customers use my product/service - do they buy it for themselves or as a gift? • Does my perfect customer spend a lot, some or minimal time on the Internet? • Where does my perfect customer look for my product/service? Both online and in physical locations? Once you have this written out, you should have a good picture of where to start looking to place your message and how to write your message copy. Internet Marketing Plan Step 2 - Choosing Your Targets Now, where are you going to post your ads? A coordinated effort across several sites and venues commonly frequented by your customers is the most effective
2
marketing campaign. If you are seen in several places your visibility and retained message is much stronger. Complementary sites that you can help cross-promote to your visitors, who will then see you there too, will provide excellent reinforcement of your message. Holiday specific sites that are well promoted are excellent areas to consider. When considering a site or newsletter for your ad, look at factors such as traffic, search engine placement, external linking (how many places link to it), quality of current ads and types of messages being presented in current ads. Are there many competitors of yours already or is the advertising of a complementary nature to your business? Are the ads completely unrelated to your business and to the intended traffic of the site? These are all clues to measure a best fit of your message to the traffic of the site. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is another consideration for your Internet marketing campaign but can be daunting for someone new to this form. If you're new to PPC, stick to places that allow you to set limits on daily expenditures. Google is a good example. This will also help you to experiment and determine the most effective keywords by paying close attention to the statistics of the PPC campaign. Conversion rates are an important measuring tool. What you need to do is determine what exactly you want to measure for your marketing campaign. Is it sales orders? Newsletter subscribers? Downloads of your free e-book? A conversion rate is the number of click-throughs it takes to achieve your target measurement. Your page may have 1000 hits, 14 clicks and 1 sale in a day. Your conversion rate is 1:14 or 7.1%. In other words, 7.1% of the clicks are generating a sale during this period. Close monitoring of your conversion rates will quickly tell you what is working and what is not. Don't hesitate to change, tweak or modify your ads if needed. This is a process in constant motion until you find the best fit. Remember too, an ad may work superbly in one place but not in another. Action: Create a spreadsheet or document that you will enter in all the sites and venues that are a consideration in your Internet marketing campaign. You can find a free version of a spreadsheet file called the "Ad Planning Guide" to help you get started at Under the Awning and look under "Gifts & Specials". Part 2: More of The 5 Step Internet Marketing Plan Here are the last three steps for creating an effective Internet marketing campaign. Internet Marketing Plan Step 3 - Budget While some folks think this should be the first step, realistically you can better create the budget for your marketing plan when you have a good idea of the costs involved. That can only be done once you've figured out your targets. You probably already have a figure in mind of how much you can really spend, so go back to your marketing campaign sheet and total up the costs of all the ad spots you'd like to do. Chances are that total will exceed your overall spending limit. Action: Now go through that list and prioritize the ads in terms of where you think you'll get the most exposure and results that fit within your budget. Move the others into a holding list. Remember, as the ads start to pull in results you can always go back and expand your marketing campaign from that holding list. If you are engaged in pay-per-click advertising, check in daily for the first week or so and monitor your results to ensure you are paying for results.
3
Don't forget to consider ad swaps and bartering as part of your payment and marketing budget. Many sites will swap newsletter ads or banner ads for similar placement on your site. It never hurts to ask. Internet Marketing Plan Step 4 - Creating Your Ad Content Internet marketing works best when you focus only on one or two things. You may have a variety of products but pick one or two items that are good sellers and have a solid appeal to your target market for your marketing campaign. Next ask yourself, "What am I selling"? It's rarely the product or service. You are selling a benefit, something that registers at the emotional level. If you are selling fishing rods, for example, you're selling the excitement of successfully landing that monster in the lake. If you are selling cosmetics, you're selling beauty. The most successful ads use words that relate to the customer. Use You and Yours and never put the focus on Me, Mine, Our, My or We. Create several emotional words associated with the product - fun, comforting, relaxing, stimulating, addictive - and use at least one of them in the ad. Coupons are also an effective marketing tool. They can be easily tracked either manually or by an automated shopping cart system. Use different codes for different advertising locations and you'll quickly see which ones get the best attention. Action: Create a text ad for each item in your Internet marketing campaign, making sure to hit at least one to three prime keywords in the text. Text ads typically run 60 characters wide by 3, 5, 7 or 10 lines long. Once you have your text ads, go through your banner inventory. Do you need to update them with a holiday specific message? Does every image have an appropriate ALT tag? Is the graphic properly optimized for size (under 20-50kb) and resolution (72dpi)? Internet Marketing Plan Step 5 - Tracking & Monitoring Your Ads Tracking and reacting to your campaign's successes are critical in maintaining an effective marketing campaign. From your website stats to PPC stats, there are many ways to determine what is working and what isn't. By paying attention you'll learn volumes about your ads and how to hone them for best results. Tracking tricks include using specific coupon or sales codes for each ad placement, setting up separate entry pages on your site for each ad, and utilizing a service that helps track activity. For example, a mall directory like Under the Awning gives you performance stats on your product listings. There are advertising management services that help you to track ad performance, such as phpAdsNew, a free service that is relatively easy to implement and gives powerful ad tracking management and support. Action: On a daily basis for the first two weeks, review the results of your various ads. Write them up in your tracking sheet and look for any trends or patterns. Which ones are performing, where and why? If some aren't working, replace them with others that are or try another from your hold list. Once you settle into a pattern of review and ad management you'll know better how often you need to monitor your marketing campaigns. Successful holiday Internet marketing campaigns are within the reach of any business, no matter what your budget. By following these basic marketing plan steps and committing to the follow-through, you can create a cost effective marketing campaign with a substantial return on investment.
4
Good sales to you this year!
5
PART 1: THE MARKETING PLAN SECTION OF THE BUSINESS PLAN When writing the business plan, the Marketing Plan section explains how you're going to get your customers to buy your products and/or services. The marketing plan, then, will include sections detailing your: • • • • Products and/or Services and your Unique Selling Proposition Pricing Strategy Sales/Distribution Plan Advertising and Promotions Plan
The easiest way to develop your marketing plan is to work through each of these sections, referring to the market research you completed when you were writing the previous sections of the business plan. (Note that if you are developing a marketing plan on its own, rather than as part of a business plan, the marketing plan will also need to include a Target Market and a Competitive Analysis section. Products and/or Services This part of the marketing plan focuses on the uniqueness of your product or service, and how the customer will benefit from using the products or services you're offering. Use these questions to write a paragraph summarizing these aspects for your marketing plan: What are the features of your product or service? Describe the physical attributes of your product or service, and any other relevant features, such as what it does, or how your product or service differs from competitive products or services. How will your product or service benefit the customer? Remember that benefits can be intangible as well as tangible; for instance, if you're selling a cleaning product, your customers will benefit by having a cleaner house, but they may also benefit by enjoying better health. Brainstorm as many benefits as possible to begin with, and then choose to emphasize the benefits that your targeted customers will most appreciate in your marketing plan. What is it that sets your product or service apart from all the rest? In other words, what is your Unique Selling Proposition, the message you want your customers to receive about your product or service that is the heart of your marketing plan? The marketing plan is all about communicating this central message to your customers. Part 2: The Marketing Plan - Pricing Strategy Pricing Strategy The pricing strategy portion of the marketing plan involves determining how you will price your product or service; the price you charge has to be competitive but still allow you to make a reasonable profit. The keyword here is "reasonable"; you can charge any price you want to, but for every product or service there's a limit to how much the consumer is willing to pay. Your pricing strategy needs to take this consumer threshold into account. The most common question small business people have about the pricing strategy section of the marketing plan is, "How do you know what price to charge?"
6
Basically you set your pricing through a process of calculating your costs, estimating the benefits to consumers, and comparing your products, services, and prices to others that are similar. Set your pricing by examining how much it cost you to produce the product or service and adding a fair price for the benefits that the customer will enjoy. Examining what others are charging for similar products or services will guide you when you're figuring out what a "fair" price for such benefits would be. You may find it useful to conduct a Breakeven Analysis. The pricing strategy you outline in your marketing plan will answer the following questions: What is the cost of your product or service? Make sure you include all your fixed and variable costs when you're calculating this; the cost of labour and materials are obvious, but you may also need to include freight costs, adminstrative costs, and/or selling costs, for example. How does the pricing of your product or service compare to the market price of similar products or services? Explain how the pricing of your product or service is competitive. For instance, if the price you plan to charge is lower, why are you able to do this? If it's higher, why would your customer be willing to pay more? This is where the "strategy" part of the pricing strategy comes into play; will your business be more competitive if you charge more, less, or the same as your competitors and why? What kind of ROI (Return On Investment) are you expecting with this pricing strategy, and within what time frame? Part 3: The Marketing Plan - Sales & Distribution Plan Sales and Distribution Plan Remember, the primary goal of the marketing plan is to get people to buy your products or services. The Sales and Distribution part of the marketing plan details how this is going to happen. Traditionally there are three parts to the Sales and Distribution section of the marketing plan, although all three parts may not apply to your business. 1) Outline the distribution methods to be used. How is your product or service going to get to the customer? For instance, will you distribute your product or service through a Web site, through the mail, through sales representatives, or through retail? What distribution channel is going to be used? In a direct distribution channel, the product or service goes directly from the manufacturer to the consumer. In a one stage distribution channel it goes from manufacturer to retailer to consumer. The traditional distribution channel is from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Outline all the different companies, people and/or technologies that will be involved in the process of getting your product or service to your customer. What are the costs associated with distribution? What are the delivery terms? How will the distribution methods affect production time frames or delivery? (How long will it take to get your product or service to your customer?)
7
If your business involves selling a product, you should also include information about inventory levels and packaging in this part of your marketing plan. For instance: How are your products to be packaged for shipping and for display? Does the packaging meet all regulatory requirements (such as labelling)? Is the packaging appropriately coded, priced, and complementary to the product? What minimum inventory levels must be maintained to ensure that there is no loss of sales due to problems such as late shipments and back orders? 2) Outline the transaction process between your business and your customers. What system will be used for processing orders, shipping, and billing? What methods of payment will customers be able to use? What credit terms will customers be offered? If you will offer discounts for early payment or impose penalties for late payment, they should be mentioned in this part of your marketing plan. What is your return policy? What warranties will the customer be offered? Describe these or any other service guarantees. What after-sale support will you offer customers and what will you charge (if anything) for this support? Is there a system for customer feedback so customer satisfaction (or the lack of it) can be tracked and addressed? 3) If it's applicable to your business, outline your sales strategy. What types of salespeople will be involved (commissioned salespeople, product demonstrators, telephone solicitors, etc.)? Describe your expectations of these salespeople and how sales effectiveness will be measured. Will a sales training program be offered? If so, describe it in this section of the marketing plan. Describe the incentives salespeople will be offered to encourage their achievements (such as getting new accounts, the most orders, etc.). Part 4: The Marketing Plan - Advertising & Promotion Plan Advertising And Promotion Plan Essentially the Advertising and Promotion section of the marketing plan describes how you're going to deliver your Unique Selling Proposition to your prospective customers. While there are literally thousands of different promotion avenues available to you, what distinguishes a successful Advertising and Promotion Plan from an unsuccessful one is focus - and that's what your Unique Selling Proposition provides. So think first of the message that you want to send to your targeted audience. Then look at these promotion possibilities and decide which to emphasize in your marketing plan: Advertising - The best approach to advertising is to think of it in terms of media and which media will be most effective in reaching your target market.
8
Then you can make decisions about how much of your annual advertising budget you're going to spend on each medium. What percentage of your annual advertising budget will you invest in each of the following: • • • • • • • • • • the Internet television radio newspapers magazines telephone books/directories billboards bench/bus/subway ads direct mail cooperative advertising with wholesalers, retailers or other businesses?
Include not only the cost of the advertising but your projections about how much business the advertising will bring in. Sales Promotion - If it's appropriate to your business, you may want to incorporate sales promotion activites into your advertising and promotion plan, such as: • • • • offering free samples coupons point of purchase displays product demonstrations
Marketing Materials - Every business will include some of these in their promotion plans. The most common marketing material is the business card, but brochures, pamphlets and service sheets are also common. Publicity - Another avenue of promotion that every business should use. Describe how you plan to generate publicity. While press releases spring to mind, that's only one way to get people spreading the word about your business. Consider: • • • • product launches special events, including community involvement writing articles getting and using testimonials
• Your Business' Web Site - If your business has or will have a Web site, describe how your Web site fits into your advertising and promotion plan. • Tradeshows - Tradeshows can be incredibly effective promotion and sales opportunities - if you pick the right ones and go equipped to put your promotion plan into action. My article "Trade Show Tips" explains how to choose appropriate trade shows and gives display tips to make the most of your trade show experience. Read more about trade shows in the Trade Show Library. • Other Promotion Activities
9
• Your promotion activities are truly limited only by your imagination. If you plan to teach a course, sponsor a community event, or conduct an email campaign, you'll want to include it in your advertising and promotion plan. Remember, sporadic unconnected attempts to promote your product or service are bound to fail; your goal is to plan and carry out a sequence of focused promotion activities that will communicate with your potential customers. • While small businesses often have miniscule (or non-existent) promotion budgets, that doesn't mean that small businesses can't design and implement effective promotion plans. Visit the Business Promotion Library for a host of inexpensive ideas to get your promotion plan off the ground. • No business is too small to have a marketing plan. After all, no business is too small for customers or clients. And if you have these, you need to communicate with them about your products and/or services.
10
doc_482456105.doc