marketing plan - The Marketing Compass

Your 2016 marketing strategy: 12 questions to ask yourself

December 31, 2015January 4, 2016 By Nigel TempleNo Comments

What is your 2016 marketing strategy? Here are 12 questions to ask yourself: 1. What is your offer to the marketplace? (This should be a simple sentence or two that anyone can understand). 2. What is the one key thing that you want customers to remember about your brand, next year? 3. Are you going to launch any new products / services in 2o16? (Hint: you can't keep selling the same old stuff forever, can you?) 4. Have you reviewed your pricing, for the year ahead? Should it go up, stay the same, or go down? 5. What is your digital marketing strategy for 2016? 6. What is your mobile marketing strategy for the year ahead? 7. How will you out-innovate your competitors, with regards to marketing, in the New Year? 8. Who is going to do the webcopywriting? ("The more you write, the more you sell.") Remember that writing for the web is different to writing for print. 9. Which social media platforms will you focus on, and why? 10....

Marketing strategy and plan

December 17, 2012 By Nigel TempleNo Comments

Do you have a clear marketing strategy and plan for the year ahead? Have you chosen your market segments, decided which products / services to focus on and costed your promotional mix (in terms of both time and money)? Marketing is too important to leave to chance. This is the perfect time to think about the big picture and your key objectives. Key issues include market segments, how to stand out from the crowd and key messages. In other words - who are you are going to market to, how will you differentiate your business and what do you want prospective customers to remember about you? Time and money are limited. You can't sell to everyone. Smart enterprises focus on clearly defined groups of people with shared needs. They communicate with them consistently. Remember that 'little and often' beats 'big and infrequent' when it comes to communication. It is important to have a written marketing plan. This is good discipline as it will...

How to use demographics to improve marketing results

September 18, 2012September 20, 2012 By Nigel TempleNo Comments

Demographics is primarily used within B2C (Business to Consumer) marketing). At The Marketing Compass, we are often asked how to use demographics to improve marketing results. By thinking in terms of demographics, you can create offers, headlines, advertisements, web pages, events and entire marketing campaigns which are aimed at distinct groups of consumers. This will help you to improve your marketing results. Demographics are part of the market segmentation process. The benefits of segmentation include improving your copywriting, as it is easier to write for a 'group of people with shared needs'. If you sell to consumers (the 'general public'), the factors to consider include: Age Can you define age brackets for the people you are marketing to? For example 18 – 25 or 50 plus. (Beware of this approach, as it can be too simplistic). Gender Are you selling to just men or just women? If you are selling to both, are your products / services more relevant to men or to women? Socio-economic group Can...

Small business marketing strategy

November 16, 2011July 16, 2012 By Nigel TempleNo Comments

Here's a short story about small business marketing strategy... David (not his real name) was a client of mine, a few years ago. He was a left brain thinker. An engineer by training, he liked a structured approach, logical steps and processes. He worked endlessly on his marketing plan and talked about the detailed elements of his website and promotional mix. He was never in a rush and preferred to think everything through carefully. Stephanie (not her real name) was another client. She was chaotic to work with, never wrote anything down and was always moving onto the next great thing in marketing. She didn't like plans and used to say to me: "What's the point of plans? They never work out anyway and they take so much time. Let's get out there and DO SOMETHING!" Stephanie liked to talk about the 'big picture'. She felt that the greater the number of playing cards you throw up in the air, the greater...

How to build a brand identity

October 29, 2011July 16, 2012 By Nigel TempleNo Comments

The smallest business should still 'think brand'. Let's discuss how to build a brand identity... A brand = a promise. What is your promise to your marketplace? If your business is 'just you' then you are the brand. Your brand is based on your values. What are your values? Have you thought about them recently? Do your colleagues / associates / customers / suppliers know what they are? Do you have a written list of your values? Do you display them within your website? A member of The Marketing Compass told me recently that a new client selected his company on the basis of their values (as seen on their website). Successful brands display certain qualities. For example: * They are clear what they stand for * They have a marketing strategy, plan and direction * Their messages are congruent * They use visual brand identity consistently * They continually invest in promotional campaigns * They use a wide promotional mix * They are creative in their approach * They stand out...

Do you have a concise marketing plan?

September 15, 2010September 16, 2010 By Nigel Temple3 Comments

There are literally thousands of marketing actions which you could take today. For example, you could Tweet, telephone a prospective customer, write a blog, plan an event, write a press release, book to attend a networking event or write an article. There are countless people who you could engage with. For example, prospective customers, dormant customers or advocates. With all of these marketing options available to you, are you happy that you are following the right path - or do you sometimes feel that you are doing a great deal and not getting the expected results? The answer is to produce a concise marketing plan. This will help you to be better organised, decide on your marketing objectives and set specific goals. By referring back to your plan, you will have more control and get better results from the time and money you spend on marketing. It will also help you to measure your marketing success. Some questions for you to consider Are you...