Marketing strategy and plan

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...
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Small business marketing strategy

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...
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Do you have a concise marketing plan?

Do you have a concise marketing plan?

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...
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