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Happy New Year Everyone 
Thought I'd post up the following article I wrote (well, researched and stole the best and most sensible bits!) on marketing plans for one of my new email newsletters.
This time of year is often a good time to plan your marketing activities (to an extent) for the year- or at least have some kind of plan put into place about where you'd like your business to go, and how you might get there.
A marketing plan or strategy (and it need not be a 10,000 word essay- just a simple plan on a piece of paper will do) will help you make sense of your business targets and It'll help you free up time later in the year to actually earn some money- and not "firefight" marketing issues.
No business is too small to undertake a strategy, it doesn't matter if you're a single nail technician or a multi-national salon chain. You know what they say, fail to prepare- prepare to fail!
Stage 1: Position Your Service
Many business owners blur the lines between promotion, advertising, and public relations. Those are the channels of a message or campaign, not marketing itself.
The four Ps of marketing are:
• Product: Having the right product or service for your market.
• Price: Selling your product or service for an amount that makes your target customer feel it's a good deal.
• Promotion: Creating appropriate perceptions across multiple channels, including, print — direct mail, flyers, brochures, postcards, newspaper or magazine ads, email marketing and more.
• Place: Distributing your product to locations where your target customers can readily find it or the location you’ll be asking them to visit.
If you can put the right product or service at the right price in front of the right customer, you're cooking. Keep in mind that a high volume of sales isn't the key. Profit is. The goal of marketing is to generate the interest or recognition that will lead to the sales that will boost profits. That's the reason to create a strategy. You want to craft persuasive messages for the customers you target. You also want messages that promise only what you actually deliver. It's easy to create consistent marketing collateral by applying your brand identity to carry the same look across various media. This is where your relationship with us at Verve comes in!
Stage 2. Tap Your Brain Trust (aka research)
To define appropriate marketing for your company, set up some brainstorming meetings with advisors you trust, such as family, friends, staff, or other professionals- or us at Verve!
At these sessions, explore answers to these questions:
• Who are you selling to?
• What do those customers need?
• What distinguishes your product or service from the competition?
• Which marketing tactics will make your products noticeable?
• When and how often should marketing efforts be used?
• Where do you want your company to be in a year?
Start putting notes on paper. Describe the state and size of your marketplace, how sales will work, your target customer (age, income, locations, and purchase patterns) and how your products rate against competitors.
Step 3: Listen to Customers
Next, you need to know how clients and customers react to your quality, prices, service , image and brand—everything, in short, that influences their purchasing decisions.
Many business owners have a very different perception to their business than their customers, so it’s best to put the ego aside for a moment and find out.
So, to discover what customers think, just ask them.
Survey some of your current customers as well as customers you want to reach. Make personal calls or send them surveys via e-mail or postcards. Include an incentive to boost participation, such as a discount etc. Based on what you learn, prepare a SWOT analysis that deconstructs your business in fresh ways:
• Strengths: What makes your business thrive?
• Weaknesses: What are your vulnerabilities?
• Opportunities: What market conditions or segments can lead to growth?
• Threats: How are competitors snapping at your heels?
Step 4: Drum Roll....Draft the Plan!
Now that you have an overview of customers and market conditions, you can flesh out your plan. This plan needn't be a formal document, but should at least consist of a written outline to share with staff or outside consultants and to refer to later. The plan should cover:
• A summary of your market position and goals.
• A definition of what you expect to accomplish in a specific time period (e.g: "We/I will earn an extra £1,000 revenue by the third quarter of this year.")
• A list of target markets, including segmentation and niche areas.
• An appropriate strategy for each segment or market- do you have a different strategy for marketing to men and women for example?
• Expenses and resources, and how they will be allocated.
• Marketing channels. This is where you choose the types of marketing materials and distribution vehicles that you will use to attract target customers, including flyers, postcards, email marketing, newsletters, a web site and more.
• Competitive strategies. How will you respond to your competitors, for example, if a competitor beats your price, or offer a service you don’t?
Step 5: Track Results Include benchmarks in your plan.
Use these benchmarks to take stock of whether your marketing efforts are paying off or if you should rethink your approach.
I often bore people with this phrase but “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!”
You’ll never know if a leaflet campaign has been a success if you can’t track how much extra footfall it has delivered- make people return the leaflet for a discount and simply count them.
Plans are great, but if you don't also designate responsibility, set deadlines and hold people accountable, marketing efforts can't succeed.
Finally, don't rest on your laurels. Markets change all the time and you must be ready. Make sure to review the plan every year to see if you must revisit any goals.
Thought I'd post up the following article I wrote (well, researched and stole the best and most sensible bits!) on marketing plans for one of my new email newsletters.
This time of year is often a good time to plan your marketing activities (to an extent) for the year- or at least have some kind of plan put into place about where you'd like your business to go, and how you might get there.
A marketing plan or strategy (and it need not be a 10,000 word essay- just a simple plan on a piece of paper will do) will help you make sense of your business targets and It'll help you free up time later in the year to actually earn some money- and not "firefight" marketing issues.
No business is too small to undertake a strategy, it doesn't matter if you're a single nail technician or a multi-national salon chain. You know what they say, fail to prepare- prepare to fail!
Stage 1: Position Your Service
Many business owners blur the lines between promotion, advertising, and public relations. Those are the channels of a message or campaign, not marketing itself.
The four Ps of marketing are:
• Product: Having the right product or service for your market.
• Price: Selling your product or service for an amount that makes your target customer feel it's a good deal.
• Promotion: Creating appropriate perceptions across multiple channels, including, print — direct mail, flyers, brochures, postcards, newspaper or magazine ads, email marketing and more.
• Place: Distributing your product to locations where your target customers can readily find it or the location you’ll be asking them to visit.
If you can put the right product or service at the right price in front of the right customer, you're cooking. Keep in mind that a high volume of sales isn't the key. Profit is. The goal of marketing is to generate the interest or recognition that will lead to the sales that will boost profits. That's the reason to create a strategy. You want to craft persuasive messages for the customers you target. You also want messages that promise only what you actually deliver. It's easy to create consistent marketing collateral by applying your brand identity to carry the same look across various media. This is where your relationship with us at Verve comes in!
Stage 2. Tap Your Brain Trust (aka research)
To define appropriate marketing for your company, set up some brainstorming meetings with advisors you trust, such as family, friends, staff, or other professionals- or us at Verve!
At these sessions, explore answers to these questions:
• Who are you selling to?
• What do those customers need?
• What distinguishes your product or service from the competition?
• Which marketing tactics will make your products noticeable?
• When and how often should marketing efforts be used?
• Where do you want your company to be in a year?
Start putting notes on paper. Describe the state and size of your marketplace, how sales will work, your target customer (age, income, locations, and purchase patterns) and how your products rate against competitors.
Step 3: Listen to Customers
Next, you need to know how clients and customers react to your quality, prices, service , image and brand—everything, in short, that influences their purchasing decisions.
Many business owners have a very different perception to their business than their customers, so it’s best to put the ego aside for a moment and find out.
So, to discover what customers think, just ask them.
Survey some of your current customers as well as customers you want to reach. Make personal calls or send them surveys via e-mail or postcards. Include an incentive to boost participation, such as a discount etc. Based on what you learn, prepare a SWOT analysis that deconstructs your business in fresh ways:
• Strengths: What makes your business thrive?
• Weaknesses: What are your vulnerabilities?
• Opportunities: What market conditions or segments can lead to growth?
• Threats: How are competitors snapping at your heels?
Step 4: Drum Roll....Draft the Plan!
Now that you have an overview of customers and market conditions, you can flesh out your plan. This plan needn't be a formal document, but should at least consist of a written outline to share with staff or outside consultants and to refer to later. The plan should cover:
• A summary of your market position and goals.
• A definition of what you expect to accomplish in a specific time period (e.g: "We/I will earn an extra £1,000 revenue by the third quarter of this year.")
• A list of target markets, including segmentation and niche areas.
• An appropriate strategy for each segment or market- do you have a different strategy for marketing to men and women for example?
• Expenses and resources, and how they will be allocated.
• Marketing channels. This is where you choose the types of marketing materials and distribution vehicles that you will use to attract target customers, including flyers, postcards, email marketing, newsletters, a web site and more.
• Competitive strategies. How will you respond to your competitors, for example, if a competitor beats your price, or offer a service you don’t?
Step 5: Track Results Include benchmarks in your plan.
Use these benchmarks to take stock of whether your marketing efforts are paying off or if you should rethink your approach.
I often bore people with this phrase but “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!”
You’ll never know if a leaflet campaign has been a success if you can’t track how much extra footfall it has delivered- make people return the leaflet for a discount and simply count them.
Plans are great, but if you don't also designate responsibility, set deadlines and hold people accountable, marketing efforts can't succeed.
Finally, don't rest on your laurels. Markets change all the time and you must be ready. Make sure to review the plan every year to see if you must revisit any goals.
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