localbusinessadviser.co.uk : the tools to help you succeed
Planning your marketing:
10 FAQs
1. Where do I start?
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Profitable marketing for small businesses involves identifying gaps in the market not covered by mass providers. You must identify a need that can be met profitably, in reasonable volume and where price is not the main criterion for purchase.
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Research the competition, looking at leaflets Internet sites, Yellow Pages and exhibitions.
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Match customer needs with what you can realistically supply.
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Run tests and trials in stages before you are fully committed (do not order 10,000 colour brochures just yet).
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Cost and budget your plans to meet your objectives.
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Assuming that your business is already up and running, look ahead, say two to three years, and decide how much revenue you will need to generate the profitability you require.
Next, ask yourself if you will achieve those results if your business carries on as it is today, using your current business plan. If the answer is yes, then you might not need to do much more than maintain your course. If the answer is no, then you need a new marketing strategy geared to meeting your objectives.
Start by reviewing your business performance, to establish where you are stronger or weaker than your competitors. Also consider what external factors could impact on your business or on your relationship with customers. These factors could be threats or opportunities. The prime objective of marketing is to make sure your resources are focused on only the best, most accessible business opportunities.
2. What will my marketing strategy do for me?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Your strategy is the route map that defines how you will achieve your marketing objectives. Broadly there are four marketing objectives for most businesses.
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Increase penetration into existing markets with existing products or services.
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Develop new markets for existing products or services.
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Innovate by developing new products or services.
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Diversify into new markets with new products or services.
Most small businesses do not have the resources to attempt all these objectives at once. You will do better to focus on just one or two of them.
The most appropriate strategy will only emerge as you review your marketing journey. This can be based on three questions: Where are we now? Where do we want to be? What startegy will get us there?
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
An overall marketing strategy sets the framework for all your expenditure. It should decide which target market you are aiming for (trade or consumer, through agents or directly) and where you are going to position the business. A conservatory supplier could sell to select country houses or new suburban estates and its prices and literature will have to reflect its choice of targets.
The strategy should set out the basic objectives to be achieved - an overall
increase in sales turnover, say, or exploiting a new market or launching a new
product. The strategy sets the course; selling gets you there.
3. What generic marketing methods can I use?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
The marketing methods you can use will depend on the strategy you have chosen. Here are three ideas that are more or less universal.
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Segment your customers into separate groups according to common characteristics. This allows a singular approach to be used for each segment. Moreover, identifying the traits of existing customers also helps you to recognise and target new customers.
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Be aware that customers do not buy products or services - they buy the benefits the products provide. Try to build more persuasive benefits into your offer.
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Develop customer loyalty by providing better customer service and creating the kind of relationships that bring repeat business.
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
You need to draw up a profile of the needs of your target customers and then decide how best to reach them. A SWOT analysis may help. You should be aiming to pinpoint five major elements.
- A target list, broken down into segments (trade or consumer, ABC profile, geographical, interests).
- What your target customers need (think benefits, not features).
- Prices, maybe using differential pricing for different segments.
- How to reach your customers (display advertising, leaflet drops, direct mail, direct selling, website).
- The offer (innovative edge, rarity value, more benefits than the competition).
4. Why do I need a written marketing action plan and what must it cover?
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Getting a plan down on paper will force you to think through what is needed, and will also be a key part of your overall business plan. Your bank manager may wish to see this to justify your sales forecasts. In tandem with the business plan, it should cover half a dozen key questions.
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What are your medium and long-term aims (for the next 12 months, and for three years in less detail)?
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What is your positioning and what are the segments you're attacking (target audience)?
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How are you going to reach them (advertising budgets, direct mail, exhibitions, website, sales force)?
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Who does what and when?
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What are your sales forecasts?
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What are the costs and dates of your major expenditure (sales staff additions, shows, new leaflets)?
Marketing plans are useless if they are too complicated, lack flexibility (fallback positions) or are unrealistically ambitious.
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Plans in your head are little more than a collection or ideas and ambitions. Written down, they become an organised, measurable commitment. For most of us, committing our plans to paper is the only way to avoid losing sight of what we want to achieve - turning our ideas into proven reality.
- A written plan makes it easier for managers to understand where the company is going and the part they have to play.
- A written marketing plan can also be invaluable in making the case for a bank loan, or in attracting investment.
- A written plan provides a quantifiable basis for measurement and review at the end of the exercise.
- A marketing plan will usually include:
- A brief mission statement about the purpose of the business.
- A summary of the previous year's performance.
- Financial objectives for three-year and next-year periods.
- Market overview.
- Key factors identified in SWOT analysis.
- Marketing objectives (which products to which markets?) and strategy.
- Underlying assumptions about marketing objectives.
- Forecasts and budgets.
- Detailed programmes for the next year (who does what, when?).
The degree of formality needed will depend on the size and complexity of the business. Small companies can cover what they need on just a few sheets of paper.
5. How often should I audit my marketing and update the plan?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Preferably you should make some kind of regular check on general progress at least monthly. As long as the ongoing signs are good then a more in-depth review can take place bi-annually. If, however, your marketing activity is primed for short bursts you should monitor the outcome of each burst immediately and adjust your bigger picture plan if necessary.
Plan two or three years ahead in very broad outline, but plot the next year in more detail. This way, the short-term plan will always lead towards the longer-term aims.
Try to stick to your plan but be prepared to be flexible in changing circumstances - a key customer going bust for example.
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
All plans must be capable of being monitored and adjusted in the light of experience. Many firms now produce monthly management accounts, providing an obvious opportunity to review marketing plans.
6. Is marketing to businesses different from consumer marketing?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Marketing is all about understanding the needs and preferences of your customers. In this sense it makes no difference if the customer is an end user or a buyer within a large organisation.That said, Consumer Marketing could involve working through intermediaries, such as wholesalers or retailers, so your marketing strategy should address the whole distribution chain. If you have direct contact with end users you might find that emotion, as opposed to business-like logic, is a useful tool to employ. On the other hand, marketing to businesses could expose you to price-driven selection processes and might also involve a higher degree of relationship-building.
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Business-to-business marketing should be simpler, as companies can easily be identified - no one goes ex-directory. There are many ways of tracking them down and the people who work in them also have job titles that describe what they do. Consumer marketing is generally mass marketing, which means you are in competition with supermarkets, DIY stores and national brand names with overwhelming advertising budgets.Business
marketing can be more direct and focused. Volumes should be greater, which
should mean fewer distribution problems. Margins may be smaller (because of
trade discounts), but volume will be going to fewer outlets (fewer sales ledger
problems). Small firms should concentrate on heavy users. Credit is usually
expected, which can eat into your capital and cashflow - engineering firms, for
example, may take 90 days to pay. Look at factoring your debts.
7. Must services be marketed differently?
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Services are intangible and will not keep, so they must be marketed in a more personal way. The professionalism and integrity of the sales person is paramount, as more has to be taken on trust. Great care needs to be taken in selecting people and training them in how customers should be approached and handled. B&Q, for example, deliberately employs older sales people, because it is generally the older age group that spends the most on home improvements. Services are bought more on personal recommendation, too. How else is a buyer going to measure the worth of a builder, a financial adviser or a garage before the work is done?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Products are more tangible than services. They can be stored until they are
required and can be made to an exact and reproducible specification. Even so,
the marketing process remains the same in as much as the service must be matched
to the needs and preferences of the potential buyer. As services are likely to involve more personal acquaintances than boxed products, rapport automatically becomes a more important part of the transaction.
8. How do I know what my sales will be?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Sales to existing customers can be calculated fairly accurately, particularly if the relationship is good and the buying rhythm is steady. Sales to new customers or new markets must be forecast on the basis of variables and assumptions. These could include market size, your knowledge of the market, the level of competition, uniqueness of the product or service, trends in the market, price, quality, and so on. Forecasts in these circumstances will, by necessity, be less accurate. The more practice you have, though, the more accurate your forecasting will become. The golden rule is to be realistic rather than idealistic.
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Sales forecasting is not an exact science, but it is much easier for
established businesses that can base their estimates on last year's figures.
Start-ups should beware of basing their plans on sales forecasts that are too
ambitious - what is irresistible to you, may meet with indifference in the
market. Companies House (www.companieshouse.gov.uk ) can provide you with copies of the accounts filed by the competition - but only, of course, limited companies. If it is possible to measure against a market leader, expecting to grab any more than 5 per cent would probably be ambitious in the first year. It helps to work out your breakeven point, to encourage and focus your efforts.
9. How do I track what is working?
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
For most
businesses, 80 per cent of the most profitable sales come from 20 per cent of
the customers. Track what is happening with these key customers to safeguard the
most important chunk of your business.
It is important to monitor the number of new
contacts made each week and to check how many of these result in a sale. Without
new contacts in the pipeline, sales will dry up. Be alert for mistakes - the
stage at which the sales process breaks down will give a valuable insight into
possible areas for improvement. Similarly there will be a point in your sales
pitch where you get the buyers agreement. Learn from both the positive and
negative experiences. Also, keep track of your experiences in a way that enables
measurement and will permit retrospective analysis.
In addition to checking your activities you should also
measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Apart from helping to
separate what works from what doesn't, these measurements will help you sift the
actual value of your efforts.
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
Monitor
all new enquiries by coding advertisements and coupons, getting respondents to
ask for a certain person or inserting codes into the address. Phone enquirers
should always be asked "By the way, how did you come to hear about us?" Visitors
to e-commerce websites can be tracked by page visits and even by how long they
spend on each page.
10. What am I most likely to get wrong?
Alistair Baxter, 9P Modular Marketing
- Everything takes longer than shown in your plan. Allow for slippage, extra costs and slow payers. In the early days, cash will be more important than profits.
- Pricing. When launching new products, it can be difficult to establish the right price for the market position you have chosen, but it is usually better to start off with a higher price and offer reductions for volume. It will be much harder to put prices up later. Think of all the benefits.
- When it comes to advertising, new businesses usually expect too much from a single insertion. 'Repetition is reputation', as the advertising gurus say. If you cannot afford sustained advertising, you will have to find different ways to promote your business.
- Direct mail is a tricky medium for beginners. Spend as much time compiling the list as you spend on the content of your mailshot.
- Thousands of new websites are created each day, so do not expect miracles from the Internet. Websites still need promoting.
- Do not fritter away your energies on time-wasters. Target the heavy users and work to a 'hot prospect' list that will form the backbone of a profitable business. Keep your eye on the ball.
Jeff Della Mura, Fuse Marketing Communications
Planning is everything - yet it is also the
most frequently ignored element on the part of would-be entrepreneurs. Planning
your marketing is a logical and practical process, which can and should be
measured and, if necessary, adjusted. Use Market, Consumer and SWOT analysis to
provide the background facts which will shape your plan.
Those businesses that get it wrong tend to be those
who either don't plan or whose plan is based on hunches or unverified
information. Guesswork is completely free - but completely unreliable. The only
sensible way to move forward is to know in advance where you are headed.
Disclaimer:
Although we have made every effort to ensure that the information contained in these FAQs is accurate, BHP Information Solutions Ltd. and the named experts disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions.
Copyright © BHP Information Solutions Ltd. 2010. All
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