This blog is the 1st in a series of 3 which looks at marketing planning and campaign design.
The purpose of this blog is to provide you with some ideas and a structure to enable you to create your own marketing plan. Unfortunately there is no one solution that fits all – your business is unique so your marketing plan will need to reflect your own goals, values and resources. Achieving a good marketing plan will also require you to be objective and realistic about your business. If you can’t do that then ask someone else to work on it with you who will give you the objective view. A marketing plan is just as important as your business plan. It is also the tool that will define how you intend to achieve the goals you have set yourself in your business plan.
In tough market conditions small businesses can fall into the trap of thinking I need to do some marketing so they send out a general mailshot or place an ad in a local paper. The need to feel you are doing something to immediately improve the situation takes over but unfortunately ad hoc marketing is invariably ineffective. It can be costly and if the measures have not been put in place to assess effectiveness then it can be seen as fruitless.
Marketing is a long term commitment. A balanced and regular approach to communicating with your customers and prospects will achieve far greater results. The marketing planning process will enable you to develop a solid understanding of your market, your customers and your products & services on which to base your marketing campaigns.
Goals & Objectives
The first thing to do is set out your goals and objectives. This is your opportunity to put the detail behind the goals that you have put in your business plan. For instance, if you have set yourself a goal to grow your business by x% then your marketing plan needs to address whether there is a market out there for you to do that. You may need to conduct some research to ensure there is sufficient demand for your type of product or service.
You also need to decide whether that business growth is going to come from existing customers buying more from you in which case do you need to make them aware of the wider services you have available? Or are you seeking to find new markets? Perhaps you are planning to launch new products or services.
You may also have set yourself other objectives such as building your brand – maybe you want to raise your profile to position your business as strong rivals to the current market leader. Or you want to build your reputation – if so in what areas; market knowledge, customer service, quality? You need to be clear at the outset what you want to achieve as the marketing activity that you do will depend on the end result required.
Market Analysis
It’s useful to conduct some analysis of the state of your business and the market conditions that you are operating in. There are two well known business tools available and before embarking on any marketing activity it is useful to go through this analysis process as it may throw up issues which you may not have considered as well as identify some new opportunities that you might want to leverage through your marketing, for example, a competitor has gone out of business or new legislation is coming in that affects your product or service.
The two analysis tools available are “SWOT” to analyse your business’ strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats. “PEST” to analyse the macro environment including political, economic, social & cultural as well as technological factors.
Customer Profile
The customer’s needs should be at the heart of any marketing plan so the best place to start is by documenting what you already know. You may have a database with some of this information, if not then you can look back at your sales records to see what patterns emerge. You can profile your customers by whatever criteria you feel is relevant to your business, so you might want to look at; for consumers: socio-economic groups, age, sex, postcode; for businesses: industry sector, company size, regional location.
You might also want to look at where you acquired those customers – if by word-of-mouth, who was it from; or did they come to you from your website? You want to build up a picture of your customers’ buying habits, identify repeat customers vs one-offs, and look at your lapsed customers. Do your customers buy certain things at certain times of the year? You want to understand why they buy from you – is it price, service, locality or a combination of things? If you don’t know the answers to some of these questions then ask your customers.
By knowing everything about your existing customers will help you do two things;
1. Identify the gaps where you can offer other products / services to your existing customers
2. Seek out new customers who match the profile of the people already buying from you
Many small business owners will often know this information about their customers so it just needs pulling together into a format that can be used to your advantage. The purpose of this knowledge gathering exercise is to provide you with a matrix of customers who you can then group according to different preferences and then target them with specific messages about relevant products or services that you know will interest them.
What do you have to offer? 
There is a marketing tool called the 7P’s which helps you think about the different aspects of your overall offering and structure your marketing activity.
Product
What are the products or services that you offer? This is not just about listing your products; it should go deeper than that and identify what the benefits are that you are selling. People generally don’t just buy a “product”, it’s what that product can do for them that is the driver behind the purchase. A key part of marketing is being able to communicate the benefits that your products and services can deliver.
You also need to know who you are competing against and how you can differentiate your offer from that of your competitors. You need to identify your USP (unique selling point).
Price
You don’t have to be the cheapest to win new business but you do need to ensure that your pricing is competitive. Your price needs to reflect your offer so if you are delivering a high quality item then you can probably charge more than a competitor who is offering a budget/value version of the same product. You also need to consider whether you will offer any discounting for specific groups of customers.
Place
Here you need to think about how you currently sell your products or services – do you have a shop or is most of your business done online or through face-to-face sales, or maybe it’s via a network of distributors. This will affect who you market your business to and the messages you communicate.
Promotion
This is the bit that most people associate with marketing and looks at what promotional activity you are doing, whether it’s planned or ad hoc and also how you are measuring the effectiveness.
People
What level of customer service do you offer, do you have the right people with the right skills in front of your customers. Every interaction with a customer is a marketing opportunity, so you want to be sure that your passion for meeting your customers’ needs are being met by the rest of your team.
Processes
Do you have the right processes and systems in place to manage your customer relationships and are they effective? It’s important to have all your knowledge about your customers in a format that you can use – if it’s in your head, is that an effective place if a customer phones up and speaks to your colleague who perhaps doesn’t know the history of that customer?
Physical Evidence
What is your company image – how do you present yourself to your customers? You need to think about everything including your office or your van, your personal presentation as well as how you present your corporate image say in print or online. The image that you portray will have a significant impact on the perception your customers have of you.
Conclusion
The marketing planning process will give you the opportunity to step back from your day-to-day business. By following these simple steps you will create a deeper understanding of your market, your customers as well as the products & services that you have to offer. This knowledge can then be used to help you formulate specific marketing campaigns.
If you have found this information useful, you might also like to read “Choosing the Right Marketing Tools” and “Marketing Campaign Design for the SME”. If you want to find out more about how Blue Topaz Marketing can help you with your marketing visit http://www.bluetopazmarketing.co.uk/
