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to create a winning marketing plan for your business you need to know :
1 who are your ideal customers ?
2 what makes your business different from your competitors?
3 what does your business offer to those ideal customers?
4 how do you price and package your offerings to provide the best value?
5 how do you reach your ideal clients ?
Ask yourself the following questions & you will have a winning marketing plan for your small business:
Overall Objectives
1. What are our quarterly, one-year and three-year goals? What results do we expect?2. What are our sales and revenue goals?3. What key metrics will we use to determine success?4. What market share do we want?
Positioning/Branding
5. What is our brand?6. What differentiates us?7. What is our competitive advantage? How are we unique?8. Why should anyone choose to do business with us over everyone else in our market space?9. What are our areas of expertise?10. What is our unique value (or selling) proposition?11. What value do we provide to our clients/customers?12. What specific benefits do our customers receive?13. What problems do we solve for our potential customers?14. What needs/wants do we meet for them?15. What hurts do we help heal?16. How can we dominate our market?17. What makes us stand out from the crowd?18. What do we stand for?19. To what question are we the answer?20. What would cause someone to say, “Get me ________!” Or, “We need ___________!”21. What’s our core message? What’s our unique POV (point of view)?22. What makes us controversial?23. Is there too much competition to be competitive in this market space?24. What kind of image do we want to portray?25. What could make us hot or viral?26. What’s our risk reversal strategy?
Target Market Analysis
27. What is our target market? What is in our niche? Who needs what we offer?
• Our Primary Target Market is • Our Secondary Target Market is • Our Tertiary Target Market is
28. What percent of our target market is aware of us?29. Who are our ideals customers?30. Who are our top30 (or50 or100) prospective clients/customers?31. What do we know about them?32. What are their primary motivations?33. Who is the primary buyer/influencer in the purchasing process?34. What demographic and psychographic data do we have on them?35. What are the people in our target market writing about on message boards and forums?36. What magazines and books are they reading?37. What topics are being addressed in what they’re reading?38. What topics are being discussed at their conferences?39. Where do they network?40. What are their top conferences?41. Where are their businesses located?42. What are their hot buttons?43. What are their primary needs and wants?44. What are their primary problems and challenges? What frustrates them?45. What would fill their needs/wants/problems/challenges?46. Why do we think that our offerings are the best offerings for them to solve their need/want/problem/challenge?47. What’s missing from our competitor’s offers? Or what can’t they find in other places or with other businesses?48. What value do we provide for them? What results do we produce?49. Where is our market underserved?50. Do the people in our target market have a strong need/desire for what we offer?51. What are the people in our target market willing to pay for the value we bring?52. What are the reasons people in our market buy?53. Are there any adjacent markets we ought to target?54. What associations fit in our target market?55. What trends are on the horizons we can take advantage of? What new opportunities might we be able to exploit?56. Reverse engineer: Based on what we just learned, how should we change what we do or how we market?
Competitor Analysis
57. Who else in our market are we competing against?58. Who else in the country is doing what we’re doing?59. How are our competitors different than us?60. Which of our competitors are the buyers in our market aware of?61. How do those in our market, market themselves?62. What products and services do they offer?63. How do our products and services rate in relationship to theirs?
Products and Services
64. What services do we (or will we) provide?65. What products do we (or will we) offer?66. What products will help us create a herd/following?67. How can we create deluxe options?68. What is our irresistible offer?69. Why should our customers act now? What’s our call to action?70. What kind of guarantee will we offer?
Possible Marketing Tools: Review each of the following tactics and ask, “Should we use this tactic this year? How?”
71. Name72. Slogan/Brand73. Business Cards74. Website/Internet –75. Blog76. Networking77. One Sheets -78. Voice mail -79. Newsletters80. Ezine81. Letterhead82. Free downloads -83. Direct mail post cards84. Thank you cards -85. Consistent look/color/feel –86. Phone calls87. Video88. Reprints of articles89. Testimonials90. Attire91. Multi-media92. Set design93. Handouts94. Merchandise displays95. Product catalogs96. Reputation97. Auto-responders98. Coupons and discounts99. E-mail100. Ad specialties101. Speaking102. One-on-One personal contacts103. Signs104. Sweepstakes105. TV106. Infomercials107. Talk shows108. Banners109. Tradeshows110. Classified Ads111. Billboards112. Take one boxes113. Sales letters (long)114. Door hangers115. Catalogs116. Word of Mouth117. One page sites (to get leads)118. Sponsorships119. Joint Ventures120. Pricing121. Celebrity Spokesperson122. Mini-courses123. Home study courses124. Free seminars125. Articles126. Books127. Teleseminars128. Webinars129. Live events130. Seasonal promotions131. Referral promotions
Attention Strategy Questions (Getting to First Base)
132. What is our lead generating system?133. How can we better leverage our networks?134. What ten (or more) tactics can we use simultaneously to attract new customers?135. How can we build our potential customers’ interest in our product/service or business?136. Who are the key people we need to stay in contact with?137. How will we stay in contact with our network?138. Who might be sneezers for us?139. What organizations should we be involved with?140. How will we respond to new contacts?141. How will we make sure that our target market knows about us?142. How can we become the #1 choice in our market space?143. What keeps potential customers from using or contacting us? What objections do we need to overcome?144. How can we let potential clients “test drive” our products/services? What can we give away to build trust?145. How can we become newsworthy? What are our hooks?146. What’s our referral strategy?147. How can we motivate potential clients to contact us?148. What message is our website communicating? Is it attractive?149. What businesses or individuals could open us to potential customers?150. How well designed are our marketing materials? Do they speak from the potential customers’ point of view or ours?151. What PR efforts would attract the attention of our potential customers?152. What is our typical client acquisition cost?
Establishing Credibility Strategy Questions (Getting to Second Base)
153. How can we begin to establish trust to convince prospects to buy?154. What qualifies us to do what we do?155. Where do we need to submit articles?156. From whom should we get testimonies (i.e. proof)?157. Do we have testimonies to back up every claim we make?158. What proof do we have pictorially (especially before and after)?159. What proof do we have in writing?160. What proof do we have digitally (video or mp3)?161. Do we have any celebrities in our network?162. Who can we align with? Who can we partner with?163. What is our PR/Media strategy?164. What should be the image/personality of our company?165. Are all of our marketing tools and messages in alignment? If not, which are out of alignment?166. How can we leverage our current customers to attract new customers?
Sales Strategy Questions (Getting to Third Base)
167. What are the biggest barriers for our potential clients to overcome?168. How will we figure out who our economic buyers are?169. Is our marketing focused on features or benefits?170. How does someone in our target market decide with whom they’ll buy?171. Why do they buy?172. How can we make it easier to buy?173. How can we better qualify prospects?174. How elastic is price for our potential customers?175. Is our price the best price for our customers and for our profitability?176. How will we overcome their objections?177. How can we increase their sense of urgency?178. What’s our retention strategy?179. What’s our upsell strategy?180. What’s our cross sell strategy?181. What could create a short-term sales surge?182. What conversion rate are we shooting for?183. How can we maximize total customer value?
Customer Service Strategy
184. What would be remarkable service for our clients? What would delight them?185. What will our service standards be?186. What systems do we need to create?187. How can we turn our customers into raving fans?188. How will we keep them happy?189. What gifts/benefits can we offer for referrals?190. How can we raise customer loyalty?
Planning
191. What tactics are we going to use this month? This quarter? This year?192. When we will we use them (i.e. calendarize them)?193. Who will be responsible?194. How much money will your plan require?195. What’s available to execute your plan?196. What’s our plan for this year? (Create a detailed plan for each tactic and strategy)
As it’s mentioned that it’s a small business , So first of all I analysis market demand on my own basis.
And secondary , Start working individually as an employee to make customer base in local market. When I feel that the customer base volume is good enough for me then I start extend the same with co-workers & expend money on office too
As it’s mentioned that it’s a small business , So first of all I analysis market demand on my own basis.
And secondary , Start working individually as an employee to make customer base in local market. When I feel that the customer base volume is good enough for me then I start extend the same with co-workers & expend money on office too.
But without digging myself i never gonna depends on employee , Because over here I’m the only one who knows much better about the market & working strategy .And the most essential & important factor is it’s my own business . Because according the timeframe employees once gonna be change but I have to stand long last .
