I’m giving away a very practical tool you can use to help develop your own marketing plan.
If you dedicate some time to answering the following 10 questions in some detail and with a wider eye on your business as a whole you can develop a marketing plan for your business which will be focused on goals, help you explore your target audiences and develop a compelling proposition for clients and prospects.
Question 1 - What do you want to achieve?
This question is crucial to start. Don’t move on until you have a satisfactory answer to this question. What are your marketing goals and objectives? What do you want to achieve from your marketing plan? All objectives should be SMART (specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time-bound) and may well be set for you by the company’s business plan, or another part of the business (eg in a production focused business the volume and type of products you have to promote may be set by the production plan).
If you don’t have measurable goals you will not know whether your plan has been successful.
Question 2 - Who are you going after?
Or if you want the question in marketing speak – who's in your target audience? The secret to success here is to be specific, paint a picture of the people or organisations in your target audience(s). Avoid being all things to all men. Consider niche markets where you have a unique or compelling proposition.
Question 3 - What are you offering?
And what are its benefits? Think about this in relation to each of the target markets. Remember a benefit is what they get, not what you give so avoid thinking only about the features of your product or service.
Question 4 - Who are you up against and what are they saying in the market place?
Don’t be afraid of competition, learn from them. Be broad in thinking about your competition, it may not just be direct competitors in the same market who compete for your target audience’s attention and wallet.
Question 5 - What are you offering that’s different from your competition?
This is your positioning or unique selling point. What makes you different? Be bold, use niche positioning to really stand out.
Question 6 - What is the one message you’d like everyone to remember about your business?
This is your core marketing message. It should be compelling and memorable. Say it in words and images if you can. And say it every time you write or talk about your business.
Question 7 - What is the identity / personality of your brand?
Think about all the qualities and attributes of your organisation and its products. How will people know when they see your brand in action? Branding isn’t just for multi-million pound global enterprises – look at the recent success of Innocent Drinks (the smoothie makers). Their brand is recognisable...
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