Behold, the Power of “WE”

August 13, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all want to belong to something. It’s only human nature to enthusiastically support being part of a group — whether it’s your family, your favorite sports team, political party, or even the Little Orphan Annie Club. Nobody wants to be on the outside looking in…we all want to be included in the “we.”

Knowing this, we can leverage that power in our marketing plans. If we look for ways to employ the we in our overall marketing plans, the customer feels important and appreciated. They also become vested in the process. Let’s look at a few examples:

Encourage customer feedback, and employ the feedback on your website. Note it next to the product or service that is being praised. We all love to see our name in print!
Institute a Product Review Board. When you are considering a new product launch, or expanding your line, send out a sample item to some of your best customers, and solicit their feedback. You might even offer them a spiffy looking graphic that they can place on their websites, designating their status. Ask that the graphic link to your website, and you’ve also just successfully added some inbound links.
Implement a Customer Rewards Program. Set up a discount or reward program based upon customer’s purchases. Credit card companies do this all the time with great success. This will increase customer loyalty, and increase sales. Frame your program launch based upon the recent headlines of rising prices, pain at the pump, etc. – and you’ll also gain customers’ respect, and gratitude. You simply can’t put a pricetag on that.

With relatively little effort, even these small changes can yield big results. And, in a time when many small businesses are fighting for every dollar, that is a concept we can all get behind.

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Filed under SALES TECHNIQUES · Tagged with customer retention, increase business, increasing sales, marketing plans, relating to cusotmers, sales techniques

Marketing Plan Essentials – Book Excerpt

August 9, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment

Excerpt from On Target: The Book on Marketing Plans by Tim Berry and Doug Wilson

Every marketing plan has to fit the needs and situation. Even so, there are standard components you just can’t do without. A marketing plan should always have a situation analysis, marketing strategy, sales forecast, and expense budget.

Situation Analysis: Normally this will include a market analysis, a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and a competitive analysis. The market analysis will include market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and market needs analysis.

Marketing Strategy: This should include at least a mission statement, objectives, and focused strategy including market segment focus and product positioning.

Sales Forecast: This would include enough detail to track sales month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales by product, by region or market segment, by channels, by manager responsibilities, and other elements. The forecast alone is a bare minimum.

Expense Budget: This ought to include enough detail to track expenses month by month and follow up on plan-vs.-actual analysis. Normally a plan will also include specific sales tactics, programs, management responsibilities, promotion, and other elements. The expense budget is a bare minimum.

Are They Enough?
These minimum requirements above are not the ideal, just the minimum. In most cases you’ll begin a marketing plan with an Executive Summary, and you’ll also follow those essentials just described with a review of organizational impact, risks and contingencies, and pending issues.

Include a Specific Action Plan
You should also remember that planning is about the results, not the plan itself. A marketing plan must be measured by the results it produces. The implementation of your plan is much more important than its brilliant ideas or massive market research. You can influence implementation by building a plan full of specific, measurable and concrete plans that can be tracked and followed up. Plan-vs.-actual analysis is critical to the eventual results, and you should build it into your plan.

Source: bplans.com