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Seven Steps to Marketing Success
By: Mark Schmukler
The details and jargon vary, but the challenge is always the same - to create, grow, and retain customers. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you focus and prioritize your marketing time and investments:
Step 1: Start with a straight-forward Marketing Plan
The best marketing plans are ones that delineate specific, easily implemented objectives and programs. By starting with a basic outline, you and your team can ensure that all components of a successful marketing campaign will be developed.
A typical outline includes the following five sections: market situation analysis, objectives, strategies, programs, and metrics
Then, develop the outline into an integrated marketing plan where you:
- Segment and quantify your overall market opportunity
- Perform a strengths and weaknesses analysis
- Research your competitors then develop positioning and messages that differentiate you from them
- Define your specific objectives
- Develop specific strategies and programs around the four P’s of marketing (price, product, place, promotion)
- Define success metrics
- Develop a marketing budget
Step 2: Develop a Distinctive Brand Identity
A professional brand identity can dramatically impact the value of your business, an asset worthy of investment. Smart spending on your brand attracts new customers and allows you to maximize the prices you charge for your products and services. Your identity projects your personality. It should communicate quality and credibility through elements such as your company and product name, logo, and colors.
When developing your company and product brands be sure to use unique names, rather than generics so as not be confused with competitors. You want your client to stand out among the rest- create, promote, and own a unique category in your market. Most importantly, narrow your focus to strengthen your brand.
Step 3: Create Professional Marketing Materials and Website
Company and product marketing materials are tools - tools your sales channels use to create profits for your business. As with any professional endeavor, the end result is only as successful as the tools used to create it.
Marketing Materials
The image of your company is represented by your collateral, which lingers long after you’re gone. All components of the marketing materials should positively communicate your company’s image. Arm your sales team with professional company and product marketing materials, including:
- Corporate capabilities brochure
- Products and services sell sheet
- Corporate, product, and services presentations
- Customer Success stories
- A custom pocket folder with your identity
- Stationery including business cared, letterheads, labels, and envelopes
Website
The basic goal of your website is to drive leads. Websites that engage the user while offering all of the standard information people have come to expect provide the best results. The website should be optimized using Search Engine Marketing tools and techniques so it ranks high on search engines. An outdated website can always be revitalized to improve your company image and generate sales leads.
Checkpoint:
Steps 1 through 3 focus on developing your marketing plan, your brand identity and your promotional collateral. However, these steps are only prerequisites to the activities that actually generate sales leads and brand awareness. Make sure your marketing budget allows you to follow through with Steps 4 through 7 of your strategy.
Step 4: Direct Marketing to Generate Leads
Direct marketing is so much more than basic mailers today. Effective direct marketing campaigns utilize segmented target lists and are multi-channel in nature.
They consist of interactive email, dimensional mailers, and telemarketing. Knowing who your target audience is and pre-testing your campaigns is highly recommended. New campaigns may also feature micro-sites to drive registrations for web seminars and live seminars or virtual details.
Step 5: Awareness Marketing to Build your Brand
Awareness marketing investments builds and retains the image of your company, products and services, and encourages your target audience to consider your offer.
Classic awareness marketing methods include: consistent and repetitive advertising to your target audience, tradeshow and conference presence, placements in industry-specific publications and other venues that target your desired audience.
Remember to consider online, offline, and broadcast mediums in your media planning. Once again, it is important to not only build the right campaign, but target the best mediums for the clientele for that specific marketing plan.
Step 6: Public Relations to Amplify your Marketing Efforts
A good, integrated public relations campaign amplifies the effectiveness of your marketing programs by building credibility and sustaining awareness among your target audiences through third-party credibility. In order to effectively increase name recognition and build brand awareness of your company and its offerings, implementing a strategic public relations program will be key to your success.
Some of the primary elements of your PR efforts should include: PR research and planning, publicity generation, media and analyst relations, speaking engagements, industry awards, and tradeshow and marketing support. As a key component of your marketing program, PR can increase awareness of your company as an industry expert, and ultimately lead to more sales and business development opportunities.
Step 7: Customer Relationship Marketing to Protect and Grow your Base
Customer Relations Marketing (CRM) activities are designed to grow and retain your customers by building long-term relationships with them.
Listening to, surveying and communicating with your existing customers enables you to better serve their needs through cross-selling and up-selling. CRM occurs virtually every time you have contact with your customers.
One effective CRM tool is the newsletter. Technology has eliminated the need for printing, which makes e-newsletters one of the most cost-effective CRM tools available. Today’s e-newsletters are sent in an HTML format, allowing your target audience to view engaging content directly from their inbox without printing or downloading.
Conclusion:
Employing these seven steps moves your organization towards increased and sustainable profits. Keep in mind the following: your process should be iterative and closed-loop, leverage success while learning from your mistakes, measure your results to ensure your objectives are accomplished, and continue to choose programs offering maximum Return-On-Investment.
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Mark Schmukler, co-founder and partner of Sagefrog Marketing Group has more than 25 years global marketing and consulting experience.
At Kodak, he managed worldwide campaigns, and at VerticalNet helped pioneer e-Business. Mark also co-founded Desktop Graphics, the makers of DrawArtTM.
Mark’s academic background includes engineering, business and pharmaceutical marketing at Pennsylvania State University and J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
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