Ceating
an Effective Marketing Plan
by Mike
English
A marketing plan is a
collection of thoughts placed on paper that helps guide your thinking
and actions towards developing a profitable, customer-oriented
approach. A marketing plan can range from a simple promotional plan
to one that positions your business for long-term growth. It is
important to write it down so you can measure and refine it
later.
A good small-business
marketing plan has four elements:
- objective
statement
- solution
positioning
- promotion
strategy
- projected
return
-
The first part of a
small business marketing plan is the objective statement, which
specifies what you want to accomplish; it is your goal for the
particular program or your business you are looking to implement. For
example, your statement may be "It is my objective to win 30% of the
credit card processing in new business, opening in my primary service
area at a 25% margin." Another similar example may be, "I will begin
selling EBT to clients in my service area by September
1."
The second element of
the marketing plan is how you position your offerings in the eyes of
your customers and the market you serve. As we all know, a solution
should include everything a customer needs to use your service:
terminal, supplies, support, and training. However, you should view
this as not just a product offering, but as what your business offers
above and beyond other ISOs you compete against. We call this a
competitive advantage and it is defined as customer benefits that you
offer that your competitor does not, or that you offer better. It may
consist of local 7x24 service or applications such as debit, gift
certificate, or phone card activation.
Service is often used as
a competitive advantage. Services that position you with a
competitive advantage may include calls to new installations to rate
post-installation customer satisfaction and address small issues
before they grow into larger ones. (In later columns, I will address
the subject of creating a competitive advantage in more detail.) Very
importantly, positioning also includes how your sales and support
people deliver the message. Unless your entire business understands
what you are trying to accomplish through your program, the program
will have a difficult time succeeding.
Once we have established
a solution, we need to promote it. A promotional strategy can consist
of advertising, direct mail, sales calls, and other means that allow
you to deliver a consistent, benefits-oriented message to your
prospect base. An element of your promotion strategy that you may
want to consider is sponsoring a seminar at a local hotel on EBT or
another subject such as check verification and guarantee. You can go
to BUYPASS' Web site (www.neteps.com) to gather information or call
BUYPASS at (770) 953-2664 for assistance. You may also wish to mail
post cards to your customer base and offer an incentive if a customer
brings you a new prospect.
The best promotional
strategy is a mixture of different delivery methods. Direct mail to a
specific customer or geographic base combined with telemarketing and
followed with sales calls is a sound way of saturating the prospect
base. This insures that your message is heard several times and is
consistent.
The last area of a small
business marketing plan is the most importantóthe return
analysis. You should budget your goals in terms of sales revenue
generated and the costs you incur to implement the program in a
simple spreadsheet format. The difference between revenue and cost
will be your project profit. You will need to judge the rate of
return that you need.
I would like to caution
you. When the program is completed and you are reviewing the results,
every program you implement may not provide the return you desire,
even if you have done your homework. But please don't stop. The
biggest mistake a small business can make is throwing away a game
plan and starting over or not trying again. Evaluate your actions and
those of your organization to see what you can improve. Sometimes a
tweak here and there is all that is needed to improve a program's
return. Also, remember the advertising rule I spoke of in an earlier
column. On average, it takes 27 instances of contact with a customer
to make a sale.
Analysis, repetition,
and patience are imperative.
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