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:
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.
