Marketing is one of the most important strategic decisions your company has to make to survive and the plethora of advice on how to market, who you market to and how much effort to put into marketing is overwhelming.

Modern marketing theory dates back to the 70's when a new data source on consumer demographics opened up: Credit card transactions. Now it was possible to buy data from credit card companies about what consumers in which areas bought what items, along with how old they were, their marital status and their credit ratings.

With this information in hand, marketing switched from a product marketing focus (how do we get our products in the hands of the most consumers) to a consumer marketing focus (what untapped needs and wants in the consumer space are out there and how to we meet them and be first to market in meeting them?).

Consumer-focused marketing and market research pervaded the entire retail tier, even down to super markets with their discount cards, tracking what consumers buy and how frequently, to tighten up their stocking levels on products.

Market research is important to your business and marketing, above and beyond the research is all about converting that research into generating leads for customers who want your services and converting those leads into buyers. Once they've bought your services or products, marketing is about maintaining the relationship with your customer, being responsive to their needs, finding out what they want and getting it to them before your competition does.

Most marketing plans can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1 is defining and narrowing your objectives: Important questions to ask are: Who are our potential customers? What do they want or need that they aren't getting right now? How do we meet that need in the current market place? Understanding what the strategic landscape is, and knowing who your potential customers are is essential to any marketing plan.

Phase 2 is contingent on phase 1, and the important questions at this phase are: Who are our current customers? What are we doing to make them return to us, rather than look at the competition? Based on what they've bought from us before, what new product ideas, packaging or categories can we offer them to increase our perceived values in their eyes? How are we bringing information about our new products to our customer base? What are we doing to ensure brand loyalty? Understanding how your existing customers purchase in aggregate, and spotting trends in their needs is important for remaining nimble in your marketing plan. You don't want to abandon your current customers while searching for new ones.

Phase 3 is the most nebulous phase of your marketing plan and it requires a firm commitment to phases 1 and 2. As your business grows, you need to constantly look for new trends and product categories you can sell to your existing customer base and use to find new customers to add to them. It requires flexibility and planning and forethought.

Thinking through these three phases will greatly improve your marketing plan and bring success to your business.

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Building a business that grows steadily in size and profits is like building your dream house.

First, you identify what kind of home you want, then you and your architect plan and create blueprints for your house, then you build it, move in and enjoy it.

Now imagine that you didn’t have the time to plan your home but went ahead and hired a builder to get started. How would he or she know what to build?

Without a plan, the result could easily be a post-colonial, modern, victorian mish-mash that would make a trailer home look stylish in comparison. Most likely it wouldn’t meet your needs and you’d have wasted a lot of time and money.

Everyday I get calls from frustrated business owners like you. Their marketing isn’t helping them generate the steady stream of new clients they want so badly. It’s just not bringing in the revenue that they think they should be making.

My conversation with Ken, from Toronto, was typical. I asked Ken to describe his business and his business goals. I asked him to tell me about his target market and what he is doing attract new clients.

He easily described his technological and design expertise, his Web services and the ads and mailings he was using to promote his business. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn’t have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as a website, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home. Here’s how to start putting it together.

1. Identify Your Marketing GoalsWhat specifically does your marketing need to achiee for your business to grow? You can state this in terms of the number of qualified leads generated each week, the percentage of leads converted to sales, total revenue, and profit.

What are your marketing goals?

2. Define Your Marketing Strategy
This is your overall approach and positioning relative to your goals and your competition. My marketing strategy is an educational one. It is based on giving people ideas and information they can use as a means of getting their attention and demonstrating the value I provide.

What is your small business marketing strategy?

3. Set Up Your Marketing System
Develop a plan of action. To increase sales, your marketing activities and the media you use need to reflect your marketing strategy and work together as one.

What is your marketing system?

4. Map Out Your Marketing Activities
Now flesh out the details. You’ve decided what your marketing activities will be; now for each marketing activity you’ll need to determine who will create and implement it and when.

Who will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining your marketing?

5. Sharpen Your Marketing Tools
Each marketing activity involves using one or more marketing tools. These include everything from your web site to your phone scripts to your marketing messages. To cut through the information clutter and get your prospect’s attention you’ll want finely honed tools.

Could you sharpen your marketing tools?

Sound intimidating? It’s not when you have help.

As a member of my Insider’s Club I’ll guide you through the marketing maze. You’ll discover how to create a blueprint for success.

You’ll get access to a treasure trove of proven and practical wealth building ideas.

What’s your plan? You know you could be doing better. You don’t have to miss out.

Remember people who have a plan and take action achieve success while those who sit on the fence wear out the seat of their pants while watching the winners cross the finish line.

Be a winner! Join the ByTrade.com

manufacturing importers manufacturer Global b2b buy sell website:www.bytrade.com

Your site positioning is the website equivalent to product positioning in market strategy and product strategy. You need to relate your website to the benefits offered to target users, and locate it in relation to its strategic focus on defined benefits for defined target users. Position your website to play towards strengths and away from weaknesses.

The classic marketing concept of product positioning is closely related to market segment focus. Positioning targets a product for specific market segments, with specific product needs, at specific prices. The same product can be positioned in many different ways. The illustration below shows an example taken from Philip Kotler’s book Marketing Management. The example shows how Kotler looks at the positioning of an instant breakfast drink, relative to the key variables price and speed. We think you can see how you can apply this concept to your website, positioning your website as if it were a product:


Another common framework for classic product positioning is taken from a series of questions. As you apply this idea to the Web, think about the Web version of the classic product positioning statement. You can position a product using a positioning statement that answers the important questions:

• For whom is the product designed?
• What kind of product is it?
• What is the single most important benefit it offers?
• What is its most important competitor?
• How is it different from that competitor?
• What is the customer benefit of that difference?

For example, the following are positioning statements used by Palo Alto Software to focus marketing for two new products:

• For the businessperson who is starting a new company, launching new products, or seeking funding or partners, Business Plan Pro is software that produces professional business plans quickly and easily. Unlike (deleted), Business Plan Pro is a stand-alone product, and requires no other programs to buy or learn.
• For business owners and managers who oversee their company’s marketing programs, Marketing Plan Pro is software that creates and helps manage professional Web plans. Unlike (deleted), Marketing Plan Pro provides a system for scheduling and tracking the entire marketing process from plan to action.

• For the person developing a business plan, Bplans.com offers directly relevant free information including dozens of sample plans, wizards, tools, and content. Unlike more general small business information sites, Bplans.com is focused on business planning and is full of valuable, real information.

Some positioning strategies will work better than others. Here again, strategy is focus. The best positioning plays to your company’s strengths and the product’s strengths, and away from weaknesses. Position your product to reach the buyers whose profiles most closely match needs you serve, in the channels you can reach, and at the prices you set.

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