21 March 2011
Market Planning (Part 2) – Marketing Strategy
Now that you’ve been introduced to the four key elements of a marketing plan in Part 1 of this series, let’s explore the details of what makes a good marketing strategy.
The Marketing Strategy should be an in depth examination of why you are in business or why you aspire to be. If you’ve dreamt of owning your own business, the reasons should be articulated in the strategy section of your marketing plan. If you’ve always wanted to make money doing what you love, this motivation should be reflected in the vision / mission statement of the marketing strategy. Also, your goals and objectives should be clearly stated here with a little information about how you intend to position your product or service to sell in a particular market.
As you develop your marketing strategy, consider the following questions and spend time fleshing out the answers in the strategy section of your marketing plan—
• Why do you want to be in business?
• What are your business goals and objectives? What do you hope to achieve by selling your crafts or crafting services?
• Who is your target customer? What does your customer want?
• What makes your craft or craft idea unique or valuable?
• What product or service innovations will you take advantage of?
• How will you generate customer leads?
• Will you make use of social networking opportunities and online communities?
• Will you utilize referral incentives? If so, what are they and how will you utilize them?
• How will customer leads be converted into sales revenue?
• What will constitute a good customer experience? How will you ensure this experience?
These are a few of the questions that should be addressed in your market strategy. Thinking through the answers to these questions will enable you to better position your craft to sell to your target market.
In Part 3 of this series on Market Planning, we will explore the components of the Market Analysis.
Posted by: Tamboura Gaskins at 21 March 2011 5:14 pm | Category: Business Plan | Tags: Business Management, Business Plan, Market Plan, marketing
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The nonprofit organization called SCORE offers valuable advice on starting a business as well as developing appropriate channels of advertising your business. They can offer you marketing plan samples so that you can develop your own business marketing plan. 1…..A strategic marketing plan allows you to advertise to the right segment of the population and ensure the highest return on your advertising dollar…Some sales and marketing plans include radio advertising in conjunction with an aggressive sales promotion.
Your marketing strategy can be one of the most powerful parts of your business plan. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you write your marketing strategy section so you can make it as effective and relevant as possible..Make It Unique.The foundation of your marketing strategy should be your or the statement that outlines what differentiates you from everyone else in the market. The common thread through each part of your marketing strategy should be how your business solves a problem or meets a need better than anyone else..Know Your Customers Clients.The information you include in your marketing strategy should incorporate all of the research you conducted in your .