Marketing can be a minefield. The three Ps (I know, sorry) Product, Price and Place are the crux.
Get the three Ps right – right Product in the right Place at the right Price and it will sell!
Running a business is hard enough: trying to promote it and build it at the same time can be too much. That’s why we have put together a simple plan that can help people get to grips with where they are and then easily formulate a plan for how they get to where they want to be.
1: Your current situation
Try to create an overview of your situation as it is now. What is your current product? What are you offering? Who are your competitors? Try and identify any risks to your business also, this will help channel the final marketing mix.
2: Your target audience
Keep this simple. Look at who would buy your product. Who will benefit from what it offers? Is it more useful to young people or old? Does it have appeal to men or women or both? This is crucial in putting together a marketing strategy. The message and creative needs to be targeted specifically to those potential buyers that would be interested in your product or business.
3: Objectives
List your marketing goals for the coming year. Make them something you can measure and something that is achievable. Don’t go crazy. Perhaps look to increase your sales by 10% in the first six months. Maybe a 20% increase in one area of the business could work. Make it something realistic but aspirational.
4: The strategy
Having got a good idea of target audience and objectives for your products or business now is the time to look at activity and strategy. Base this on who you are targeting: will an email campaign hit your potential buyers? Would a leaflet drop to householders have impact? Are you targeting business to business? Create a list of potential activity based on how you aim to hit your target audience.
5: Budget
Finally, work out your costs. Investigate how much the activities will cost. Email campaigns can be quite inexpensive whereas traveling to trade exhibitions will need a substantial budget.