In order to survive in today’s constantly changing and very competitive marketplace it is crucial to have a practical your marketing plan which takes into account the importance of obtaining a measurable return on effort and money expended on any marketing activities.

Your strategic marketing plan is a document that clearly states why you are in business, what you have to offer customers, how to retain existing customers, how to price your products competitively and profitably and provides a plan of action to follow to retain and grow your existing customer base.

Here is an outline of a simple marketing plan:

1. Analysis of Your Current Situation

1.1. Know Your Customers

1.2. Know Your Offering

1.3. Know Your Competitors

1.4. Know Your Target Market

1.5. Know Your Partners

1.6. Know Your Company

1.7. Know Your Money

2. Marketing Strategy and Objectives

2.1. Setting Goals for Success

2.2. Creating Your Message

2.3. Creating Your Budget

2.4. Tracking Your Efforts

3. Marketing Tools

3.1. Advertising

3.2. Personal Contact

3.3. Public Relations

3.4. Online Marketing

3.5. Sales Process

If you want to easily create your full strategic marketing plan, using the information you have at hand, make sure it has all the parts as outlined above. If you need any help, make you that you contact a marketing consultant.

You work with a marketing planning consultant, get your marketing plan done, pay a significant amount of money – and then let it get lost among other papers on your desk. Sounds familiar?

Well, the value of marketing planning really is in the ability to take action and execute the plan. This is why we, before we start working with our clients, suggest that they are ready to implement the marketing plan we will deliver after the consultancy sessions are over.

They can commit themselves to this execution by signing a short declaration – something like this:

I, ………………………………… commit myself to reading through this plan so that I can give a reasonable boost to my business. I understand that it’s not about owning this plan, but about getting real results. If I want more clients for my business, I must go and take the individual actions.

Technorati Tags: marketing plan, marketing planning, marketing strategy

In order to run
smoothly a wheel needs to be balanced. In order to have a stream of qualified
leads coming in to the business, you need to ensure that your marketing wheel
is smooth and continually turning

Extensive
research has shown that for marketing to be effective you need to have at least
7 distinct strands to any campaign over a period of time.

3R™ has created a small
business marketing strategy called ADSPORT™. In this article we have outlined the brief details
of ADSPORT, and given some examples of 
each of the seven strands as way of explanation.

Technorati Tags: marketing plan, marketing planning, marketing strategy, marketing tactics, marketing, marketing ireland, marketing success

Your marketing plan is a document that clearly states why you are in business, what you have to offer your customers, how to retain existing customers, how to price your products competitively and profitably and provides a plan of action to follow to retain and grow your existing customer base.

Bearing in mind that you are a small business, the strategies outlined here are practical and take into account the importance of obtaining a measurable return on effort and money expended on any marketing activities.

Today the marketplace is very competitive and changes constantly; that is why you need to update your marketing plan regularly, at least once a year.

Technorati Tags: marketing plan, marketing planning, marketing strategy, marketing tactics, marketing, marketing ireland, marketing success

Would you like to find an easy way to explain marketing to people who haven’t heard about 4P’s? How to define marketing mix to students so that they not only understand it, but also are able to use it in future for their businesses?

Well, here’s my little story on how we did it.

Once I was giving a class on marketing - it was aimed at people thinking about starting their own businesses – I was saying our usual stuff about leads, sales and relationships with clients. Basically, that if you want to market your products, go to your potential customers first. No complicated science, just ask them, let them try the product and ask them for feedback. This will tell you an awfully lot about how to promote yourself. If you are interested in reading more about ‘what we preach‘ in marketing, read this article.

Students were giving examples of their own clients, saying about the vision for their businesses, they were taking notes – not of what I said, but they were scribbling their own thoughts that had been provoked by my questions. 

The class was very interactive and people wrote parts of their future marketing plans on the spot.

Anyway, after my ‘lecture’ there was another one scheduled and it was given by a guy who seemed to be more teacher-like – skilled in how to educate people and how to explain marketing…

And he carried on defining marketing mix as 4 P’s – product, price, place and promotion. Giving a short description of every one of them and the students were vigorously recording every single word of the brilliant definitions.

The atmosphere became quite dull and harsh. With a sigh of release when the bell came, people left the class with books of marketing scribbled by their own hands.

I was just wondering – what did they get from the second part, what was in it? What is the use of knowing a definition of promotion by heart when they don’t have a clue how to apply it for their own business? People who were there don’t really need to understand marketing mix as a set of rigid definitions. What they are really looking for, is the know-how, so that they know what to do next.

This is the way we teach marketing when we run sales and marketing workshops for companies and business owners in Ireland. We give them a road map they can follow – a step-by-step action plan they can follow, starting the next day.

Technorati Tags: marketing, define marketing, marketing strategy, marketing plan, marketing planning, marketing mix, define marketing mix, how to define marketing, marketing ireland

Many people struggle with headlines that truly demonstrate the value of their offering.

So does your message include your company name?

If it does, you are already wasting 50% of the time a new prospect will spend deciding whether or not to contact you.

If the next 50% isn’t so compelling, you might as well take your marketing budget and flush it down the toilet.

Value, value, value – where do you add value to your clients? What is their biggest problem?

“Struggling to attract more leads.” If you knew the magic formula for attracting more clients, you would probably make a lot more money, wouldn’t you?

It’s obvious, if you’ve read this far, that we know how to attract people with problems with marketing.

So if you want to increase your return from marketing and attract more clients, either call us on +353 1 201 7102 or click here and fill out our Business Health Check Form because it’s FREE and it’s the first step to your success.

Technorati Tags: marketing strategy, increase sales, marketing messages, marketing plan, more sales, more clients, attract clients

Messages with the power to impress. Messages with the power to convince. Create marketing messages that will help them realise what your product does for them – and they will buy. THEY WILL BUY. 

Not a skilled copywriter? So how can you create such messages?

Ask your clients and they will do it for you! They are actually the experts on what your product does and they know how to say it so that others get it as well!

Read here how your customers can help you create marketing messages with power.

You have everything well thought out, you have a brilliant idea that will turn into 1000000000000’s in profit, you’ll retire by 38 and you’ll spend the rest of your life at the Bahamas…  Nice!

BUT, hey, stop for a moment, have you done your homework and made sure all these dreams are at least half real? Have you done a proper research, have you identified potential clients’ needs and wants, do you know what you are actually going to sell and how will you explain the value to people?

There’s a hell more to it, and it actually can be a great fun – just have a look at this article on how to launch your product SUCCESSFULLY. Guaranteed.

Do you know how much you spent on marketing last year? Was it time and money well spent? Are you 100% sure that if you apply the same methodology for the following year, your business with soar?

They say it’s the biggest madness to believe that, while doing the same thing again and again, the results will be better. That’s why you should try different things all the time until you get it really right and you achieve growth and success you dream about.

So how should you go about your marketing budget for the next year and what could be a good idea to try out?

Do you want to see a simple formula which would tell you how much you should spend on marketing? Every business owner will understand this and, what is more, it will also give you some tips on how to use marketing budget wisely, so that it generates leads that turn into sales. Effectively. Read the full article here.