A sound marketing plan is very important to the success of any solo online business operation.
Your plan should include areas of focus like niche market research, the customer profiles that you have targeted, an analysis of your competition, your positioning, the products and services
that you are selling, your pricing plan, and your advertising and promotion details.
Do your homework before developing your market and niche plan. Effective marketing, planning and promotion begins with solid data and information about your specific marketplace and the sub-niche you have chosen.
Your business will benefit immensely by the amount of quality information and thoughtful pondering your give your plan.
"You're in business to serve a customer need," says Derek Hansen, founder of American Capital Access. "If you're not sensitive to your customers, don't know who your customers are, how to reach them and, most of all, what will convince them to buy your product or service, get help."
Here are a few suggestions on how to proceed:
1. Visit your local library to see what information they might have on the market that you're entering;
2. Talk to customers that are the mainstay of your niche to find out their likes and dislikes and who they are currently dealing with;
3. Study the advertising and promotions of other businesses in your niche (including your most feared competition);
4. Consult with suppliers and vendors (wholesalers) in your space to see what inside tips and advice they might have for you;
5. Contact related industry associations or groups that may be in your niche;
6. Obviously, you should scour the Internet to see what you can learn about the niche from as many sources as possible. Be sure to search for forums, user groups, and portals dedicated to your subject to see what "conversations" are going on in the niche.
When you have gathered sufficient helpful information, you should put your notes down on paper and to include the following:
1. Define your business
- Your product or service;
- Your geographic marketing area whether a neighborhood, region, state, country or the world;
- Your competition based on what your have observed and what you have data on;
- How you can differentiate your business from your competition (What is unique or special about your approach in the niche?);
- Your price points;
- The competition's promotion strategies, tactics, and methods;
- Your promotion ideas and plans (don't just copy what your competitors are doing);
- Your distribution methods (digital download, physical shipping, email attachments, etc).
2. Define your customers
- What information do you want to keep about the demographics of your clients? Age, sex, income, preferences, contact details, etc;
- How you plan to present your products and services to your customers - marketing and advertising ideas including word of mouth, forum posting, paid ads, direct mail or sales sites online, membership sites, Yellow Pages or whatever;
- Patterns or habits your prospects and potential customers share--where hang out, where they shop, what they read, what they watch, what they listen to, etc.;
- Qualities your customers value most about their favorite businesses in your niche - is it selection, convenience, service, reliability, availability, affordability, etc?;
- Qualities your customers like least about niche products or services - can and of these variables be positively addressed by your business to serve your customers better?
3. Define your plan and budget
- What are the marketing methods you plan to use to communicate with your customers?
- Methods that are used by your top competitors that have been most effective for them?
- Define your anticipated costs compared to actual sales.
- Understand what it costs your business to operate per customer.
- What alternative future marketing methods can you deploy to attract new customers?
- What percentage of profits should you allocate to your marketing campaign?
- Which marketing tools can your business implement within your budget - newspaper, magazine, radio or television, online ads, viral messages, email blasts, Yellow Pages advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, press releases, public relations activities such as community involvement, and on and on ... ?
- How are you going to test your marketing ideas and campaigns?
- Which methods for measuring results of your marketing campaign are you going to adopt and stick with?
- How long will it take to implement you plan and put the tools in place to follow through with the strategies that you have chosen?
The final component in your small business marketing plan should be your overall objectives for promoting your business:
- To communicate your message
- Create an awareness of your product or service
- Motivate prospects and clients to buy and increase your sales
- Create an active and "warm" buying customer list
- Brand you business name so that it is recognized in your niche
- Develop positive and open communcations (relationships) with your clients
- Encourage your active clients to speak about your business with their friends
I can't stress enough how important it is to target your prospects and customers making sure your message reaches the people you want to sell.
Today's online niches are too fragmented and diffused to try to reach everyone without the expenditure of vast sums of money.
Instead, concentrate on the formulation of a specific customer profiles so that you understand exactly who should be seeing and experiencing your marketing.
"Before, we always tried to get everybody and their brother to buy from us. Needless to say, that approach didn't work. Then we started a marketing plan that targeted a specific geographic area" says one long-time business owner, "and it brought in all the business we could hope for."
