Marketing Your Business

3. Building the Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan is a useful document in its own right. It will clarify how you intend to sell to your customers and promote your business. It is also an important part of your business plan.

The plan should be clear, easy to understand and cover the following points:

3.1 What the most important elements of your product or service are.

• Which features provide the benefits your customers want?
• What is its USP?

3.2 Who your target customers are.

• Your potential customers should be divided into groups, with the most promising and relevant groups at the top of your list.

3.3 Your pricing.

• If you have already set your prices, you may want to revise them as a result of the competitive analysis undertaken to create your marketing plan. Don't be afraid to do this - but don't slash prices just because you can see a niche in the market at that price point.
• Strong marketing can overcome customers' objections over price.

3.4 Who will do the selling.

• Any marketing strategy is useless without an effective sales capability to back it up. Make sure you and any staff know everything your customer would want to know about your business - and how to communicate it effectively.

3.5 How you are going to distribute your product or service to your customers.

Personal selling, mail order or a website if you are selling direct; wholesalers, retailers or agents if you are selling indirectly.

• Work out which is the most suitable for your product or service. Your research should have told you how your target customers prefer to buy.

3.6 What form of promotion you are going to use. There are many forms. Most start-ups will want to use a combination.

• Advertising and PR are useful for building awareness of your business. Make sure your target customers are reached by the media you advertise or promote yourself in. For example, if you are a starting a local video rental shop, the entertainments page of your local newspaper may be a useful place to advertise. An advertisement in the local business magazine is unlikely to be as effective.
• A direct mail campaign can spread your message to potential customers. While the costs of design, print and mailing can be high, it can be a useful tool if your business is built around high sales volumes. Names and addresses of consumers or businesses can be bought from Marketing File (0845 345 7755) or Yell.com (01753 583311).
• Exhibitions can also provide a direct route to customers, particularly for businesses selling to other businesses. You can collect leads to follow up, make direct sales, promote new products and new businesses, meet customers face-to-face and find other businesses to work with through showing at exhibitions. Make sure the exhibition will be attended by your target customers. Check with the organisers about previous attendance statistics. It is also worth asking your competitors who have showed there - most will tell you.
• More companies are choosing to promote themselves on the Internet. This is a useful method if your business has limited face-to-face contact with your customers. Sales can also be made via websites. Sites can be designed for as little as £500 and maintenance costs start at around £30 a year for a simple promotional site.
• The most cost-effective promotion is to get satisfied customers to recommend your business to friends and colleagues. This is the ideal for start-ups to aim for and is achieved by consistently exceeding your customers' expectations.

3.7 After sales - demonstrate how you will promote your business to existing customers after you start trading.

For example, regular mailings or telephone contact or a discount scheme based on sales volume.

• Retaining customers is essential for any business. It is cheaper and easier than finding new business.