Write a Marketing Strategy and
Increase Your Sales and Improve Your Profits
Taking the time to write a marketing strategy
has the power to transform your business
When
you write a marketing strategy for your small business
you create an extreme competitive advantage over most of your
competition. The fact
is a large majority of entrepreneurs never invest the time to develop a
marketing strategy and pay the price with mediocre sales and scarce
profits.
Beginning
your marketing by developing and executing a
strategy gives you direction, purpose and focus. Most small business
owners
approach their marketing using a “coin toss”
method. They select their
marketing tactics and techniques arbitrarily or copy the same things
that their
competitors are doing.
They
create no unique value or differentiate themselves from
anyone else in the market. They would have been better off tossing a
coin to
see which way they should market. The results would have been just as
predictable.
To
stay out of this “coin-toss” trap you must approach
your
marketing strategically and not tactically. A comprehensive marketing
strategy
is the only way to insure that you are maximizing sales and profits.
As
you write a marketing strategy, you must develop consider
and leverage three critical components - your specific strategy, your
tactics and your marketing techniques.
These
three components work as one to guide every aspect of
your marketing. A
good way to view these
three components is as follows:
- Strategy
is what you plan on doing to reach a
specific outcome (your goal)
- Tactics
are how you’re going to achieve these
outcomes
(your
approach)
- Techniques
are the methods you use to execute it
(your
activities)
Your
strategies guide the direction of your marketing; your
tactics instigates your marketing; and your techniques trigger others
to take
action. Each must be present for your marketing to reach its full
potential to
generate sales and profits.
A
prime example of the three leverage components in action
is the “upsell” utilized by McDonald’s.
Their
strategy was to increase the dollar amount of each
sales transaction; the tactic the used was to have the employee to
suggest
another item at the point of purchase; and the technique these used is
a simple
statement – “Would you like fries with
that?”
This
simple question has added billions of dollars to
McDonald’s bottom line over the years. The tactic and the
technique they developed
were not complex and require little implementation effort. It fulfilled
the aim
of the strategy very effectively and profitably.
It
all begins with knowing what your strategic objective is
and then developing the tactics and techniques to make it come to life.
The first
step is to sit down and write a marketing strategy that leverages each
of these
critical components of your business.
| Steps to Develop a
Marketing Strategy |
-
Identify
business
marketing strategies that work for others inside and outside
your industry
-
Develop
a marketing strategy to differentiate yourself from the competition
-
Create
and position the quality of your products or services as a marketing
strategy
-
Brainstorm
and implement a value based marketing strategy
-
Research
and define your
target market
-
Create
a
referral marketing strategy to build valuable contacts
-
Establish
and constantly maintain your corporate identity marketing strategy
|
Coach
Ron's Recommended Resources:
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