Marketing Archives - Page 7 of 14

New Ideas For Small Business Holiday Marketing

2 seconds after Halloween it seems that all the retail stores put up their Christmas decorations – trying to capture as much of the Holiday market as possible. Typical ways that retail stores use to capitalize on the holidays include extended hours and sales. This is all well and good. Today I want to give you an early present by giving you some novel ways to think about holiday promotions.

Many people are fed up with holiday crowds, which is reflected in the growth of online sales and the decline of some traditional retailer’s sales. There also seems to be a trend towards buying fewer gifts, but those gifts tend to be higher-ticket luxury items.

In the type of marketing we all should be doing ,we start with the customer in mind. What do we know about people this time of year?

– Time is a commodity – there’s too much to do and too little time. – People have more shopping to do than they usually do. – People are under a tremendous amount of stress. – People tend to clean and decorate their houses.

These are just some of the factors affecting people during the holiday season. I’m sure you can think of many more. Take these things into consideration, and take the stance of being a giver.

Here’s an idea I’ve never seen (so I want credit if you use it). If you own a store, offer free gift wrap – nothing new there. While people are getting their gifts wrapped, they get a free chair massage? You could partner up with a local spa, or even a massage school who could also give every customer a promotional coupon. You save your customers time, take away their stress, and create a fusion marketing partnership with the spa.

If you are in a household service business, offer to do additional winterizing services for your customers to save them time. Offer a free holiday housecleaning. If you aren’t in the cleaning business – again team up with a cleaning service.

Give-aways are great. Give away free Christmas trees – depending on where you are you could buy a couple hundred for $10 a piece. The deal could be – spend $100 and take home a free tree. Give away turkeys, or complete turkey dinners – a lot of grocery stores have this promotion.

Everybody gives away calendars, aim for something different but still useful. How about ice-scrapers if you live in the north? Blankets, sweatshirts, caps – are all good promotional items when the weather turns cold.

Holiday cards are great. People enjoy getting them and displaying them. Hardly anybody sends Thanksgiving cards, definitely consider it. In this politically correct age (gasp) you have to be sensitive to people’s religious sensibilities. Send Happy Holidays cards and not Merry Christmas Cards – unless you are absolutely sure your customer celebrates Christmas.

If you have any kind of retail business, think about add-on gifts that might be used as a second gift. A florist might include a free gift-wrapped ornament with a certain level of purchase that can be sent to a different address. Two gifts for the price of one. Buy one get one free offers are great at holiday times.

Use your creativity this holiday season and think about how you can solve your customers’ problems.

Marketing Plan To Copy – A Marplan Is Like A Map To Your Profits

Have you asked a Marketing Agency to quote you for drawing up a Marketing Plan recently? If, like me, you own a small business, then it is hard to justify spending the £600 a day I was asked for here in Britain. I have to watch my bottom line like a hawk, especially in the difficult-trading-conditions we seem to be in. But here is a dilemma! A Marketing Plan is a really essential tool that will show a small business owner where their business is and map out where it needs to go. It is vital in today’s competitive environment that even small business should have one.

When you overdraft or financing facilities come up for renewal and your bank manager has to justify lending the bank’s money to your business, think how much easier it would be to convince him to continue backing you with a plan laid out in neat systematic form.

It is probably the case that far too many small companies don’t have a Marketing Plan, or the owner has it locked in his head. A place of storage that is really difficult to access when you need to show it to the potential investor or the bank manager. And inevitably this event usually occurs when you are really busy and committing your plan to paper, or computer file, is added pressure that you really could do with out. I run a small retail business – an independent bookshop and a Collectables gift business on the Internet.

Recently I studied for, and obtained, the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing’s “Professional Diploma in Marketing” by doing a convergent learning course on the net and in four intensive workshop days in my local town. It brought home to me that what we did in our own business was fine up to a point. As the course was very practical, with the chance to use any organisation of the student’s choice in the assignments that we had to submit, I ended up formally setting down the Marketing Plan on paper, that had been up there in my head for no one to see!

So what is a Marketing Plan for?

Well, its purpose is to lay down, direct and co-ordinate all your marketing activities and events. Think of it as a map. With a map it is easier to get some place. With a marketing plan it is easier to get the business to where you want it to head. This is, hopefully, to huge profits!

Perhaps you are the owner or director of a company seeking backing or further investment? Well a good marketing plan can be really important in attracting new investment or better bank facilities.

Perhaps you need help in making choices regarding which parts of the market to focus on and how to compete in that target market (Marketing Strategy)?

Often the mere process of preparing a marketing plan will help you to develop a successful marketing strategy through the discipline and process that you go through.

A good marketing plan will describe all the marketing actions to be carried out within a specific time period. It will contain details of your company, its products or services, its marketing objectives and strategies and information on how to measure the results of the marketing activities.

It might help if I give you a framework of basic elements that a Marketing Plan should include.

Basic Elements of a Marketing Plan

So what do you need?

1.Executive Summary – introduces and explains the major features and recommendations to executives (or your bank manager).

1.1 Introduction – a brief description of your organisation, its products and or services.

The context and objectives of the plan should be described and a description of what your business activities are. You should include current revenues, customers and your market position. You can also blow your own trumpet here! Note your accomplishments and successes to date.

If it is a new market entry or entirely new markets you are going for, then here is the place to describe any experience, training or competencies that your company has.

1.2 Vision, Mission Statement and Objectives

Mission statements focus on the long-range purpose of your marketing plan.

“To educate entertain and enlighten our clients so that they become more successful Marketers.”

Company objectives should be more specific and oriented towards action.

“We will deliver a balanced range of Marketing Solution Publications to the U.K. and Europe through mail order and Internet.”

1.3 Team description

Who will deliver the plan? What are the resources and structure of the team who will do so?

Management skills and capabilities. List any Marketing knowledge, sales skills, copy-writing ability, etc.

Agencies – Include any Marketing consultants, PR agencies you are using.

If there are any gaps honestly point them out and do a Training Needs Analysis.

1.4 Main marketing objectives

You need only give a brief statement of these here to close the Executive summary.

2.1 Current market conditions

What are the trends in your market?

What are the dynamics facing businesses such as yours?

Who are your target customers?

What competition do you face?

2.2 Market trends:

You should describe the macroeconomic trends that directly affect the target market that your marketing plan is aimed at.

This is where the PEST Framework is useful to include. (Sometimes referred to as PESTEL, SLEPT or PESTE) the components are:

Political

Economic

Social

Technological

Environment

Legal

2.3 Target market

It goes without saying that you should be aiming all your marketing efforts precisely at a target market or you are heading for a disaster.

All good marketing planning should follow from a very detailed segmentation of the market.

Size? Is it growing, staying the same, or shrinking?

Customer characteristics e.g. age, sex, income level, location, marital status, number of children etc.

Habits, patterns and values of target customer.

What are their wants, needs and desires?

What are their buying habits? – How do they spend their disposable income and when do they buy and how do they buy? How many times and when?

2.4 Competition analysis

In the micro environment analysis of a Marketing Audit you will hopefully have identified your present and potential competitors. What are their key products / services? How do they differentiate them selves? You should briefly explain the actions that you will take to oppose or overcome your competitor’s offerings.

I highly recommend you use Professor Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model for this and the four other threats he identifies. Space does not allow me to go into detail here although I have written a more comprehensive report in which I include a diagram of the Five Forces Model available from my own website.

2.5 Issues analysis

You should briefly list such key external issues as government legislation affecting your business, or new technological development that impinges on your product.

3.1 SWOT analysis

Strengths

Weakness

Opportunities

Threats

A major component of any marketing plan is the SWOT analysis. Strengths and weaknesses are born of internal elements while opportunities and threats come from outside.

When opportunities and threats are recognised they can then be examined from the point of view of your product strengths and weaknesses.

What could we change or improve about our product to make it easier for the customer?

What are our customers’ wants and desires? – We may possibly find new opportunities by thinking about such questions.

It is worth remembering that a threat can also be an opportunity to you, while a strength may also be a weakness depending on your point of view!

A business offering a vast selection of products may see this as one of their strengths. But for the customer, confused by the bewildering array of options as they try to find what they need, sees it as a weakness.

4. Positioning Strategy

Decide how you want your clients to perceive you in your marketplace.

Lowest price?

Best service?

Highest quality?

This is all part of the differentiation process.

5. Differentiation

You want to ‘stand out from the crowd’ so you need to make some decisions on segmentation and the positioning of your business. Combine this with your competitive analysis and you should be able to differentiate yourself from the competition.

6. Key messages

Thinking about differentiation should also help you to decide on your ‘Key messages’. Be warned that it usually takes time for these to make an impact, to ‘sink in’, as it were. This means it is important to keep repeating your consistent messages throughout any marketing campaigns.

7. The Marketing Mix

The 4 P’s.P is for:

Product – List your companies products and services. Include their key features. Is there something unique about them? If you are launching a new product or service include it here.

Price – There are many ways to set a price, some more scientific than others are! Remember that pricing is an integral part of the marketing strategy. Ask yourself is the customer willing to pay the price proposed and will it give you any profit? Some prices may be set on a cost-plus basis – adding a profit on to the costs of producing the goods or services. A better way is the ‘market-based’ price because it takes into account what your competitors are charging.

Place – where do you sell? Direct, through an intermediary? Bricks and mortar or virtual outlet?

Promotion – what activities are you going to use to create awareness of your product or service to generate sales? This is also referred to as Marketing Communications and includes direct selling, corporate events, brochures, web-sites, advertising. You should be warned that many inexperienced marketers think that the promotional plan is the entire marketing plan. It is, as you can see, but one component of the marketing plan.

7a. Integration of Promotional activity

Have you got a consistent look and feel to all your marketing mix? It is wise to make sure all your communications, brand positioning, propositions, messages, etc are derived from a single brand position so it is not confusing to the consumer by being fragmented. Also are there cross selling opportunities for you to exploit?

Only 4 Ps? – Funny, I thought I heard there were 7!

Before leaving the marketing mix I need to tell you about the Extended mix, which adds People, Process and Physical evidence to Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

If you are a service, or a not-for-profit organisation, then the extra three Ps are most important for you. But don’t just assume that because you are not, that they don’t apply!

People oriented organisations have to consider how their personnel make the marketing activities more, or less, effective when dealing face to face (or on the phone) with their public.

Process makes it easy for you to deal with the organisation. If it is a charity, for example, today people expect to be able to go on-line, set up direct-debits, pay by card and not just put money in the street collectors tin.

Physical evidence is expected to result from paying for a service or donating to a charity. You expect to see some physical evidence of the use your money has been put to.

8. Marketing Budget

You need a detailed budget for the next year showing the budgeted costs for each of your promotional items.

9. Measurement

Results and feed back must be gathered each month and compared with the marketing plan. When they are going astray you need to take corrective action.

Another tip is to ask your customers how they found you so that you can monitor what parts of your communications plan are working. Note this and include this in your measurements.

10. Milestones

It is a good idea to announce in the plan some marketing milestones you will strive to achieve. When you pass them celebrate!

So there it is a step by step process to create yourself a professional Marketing plan.

Marketing Strategy and Planning: The Road Map

Many small to medium sized businesses face a common struggle; a balancing act of plans, strategies, departments and decisions. All of the elements are present, all of the gears in working condition, but business isn’t exactly booming at the pace it had anticipated or forecasted for. What exactly does this growth and sustainability require? In a turbulent economy teeming with congested airwaves and aggressive business practices, it’s about standing out from the crowd. And surprisingly, your marketing strategy has a lot more to do with it than you might realize.

Conflicted business owners can overcome the masses and draw the customers that are right for their product by executing a stellar marketing strategy, not by yelling louder than their competitors or using neon banners on their storefront (or banner ads on your website). My point is, you don’t have to be throwing yourself out there with a bunch of noise all the time. What you need to do is paint a vision for your business, your employees, and your customers. Make promises that nobody but you can keep, and then blow them away with your admirable businesses practices and superhuman skills.

Take a moment to consider this: marketing strategy is the single most important factor in determining the prosperity or deterioration of a business. That’s a pretty substantial claim and I’m willing to prove its legitimacy. Marketing strategy distributes itself throughout all the facets of a business, whether intended by its creator or not. This is possible because the strategy is created and defined by the overall objectives of a specific business, and integrates these objectives with a company’s unique vision and mission. Put simply, every level of a business should be oozing marketing strategy. Really!

Marketing Strategy

Does it seem far-fetched? Let’s examine the relationship between marketing strategy and four key aspects of any business: market research, the marketing plan, corporate identity, and the economy. First, let’s get the formalities out of the way and set forth a definitive explanation of what marketing strategy actually is. After scouring several websites for the official definition, I settled on a less-official but more effective description of marketing strategy:

Marketing Strategy:

A strategy that integrates an organization’s marketing goals into a cohesive whole. Ideally drawn from market research, it focuses on the ideal product mix to achieve maximum profit potential. The marketing strategy is set out in a marketing plan.

While your marketing strategy is, essentially, a document; its purpose is far more load bearing. Included in the strategy should be your mission statement and business goals, an exhaustive list of your products and services, a characterization or description of your target clients, and a clear definition of how you integrate into the competitive landscape of your industry.

Marketing Strategy v. Market Research

This relationship establishes an order of operations: the first phase in any marketing or branding initiative is research. (See our white paper on this subject: Market Research for SMB’s). No matter the scope of your research, whether it is a broad canvassing of your current client list or unveiling specific, detailed findings about your target market, the outcome will have a direct effect on your marketing strategy. It’s imperative to find out everything about whom you are trying to reach. What generation are they in? How big are their families? Where do they live, eat, and hang out? How do they spend their free time and money? All of this information will influence and alter your marketing strategy.

Research alone will not benefit your business without a solid marketing strategy. Often, business owners narrowly define market research as the collection and organization of data for business purposes. And while that is technically an accurate definition, the emphasis lies not on the process of research itself, but the impact it commands on future decisions regarding all levels of a company. Every business decision presents different, unique needs for information, and this information then shapes a suitable and applicable marketing strategy.

Research can be a grueling, confusing, and tedious process. From establishing or cleaning out a database to creating surveys and conducting interviews, you can receive a lot of information about your clients and potential clients and wonder what to do next. Before beginning to formulate a strategy, the information and data collected must be organized, processed, analyzed, and stored. Rest assured, with a little creativity and a lot of effort, this will all be molded into a structured, effective, and easily adaptable marketing strategy. Furthermore, continuous and updated research will ensure your strategy is a current and relevant reflection of your target market, marketing goals, and future business endeavors.

Marketing Strategy v. Marketing Plan

In this relationship, the marketing strategy is essentially a guide to judge the performance and efficiency of a specific marketing plan. In simple terms, a marketing strategy is a summary of what you offer and how you are positioned in the market (in relation to competitors’ products and services), and your marketing plan is an organized list of actions that you will enforce to achieve the goals outlined in your strategy. The plan will encompass the steps to a real-life application of a marketing strategy, bringing life to your mission and vision. It’s your time to show and sell your products and services so that your target market can experience them in the presence that you truly imagined.

Often, businesses lack a balance of creative personality and logic personality. While a business owner might have the creativity to dream up a stellar product, business model, and brand, they may lack the entrepreneurship and discipline to bring it all to life through research, planning and execution.

Marketing Strategy v. Corporate Identity

It’s no surprise that some of the most successful and recognizable companies in the world are those who establish distinguished, one-of-a-kind cultures that permeate through every channel of a business and reach customers on a human level. The culture of a corporation, its psychology, attitude, approaches to business, values and beliefs, lays the groundwork for a unique and compelling corporate identity. There is a powerful and undeniable connection between the health of these companies and the identities that their culture has provided.

These companies have discovered the delicate balance between a brand and a strategy, and how this symbiotic connection encourages visibility and growth. The relationship is simple: the marketing strategy represents where a company wants to go, and the culture determines how (and sometimes if) it will get there. Think of a corporate identity – the style, words, images, and colors – as the personification of your marketing strategy. The corporate identity is extended and applied in every phase of the marketing strategy, and plays a stylistic role in its execution.

Let’s look at an example. Starbucks, until recently, didn’t really have a marketing or advertising budget, per se. Starbucks started advertising in the New York Times and on TV in 2009, and very gingerly at that. Once a week it would print full-page ads in the Times, and on select channels it would air brief, lighthearted commercials. Prior to, the company was able to very successfully promote itself and its products through word of mouth and slapping the 25-year-old logo on every cup its baristas cranked out, proving that even something as simple as a logo can deeply resonate with consumers. But it was the Starbucks’ identity that its millions of customers were happily waiting fifteen minutes in line for. The infamous Starbucks cup rapidly became associated with wealth, leisure, high standards, and urbanites. From college freshman to corporate CEO’s, people couldn’t get enough.

Starbucks enforced its marketing strategy through clever, catchy campaigns, a genuine and human “front line” at the store level, and for the most part, acknowledging any mistakes or shortfalls that it might’ve run into. All of these actions are traits, portraying a deeply rooted culture that is exuded from top to bottom of the Starbucks hierarchy. And, love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying their great success, even in a strained economy.

Marketing Strategy v. The Economy

The economy is an incredibly sensitive subject around the globe. What we’ve also noticed is that a lot of companies and business owners are using a depressed economic state as a reason (and in some cases, an excuse) for the shortcomings in their business.

For example, a big trend recently has been layoffs. Larger corporations are using weak economies as a reason to purge its staff and cut positions, when it knows just as well that that’s exactly the opposite of what needs to happen. Or does it? It’s become hard to tell. Is surviving a “depression” really as simple as, say, reassessing your marketing strategy? While an unstable economy is troubling, risky, and unpredictable, it’s also an excellent test of the flexibility of your marketing strategy. Your strategy isn’t set in stone…the whole purpose of designing a strategy in the first place is for smooth navigation through any given circumstance, whether good or bad. Unfortunately, many CEOs and CFOs target their marketing departments first in lean times, while the reality is that it should be investing in these areas so that its marketing managers can adjust their strategy to survive-maybe even prosper, through tough times. An excerpt from the blog of R. Bruer, the owner and head of a strategic communications firm in Portland, Oregon, lays it all out:

“Most businesses treat marketing as a discretionary expense, making it an easy target for budget cutters. It’s as if marketing is a luxury afforded only when times are flush. Less customer demand, less we can afford marketing, or so conventional thinking goes.

But really, can we ever afford not to market?

It’s natural to want to preserve cash during a downturn. I was an employer for nearly 14 years, so I’m sympathetic. But the tendency is to make deep cuts in marketing when sales head south. Companies often start by reducing or eliminating outside expenses, such as advertising, events, sponsorships, research. And when that’s not enough, they lay off marketing employees, sometimes the entire department.

The net effect of gutting marketing is to stifle generation of customer awareness, demand and retention just when these things are needed most. It’s a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision.”

Your Marketing Strategy

While marketing strategy isn’t tangible, its role in business is just as dire as the product or service being offered. It’s contribution bears significance through every phase of a business plan, from conception to execution and far beyond these four aspects of research, planning, identity and economy.

Marketing strategy will continue to fold itself into business plans as long as it is created and executed properly. Research on your industry and competitors will enable you to develop and formulate a proper, pliable strategy. From here, your marketing plan will act as a guide that will bring your strategy to life, attaining and exceeding the goals outlined, all while establishing your corporate culture and identity. Remember, the culture piece works two ways. Your culture helps to form the strategy, and following that strategy will reinforce your culture. Lastly, your strategy must be both strong and flexible enough to withstand the most difficult or unpredictable of circumstances, such as an economic depression, new trends or competitors in your industry.

Strategy is a small piece of a much larger picture. It can all be overwhelming at times, sure, but it’s part of the adventure. With dedication, organization, and a champion marketing team (ahem! B&A), the pieces will come together with ease, allowing for the truly awesome personality of your business to shine, and profits to follow shortly thereafter.

Marketing Strategy Plan: Key Ingredients Of A SWOT Analysis

In every marketing strategy plan, the first step in determining your current position in the market is through a comprehensive SWOT analysis. This helps you identify and improve your Strengths and Weakness while focusing on the external Opportunities and Threats that may positively or negatively affect your company.

1. Strengths

In a SWOT analysis, Strengths are considered part of the internal factors favorable to your marketing strategy plan. This basically covers areas regarding your competencies, assets, income generation, and other intangibles like customer support and positive public image and reputation, good admin – employees relationship, and camaraderie in the work place. When you define your strengths, it must reflect the present situation and have a clear plan on how you will be able to maintain and nurture it so these factors will always be the driving force of your company.

2. Weaknesses

Weaknesses can be derived both from internal and external factors. These are usually the areas in your operation that may have a negative impact on your marketing strategy plan. The purpose of creating a list of your weaknesses is so you can adjust your strategies to include improvements in these areas. Among the common weaknesses of companies are where your operation is losing money, lack of experience, skills, and or resources among others. Weaknesses can also account for a bad reputation, significant decline in the levels of trust among consumers, or simply due to the absence of any strength.

3. Opportunities

Opportunities are basically external factors that offer potential benefits for your business. When creating a marketing strategy plan, having a good grasp of the opportunities is highly beneficial. This enables you to take advantage of various factors that may have positive effects on your endeavors such as the current economic condition, cultural climate, market volume, economic demand, etc. When you know your opportunities, you can also see the actual needs of your target market that are not being met. In essence, these opportunities are actually your future strengths and must be prioritized.

4. Threats

Although threats are usually viewed as an external condition that may impede your marketing strategy plans, they can also be viewed internally. Threats can be an unstable economic condition, cultural differences, unfriendly social conditions, significant changes in political stability, new industry regulations and legislation, and the current position of your competitor. Internally, threats are often found in the workplace such as the unstable admin – employee relationship and other related conditions. As opposed to Opportunities, Threats in essence are your company’s future weaknesses and must be addressed as soon as possible.

With the help of a SWOT analysis, you can analyze your business internally against your various resources, financial standing, support, etc. When you look at various external factors, you can examine various areas of the economy, political stability, industrial regulations, demographic, social, competitions, and technology that may have a direct impact on your business.

How to Write an Online Digital Internet Marketing Business Plan

It’s common for businesses embarking in internet marketing and social media to think they need to build their strategies around technology and not look at audience needs first. Every business needs an integrated marketing plan. Sometimes businesses see digital planning as a separate thing but ideally your online marketing plan should be integrated with wider business objectives so it is part of an overall marketing plan.

There are two models that provide a framework for writing an integrated digital marketing plan. The first is called SOSTAC® planning model developed by PR Smith. In plain English this approach means breaking your plan down into six parts: –

S stands for Situation Analysis – which means where are we now?
O stands for Objectives which means where do we want to go?
S stands for Strategy which summarises how we are going to get there
T stands for Tactics which are the details of strategy
A is for Action or implementation – putting the plan to work.
C is for Control which means measurement, monitoring, reviewing, updating and modifying.

You can use the SOSTAC® planning model to build a digital marketing template to fit your business needs and customer profiles.

The second model that’s useful for mapping out a social media marketing plan is Forrester’s POST method. The POST method helps define your social media goals, plan and prioritise your actions. By thinking this through you can create a clear purpose and vision, as well as implementing goals, strategies and tools that will help you to reach the people you are looking to connect with online. The POST method in a nutshell looks at:

People – Start by looking at your customer’s social behaviours and attitudes. Who do you want to attract on sites like Facebook and Twitter?
Objectives – Next decide on your social technology goals. Do you want to build relationships or, create brand awareness or improve customer service?
Strategy – What strategies do you plan to carry out and what is your priority? Determine how your goals will change the way you interact with customers through twitter, a blog, LinkedIn or Facebook page
Technologies – which ones will you use? Pick the most right technologies that will meet your goals you don’t have to use them all!

These methods will ensure your integrated digital marketing plan put audiences and customers first, identifying their needs and developing a plan with the right mix of online and offline channels to build strong relationships,drive leads and generate traffic to your website.

The Sales and Marketing SWOT Analysis

The S.W.O.T. Analysis, where you evaluate your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is well known in the business planning process. Many companies use this method during strategic planning exercises as a way to form strategies and make decisions on new business ventures or initiatives. It is powerful because it looks at both internal (strengths, weaknesses) and external (opportunities, threats) forces.

As powerful as the S.W.O.T. Analysis is for business planning, it is equally powerful in sales and marketing decision-making. By employing this traditional tool to each of your sales and marketing activities, you can take advantage of your strengths, uncover new opportunities, minimize your weaknesses, and eliminate your threats in amazing ways. That is, however, only if you can be objective. Otherwise, the exercise falls flat.

While the S.W.O.T. Analysis can be applied to decisions about business planning, product development and other strategic decision-making tasks, consider using it for the following two sales and marketing activities:

1. Deciding Marketing Vehicles: Use the S.W.O.T. Analysis to evaluate each marketing vehicle in your marketing plan. This will allow you to focus marketing efforts on the vehicles where you have the most advantage or opportunity and the most minimal amount of weakness or threat.

2. Developing Sales Presentation/Proposals: Apply the S.W.O.T. Analysis to the development of each of your sales presentations and proposals. Be sure to focus the analysis on evaluating each section based on issues specific to the customer you are pitching.

As you approach your S.W.O.T. Analysis, consider the following questions.

Strengths: What advantages does your company/product have that no one else has? What makes you most unique? Focus on those things that make your offer most compelling to a prospect or customer.

Weaknesses: Where can you improve? Where have you made mistakes in the past? What do you not have that other companies/products in your industry have? Focus on those things that most detract from your offer.

Opportunities: What trends lend to your strengths? What is the potential “expansion” potential over time? Opportunities are external factors that represent why your company exists or should/can growth.

Threats: What challenges do you face? What are your competitors doing? What is the overall competitive landscape? Threats are external forces that could impact your success, such as competition, operational capacity, cost of goods increases, etc.

No matter the purpose, using the S.W.O.T. analysis can force thoughtful, strategic, and creative thinking. And, when used properly, the S.W.O.T. Analysis not only helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but it also helps you determine your strategies for addressing each.

Tips on Writing an Effective Social Media Marketing Request For Proposal (RFP)

About a year ago, I wrote an article with guidelines on writing a website design and development Request for Proposal (RFP), which received a great response. Now I think it’s high time to do the same thing for those wishing to engage an agency for Social Media Marketing and other Online Marketing and Advertising consultation and implementation.

Below are my suggestions of how to prepare an RFP for social media projects, retainers and campaigns. I also suggest doing research online and viewing other Request for Proposals to see what works best for your organization. Keep in mind that whatever format you choose will determine not only how long the responses are, but also what type of focus you are looking for from the respondents. Each section of the RFP is outlined below, along with some explanation and suggested questions. Have fun!

Information about your organization and project

Introduction

The purpose of this section is to give a brief overview of the company issuing the RFP and the social media project or desired work relationship between the company and the vendor. Provide as much information as you feel is necessary to allow vendors to prepare an accurate proposal. If you feel that there is certain proprietary or other information that you do not wish to make public, require a Non Disclosure Agreement be signed before receiving that information. This may limit the participation of vendors, but it is oftentimes necessary to protect private information.

1. Company Overview

Organizational history
Your business objectives
Your company’s history using social media or reasons why your organization intends to begin to participate in social media

2. Overview of Project

State the project objectives and how they relate to the business objectives stated above. Explain the type of vendor relationship desired i.e. Project-based, Agency of Record, etc. Explain the current involvement your organization has with social media channels and how they relate to both your organization’s primary presence and any related campaigns
Explain the social media channels you wish the campaign to involve, unless you are looking for suggestions of which to use, then please specify that to the vendors
Explain how the project fits into your overall marketing strategy (online and offline) and if there is another vendor involved in other aspects of your Advertising and Marketing initiatives
Explain the measurable outcomes you would like to see
Explain the duration of the work – is it a temporary campaign, or an ongoing organizational marketing platform?

3. Overview of Audiences and Stakeholders

List primary audiences for the company, i.e. demographics, psychographics, etc
List primary information needs of each audience group
Identify if any market or audience research will be necessary in the execution of the campaign

4. Overview of Response

Make it clear the type of response you are looking for:
Are you looking for a hypothetical approach, or an explanation of the vendor’s process of how they will come to create your campaign. Many times a hypothetical approach is not the best way to approach an RFP process simply because a vendor will be missing several key pieces of information that might negatively affect their ability to propose a specific solution. We suggest looking for more general responses and weighing the effectiveness of past client work heavily

Guidelines for Proposal Preparation

In order to give all qualified vendors a level playing field, it’s important to set up an easy to follow schedule for both when your RFP is issued, when and to whom questions are allowed, and when and in what format responses are required
Specify the date the RFP was issued (Month, Day, Year). If your RFP is publicly listed, it will help those searching for RFPs on Google or by other methods to find relevant Request for Proposals
An optional requirement is to specify that all interested vendors register their intent to submit a proposal by a certain date – usually within 1-2 weeks of the RFP issue. This is a good way to limit the potential number of vendors who respond if you anticipate a large volume of proposals and would rather receive a smaller amount
We recommend allowing a question and answer period that ends at least 1 week before the proposal is due. It is up to you whether to allow questions by email, conference call or individual phone calls. We do recommend that you share all the questions (and answers) with all interested vendors in order to keep things as equal as possible. Always specify which format -phone call, email, and to whom these questions should be addressed. We recommend identifying a single person in your organization to be the point of contact. Just make sure vacation schedules, etc don’t interfere with this process, and if there is any other reason why the primary point of contact might need to be out of town during the process, specify a secondary point of contact
Responses from issuer to be sent by 20XX in the following formats (specify whether electronic submissions, hard copies or both must be either emailed, mailed or hand-delivered)
On the basis of the replies to the RFP document, a short list of potential vendors will be selected and this group will be asked to present demonstrations of their capabilities and vision for the project. These meetings will be completed by XXth, 20XX
Awarding of the contract to selected Vendor by XXth, 20XX
Work to commence by 20XX and to last until (if applicable)

Vendor Questions and Qualifications

The following is a series of questions that, if applicable, we suggest you ask the vendors submitting proposals. Some may not apply, but it is a great idea to get as much of an idea of the vendor’s approach and philosophy on social media as possible. Compare the responses both among each other, and to the research and reading that you have done to make sure that the vendor is up to date with the latest thinking and best practices.

COMPANY DETAILS

Company name and parent company name
Ownership structure
Years in operation
Mailing address (headquarters)
Other office location(s)
Primary phone
Fax number
Website and blog URL
Primary point of contact (name, title, phone and email address)
Total number of employees
Number of vendor employees whose primary function is social media
Current client list with those engaged in social media work identified
Percentage of total revenue that is social-media related
Three references for social media work including; company name, primary client name, contact details and brief explanation of services provided
Any potential conflicts with existing vendor client base and this RFP
Senior social media staff bios and links to social media profiles where applicable
Please provide a complete list of relevant social media platform and technology partners
References from clients currently engaged in social media work with the vendor

CAPABILITIES & EXPERIENCE

List all social media and online marketing capabilities
Do you have any proprietary tools or products related to social media?
Please list any experience you have with integrating social, paid and/or earned media
Is there a specific industry or type of work your firm specializes in?
Please list and provide links to primary social media communication channels for your company (i.e.company blog,Twitter account, Facebook group, blogs authored by principals, etc.)

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY

Please outline your social media strategy process
Which stakeholder groups do you typically include in a strategy engagement?
Describe the final deliverable of a strategy engagement
What is your approach to risk management in social media?
How do you incorporate existing applications, websites, microsites and newsletter programs into your overall social media strategy?
How do you ensure compliance with client legal requirements?
Please describe your approach to integrating across client marketing, customer service and corporate communications departments. Please provide an example of your work in this area
How do you approach adapting a traditional brand into a two-way dialogue?
Please provide a case study of your strategy work that resulted in a social media initiative and the business results achieved

REPUTATION MANAGEMENT & SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING

What is your brand/reputation monitoring process (i.e. proprietary tools used, methodology, etc)?
What is your opinion on automated sentiment analysis?
What technology do you use to assist in online monitoring?
How long (on average) between a potential issue being posted online and being flagged to the client?
What volume of mentions has your organization handled in the past (e.g. 2,500 mentions per week)?
What is your quality assurance process to ensure that the large volumes of data gathered in the monitoring process are handled efficiently and representative of the overall online conversation?
Please detail your methodology for handling online crises
What services do you provide in support of online crisis management?
Please describe the structure of your crisis management team, including bios and relevant experience
How do you assess which mentions require immediate responses and which do not?
Please outline your general approach to sourcing and responding to comments
Please provide a case study detailing your work for the purposes of managing reputation or online crisis management, including outcomes and lessons learned
Please include a sample of your monitoring report format and/or a link to appropriate dashboards (specifics should be removed)

METRICS, MEASUREMENT & REPORTING

What methodology do you use for measuring the success of your social media programs for clients?
Please provide specific examples based on past work
Have you developed any proprietary metrics? How have you applied these for clients?
How have you defined Return on Investment (ROI) from a social media perspective in the past?
How do you take data points generated from various social media channels and measurement tools and combine to give an objective/comprehensive view?
What is your approach to server analytics and community analytics for program measurement?
Do you have the capability to measure cost per lead or cost per acquisition? Please provide an example of a project on which you have done so
What platforms are you unable to measure accurately, or able to provide only limited measurements from?
Please provide a sample of a measurement document or final report (specifics should be removed)
What percentage of the budget do you recommend be dedicated to metrics and measurement?

CLIENT EDUCATION & TRAINING

Do you offer social media training services for clients? If yes, what formats are they available in?
What internal processes do you have in place to ensure that your staff is kept current on social media innovations and best practices?
How do you measure progress and evaluate training effectiveness?
How do you recommend that clients keep up to date on the latest social media innovations and best practices?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS

What are your design, creative and community management capabilities?
What percentage of your staff is dedicated to building and deploying social media solutions versus management and consulting?
Please describe your experience with the following platforms and tactics:

– YouTube or similar video sharing sites

– Blogs, Podcasts, Vodcasts, Forums

– Content Management System (CMS)

– Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

– E-mail Marketing

– Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing(SEM)

– Facebook Pages, Apps, API integration

– Mobile application development

– Twitter

– News sharing sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, etc.)

– Virtual Worlds and Augmented reality

– Photo sharing (i.e. Flickr) and other content sharing sites (i.e. Scribd, Slideshare, Delicious, etc.)

– Social Media press releases(SMPRs)

– Crowdsourcing or Wikis

– Real world events organized via social media (e.g. Tweetups)

– Ratings/Customer service sites (i.e. Yelp, ePinions, etc.)

Please provide examples of social media channel development work completed within the last two years

COMMUNITY AND INFLUENCER OUTREACH (SOCIAL PR)

What is your process for identifying influencers within various social media channels?
How do you determine and define “influence?”
What is your outreach process for communicating with identified online influencers?
What tools and approaches do you use for Influencer Relationship Management? (Third-party, proprietary,etc.)
How have you integrated Influencer Outreach with traditional communications and/or marketing campaigns?
How do you approach seeding conversations within stakeholder groups?
What is your exit strategy with influencers once the initiative is completed?
How do you ensure authenticity and transparency when conducting outreach on behalf of a client?
Please provide a case study of an online community outreach project

CLIENT SERVICES & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

How is a typical client engagement with your firm structured?
How do you structure your account teams?
Please outline your internal communication structure. If your account staff is separate from your project management staff, please detail how these teams work together
If you are selected to provide social media services, who will be assigned to our business (please provide names, titles and short biographical notes)
What percentage of senior staff involvement is structured in to your projects? What role do they play?
How are your projects priced? Using an hourly rate? Blended agency rate? If the former, please provide a rate card
What change management practices does your agency employ?
What reports will be provided to the client in order to communicate project milestones and overall project health?
What is the frequency of these reports?
What is your process for gathering business requirements?

Writing a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a good first step when considering Online Marketing and Social Media work as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct an effective, integrated campaign. A well thought-out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

Why Use Content Marketing For Your Online Home Business?

First of all what is content marketing? Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable content to your target audience. So why use content marketing in your online home business?

When advertising your online home business, there are thousands of ways to do this. There are paid versions and free versions. With paid versions, like pay-per-click, you will get tons of traffic, but the biggest percentage are just looking around. Pay-per-click can get very expensive, so you need to have an expense account just for it.

Google Slap?

One bad thing about using pay-per-click, if you happen to get shut down, there goes your advertising. It is either up or it is down, there is no in between when it comes to pay-per-click. Because of the Google Slap, many online markets have gone to content marketing.

If you have not heard about the Google slap, what happened was, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) came down hard on Google. They made Google re-due all their ads which in-turn caused the shut down of accounts that had income claims. This hit a lot of internet marketers real hard and they had to find another advertising method.

Are All Your Eggs In One Basket?

Now when using content marketing, whatever article, video, blog post, or press release you put out there, it is there to stay for years. The saying goes, never have all your eggs in one basket. With all your valuable information content out there in different forms it will keep your adverting going for years to come.

If is very important to keep your content of good value. When writing an article, keep it keyword rich. Meaning, have your keyword in your title, at least three times in the body, and of course relevant tags. This will get Google to put it on their front page and give you more exposure. When people search for a certain term, and your article has that term in it, it will pop up.

Are You Giving?

The internet now days is all about giving. The more you give valuable content, and ask nothing in return, the more people will trust and like you. The more great information you share, the more you will be known as a leader and the more people will follow you.

People are searching on the internet for two things, education and entertainment. Either they want to learn something or the want to be entertained. Once you learn to incorporate the two, educating by entertaining, you have the best of both worlds. People will be falling all over themselves to find out what you are doing.

Are You An Authority In Your Niche?

When advertising with content marketing for your online business, you need to stay within your niche. The more you brand yourself in knowing what you are talking about, the more people will come find you. You need to make sure that all your articles, press releases, blog posts and videos, not only have great content, but make you look like an authority in your niche.

Once you offer your free education to others without asking for anything in return, they will trust you and thank you. They will be much more apt to finding out about your online business this way, than if you tried to shove it down their throat.

When doing your advertising with content marketing, it is very labor driven. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but the benefits out way paid advertising in the long run. It does not cost you anything, but your time, and it stays on the world wide web for years.

Remember, never put all your eggs in one basket. Utilize all types of content marketing for your online home business and watch your business sore to new heights.

3 Online Marketing Strategies for Your Network Marketing Or MLM Business

Are you a network marketer? Then say hooray for the internet and internet marketing. The internet gives you the advantage of being able to get your information out in front of millions.

As we all know, warm leads are two things – usually a very short list and actually rather freezing. How many on your warm list actually sign up and do something with the business? My guess is not that many. Many old school network marketers will tell you to begin with your warm list. Let’s now waste everyone’s time with that when we have the advantage of the internet. The internet will enable us to find leads in other places.

Today the internet is making lead generation much easier. Here are three great ways to use the internet to generate your leads.

1. Article Writing

Use the keyboard as a marketing tool to get your income opportunity plan out. This is an obvious and easy tool to use. Article writing can generate leads as well as help you build relationships with others interested in your company. One well-written article can create an on-going stream of marketing leads. Once your article is published it is on the web for a lifetime. Think you can’t write? You can, give it a try. If you REALLY think you can’t write, you can find inexpensive ghost writers to do it for you.

2. Blogging

Blogging began as personal diaries and journals posted on the web, but have fast become the platform for many business owners, including network marketers. You can include information about the marketing plan, the products, training programs, updates from the company and many other resources, as well as testimonials. These testimonials can be from successful networkers in your group or from product users. You can also put an opt-in box on your blog or even create a squeeze page in order to create a list of more leads.

3. Video Marketing

Thanks to YouTube, videos have become a great resource for marketing on the web. You can easily record a video with a simple explanation of your business and then refer people to your blog site for more information. This starts your relationship building. When people can actually see who you are and experience your enthusiasm for your network marketing company, they are more likely to respond. And, if you use the right keywords, Google will find you quickly and put you on the first page, as Google loves videos!

Network Marketing Blog

Network marketing blog–the best move you could possibly make in your network marketing career. We as network marketers must have a blog. It will personally brand you like you never thought possible, and you probably know by now that branding is key. Me having and network marketing blog at this point my career cannot put into words how it has changed my marketing, leads,and branding. and bank account.

Your blog is nothing more than a diary, and you treat your diary with care. As your visitors visit your blog you must have strong content to keep your prospect coming back to learn more tips and tricks to better there network marketing business. The way I market with my blog is I make my blog my central sales funnel for all my content I ever put out I want Google, Yahoo and MSN to notice were this piece of content came from.

Every article I write and video I make is posted on my blog first. Google loves blogs and ranks them very high in the search engines. “Pings are the reason why” check this out,every time you make a new post on your blog the pings signals the search engines a say hey he or she has a new blog post,and once that happens Google indexes your content immediately.

The importance of network marketing blogs are your content. You want your prospects to be able to rely on your blog to run there business successfully.You know when you can help a person with there problems you not only become a professional but people tend to trust your more,now that is the key to network marketing building relationships. However once you gain a person trust they are easily to be recruited in to any opportunity you are in. That’s how you will get the unique visitors which are the people who depend on your content to spreed through their circle of influence. There will be many times where you are receiving leads from your blog flowing in like a waterfall full of water and you will create more leads than you have time, that’s a good thing.

When it comes to network marketing blogs all MLM leaders need a blog people loves blog and most importantly Google loves blogs. There is a lot of money to be made by blogs we have to create good content and show the followers of our blog we can show them the right way to build a massive downline using online strategies to brand your self 24 hours a day and in the process help people build there business.

As your following starts to grow you will notice that you will create content and, start interesting conversations with other viewers on your blog. Then your Network marketing blog will become a sort of active community of MLM as a place to hang out for content and active debates. One thing I know for sure every top earner in this industry has a network marketing blog now its your turn.