MARKETING MODEL FOR BUSINESS

1. SELF-ASSESSMENT

2. MARKETING PLAN DEVELOPMENT

3. SEGMENTATION (TARGET MARKET)

4. POSITIONING (BRAND RECOGNITION)

Marketing Mix: PRODUCT + PRICE + PLACEMENT + PROMOTION + PERSUASION

5. TEST & EVALUATE

6. REFINEMENT

To use marketing concepts effectively, the following steps are required:
• Analyze your firm’s competitive advantage. What do you do best?
• Identify specific markets you serve currently.
• Determine needs and wants of present customers.
• Determine how to satisfy needs and wants.
• Prepare a Marketing Plan that allows you to reach out to “new” customers and / or sell more to existing customers.
• Test the results to see if new strategies are yielding desired results.

A good marketing plan must compliment the overall business plan. Neither one will work without the other. Sales and Business Development are different activities. They are, however, components of the Marketing Mix. Understanding this distinction is vital in ensuring activities are performed to achieve successful results that are aligned with company goals outlined in the business plan.

Sound management procedures are also vital in providing leadership to ensure staff employees are working toward meeting company objectives. All managerial functions must employ the following stages continually in any defined leadership role:
• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Directing
• Controlling

Marketing Plan Introduction

Marketing – It is an essential component of every business enterprise for attracting new customers, as well as retention of existing ones. There is no single marketing solution to fit all situations. A marketing plan is unique to each enterprise even if the same product (service) type is sold by competing companies in the same marketplace. The plan must also be dynamic because the market demands are in a constant state of change.

Plan review must be regular. Market analysis is also a constant. Strategies require revision to meet the expectations of targeted verticals. Knowing the difference between perceived buyer needs and buyer wants will directly influence demand.

I will expand more on this process in future blogs and articles. Once you start a plan, keep reviewing and refining it for success.

$ Effective B2B Marketing Tactics

There are actually only four effective B2B marketing tactics for acquiring new clients. They are 1) Direct Contact 2) Networking 3) Promotion 4) Advertising and Publicity. However, it is not effective to use all four simultaneously. Direct Contact is by far the best method for gaining new business in the least amount of time. You still must know what methods to use for direct contact and most definitely you must Follow Up - Follow Up - Follow Up.

Direct Contact is your proactive outreach activity. It let's your prospects know you exist rather than waiting for them to discover you themselves. You are able to engage with prospects, share information, immediately respond to questions, and so forth. This is where you establish rapport. People will buy more readily from people they learn to trust.

Networking also proactively let's the world know you're alive. Your network contacts are your source for referrals and building credibility. They care your viral marketing arm.

Promotion is about spreading the word either by yourself or having others do it. You can attend trade shows or perform public speaking engagements. The goal is to create visibility, but it does not always motivate others to contact you. You still need to follow up (direct contact).

Advertising and Publicity are dependent upon each other. Like promotion, it creates visibility. These activities are passive. This means that you place ads or press releases out in the world hoping to brand yourself and create awareness. However, these activities alone do not drive business to your door.

The best advice is to use only two of the four strategies at any given time - and use them with purpose. When I state "purpose", I mean you need to have plan in advance with set goals. You can always add additional tactics along the way. Mix and match tactics depending on your environment. Just make sure Direct Contact is always in the mix.

Website Marketing – A Tool, Not A Strategy

Think twice the next time you want to market your enterprise with a website. There is a lot of distorted information in the business world about Web Marketing. Many IT or Web Design consultants profess themselves as marketing experts. They tell you that creating effective web content or using the right key words will get you more customers. They tell you that higher ranking in search engines will draw more attention to your site. While having a website is important to gain exposure on the internet, and it adds credibility, a website alone is not marketing. Your website is only one tool used in marketing strategy. If you rely solely on your website to do all the work, you will soon find out that you are missing out on opportunity. Even some of the best E-commerce sites still need to apply a marketing strategy to draw people to their site.

Web designers and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts do offer valuable services for building an effective web presence, but their services must be aligned with the marketing goals and strategy. Take note here - these IT professionals are schooled and trained mainly for information technology and not marketing. Marketing is a discipline of business administration. Only true marketing professionals know how to strategically position your products and services in the marketplace. The marketing matrix involves Product, Pricing, Promotion, Placement, and Distribution. Research and analysis are required to make sure you are targeting the right market segments to promote your product effectively. Marketing professionals will carefully analyze your business situation, your budget, your market demographics and behaviors, your product(s) appeal, and all (internal and external) resources available to attract more customers. A marketing professional will identify how to use your website as a tool, not just the only resource.

Buyers are not looking only for your product or website - the market is filled with competition. You must reach out to your prospects with proactive and strategically sound methods. Your messaging must address Value, Differentiation, and Singularity. Your enterprise (and products) requires development of Branding and Recognition. Once you create awareness, your goal is to use various selling methods to convince people your brand is what they want to buy.

You worked hard at developing your website and you should feel proud about it. However, you must know how to use your site to attract business. Even if people find your site easily, what is your strategy to convert visitors into buyers? How do you know the right target audience is finding you? There is much more involved in marketing your product than creating a great looking website or using key words to attract visitors. Your marketing plan must be developed around your operations, your product(s), and your vertical targets.

The next time you seek help in marketing your enterprise, talk to a marketing professional first. Let your marketing strategy work with and control what your website does. Knowing the difference between Marketing and Website Promotion will set realistic expectations and help you grow your enterprise far more effectively. Remember, your website is only one tool in your strategy.

By, G-Michael Homa
© 2009

Market Research Primer for Beginners

A well-defined Marketing Strategy is dictated by your Marketing Plan and influenced by your research. This can be complex, but some basics are worth noting. I cannot hope to encompass all aspects of Marketing Research elements in this article. My intent is to give you an idea where to start and get you thinking in the right direction.

A marketing strategy should boil down to identifying customer bases that your service or product can be perceived as an alternative over target competitors. Your approach and product offering should be tailored to meet the demand of market segments. It is key to understand the difference between what customers need and what they want. Customers recognize value in your offering. Value positioning is another topic of discussion and will not be discussed in this article.

You need to know what your Target Market is about and segment it. There are two basic methods used to segment a market: Geographic Segmentation and Customer Segmentation. Are you trying to serve the needs of customers in a geographical area? Alternatively, are you trying to identify people most likely to buy your product?

The Market Research Process Involves:

1. Define Marketing Problems and Opportunities.
2. Set Objectives, Budget and Timetables.
3. Select Research Types, Methods and Techniques.
4. Design Research Instruments, e.g. a questionnaire.
5. Collect Data - Organize and Analyze it.
6. Present and Implement from Research Findings.

Do some Competition Analysis:

1. Identify a few of your nearest "direct" and "indirect" competitors.
2. What is the status of their business? Growth - Static - Decline.
3. Learn from their advertising and operational deployment.
4. SWOT analyze competitors.
5. What are the major differences between you and them?

Market research and planning can get very involved. Many resources and books cover each element of this research. My intent is only to create an awareness of what is involved before you go to market with a product. I hope that you can use my overview to help you understand where to start.

Best Regards and Good Luck

© 2009 gmh

What is Business Development?

By G. Michael Homa ©2009
Spectrum Business Consultants

Too often, I have encountered business managers hiring Sales people and classifying them as Business Developers. The same holds true when managers call their Sales people Marketing Professionals. Main reasons behind this misclassification are twofold: First, many people DO NOT understand what the differences are between sales, marketing, and business development. Second, organizations do not accurately recognize which of these functional areas need help to drive revenue and how they compliment each other. These misunderstandings of disciplines cause unrealistic expectations and failure to achieve goals.

Business Development (Biz-Dev) is often misunderstood. It is often times mistaken as purely a sales role and other times as a marketing initiative. Well, it is a little of both, but it is also much more. Understanding what Biz-Dev is and what it does can focus the strategic direction of an enterprise, which ultimately creates new opportunities. Biz-Dev can be sales oriented, but it also can act as an operational function to support sales. Biz-Dev supplements marketing, sales, operations, and management. All of these functions are dependent upon each other. Biz-Dev is part sales, part marketing, part strategy, part planning, and part management. Biz-Dev can also work on promotion of an enterprise or even relationship building functions.

Isn’t a business developer’s main job expected to generate sales? Isn’t the lifeblood of business driven by sales? Yes, the ultimate business goal of an enterprise is to gain and grow sales. Even non-profit organizations need to raise money to survive. Without sales there is no revenue, without revenue there is no working capital, no working capital means no sustainability, and so forth. However, all units in an organization affect the outcome of sales. A company must define its purpose and objectives within their business plan. Upper management must communicate directives to staff and control processes. Employees are accountable to perform duties within their unit of responsibility. All units must work cohesively with their output contributing to the common goal of the company. For example, marketing cannot initiate a promotional campaign without input from finance, otherwise budgets and production costs will soon run into chaos.

Simply said, Biz-Dev is management process that uses resources available to an organization and coordinates plan activities to achieve goals. Sometimes the goal is increased sales, but other times an organization needs improvement or aid in another part of its operation. Examples that are not exactly sales oriented include business planning, administrative refinement, market research, finance, general management, and more. The bottom line is Biz-Dev can perform multiple initiatives to achieve a goal that will improve a functional business process resulting in opportunity. Think of Biz-Dev as project management for sales.

Understanding the various roles Biz-Dev can perform will improve the focus of your enterprise and help achieve its goals.