Before You Write that Marketing Plan!  Five Things Every Business Should Do First

Debbie Finney, Albany Area Director and Business Consultant

As a business consultant for the SBDC, I work with clients to develop marketing plans or to update and improve their marketing efforts. When it comes to effective marketing today, I think of the old German proverb: “What is the use of running if you are not on the right road?”

Before you write that marketing plan or update your current marketing strategy, start with an internal marketing assessment of your business to make sure you are focusing your marketing efforts in the right direction. Follow these five steps first to be sure you are on the right road to grow your business before developing a marketing plan:

• Define your business brand. Large or small, every business has a brand whether it is purposefully defined or not. Branding is an opportunity to tell your story to customers and to promise the customer experience they expect. Your brand is the foundation for all marketing decisions and plans. Spend time building a strong brand story for your business, and then marketing becomes much easier. Branding will allow you to focus on consistent marketing messages that your customers learn, remember, and understand.

• Define your Most Valuable Customers (MVC). Who are you trying to reach in a marketing plan? The answer is not “everybody”.  Before developing your marketing plan, spend time defining who your very best customers are and then focus marketing efforts to build relationships that retain these customers and to get more customers just like the very best you have. Define what makes your very best customer and list of your most valuable customer market segments.  Then before developing your marketing plan, use these questions to further define  best customers:

What are the most important wants and needs of these very best customers? How do these best customers find you? What value does your business offer to them beyond product and price? Why do they buy from you? What brings these customers back? How do these most valuable customers want to hear from you? And finally, where will you look for more of these customers?

• What is the lifecycle of your products and service? Products and services have a lifecycle. By examining where your products / services are in that lifecycle can help you plan for the future. Evaluate the annual sales potential for each product/service you sell. Are sales growing or declining? What is the profit margin of each products/ service? Use historical sales data to measure trends and then project sales for the upcoming year. Are marketing efforts focused on what customers continue to need or do changes need to be made? By answering these questions you can focus on selling profitable products and services that continue to meet current customer needs.

• How are you different from competition? Evaluate where your business fits in the marketplace and why customers choose you over the competition. In addition to understanding what you are selling, customers need to understand the benefits of doing business with you as well as the benefits of buying your products and services. List Unique Selling Points about your business that your customers understand and relate to. Help your customers understand why they should buy from you.

• Ask yourself and your team: What happens next? If your marketing is successful and customers choose you, what happens next? Effective marketing generates customers, but having a good sales strategy closes the deal. For example, if a successful marketing plan drives customers to engage with your business– then what? Are employees trained to provide the customer experience you promised? Describe and evaluate the sales process of a typical customer including systems that track customer data such as purchases and buying habits. Do you have systems in place to engage with customers to build loyalty and repeat business? And finally, rate your customer service plan and review feedback from customers.

Spend time defining these five areas in your business to set a clear direction for your marketing strategies and plan. By assessing where you are, it is easy to stay “on the right road” to effectively market your business. Now it is time to write that marketing plan!

Debbie Finney, Albany Area Director and Business Consultant