Are you a Travel agent or a Tour guide?
Do you just want to sell a Safari (Journey in Swahili) or are you thinking about the bigger long term picture and being the Tour Guide?
Developing a marketing strategy as part of your overall business plan helps you focus on how you will sell your service, Product or opportunity. However, your goals, and how you intend to reach them, may change as your business grows. For that reason, your marketing plan should be reviewed constantly to update your implementation strategy and keep ahead of the curve. The beginning of a new calendar year or your company’s fiscal year is a good time for this undertaking.
Purpose
The purpose of your marketing plan is to outline how you will reach your target audience and sales goals. To keep retention in this business we have to look at the long term plan that the short term solution.To do this, you must develop a strategy to advertise your products or services so that you are seen in all the chaos of online marketing.
Placing details in your marketing plan helps you analyze its success at a later date and update it as needed. For example, if your target customer is a teenager, and you initially planned to advertise for that demographic on social networking sites, examine whether you met your marketing goal and if it was productive.
Components
To develop your new marketing plan and annual strategy, review your progress from your last plan. Did you accomplish what you set out to do last year? Were your results what you expected or did you not reach your goals? Did you Prospect and close the amount of people that you set out to? Analise what worked and what didn’t and most importantly listen to what others are saying.
Determine what your new business goals are going to be, including total sales revenue and net profits, prior to creating a strategy for advertising.
Once you’ve established where you want your brand to be in the coming year, figure out how you’ll get there through your marketing plan. Focus on seasonal sales and how to improve during lulls and busy times.
Repeat the strategies that were most effective, and include the cost estimates for each one. Project product pricing and competition, and determine if you will need to raise prices, which may impact your sales and marketing goals.
Implementation
Once you understand what you need to accomplish to grow your business, implement your strategy by matching the strengths and capabilities to different segments of your plan. For example, if a goal is to increase your online presence, the staff member who has the most experience and success with web content, advertising and social media can take the lead. Explaining your annual marketing plan to your employees helps them understand why they are assigned to certain tasks and how their efforts benefit them and the company through increased sales.
Review
Once your new marketing plan is updated, it must be reviewed periodically throughout the year. Look at your goals and the strategy you developed to achieve them, and determine if you are on track for reaching them. Ensure that you are accomplishing the strategic plan, and you do not need to make any changes to it due to unforeseen circumstances, such as an increase in cost of goods sold or a new competitor. This process is ongoing, so your new-year marketing plan and strategic goals must be revisited regularly, such as every quarter, to help you analyze its success before the year is over.
If you need assistance getting a plan done, contact me for more information as I will be hosting a technique called the “PREPARED POUNCE APPROACH” – contact me on my Facebook business page to hear more about it!
