Business and Financial Tips

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing and Advertising’

This includes weekly shoppers, free local TV guides, newsletters, community papers. These publications are targeted toward a specific audience with relatively low ad rates. You’re looking at a small market segment either geographically or by the consumer’s special interests.

Classified Ads
Weekly newspapers, metropolitan dailies, national magazines. Readers in these areas may not be looking for your product, but your ad will be seen by individuals who are looking for specific information.

On that note, classified ads need to be written in a clear and simple manner. Only feature one product/service per ad. If you offer more than one product, consider running a separate ad for each product you want featured.

Coupon Mailers
You’ve probably received a package of these at some point. They contain cards advertising several different companies and their products. These are also known as “card decks” and reduce the cost of mailing from 34 to 40 cents all the way down to about 5 cents per piece.

Handbills and Fliers
While you may not want to distribute handbills on the street yourself, you can hire a high school or college student to do the grunt work for you.

There are even distribution services you can hire at a low cost to pass these handbills out. You’ll still save money on your advertising and it only takes one customer to make up for the cost.

You can also post fliers on bulletin boards, put business cards under windshield wipers, hang ads on doorknobs and pass out your promotional materials in office buildings.

Another place you might want to consider distributing these materials is at a trade show for your specific industry. Think of all the targeted prospects that are right there at your fingertips!

Running a successful business is not like a field of dreams; you can build it but they might not come. Marketing is all about leting people know about the product or service you offer, and persuading them to buy or use it. And for effective marketing you have to let people know about your product or service repeatedly.

To do this, you’re going to have to come up with both a marketing strategy and a marketing plan.

What’s the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing plan?

The marketing strategy is shaped by your overall business goals. It includes a definition of your business, a description of your products or services, a profile of your target users or clients, and defines your company’s role in relationship to the competition. The marketing strategy is essentially a document that you use to judge the appropriateness and effectiveness of your specific marketing plans. The CCH Business Owner’s Guidebook has an excellent explanation and checklist that you can use to work through your marketing strategy.

To put it another way, your marketing strategy is a summary of your company’s products and position in relation to the competition; your sales and marketing plans are the specific actions you’re going to undertake to achieve the goals of your marketing strategy.

The marketing plan, then, can be thought of as the practical application of your marketing strategy. If you look at my article, “Writing The Marketing Plan”, you’ll see that the marketing plan includes details about your business’ unique selling proposition, pricing strategy, the sales and distribution plan and your plans for advertising and promotions.

So in effect, you can’t have a marketing plan without a marketing strategy. But a marketing plan without a marketing strategy is a waste of time. The marketing strategy provides the goals for your marketing plans. It tells you where you want to go from here. The marketing plan is the specific roadmap that’s going to get you there.

Continue on to the next page to learn how to start developing a marketing plan to put your marketing strategy into action.