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3 Things You Must Know Before Creating Your Marketing Plan

3 Things You Must Know Before Creating Your Marketing Plan

Before you can even begin to put together a plan for marketing your business, you have to know the 3 main building blocks of any and all of your marketing activities: 

1.    Know who you're marketing to

Who are you marketing to?  Who are you trying to sell to?  

Who is your message and marketing communications directed to?  What is the personality of your potential customers?  Who are the ideal clients for your service and products?

Who your target group is dictates everything in your marketing plan from your specific goals and objectives, to what marketing tactics you choose to reach that target audience.

 If you don't know who you're trying to reach, then you won't be able to create a marketing plan.  How can you incorporate strategies and tactics that specifically target someone if you don't know who that "someone" is?

2.    Know what problems you're solving

What is the issue or concern that frustrates your prospects and clients?  What’s not working for them or could work better?   Why does your target market need your services or products?

If you don't know what people need, then how will you figure out what solutions your products and services can provide?  If you can't figure that out, then you're not much use to your prospective customers!

When you're clear on what problems you solve, then you can create a marketing plan that includes tactics and strategies that capitalize on these problems.  For example, you can identify specific forums, websites, newsletters, magazines that talk all about the same kinds of problems you solve.

If you don’t communicate that you know your target group’s specific problems, your prospects won't take notice of your marketing communications, which of course means they won't buy.


3.    Know what solutions you're offering

What solution can you provide to alleviate your target market’s problem?  What will your customers experience from working with you or buying your product? What are all the ways that your product or service helps your client?  What are the actual results?

Your marketing must answer the question of "What's in it for me?" for your prospects and customers.  When you know the exact solution and benefits your business offers, you can clearly communicate and demonstrate the value of your service and products, and what people stand to gain by doing business with you.

Your marketing plan will have tactics that showcase your solutions – such as offering teleseminars that outline your solution-oriented product or service.  Or you may add joint ventures to your plan that focus on adding to the solutions you offer by partnering with someone with similar services/products.


Once you are clear on these 3 components, then you've got the foundation that will make doing a marketing plan much easier and quicker.





3 Things You Must Know Before Creating Your Marketing Plan - To learn more about this author, visit Jody Gabourie's Website.

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David Acheson
David Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns.  David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website

Stephanie Robey
Stephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals.

She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com   Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences.  Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith
Are your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website

John Power
John Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website

Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

Jeff Foster
WebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas.  We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing
- Visit Jeff Foster's Website

Joe Dager
Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website

Jay Kubassek
(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek)  In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.

 

As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)

 

Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. 

 

Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper.  Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website


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Jody Gabourie
(Visit Jody's Website) Jody Gabourie, Marketing Plan Queen, helps entrepreneurs and small business owners get unstuck and into marketing action fast with done-for-you products and services such as her Ready Made Marketing Plan™ ebooks. She offers special reports, teleclasses, how-to articles, virtual workshops and personal strategic consulting that helps people just like you do inexpensive online marketing that GETS RESULTS for their business. You can learn more about these valuable resources at www.marketingplanqueen.com. A lover of marketing, Jody spent 19 years in the corporate world of advertising and broadcast doing a variety of marketing, research and sales positions helping large and small business owners attain success. Jody started her own company, Maven Solutions in 2006, to help small business owners and entrepreneurs achieve the marketing success they and their companies want. She feels very strongly that marketing is something small business owners can do, do it well, and use it to achieve the life and business they desire and deserve! Jody also believes that marketing can be an authentic action and people can learn to view marketing as an opportunity to honestly share themselves and their knowledge with people. For FREE tips and to be notified of upcoming teleclasses and events, sign up for Jody's weekly ezine Marketing Plan Queen Ezine at www.marketingplanqueen.com/freetips .html, and follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JodyGabourie&nbs p; Jody has been featured in dozens of online publications including Small Business CEO Magazine and she's a contributing author to the 2009 published book The Business of Being Virtual: Industry Leaders Reveal Their Secrets.

Jody Gabourie is a Platinum author on EvanCarmichael.com
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