I went to the Oceanside Chamber’s Business Success Series’ opening presentation by Ursula Mentjes on “Selling with Intention”. It was very good. Ursula showed the audience that they need to not only reset their Goals and Objectives but also they need to figure out what was stopping them from achieving them.

It was an interesting presentation and dealt with some of the issues I am interested in…

“Just what is your (strategic) objective of your sales (and marketing) efforts?”
“Have you really identified your target market, your target client?”
“Have you defined the attributes of your target market and your target clients?”
“Have you clearly set your ultimate objectives for your business?”

I watched the audience as much as possible and it was very interesting. As I observed, some of them had an “aha” moment. That dawning of understanding, that time when someone presents them with something that should have been so obvious but was so hidden.

I hope the audience members will follow up on the exercises in the workshops and build their businesses on a stronger platform.
 

As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tools and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Your Marketing Budget, Your Marketing Weapons and the Implementation Schedule.

Your Marketing Budget
When developing your marketing budget, and yes everyone needs a marketing budget for the following reasons.
 There is a natural ebb and flow of the business cycle for every business. Spending your marketing dollars at the wrong time, becomes a double whammy – a) you’ve either spent marketing dollars you could have conserved or didn’t spend enough and b) the return on those dollars will not be as effective as they should be.
 Unless its on paper, it’s a concept not a plan.
 Without setting down a concrete budget you won’t have the road map you need.
 Without setting down a concrete budget it’s too easy to forget, rationalize and justify changing the dollars spent.

When starting your budgeting process the number one thing you need to do is determine what percentage of revenue you are going to spend on marketing. 10% is a good starting point. Review your annual business plan (you have done your annual plan haven’t you) and spend accordingly. Reviewing your annual business plan will also give you an idea of the ebb and flow of your business cycle and tell you when to increase or decrease the percentage.

Another option is to figure out the life time value (and the annual value) your customers and figure out what it is worth to retain your current customers and gain new customers. Gaining new customers is more expensive than retaining current customers. Figure out your current customer base and their annual value to extrapolate your current customer base value. Next, review your annual business plan if your sales are more than this (and it better be) figure out the new customers you are going to acquire. This will tell you, in a bit finer detail how much to spend on marketing and when.

Marketing Weapons
In Jay Conrad Levinson’s recent writings he has come up with 200 Marketing Weapons. These range from Mini-Media (Business Cards, Stationary, Brochures, etc), Maxi-Media (Advertising, Direct Mail and so on), E-Media, Info-Media, Non-Media, Company Attributes and Company Attitude.

Go through these and decide which ones are cost-effective for you to reach your market. Make a list of tools, their cost per use, monthly frequency and monthly cost. Review and refine the list until you have a finely honed batch of tools and weapons.

A month-by-month implementation schedule
Next, layout a 12 month grid with months across the top and the weapons and tools down the side. Determine which weapons you’re going to use and when you’re going to use them. Stick to the plan, review it monthly and revise as necessary.

Now you have a well thought out, coherent and cohesive plan. It’s time to implement it, go get going!!

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Marketing / Advertising Strategy and Positioning.

Marketing & Advertising Strategy
The key components to determine a Marketing & Advertising Strategy are:
1. Product or Service
2. Target Market
3. Competition
4. The Product’s Benefit
5. How is it differentiated from the competition?
6. What impression would the consumer get from the strategy?
7. What action would the consumer take after being exposed to the Strategy?

We have covered Product or Service, Target Market and Benefits components already so we will concentrate on remaining components (Competition, Differentiation, message or impression and Action by the consumer) in this module.

Competition
Who is your competition? For our liquor store it would be everything from the local liquors stores to Beverages and More, Upscale Wine Cellars in San Diego, Wineries, Super-markets and to some extent the Big Box stores.

Differentiation
How is your product/service/presentation different from your competition? Describe your position and your competitions position. For our liquor store our position was described in Part 3. For the competition’s position it is either an upscale competitor that is a great distance away (inconvenient) or a regular liquor store in close proximity (low knowledge of wines & liquors and poor customer service).

Impression or Idea
What is impression you want the customer to take away from your marketing and advertising? What is the one idea you want them to get out of your ad?
For our liquor store it could be, you don’t have to go a great distance to enjoy a fine wine cellar and stellar service.

Call to Action
What action would you want the reader to take after being exposed to your ad or marketing piece? For our store it would be “don’t drive 30 miles or more, come in and enjoy superlative wines and service here in town”.

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your marketing / advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Positioning and Your Target Market.

Positioning
It’s much easier to be successful in business when you have created a product or service that the public actually wants (and not necessarily – needs). Positioning is easy – find a need (niche) and fill it.

The most difficult part is determining what the product or service that the consumer will line up for.

First determine the product or service you plan to offer. If you’re going to open a liquor store, don’t say “liquor store”, instead say a “Gourmet wine cellar and upscale liquor cabinet, located in bucolic village of Fallbrook”.

List the features your product or service will offer that will differentiate you from your competition (just how many liquor stores are there):
Low cost / high scoring wines Top of the line Liquors
Wine tasting classes Liquor & Food Parings
Wine & Food Parings Ultimate in service
“No Wine Snobs Allowed”

Now identify the advantages and benefits (go back to Part 2) of your product or service, are your benefits that much more than your competitors?

Target Market
Once you have determined your benefits, the by definition you have virtually identified who your product is for – your Target Market. Now stratify your market further. Using the above example – if you said “Alcohol drinkers”, try again. Create the market in your mind and then fill a need they will have:

Upscale clientele                                                         High discretionary income
Discriminating taste in wine & liquors                    They are still cost-conscious
Don’t want to go all the way to San Diego              A fun & casual approach to Wine

Now you have a market and it time to test your thinking, do a focus group, etc. Test, Test and Test some more until you have your niche completely identified.

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As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Benefits to the consumer.

Benefits
Every product or service has Features, Advantages and Benefits(FAB). Mixing them up or misunderstanding the difference between them will cripple your marketing efforts.

Features – are those components that deliver or yield a benefit (or an advantage) or to put it differently; it’s what it does or what it is.

Advantages – the feature must have an advantage (at least a perceived advantage) and are those components that can assist in the solving of problems or fulfilling of needs – as in it’s what it does better (than others).

Benefits – is what the consumer can expect or receive – what it means to the consumer, the results they receive, what they want. Not what you want to give them but what they want to receive. In other words what they want is gospel, everything else is hearsay.

Wants and needs are broken down in to the following (very general) areas:
Profit                                                                    Economy                                                   Security
Health                                                                 Family (Welfare)                                       Beauty
Comfort                                                              Convenience                                             Prestige
Self-expression                                                Social

In some way or another your product or service has to satisfy one or more of these wants or needs. The only products or services that succeed are those whose benefits exceed their cost.

Does your’s?

What benefits does your product or service deliver (what desire does your’s satisfy).

An example of FAB is my own consulting practice:
One of my features is Process Improvement…
The advantages I have are that I can deliver it faster, cheaper and less traumatically that others due to my experience and expertise…
The Benefit to the consumer is whatever they see it being, but usually it is
Comfort / Health (less stress, more peace of mind due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Profit (more money due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Security (long term survivability of the business)

You will not have a successful marketing effort if you can’t master these concepts.
What are my features?
What advantages do I have?
What Benefit does it deliver?

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Right behind a Business Plan, a sound, coherent and cohesive Marketing Plan is one the most critical components for becoming a successful business.

A Marketing Plan (as well as a Business Plan) doesn’t have to a lengthy novel – especially for a small business owner.

Why is this so?
1) What is the probability that a small business owner has the time to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
2) What is the probability that a small business owner has the skills to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
3) What is the probability that a small business owner has the motivation and enthusiasm to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
4) Once done what is the probability that the Marketing Plan will go on the shelf and gather dust forevermore?

This is why I am an advocate of the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing. Now I am by no means an “Expert Marketeer”. But I believe I am smart enough to recognize that all businesses are not created equal and traditional marketing theory and concepts are focused on larger companies, with larger budgets for marketing.

The small business owner does not have the resources (Time, Money and Skills) that large enterprises have and therefore must husband their resources accordingly. This is where Guerrilla Marketing excels.

The Guerrilla Marketing series was devised and written by Jay Conrad Levinson and in my opinion is not only brilliant but will fit almost any small business.

Guerrilla Marketing strips away all the big company / big budget “stuff” from traditional marketing and leaves the small business owner with a well thought out and conceptually sound Marketing Plan process that in Levinson’s words “will deliver low cost and high impact” marketing to the small business owner.

This methodology is infinitely scalable and easily replicated (more of my favorite tenets for small businesses).

A Guerrilla Marketing Plan will be seven to ten pages long – this may seem like a lot but when you consider this includes the Marketing Plan Budget and the Marketing Plan Implementation Schedule it is really quite short.

Levinson suggests that you start by doing a one page strategy summary by answering seven questions before your write your plan.

Those seven questions are
1) Explain the purpose of the strategy.
2) Explain how you will achieve this purpose. It describes your Features, Advantages and Benefits (FAB).
3) Describe your Target Market.
4) Outline the Marketing Weapons you will use.
5) Describe your niche.
6) Reveal the identity of your business.
7) Define your budget, which should a percentage of sales.

Once you have done this one page summary you are ready to do your Marketing Plan in detail.

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