Does your marketing plan need to be 10 pages?
20 pages?
200 pages?
No.
1 page is fine.
And all you need is the answers to these 7 questions.
7 Essential Questions For Your Business-to-Business Marketing Plan
1. What is your objective?
- Do you want to retire young? Do you want a million dollars? Do you want to solve the worlds problems? Do you want to improve peoples lives?
- It all starts with your answer to this question
2. Who is your target client?
- Describe your perfect client(s)
- Is it “every NZ business”? That’s a mistake. Look up the definition of the word “target” if this was your first impulse
- Start by staking out a geographical territory and communicate the ownership of that territory fiercely (be proud that you live in Tauranga or Rotorua or Hamilton or Invercargil!)
- What kind of business are they in? What industry? How many employees do they have? What problem are they facing everyday that they are struggling to solve? Who are their customers?
- If you target your clients correctly, would it be physically possible to write a list of every potential client? I’m sure it would! Can you see, that if you do that, you’ll never consider using mass media such as Radio or TV advertising again?
3. What do they need?
- Notice that I’m not asking you to list your products/services?
- First, identify groups of clients
- Second, identify what they need (don’t think in terms of what you’ve got. Focus on what they need from your industry)
- Third, decide if you can deliver what they need
- If so, repackage/rebundle your current products/services to appeal to them
- If not, either ignore the need or set up someone to refer them to
4. How do your prospective clients make their buying decisions?
- What is the process they go through?
- How long does the “information collection” stage take?
- Where do they look when gathering that information?
- Do they make decisions by committee? Or alone? (Hint, decisions are never made alone)
- Who do they ask for advice?
5. Why should they choose you?
- If you don’t know the answer to this question make something up. Now.
- Why do they currently choose your competitors?
6. What is the most efficient way to deliver your message to your audience?
- Please leave the mass media advertising like radio and TV to Harvey Norman. It’s not for you.
- Please don’t waste air time or paper or the time of people who have no interest in what you’re selling (that’s called SPAM)
- Will you use face to face visits? Phone calls? Your website? Direct mail? Networking?
7. What headlines would capture their attention?
- What benefit driven headlines would compel them to read more?
- This is how to start generating your ideas for your marketing/advertising methods
- Writing headlines first forces you to focus on the client and what’s in it for them
- Writing great headlines is a science in itself, and the part of my job I love the most
Need help?
I’d loooooove to work on this stuff with you.
Give me a call (07) 575 8799 or email sheldon@marketingfirst.co.nz
Cheers,
Sheldon.