Archive for April, 2011
Creating Goals For Your Business Plan
April 27th, 2011 | 
Author: Creating Goals For Your Business Plan
Any business large or small needs to be clear of its goals before coming up with a business plan. If your business is just starting you would naturally want your goal to project out for years. You can start by stating your current position and determine where you want your business to be in a span of a year or so. You can also list your product or services and detail the projected growth of each product you listed. In case you business has already started you can also do the same thing.
If you are going to make projections why not make your objectives bigger. You can aim high by wanting to be the largest provider of the product you are selling in your locality. You can also aim of breaking into marketing your product in the global market. You can also have a target income at a specific time.
However these are just long range goals and you have to work hard and wait before getting the results you want. But it is important that your business plan should be specific. You can always set goals that you can compare from the previous year so that you will be able to determine the performance of your business.
For instance if the sales of your company this year reached 300000 you can look back to the previous financial period and inspect your current marketing plan. This way you can come up with a reasonable rate of growth for your business.
A business plan usually expands for three years. So if you think your business will have a 10 increase in the next financial year do you think it can still maintain that number in the following two years? You can make your own intelligent guess. In order to do this determine which segment of your product is popular to your customers and establish the expected growth in that area for the next two years. It will also help if you consult your staff if there is another demographic your company must be going after.
You have to analyze those ideas and numbers that come along your business planning and avoid throwing them out away. They are important tools in order to realistically map out your operation plan. You can always learn from your business performance in the previous year and make use of new marketing strategy as adjustments for your business to grow.
About the writer: Donna Price is a Success Coach author of Launching Your Dream and Bizology.Biz The Science of Business Success. As a Success Coach Donna works with individuals and groups on personal development and success focus. To pick up your Entrepreneurs Resource Guide go to: http://www.resourcesforentrepreneurs.com
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Creating Email Lists For Marketing Campaigns
Creating Email Lists For Marketing Campaigns
Creating Email Lists for Marketing Campaigns
If you plan to do some Internet marketing to promote your business endeavor you should seriously consider email marketing as at least one tier of your Internet marketing campaign. Many business owners shy away from email marketing because they believe all email marketing campaigns are purely spam. However this is not true and not partaking in this type of marketing can cause your business to lose out on a great deal of business. By not appealing to potential customers via email your business may lose a great deal of business to competitors who are using email marketing campaigns to reach customers around the world. However the first step of an email marketing campaign should be creating an email distribution list. This article will discuss some popular options for doing this and should help to the reader to learn more about what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to email marketing.
Once you have made the decision to start using email marketing to promote your business you are likely facing the dilemma of compiling an email distribution list. This is essentially a list of email addresses to which you will email your advertising and promotional materials. One common way to gain a list of email addresses is to purchase a list from distributors. However this method is not very effective at all and we do not recommend it. The problem with purchasing an email list if you have no way of knowing whether or not the members of the list would have any interest at all in your products or services. This is very important because while you want to reach a large audience with your email marketing you also want this audience to be members of your overall target audience.
When you purchase an email list you may be sending your email messages to some users who might be interested but this is largely coincidental and is not likely to be well received because the message was not solicited. Internet users are very quick to delete materials they believe to be spam without even opening or reading the emails. In fact some Internet service providers include spam filters which may automatically delete your emails if your messages are deemed to be spam. These filters run complex algorithms on the subject heading and content of the message to determine whether or not it is spam and are quite adept at weeding out spam. Therefore you run the risk of having your email marketing effort turn out to be a complete waste if the majority of recipients never even read or receive the message.
A far better way to create an email distribution list for your email marketing campaign is to ask current customers as well as interested potential customers to register with your website to receive additional information and periodic updates about your products and services as well as other information which might be of interest to them. This provides you with a database of email addresses from current customers as well as potential customers who have a genuine interest in your products and services and who are interested in learning more about these products and services.
Once you have a list of interested customers or potential customers you can send emails or create enewsletter for distribution to the members of your email list. These documents should contain a wealth of valuable information as well as a soft sell pitch for your products and services. This information will be valued by the readers and may help to persuade them to try your products and services. You might also want to include useful links to either your website as well as other websites which may be of interest to your readers. Your content should also contain a portion which urges the reader to take a specific action such as making a purchase or at least investigating a product further.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Simon Fusco
Marketer and Publisher
Creating A Winning Marketing Message
Creating A Winning Marketing Message
Before creating a winning marketing message one must first understand the goal of that message. Some may think a company’s marketing communication strategy is consistently using their logo and slogan or a listing of accomplishments in their brochure and on their web site. Others may use their vision or mission statement to give a positive portrayal of the company’s values. While these statements are important and should be used when marketing your company alone they do not embody the real goal of what your marketing message should accomplish: TO GRAB YOUR PROSPECT’S ATTENTION.
Your marketing message should “speak” to your prospect. It should be written so the average person can understand. I’m not saying that to put down the intelligence of anyone but many times business owners forget that not everyone understands the “trade lingo.” Even more important your marketing message should communicate “What’s in it for me?”. Often companies make the mistake of describing “What We Do” rather than focusing on the benefits the prospect will receive from your product or service. To avoid this pitfall after you have crafted your message review it carefully with the intent to reduce or eliminate “we” and “our” and replace with statements that focus on “you” and “your.” When writing I always like to put myself in the shoes of the person who would be buying a company’s products or services. That way I can craft language that is focused on the customer.
When creating that winning message also remember to:
1. Identify your target market. After you’ve narrowed down your prospects it will be much easier to craft a winning communication strategy.
2. Identify the problems your target market experiences. One secret to writing a marketing message that catches the attention of your prospect is to identify their problem and let them know you understand and sympathize. Again… put yourself in their shoes.
3. Present a solution to the prospect’s problem and identify all of the benefits your solution can offer. Remember to focus on “you” and “your.”
4. Present the results you have produced for other people in the same situation. Customer testimonials are a great way to give you credibility and let your prospects know you can accomplish results. Whenever possible use video and audio to capture some reallife stories. Post these stories on your web site or use a CDROM business card to let your customers relate the personal experience with your company.
5. Finally explain what makes you different from your competitors. Be careful here though. You don’t want to bash your competition and you don’t want to use the typical cliches like “We deliver ontime and onbudget.” These are characteristics that should already be part of any good product or service.
Writing benefitsoriented copy is a proven strategy for increasing sales response. Connect with your audience by understanding their pain points tell your story with a fresh perspective and eliminate vague copy. The result will be an irresistible message that will make your prospect want to know more!
About the writer: As founder of Eagle Soars Marketing Anne Lazo has over 23 years experience in the field of marketing. She manages the entire creative process for clients from identifying the concepts and selecting the design team to writing copy and supervising production and delivery of marketing material. Under Ms. Lazo’s direction Eagle Soars Marketing has been helping clients build their businesses by providing the highest quality communication materials.