Marketing
Our marketing manager can look at all your management processes and implement changes that will enable you to supply your customers more effectively and profitably.
This can be a wide as a full marketing plan.
By going through a marketing plan process you will:
- Know your objectives and market position
- Know what activity to do that drives towards theses objectives
- Be able to look at areas that block progress towards these objectives
- Know the issues that are key to you at present, and need addressing
- Know your target market
The process will take you through includes:
- External Key Issues - Understand what these are
- Competitors
- Suppliers
- Professional bodies
- Social, technology, education, environment, political, economical
Internal Key Issues
- Distribution, market size, current market penetration
- Staff/team
- Processes - the whole customer journey - first contact to paying the bill, dealing with a complaint etc
- Pricing
- Products
Understanding your customers
- New business growth
- Repeat business
- Upgrade/cross sell
- Lost customers
- Average profit
- Average revenue
- Data held and how used
- Communication methods
A key SWOT will be produced for the following areas:
- Pricing
- Products
- Services
- Distribution method
- Promotion
- Team/people
Strategies and objectives are needed in the following areas:
- Processes
- Staff/team
- Customer
- Product
- Distribution
- Pricing
- Promotional
Some General Marketing Principles and advice:
- Databases and collecting good customer information is always key, and how to use it effectively is vital
- Upgrading and cross selling to existing customers is generally more cost effective than getting a new customer
- Understanding why, and stopping customers leaving is generally more cost effective than getting new customers
- Communicate with your existing customers at leave 4 times and year
- Only promise what you can deliver, and position yourself truthfully (if you don't give good service don't t say that you do)
- Monitor complaints - generally a good indicator of a key issue in your business
- Website and on line marketing is becoming more and more important, and is very cost effective
- Generally advertising is not a good spend of marketing budget - think much wider
- Don't be tactical and knee jerk into promotion and advertising - it rarely works, it may be far more effective to train your staff, or update your database.
Promotional/communication methods include:
- Brand Image
- Direct marketing
- Telesales
- Press releases
- Sponsorship
- Events
- Training (customers)
- Website/shout email
- On line social marketing
- Text messages
- Newsletters
- Brochures
- DL leaflets
- Testimonials
- Member get member
- Competitors
- Incentive program
