The Value of Creating A Sound Marketing Plan for Your Online Business
July 29, 2011 by Boyd Kopatz
Filed under Affiliate Marketing
We think many business owners feel a marketing plan is something they do not need, and the fact is nothing could be further from the truth. Your competitors will most likely not be following a real plan, and that is how you can beat them at this game.
While your goals should always be attainable and realistic, you should still aim for objectives that are worthwhile and challenging. One of the reasons why you create a marketing plan is because you want your goals and objectives to be clear and achievable. Only you know what is too much, or what goal starts producing that vague feeling of not quite believing you can do it.
To be sure, this kind of effort requires a lot from any person, but the work will pay off hugely for you later on. Unless you’re sure about your current position, you won’t achieve the clarity that’s needed to create a strong marketing plan. Let’s face it, creating an effective marketing plan is not just about growing your reach and getting more sales, but it’s also about getting more in-sync with business. The more you focus on this one factor, the easier it will be for you to create the right plan. A marketing plan can sometimes consist of working on various parts of your entire business. Is there anything you can revise in your existing products or services? You should keep your finger on the pulse not only of your market but your competitors, as well.
Overall, how much more profitable have you been? Analyze the customer retention and your market share, is there something new/fresh that you can to boost your retention rate and get a bigger share of the market? Besides this, you should also review how you’ve fared in the customer satisfaction department, how many customers you’ve acquired and how has their behavior impacted your online business. As painful as it may be to know where you dropped the ball, that only means the future can be a little brighter when you fix things.
After you are through the initial stages, then you just need to determine which particular methods will serve you best in your marketing. This is an important step because eventually the success of your marketing plan depends on how well you execute it, and that won’t be possible unless you’ve got the right tactics in place. You need to brainstorm a number of effective ideas to reach out to your target audience with your message; identify the distribution channels that will allow you to get to your prospects effectively.
If you are all alone with this, then just do what you need to do and get this thing launched and moving. Later on you can pick out those strategies that fit in your budget. So make your marketing plan the best you can, and then get busy putting it into action and measuring results.
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