Maximizing Your Internet Effort - Part 1 - The Marketing Plan

To do this right, start at the beginning by planning your internet presence in the same way you would any other marketing effort. Copy this blog, print it out, keep it close to you at all times. It is going to help you in four ways.
1. Provide an understanding of marketing in ways you may not have ever considered.
2. Help to define your overall marketing strategy.
3. Offer methods for teaching your client how to wisely use advertising specialty products as a part of an overall marketing strategy, rather than as an unintegrated promotion.
4. it will help you focus your internet marketing use. No matter what you do, it will use huge chunks of time and money. It is a shame to waste either.

Marketing 1-A For Advertising Specialty Professionals

Marketing is much more than sales and advertising. It has to do with everything from product concept and design, supply line planning, identifying of markets, packaging, and pricing, to a complete strategy for advertising, promoting, and selling the product or service through various levels in your customer chain.

As an advertising specialty products company or sales professional, your own knowledge of how all this works should be evident in how your own company does things. Otherwise how can you help those who you serve. Here are a few questions that might start your marketing blood flowing.

1. What is my unique proposition? What do I or my company bring to my customer that isn’t the same as everybody else in this business? Price? Warehousing? Years of experience? Exclusive product lines? Fast Service? In house art or marketing department? Web Based Company store? Potentially a very long list of possibilities. Make your list.

2. Who is your customer? Do you specialize in certain ways or just call on every business and organization on the block? Is it your desire or plan or current approach to call on buyers who are uniquely purchasing advertising or ad specialty products, or do you call on small companies or entities where your buyer wears many hats (maybe even the owner), or is your customer the advertising agency? Of course, there are others who might be on this list, and you mayhave all or many of these in your customer base.

Also need to consider if you are calling at more than one level. Do you need to convince the ad agency and the customer, the customer owner and the marketing department, the marketing department and the sales force? Do you even need to do tests or focus studies with their customers?

3. What kinds of marketing efforts are working for you now. Cold calls? Networking? Referrals? Mailings? Catalogs? What specific approach is working in that effort or those efforts. Humor? Multiple contacts or impressions in a short period of time? Free offers for appointment? Professional puffing of capabilities? Etc.

4. What do you want to accomplish right now? More customers? Better customers? Larger customers? More volume from existing customers? Land prospects already on your list? Solidify your standing with best customers? Expand what you do with existing customers? Increase territory covered? Concentrate effort in fewer product lines? Increase size of average order? This list is just about endless in its possibilities. Very few business owners or sales and marketing people ever think it through.

5. How long will the campaign last? What is success? How much is the budget in time, personnel, and money? When and what conditions will result in pulling the plug? How will results be counted?

If you can get your arms around these question, actually write down the answers (really a good idea), and make sure that the other members of the team have ownership in the directions above, you are ready to think about the options available on the web. That will be part 2.

Maximizing Your Internet Effort - Part 2. Internet Options. Coming Monday June 13.