Strategize,Your,Marketing,Anyo marketing Strategize Your Marketing!
Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t
Anyone in the business of Internet marketing has probably seenthe phrase "marketing plan" over and over again. Unfortunately, alot of people seem to think that having a marketing plan is justanother way of saying, "Where will I advertise today?"I'm a firm believer that your marketing plan should be much morethan this. To use some military terms, I think that a marketingplan should be "strategic" as well as "tactical." In other words,we should make sure that we focus on our entire plan, and how itworks as a system, rather than just focusing on individual partslike classified ads or website copy.Here are a few tips that I've used in the past to help me createand visualize a marketing strategy:* Think Backwards: I've found that the best way to construct amarketing strategy is to start with the thing you want to happenat the END of the marketing process, and then work back fromthere. That means that the first step in creating your marketingstrategy is to think about where you want to make your sale. Willit be on the phone? Will it be on your website?Once you have decided on what your "point of sale" is going tobe, you can then start moving on to the next step, which isgetting your customers to that point. How will you get yourcustomers to call? How will you get people to visit your website?This is when you should also think about any other steps thatmight be needed. For instance, how much additional informationwill the customer need before you send them to the point of sale?Will they need repeated messages to get them to buy? By answeringthese kinds of questions before you start writing, you will besaving yourself a lot of time and effort later on.* Make a chart of your plan. The best way to keep track of yourmarketing plan is to just create a simple flow chart of yoursteps. For instance, a very basic marketing plan might look likethis: Classified Ad ==> Website (Point of Sale)More complicated plans might need more steps: Classified Ad ==> Website (More Information) ==> Phone Call (Point of Sale) Sales Letter ==> Follow-up Letter ==> Website (Point of Sale) Classified Ad ==> Autoresponder ==> Website (Point of Sale)In any case, these simple charts you create should help you keeptrack of the purpose and nature of each part of your plan.* Remember that your different steps will have different goals.For instance, your "point of sale" has your ultimate goal (thesale), so that is where you need to be your most persuasive.Therefore, you need to make sure that the copy and informationyou have here is rock-solid. After all, this is the foundation ofyour entire system, and if the copy here is weak, the entireprocess will fail.As for you other steps, remember that they are NOT there to makethe sale by themselves -- rather, they are intended to either getthe customer to go to the point of sale, or to "prepare" thecustomer for the final sales pitch.Having a well-thought-out marketing plan is an important step inmaking your e-business a success. As always, realize that thesetips are in no way comprehensive -- instead, they are just a fewinitial thoughts on how to make sure that everything you do,advertising-wise, fits into a larger marketing system. That way,you can maximize the effectiveness of your marketing attempts,which will help save time, money, and sanity! Article Tags: Marketing Plan, Make Sure, Website Point
Strategize,Your,Marketing,Anyo