The value of knowing why customers buy your product, is the price just right or do you have to give discounts when sales are scarce and whether you have targets set is what a small business marketing plan is all about. A good marketing plan can offer you the identity of your sales prospects, facility in evaluating you business data against the industry and trace the results so that you will know if it works.
Without such plan, you will not know if you are moving too fast or worse not in the right direction. The following is the procedure to go about designing a strategic and practical marketing plan:
1. Step 1 Position your product. This means that the product is just right for the market, with price which your sales prospects can live with, the product is perceived appropriately by the market and being distributed in a location that your customers can easily find it. The aim marketing is to generate interest that will lead to sales.
2. Step 2 Come up with answers through formal or informal meetings to such queries as who are your customers?; what do they want?, what is the comparative advantage of your product?, and which marketing strategy gains notice to your wares?
3. Step 3 You need to know your customers’ reaction as to quality, price, your company’s service and delivery, delivery, In short you must be acquainted with everything that influence the customers’ decision to buy.
Draft the plan. Now that you more or less know all about your product, put it in writing (it need not be formal) to cover the rundown of your product position in the market, a definition of your goal, a record of target markets, the suitable strategy for each market segment and the budget allocation for each.
In getting customers’ reaction or feedbacks, start asking. Customer surveys can be the most effective tool for increasing sales and converting prospects into actual sales or loyal customers. If this will not be sufficient, conduct surveys especially when something is going wrong to improve the satisfaction levels of customers. There are many other reasons for conducting surveys like giving customers opportunity to think and talk about what you do for them, airing small annoyances; identifying product strengths and a way to compare other marketing efforts.
It maybe a small business marketing plan but its value is beyond question.