SMS marketing (text messaging) is one of the new forms of advertising currently used by large corporations, governments and small businesses worldwide. Although this form of marketing is becoming more popular each passing year, there are always pros and cons of every successful business and strategy. There have been many successes and failures in new theories and techniques. These advantages and disadvantages are important to remember and consider before you and your company SMS test marketing the highest levels of success in your business.

SMS marketing is the new style of technology for companies to brand and advertise their products and services to millions of people through mobile phones. On average in the U.S. today almost all people over age 11 own a mobile phone. This means that compared to the styles used in internet marketing, you and your company will be able to reach an even wider audience with less competition in the advertising market.

The results of this form of advertising are amazing! Companies are being converted, as they have never seen any other source of advertising. The market for short message service is available to large companies and small businesses to build and now it’s time!

Only with any other style of advertising, there are always disadvantages that can influence a business decision. With the number one thing is always associated with SMS marketing is the complete invasion of privacy for the mobile phone user. These cut-off text messages via their mobile phones and safety of many people find that it is very disrespectful act by these companies. Although there are many people who benefit from these unsolicited advertisements, some people like many who are outraged by this form of invasion.

SMS marketing has its advantages and disadvantages like any other style of advertising that any company has to do is decide what is more for the purpose. Each company must decide which path to take, in essence, and go ahead with their plans. However, many companies find that the disadvantages are not so bad as to compensate for professionals, allowing them to continue with this new form of advertising.

Advertisement

How to Make Money from Mobile Marketing
Take this opportunity to dominate almost any niche market simply by tapping into the popularity of an ever-growing revolution in business.. The Mobile Medium! Now includes Extra Bonus Reports.

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time.

To laugh often and much
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of friends
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch
Or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived
This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though 64% of consumers say promotional offers dominate both the email and traditional mail they receive, only 41% view them as must-read communications and many even steer clear of a brand in protest of such irrelevant mailings, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company. Click here to read the rest of the story

Advice I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Will your target audience do your work for you and create advertising and products at minimal cost?

I read this in a recent blog regarding crowdsourcing. This word had me curious. What did it exactly mean? Basically I learned it was having your customers do your ad work.

Some major consumer product companies have fired their agencies and then hold “contests” for users of their products to create ad campaigns.

Read about this

This is one of my favorites.

Success

To laugh often and much
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of friends
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better
Whether by a healthy child, a garden patch
Or a redeemed social condition
To know even one life has breathed easier
Because you have lived
This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As Branding and marketing professionals, we have an in-depth understanding of the importance of a marketing plan. However, not everyone recognizes the benefits of investing in a strategic marketing plan prior to launching strategies and tactics that seem intuitive at the time. The following few paragraphs attempt to impart our understanding of a well-written plan’s importance by first defining some of key elements of the role of marketing in most organizations.

Defines Focus: Your strategic marketing plan gives the company, and everyone in it, a benchmark to measure all marketing activities against. A well-developed strategic marketing plan not only gives you a structured strategic and tactical outline, but also defines your target audience, messages, goals, and objectives, in a way that allows flexibility. A structured plan provides a benchmark to measure all marketing activities and ensure that the investment they require meet the needs and goals of the marketing plan – preventing you from spending on wasted efforts. It helps staff understand goals and become customer-focused. It also empowers them to make decisions on their own that are consistent with the company’s objectives.

Tracks Costs / Measures Value: A marketing plan provides a step-by-step guide to what you are spending money on and when. It enables you to budget marketing expenses–helping you keep control of your expenditures, manage your cash flow, track sales to marketing expense ratio, and measure success of your marketing efforts. It also ensures that product development dollars are not wasted.

Charts Success: A marketing plan helps you chart your destination point. It becomes a guide through unfamiliar territory.

Captures Thinking on Paper: The finance department isn’t allowed to run a company by keeping numbers in their heads. It should be no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories falter, the information in the written marketing plan stays intact.

Reflects the BIGPicture?: In the daily routine of putting out fires, it’s hard to turn your attention to the big picture, especially those parts that aren’t directly related to the daily operations. Writing your marketing plan helps in determining your current business status and provides a roadmap for business goals.

Becomes a Document to Build On: Creating your very first strategic marketing plan is a time and resource consuming endeavor, but well worth the effort. Once the plan is complete, you just need to make minor adjustments and tweaks to it; you won’t have to re-create it from scratch. It will serve as a template and benchmark for you to work from as you define your objectives and strategies for future years. It becomes a living document for measuring sales success, customer retention, product development, and sales initiatives.

Where Do You Start?

The best place to start is to evaluate where you are now. How are you positioned in the market? How do your customers see you? What are your strengths/weaknesses, and what are some emerging market threats and opportunities?

Typically the strategic marketing plan is done in sequential phases–each part of the plan builds off of the phase before it. Your strategic marketing plan also needs the help of most everyone; it cannot be completed without the assistance of many people within the company: finance, operations, sales, management, and marketing.

Your Strategic Marketing Plan Should Include Include:

Phase 1

Situation Analysis: Defines the market dynamics and identifies client’s position in the market as it currently exists and will summarize the current situation from an internal and external perspective.

Industry Overview: Defines the current market situation and explores market trends and product consumption.

Competitive Profile: Identifies key players in the market and defines their positions, strategies and initiatives. This section is designed to give the client a clear understanding of the competitive dynamics of the marketplace and will provide you with valuable information for developing your future strategies and target markets.

Customer Profile: Provides an analysis of each of the potential target markets, regarding their use of the product and the factors affecting their buying process. This information is gathered using a variety of research tactics and may include you contacting a number of organizations within each category to gather facts about the buying process.

S. W. O. T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats):
Provides client with an in-depth view of the strengths and weaknesses of his or her organization, both from an internal and external perspective. It also defines potential opportunities and threats. This section is critical because it provides an objective summary of both perceptions and issues that will affect the success of future marketing efforts.

Target markets: Key target markets will be identified given the competitive situation, growth potential and product offering of the client. These markets will provide the best opportunity to develop strong brand awareness and will maximize the potential for both market share and revenue growth.

Phase 2

Key Objectives: Once all of the information is gathered during Phase I of the plan, you will work as a group to define the key objectives that will be instrumental in developing future strategies and tactics.

Positioning: After reviewing the industry, competitive information, company objectives, you will then define the new positioning in the marketplace. It will tie directly to the company ‘s strengths and will reinforce its objectives and strategies.

Summary: A summarization of all relevant factors and information will be completed prior to developing strategies and tactics.

Phase 3
Strategies: You will then develop marketing and communication strategies that support the positioning and key objectives. These strategies will address channels of distribution, as well as define key corporate sales messaging.

Tactics: A list of marketing and communication initiatives that support and reinforce the company’s positioning, objectives and strategies will be developed. You will identify and produce the marketing support tools that provide the largest return on investment and ones that will substantially increase a client’s brand recognition and market share.

The Strategic Marketing Plan is a comprehensive effort that will allow a company to direct its resources toward achieving a common goal. It has been our experience that a Marcom plan plays a vital role in developing accurate messaging and provides a forum for consistently delivering those messages to your marketplace. It is the one document that ensures that every dollar spent on your efforts reinforces the corporate objectives, identity, image and Corporate Branding.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding consulting and market research firm located in Boston, Massachusetts.
Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

When taking a road trip to a new destination, smart travelers invest preparation time to identify the best route, make note of rest stops, research hotels and restaurants that satisfy their needs and budgets, check weather conditions, and so on. You get the idea. In other words, they have a thoughtfully developed plan before they go.

Their plan may change along the way based on opportunities or circumstances beyond their control. Yet, they are equipped to effectively handle the unforeseen and make the most of their situation.

To maximize marketing effectiveness, you’ve got to have a road map to reach your destination. To ensure success, every organization must have carefully researched and developed plan with quantifiable objectives and measurement systems. Without a plan, you won’t know how to get to where you are going — and you may not even know when you’ve arrived.

To help with your planning process, here are the essential elements that every marketing plan should have. The more detail you provide in your plan, the greater precision in your execution… and that leads to better outcomes.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Think of this section as the “cliff-note” version of your plan with emphasis on strategies designed to meet your objectives. Write this section as the last thing you do before plan completion.

OBJECTIVES
Each objective needs to be specific and measurable based on the mission and goals of your organization. Here are some examples of quantifiable objectives and how success is measured.
• Increase gross sales by $450,000 by June 30, representing a 10% increase over prior year. (Measurement: June 30 sales reports)
• Achieve a customer retention rate of 80% by year end. (Measurement: Customer retention reports)
• Increase awareness and recall by 5 points among three target audience segments. (Measurement: Monthly customer awareness research)

SITUATION ANALYSIS
This section discusses your organization and the environment or marketplace in which you compete. It should include the following.
• Background on your organization and product, mission, descriptions of current product and/or services, performance results, market share, strategic alliances, etc.
• Current and future competition with information on proven and forecasted impact
• How you are perceived by your customers relative to the competition
• Current customer information (i.e. number, description, spending levels, motivations, etc.)
• A list of your strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats (also referred to as a SWOT analysis)

TARGET AUDIENCES
Fully understanding your new and existing customers – and their needs and desires – is at the core of every successful marketing plan. For each target audience, detail in your plan demographic information, buying behavior, motivation, price sensitivities and other pertinent information related to your product or service.

This section provides the high level strategic view or approach you will use to achieve your objectives. Be sure to include specific information on:
• Product or Service Strategies — including changes and enhancements
• Pricing Strategies – detailed by target audiences and competitors
• Distribution Strategies – channels or methods by which you deliver and make your product available to your customers
• Marketing Strategies – your approach to communicating and getting the message heard by your target audiences

MARKETING ACTIONS
This section drills down to specific initiatives that relate to your marketing strategies. For example, you will want to include details on marketing methods (i.e. web, print and broadcast advertising, public relations, promotions, telemarketing, direct sales, referral programs, partnership programs, etc.), timing, budgets, and other key information that relates to the implementation of each action step that supports each strategy.

OTHER INFORMATION
You may want to add an appendix or other categories to your plan for key information that adds value to your plan document. For example:
• Short and long-term financial projections
• Calendar of action steps
• Research data that supports your strategies
• Organizational charts
• List of suppliers or vendors that will support your initiatives

This article was written by Jules Sowder, a brand marketing advisor with 20-years of experience developing strategic marketing and sales solutions for large corporations, start-up companies, and small businesses. She also has a resource web site to help marketers and trade show exhibitors maximize marketing and sales effectiveness: http://www.Trade-Show-Advisor.com.

The Marketing Plan section of the business plan demonstrates how a company will penetrate the market with its products and services. The Marketing Plan should include “the four P’s” ? Product, Promotions, Price, and Place.

Products and/or Services
The first “P” stands for Product, but includes all products and services that the company offers. This section of the business plan should detail all the features of the products and services, how they work, their unique/proprietary attributes, etc. For products that are patented and/or technical in nature, drawings and backup materials should be presented in the Appendix.

Most growing companies offer certain products and services today but expect to offer more in the future. It is important to mention both current and future products/services here, but to focus primarily on the short-to-intermediate term horizon.

Promotions
Promotions include each of the activities that induce a customer to buy the company’s products and services. Promotional activities could include advertising, public relations (PR), free samples, discounts, direct mail, telemarketing, partnerships, etc.

This section of the business plan discusses which promotions will be used and how they will be used. For instance, if partnerships will be used to secure new customers, the plan must explain which companies are partners, how they will be able to provide new customers, how the partnership will work (from operational/ financial standpoints), etc.

This section must be as specific as possible, particularly as it relates to discussing future promotions. To say that a company is going to generate PR in trade magazines is simply too vague. Rather, the plan must explain the type of article/feature that may be written about the firm and why, which specific trade journals that will be targeted and/or the projected publication dates.

In discussing how the company will promote itself, it is important to discuss how the company will position itself. This positioning statement details the attributes that customers will assign to the company, its products and services. The choice of promotional activities must support this positioning. For example, discounts might not be consistent with a desire to be considered an upscale brand.

Price
This section of the plan should detail the price point(s) at which the company’s products and services will be sold. If the products/ services are sold as bundles, these should be detailed in this section. Rationale for the pricing should be given when applicable (e.g., why the company has chosen an initiation fee plus monthly membership fees versus a one-time lifetime membership fee).

Place
The final “P” refers to “Place” or “Distribution” and explains how a company’s products and/or services will be delivered to customers. This section is crucial because if customers cannot access products and services, they cannot purchase them.

This section is especially critical for high-growth, capital-constrained companies. Attaining profit-effective distribution channels is often the most vexing challenge for these businesses. Examples of distribution methods include retail locations, website, distributors, wholesalers, direct mail catalogs, etc.

Many companies have multiple distribution methods to deliver their products and services to customers and each should be detailed here.

Detailing the “the four P’s” in the marketing plan is critical in proving to investors that your company will be able to efficiently and effectively penetrate its market.

GT Business Plans has developed over 200 business plans for clients that have collectively raised over $750 million in financing, launched numerous new product and service lines and gained competitive advantage and market share. GT Business Plans is the sister site of GT Venture Capital.