Strategy Guideline: Marketing

Showing posts with label Marketing. Show all posts

iPhone Marketing Strategy

As with all Apple marketing, the iPhone marketing strategy is very clear, simple and clever. With the plain and simple apple icon, Apple focuses on the pure innovative style of their products without all the "fluff". The iPhone was released by Apple in June, 2007. The ground-breaking style of the iPhone was touted for months before the initial release and has remained the best of the best when it comes to cell phones over the past several years. Before the iPhone's official release, Apple ran four television commercials promoting the new cell phone.

The first of the commercials portrays the new iPhone as the next step up from the popular iPod. The iPod was all the rage up until this point, and the iPhone was supposed to be the next-generation iPod, oh, and it's also a phone! The advertisement displays all of the enhanced features available in the iPod, and more, the point being "There's never been an iPod that can do this."

Strategy

"So, say you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean"
Finger clicks on video and displays wide screen movie.
"Mmm, did somebody say Calamari?"
Finger clicks back to menu, selects Maps application to search 'Seafood'.
"The closest would be..."
Map displays all seafood locations and highlights location nearest to you.
"Ah!"

iPhone Marketing Strategy

Finger clicks seafood location, and restaurant phone number displayed. iPhone dial's.

The first four iPhone commercials flaunted the convenience, innovation, and usefulness of a single product with the functionality of not only a phone, or a music device, but a product that can, among other things, listen to music, watch videos, view photos, make conference calls, check e-mail, browse the web, and view maps.

Not only does Apple utilize television for their marketing strategy, but they make use of their website by posting videos, they also published a handful of press releases that could have been released in one single document. Apple often uses this tactic to build up hype and leave the consumer wanting more.

With Apple's brief press releases, giving the audience little to go off, "Apple leveraged a law of social physics - news, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the absence of real information, those who care about a product will grasp at any rumor that comes their way. Apple may publicly disavow the rumor Web sites that scramble for scraps about the companies plans, but secretly their marketing department must be delighted. It would cost a lot to buy that kind of Web advertising." (Silverman, 2007)

The official iPhone website does more than just provide information about the product. The website provides top tips and tricks for the use of an iPhone, as well as a huge focus on apps. Almost the entire iPhone page displays images of apps, provides the "App of the Week," the website also contains sections titled "Apps for Everything," and the "Top Apps." Apple's website is a great marketing tool for current iPhone users and consumers that have an interest in purchasing the iPhone. The promotion of the apps will create a stronger source of revenue for Apple. As customers see top rated applications, they are more likely to download the app, rather than searching through 25,000+ apps to find one that may be of any value to the consumer.

Successful younger men were the target audience that Apple had originally focused on. Apple had hoped that with this target audience, and the fact that 48% of this audience did not already own an Apple iPod, would allow them to reach their forecast of 10 million sales by the end of 2008.

One month prior to the release of the iPhone, Solutions Research Group profiled a cross-section of those aware of the phone. The forecast of potential buyers for the day of the release ranked a majority of T-Mobile customers, AT&T's only GSM-based product competitor, at 15%. The second largest group expected to purchase the new iPhone was AT&T's existing customer base, at 12%. The Solutions Research Group also found that 72% of males, versus 28% of women were most likely to investigate the phone at its minimum price of 9. (Malley, 2007)

The obvious current target audiences for the Apple iPhone include young people between the ages of 20 and 35, affluent teenagers, "jet-setters", and "mobile" employees who work outside of the office.

Apple is known for their simplistic, but catchy commercials. In recent television commercials for the Apple iPhone, "There's an App for that" is the new catch phrase that places a strong focus on the apps available from the App Store. Apps, or applications, are in "every category, from games to business, education to entertainment, finance to health and fitness, productivity to social networking. These applications have been designed to take advantage of iPhone features such as Multi-Touch, the accelerometer, wireless, and GPS" (Apple, 2009). Apple currently claims to have 25,000+ apps available, and counting.

The focus on the variation of apps offered opens up the target audience greatly. There is essentially an app for everyone. As a few of the iPhone commercials advertise, you can find the snow conditions on the mountain, track calories in your lunch, find exactly where you parked your car. You can find a cab in a strange city, find your share of the bill for a table of 5, or learn to fix a wobbly bookshelf. You can read a restaurant review, read an MRI, or just read a regular old book. These are just a few of the features that Apple has promoted through television commercials. iPhone apps provide every functionality that one can imagine.

When the iPhone was initially released, it was priced at a hefty 9. Still, hundreds of thousands of people rushed out to get the new phone, forking over a third as much as they would have had they waited an extra 3 months. 3 months after the initial release, Apple reduced the price of the iPhone to 9. This enraged Apple's loyal customers and consumers who purchased the new phone just months earlier. One year later, Apple again reduced the price of the iPhone to 9, 66% less than the original price.

In July, 2007, the Apple iPhone was all the hype. I believe that Apple's decision to release the phone at 9 was slightly based on greed. However, their product was the most innovative out in the market place, giving Apple the freedom to price the iPhone at whatever they wanted. Many believed that Apple had cut the price after discovering lower than expected iPhone sales. Apple, however, states that the price cut was made "to spur holiday sales and predicted that Apple would meet its stated goal of selling its 1 millionth iPhone by the end of September." (Dalrymple, 2007)

As with the product life cycle of any cell phone or Apple product, including Apple's iPod, prices are often reduced drastically months after the initially release. Tech products are always competing against "the latest and greatest" while maintaining a relevant price in the market place. Had Apple not reduced the price of the iPhone, the customer base would have dwindled quickly as many consumers are unwilling to spend 9 on a cell phone, no matter how many useful features the phone may carry.

As the iPhone remains to be the number one smart phone around, the product continues to grow, increasing size capabilities, increasing the number of applications available, and providing new features that are released through new iterations of the phone, continue to provide a greater value to the iPhone while the pricing remains relevant.

At this time in the product life cycle, Apple continues to release enhanced iterations of the iPhone. With most iPhone users un-willing to purchase a newer version of the iPhone because of price, the target audience for the newer generation phones is new iPhone customers. With Apple's installed base continuing to grow, they have found a way bring in reoccurring revenue from their existing customers through the sales of their application downloads. As more and more people purchase the iPhone, Apple's audience for new customers continues to dwindle. Fortunately for Apple, they have built in another source for revenue that continues throughout the life of the product.

References

(2009). Apple: iPhone. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from Apple

Dalrymple, J (2007, Sep, 11). Lessons learned from the iPhone price cuts. PCWorld, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/137046/lessons_learned_from_the_iphone_price_cuts.html

Silverman, D (2007, Jul, 10). Apple's silence helped the iPhone hype. Chron.com:Computing, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4954824.html

Malley, A (2007, Jun, 6). Apple, AT&T neophytes to define iPhone audience - report. AppleInsider, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from AppleInsider Website

Mukherjee, A (2007, Feb, 28). iPhone under attack. Business Today, Retrieved Apr 26, 2009, from the business today website

iPhone Marketing Strategy

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What Is Marketing Strategy?

A lot of people want to know exactly what is marketing strategy. There are many definitions out there but to put it simply, it is how you get people or potential customers interested in your company, your product or your service. How you position your brand, create messaging and establish your company goals, supports your attempt to interest people. How you engage with or pursue your audience is what defines your marketing plan.

A marketing strategy is the foundation for which you can judge whether or not your plan is successful. You can from that determine if you are meeting the goals set out and defined in the strategy. The marketing strategy is really the cornerstone of every marketing effort and acts as a springboard for all future efforts.

Strategy

Marketing Strategy Importance

What Is Marketing Strategy?

Some business owners sometimes get so hung up in the finite details of creating, developing and testing a product, that they don't take the time to figure out who the audience is, what the product should say and why people would be interested. Without paying attention to a marketing strategy a product launch might be rushed and not be as successful as one backed by a marketing strategy to guide it into the market. It could potentially cause a small company to have to close it's doors because there was a great idea and need for a product but no thoughtfulness to how it fits into the space or how people might receive it.

Strong Strategy Basics

In order to create a strong marketing strategy you need to:

1. Understanding what makes your business unique or different.
First part of a successful marketing strategy is to find something that makes your business stand out from other businesses that offer similar services or products. Sometimes you will have to change parts of your business to accommodate that. If potential customers don't find anything unique about your business they will choose service based on price.

2. Understand your target audience.
Think about characteristics of your ideal customer. Make a mental picture of this person and try to get inside their heads. What would they like? What things are important to them? What motivates them to buy? What influences their decisions?

3. Identifying marketing goals or what you want to achieve with marketing.
Does this mean a conversation rate, products sold or number of contracts signed? It could be any number of things. It is just the definition of what you would consider success for your company.

4. Establish your marketing budget.
Having a budget helps you keep track of what you need to spend on marketing without it getting out of control. This is something that will allow you set up expectations internally as well.

Upfront Planning Leads to Success

Embracing and establishing a solid marketing strategy would benefit any company, product or service. It is where the most successfully marketing campaigns are created from. Plus, it is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and keep a consistent brand identity and message platform throughout. Consistency is key in developing recognition and loyalty. A marketing strategy that clearly spells everything out keeps all the efforts in line with each. This will ultimately make all your efforts more impactful.

What Is Marketing Strategy?

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

The retail sector is one of the most competitive in the business world, and so effective marketing strategy is needed in order to be successful. However, many retailers get caught up in the day-to-day running of their companies and don't use all their business strategy expertise to push their business forward. If you are in the retail business, then you need to wake up and think carefully about your current marketing strategy. If you don't you could find yourself trailing behind the competition and losing business to other retailers. If you want to improve your retail marketing strategy, then here is some advice to get you started.

Use the Internet

Strategy

With the Internet increasing in popularity all the time, it is extremely important to use Internet marketing as a way to improve market share. In order to improve your access to customers, create a web site where customers can view your merchandise and possibly buy products online. Selling your products online is a great way of expanding your business without having to spend lots of money on new premises or retail locations. However, if you don't want to develop online business, then you can still advertise your business online. Effective marketing strategy should use all mediums available to improve business exposure, and with online advertising a low cost and effective medium it makes sense to take advantage of the opportunity.

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

Offer a promotion

Retail business is extremely competitive, and so even the smallest of promotions can give you an edge over your competitors. Your business strategy should be to come up with regular and innovative promotions to entice customers into your store. These promotions can range from offering a free gift with certain products to a competition entry when certain items are purchased. If you keep your marketing strategy fresh with new promotions then you will definitely remain competitive and will attract customers to your products.

Signage and storefront are important

Although you can use plenty of complex marketing strategy techniques to attract customers, nothing is simpler and more effective than having a bold and effective storefront and signage. If you have a shop window, then keep the displays up to date and imaginative. Change the display each season and alter your sign every few years to keep things looking good. However, make sure that you keep the signage them constant so that your brand and store are easily recognisable. Make sure your sign can be seen from as far a distance as possible. Sometimes, the simplest marketing strategies are the best, and keeping your store bright and attractive is one such method.

Ask customers what they want

Your marketing strategy ideas might be great, but if you really want to improve your business then you need to ask the people that matter most - the customers. Effective marketing strategy should always begin by asking customers what sort of products, services and promotions they want. This will give you a better idea of how to market your products and improve your customer base. If there is one thing you should learn about effective business strategy, it is to listen to your loyal customers and then cater to their needs through effective marketing strategy.

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

Julie-Ann Amos is a freelance business writer on business and property investment, and owner of exquisitewriting.com She recommends http://www.singingpig.co.uk as one of the most effective sources of information for small businesses and property investment. Their property investment forum is a place to find information hard to locate elsewhere.

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

Use the Internet

Strategy

Offer a promotion

Signage and storefront are important

Ask customers what they want

Effective Marketing Strategy in Retail

The 7Ps of Marketing Mix

Marketing professionals and specialist use many tactics to attract and retain their customers. These activities comprise of different concepts, the most important one being the marketing mix. There are two concepts for marketing mix: 4P and 7P. It is essential to balance the 4Ps or the 7Ps of the marketing mix. The concept of 4Ps has been long used for the product industry while the latter has emerged as a successful proposition for the services industry.

The 7Ps of the marketing mix can be discussed as:

Tactics

Product - It must provide value to a customer but does not have to be tangible at the same time. Basically, it involves introducing new products or improvising the existing products.

Price - Pricing must be competitive and must entail profit. The pricing strategy can comprise discounts, offers and the like.

Place - It refers to the place where the customers can buy the product and how the product reaches out to that place. This is done through different channels, like Internet, wholesalers and retailers.

Promotion - It includes the various ways of communicating to the customers of what the company has to offer. It is about communicating about the benefits of using a particular product or service rather than just talking about its features.

People - People refer to the customers, employees, management and everybody else involved in it. It is essential for everyone to realize that the reputation of the brand that you are involved with is in the people's hands.

Process - It refers to the methods and process of providing a service and is hence essential to have a thorough knowledge on whether the services are helpful to the customers, if they are provided in time, if the customers are informed in hand about the services and many such things.

Physical (evidence) - It refers to the experience of using a product or service. When a service goes out to the customer, it is essential that you help him see what he is buying or not. For example- brochures, pamphlets etc serve this purpose.

The 7Ps of Marketing Mix

Medha Behera

Niche Marketing Will Make Building Your Business Easier and More Profitable

What is a niche? A niche is a clearly definable group of like minded people with a common and mutual interest. It is a subcategory of a larger market that has specific issues, problems, wants, and needs. By understanding those issues you will be able to focus your marketing communications and get that message to the correct audience in the correct format and medium. This creates a message to market match. You actually become an advocate for them and as result begin to attract them to you.

For example, if you market a nutritional product, you may focus on a the 50 to 60 year old demographic that is concerned with protecting and maintaining their health as they grow older. Your messages to them would focus on particular issues such as heart disease or cancer, or generating more energy. As you provide information about the nutrition that is related to their concerns, you qualify yourself as knowledgeable and a leader in that field. You begin to establish trust and credibility.

Strategy

Do you have a niche? Most people starting in Network Marketing are encouraged to adopt the strategy that everyone is their prospect and that all they have to do is talk to enough people, stay positive, do the personal growth work, and never give up. While it may seem that the niche or market focus is naturally defined by the company and their products, it is a strategy that is often too broad. As a result business builders often fail to create a niche focus in their business. This lack of focus and direction has led to major problems for many network marketers as they use this broad brush to try to address too large an audience. Rather then getting to know their potential customers and business partners and their desires, needs, and wants, they quickly find themselves in a desperate selling mode which turns people off. This type of behavior has led to a negative image of network marketing.

Finding your niche. Any successful business must communicate and provide value that solves customer wants and needs. In order to do that, you must become intimate with issues, problems, wants, desires, and needs of your ideal client. That is best and most efficiently determined by focusing on a niche or unique market segment that you thoroughly understand. 3 critical questions to answer in finding your niche:

1. Who is a market?
How do you define them? Who is your best or ideal customer?

2. What does your niche want?
Specifically, what are they looking for? What problem are they trying to solve? Where do you have passion that matches what your niche wants? How can you position yourself as a solutions provider?

3. How do they want it? Often the delivery and the customer experience is more important then the product itself. Learn how they get information and in what format. Then put that strategy into action.

By specializing on a specific marketing niches or segments, you can bring ideal prospects to you. When you differentiate yourself from other people in the market place you set yourself apart from everyone else and gain attention. As you demonstrate that you understand your niche or group's specific wants and needs you establish greater credibility. You actually become an advocate for them. This builds on relationship and will lead to trust by actually demonstrating your ability to solve a problem that is important to them. Now they will want to know more about you and what you have to offer. You have become an expert in your niche which makes it easy to convert prospects to customers and price competition diminishes, making for a more profitable relationship.

Niche Marketing Will Make Building Your Business Easier and More Profitable

Bob Nussbaum is a National Home Business Consultant showing network marketers and home business owners how to improve their business results with proper training and marketing. Bob teaches internet based marketing strategies for building home based or network marketing businesses. http://www.HomeBizNetMarketing.com

Marketing Mix - Top 4 Promotion Mix Tactics

Marketing mix is part of your marketing plan. It defines product, place, price and promotion. The promotion mix targets raising product or brand awareness, communicating the unique value proposition of your product and gaining acceptance of your products. The primary purpose and focus of promotional mix is to get the desired result: the sale of your product. There are more than seven common promotion mix tactics and while most businesses do not use all of these tactics to promote and sell their products, they do use a mix of these tactics.

The Top 4 Promotion Mix Tactics:

Tactics

Personal selling is one of the most common of the promotion tactics. Most companies will hire people to do the selling: sales representatives, account managers, inside sales representatives, retail sales, sales agents, or telemarketers. Face-to-face selling is one of the most common methods of selling, although sales by phone, and more recently, sales by email, are becoming well used. These are not necessarily as effective, but they are low cost sales tactics.
Advertising is another common promotion tactic. Advertising focuses on brand recognition and identity; not on the product alone. Advertising can be a costly tactic that only the big businesses can invest in; particularly advertising on television which can cost anywhere from 0,000 to over million for a national broadcast in prime time (for a 30-second spot!). This cost is in addition to the cost of producing the commercial. Advertising in industry or consumer magazines is less expensive and typically you can target your advertisement to a specific industry or region. Other advertising can include car or bus 'wraps', events (such as sports, music, art), and billboards. The Internet is becoming a very popular place to advertise, and on a relative basis, it is more affordable.
In the retail marketplace, consumer promotion is very common. Buy one, get one free. Coupons for discounted or free product. Free trial packages. Cash discounts or refunds. Contests that give back cash, prizes, or products. The commitment by marketers to consumer promotion is that this form of promotion can be designed to be very measurable. Coupons, contests, and packaging can be coded to report redemptions and to report sales increases and/or decreases related to consumer promotion. Additionally, packaging new products as a trial, with a mature or declining product, can often provide an opportunity to up-sell and extend the declining product's life-cycle.
Public relations (PR) is another common promotion tactic. Public relations includes writing and distributing press releases (to the local newspaper, the national newspapers, to online PR sites, to radio and television, to magazines, and more). The key for effective PR is to identify and understand your target audience, the key message or messages you want to deliver, the credibility of your organization, and the recognition that PR is not a sales tactic but an identity (whether corporate, brand or product) building tactic.

The most effective promotional program is usually one that uses a variety of tactics and techniques. It is important to measure the effectiveness of the program you engage in, and adjust your promotional program to increase effectiveness and outcome (sales).

Marketing Mix - Top 4 Promotion Mix Tactics

To find out more about marketing mix, promotional tactics, push and pull strategies, and product life-cycle, visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com/marketing-mix-promotion.html and for more on small business resources and advice, please visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com/
Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company. Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses. Copyright 2008 Voice Marketing Inc.

Marketing Strategy

In making a marketing strategy, you must take in consideration the internet and all its fame. The internet is quite amazing, as it is capable of producing its own market, and it must be tapped to increase sales. One good example of such a strategy is to make your business entirely available to the internet. Your business should be available on the internet because there are millions of people accessing the internet. That would mean that there are millions of prospects waiting to be tapped.

The internet can contain marketing ideas from which you can choose. In the internet, ideas are scattered everywhere. As you look in to a website, several ideas are being shared. All forms of marketing ideas are being offered in the internet. The internet is an ideal place to look for perfect marketing ideas. Ideas related to marketing are such in large quantity that it will take a great amount of time for you to collect and absorb the information that it is shown.

Strategy

The good thing about the internet is that ideas for marketing can cost as much as the price of air. That would mean that they're free. It is actually up to you on how creative or how intuitive the idea can be for you. Just be smart and think how you can use it in the long run. A combination of a good idea for marketing and a good strategy would spell success in every angle of your business.

This kind of strategy is a sure win for your business for several reasons. One reason is that it is comparatively low-priced to make the business available in the internet. You do not have to worry, because your limited budget will work just fine. There are plenty of avenues in the internet to pitch the business that you have. It is also good to hear that many of these avenues won't cost you a penny.

One avenue that you can take advantage of is YouTube. YouTube is such a powerful avenue to spread your message across the globe with the help of videos. You can utilize videos in propping up your business. Free blog sites are another opportunity to look into. You can make articles to promote the business that you have.

In conclusion, marketing strategies are readily available in the internet. With all the ideas available everywhere, you must be cautious. Unfortunately, there are some ideas which have a lot to be taken into consideration. It requires common sense and risk calculation before an idea can be taken. In this kind of search, you might want to check if the ideas are valid to one's expectations.

Marketing Strategy

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Introduction to Marketing Strategies and Tactics

Marketing strategies and tactics are very important to any business any field. In this series of articles we will take a close look on the different marketing strategies and tactics, how to use them and how to choose between them.

But first we need to talk about the difference between marketing strategies and marketing tactics. strategies are long term plans, over all campaigns to achieve a certain strategic goal. Tactics on the other hand are all about the short term, they are tools you use to achieve short term goals. They are part of your overall marketing strategy.

Tactics

Having a strategy and using tactics is essential. More essential however is having the right ones. Not every plan is a strategy, and not every strategy is right for you. But when you do have the right one, it will help you immensely in your marketing. It will help you make your mind faster, because every marketing decision you choose will be chosen based on one question: will this help my overall strategy?

Tactics are also important. Good tactics can save a poor strategy, at least for a while, but bad tactics will ruin even the best laid marketing strategies. You should look at your marketing tactics as the steps you need to take to accomplish your marketing strategy.

Another important point is that you shouldn't use the marketing strategies and tactics used by your competitors because it is yielding good results for them. What works for them may not work for you. The strategies you adopt should stem from your needs and goals.

In the next articles we will look at the different marketing strategies you can use, then we will talk about marketing tactics and finally we will advise you on how to choose the best strategies and tactics for your business. Stay tuned and check www.doubleurincome.com for updates.

Introduction to Marketing Strategies and Tactics

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Marketing Mix - 4 Pricing Strategy Alternatives

Pricing is an important part of your marketing mix strategies. Pricing can help or hinder your product or service sales. Given that your product is good quality, that it has the features and benefits that your buyers want and need, that it is differentiated from your competition, and that it has a good cost structure and a good, strong promotion and distribution program, your pricing strategy for your product or service can help you sell it, or not. Pricing strategies can have a very direct impact on growing your market share.

Four alternative pricing strategiess for your business are:

Strategy

Generic or economy pricing. This strategy treats generic or economy-type brands with a low price - the value to the buyer is in the low price. Your business approach to this pricing strategy must be rooted in a low cost structure, minimal features, minimal promotion but still solid (not extravagant) benefits.
Differential Pricing. With this strategy, you might choose to price your product differently by buyer type (e.g. retail store, online store, a department store), by geographic region (e.g. the California market might be higher priced than Illinois), by volume purchased (e.g. a customer buying a large volume would receive a different price than one buying a small volume), by national account segment (e.g. you might negotiate special differential pricing with a national account versus the price you would charge to a local account). With all of these differential prices, there must be a justifiable reason for the price differences.
Premium Pricing. This strategy is commonly used for luxury items or high end, high value goods, such as expensive jewellery, boats, planes, estates, etc. Only use this strategy if your product's value is recognized by your market as being a premium or luxury good.
Captive Product or Companion Product Pricing. This pricing strategy is also used in product line pricing. This strategy bundles, and usually packages, like products together to be priced as companions (for example, a mixer and a mixing bowl) and as captives (for example, pens that have to have a specific refill (not generic), razors that can only use a specific blade, etc.). Captive or Companion product pricing often relies on packaging to offer the two products in one package (for example, a trial pack of blades with the razor; one pen refill packaged with the pen; or the tape refill with the tape dispenser). Then when those blades, refills or other companion products are used, the price to buy new blades, refills or other products is significantly higher than the original priced package.

Thoroughly analyze your product, your buyers, your competitors (and their possible actions and reactions), and your market before you decide which pricing strategy would best-fit your business. Then review pricing strategy by product, and by product line, on a regular basis to make sure that the fit remains the best.

Marketing Mix - 4 Pricing Strategy Alternatives

For more information on pricing strategies, visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com/pricing-strategy.html and for more information on small business strategies and advice, visit http://www.more-for-small-business.com/
Kris Bovay is the owner of Voice Marketing Inc, a business and marketing services company. Kris has 25 years of experience in leading large, medium and small businesses.
Copyright 2008 Voice Marketing Inc.

Marketing Plan Basics - Marketing Objectives & Strategy

An important element of your basic marketing plan consists of the specific objectives you will try and attain and the overall strategy you will use to achieve those objectives.

It is worth noting that the marketing plan objectives should always lead to actual sales revenue. If not, you need to re-examine your marketing objectives and restate them so that they relate to sales results.

Strategy

Marketing Objectives

Your marketing objectives should be:

Clear and specific
Tangible and measurable
Be time-based, with a target achievement date

Some examples of a marketing objective you might include in your basic marketing plan are:

Launch new product line on January 1, 2009 to target market, achieving sales target of 0,000 by December 31, 2009
Re-launch "new and improved" product line to existing customer base, conveying enhancements and revisions and delivering 1,000 qualified sales leads by June 30, 2010.
Increase product awareness among the target audience by 30% this year.

In many cases, you will have multiple, concurrent marketing objectives, in which case you should make sure that they are consistent with each other and support your overall marketing vision.

Marketing Strategy

In the marketing strategy section of your basic marketing plan, you should outline the strategic plan by which you intend to reach the objectives stated above.

You'll want to specifically address the "four Ps" of marketing (also known as the marketing mix) to address four specific areas of your strategy.

Product - the specifics about the product or service you will be marketing
Price - your pricing strategy as it relates to the market conditions and your competition, specifying the exact pricing and offers you will make
Promotion - the high-level plan of how and where you will advertise your product or service in order to reach your target audience, including TV, radio, print advertisements, direct mail and online marketing efforts
Place (Distribution) - how the product/service and your prospective customer interact and engage in the selling process, including retail, mail-order, direct sales, telephone sales, wholesale or distributors, etc.

Although it may seem tedious, spending the time to carefully identify your marketing objectives and the overall marketing strategy you will use to reach those objectives will help you create the tactical marketing promotional plan that will ultimately inform and guide your marketing team on what specific actions need to be completed, when they need to be completed by and finally by whom they will be completed.

Marketing Plan Basics - Marketing Objectives & Strategy

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Paul Keetch is co-author of the Make My Marketing Work home study system. If you want to create your customized strategic marketing plan in as little as 10 days, visit http://www.MakeMyMarketingWork.com today!

Affiliate Article Marketing 101

While there are a myriad of strategies to make money online, one of the most popular is affiliate marketing. However, even in the subset of affiliate marketing there are many ways to make a buck online.

The best way in my opinion is affiliate article marketing.

Strategy

Writing articles and putting affiliate links in them is what affiliate article marketing is all about.

Article directories are definitely popular for anyone who even remotely has any search engine optimization efforts.

Let's say you want to promote a money making product online, for example. Now we'll assume it is a guide on how to make money from ClickBank. ClickBank is a popular affiliate retailer.

So let's continue still and say that the keyphrase "making money with ClickBank" is the one your site will target.

Your keyphrase (in this case "making money with ClickBank") is what you want to rank highly for in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Enter the affiliate article marketing aspect. You now want to write articles on how to make money with ClickBank.

You can get some great ideas from the sales page of the product you want to promote. Confused still?

When you promote someone else's product online, you are said to be an affiliate of that product. Every time a sale is made through your affiliate link, the owner will pay you a percentage of the sale. One of the best ways to rank high in the search engines is through this affiliate article marketing.

When done writing, submit it to an article directory.

Pay attention, a lot of SEO'ers forget this:

Article directories do not allow you to place links in the articles themselves. You can, however, put them in the signature box. Do not forget to do this!

Backlinks point back to your site. Do not forget to use anchor text in your backlinks.

To avoid duplicate content, I recommend submitting one article to only one article directory. The search engines take duplicate content very seriously. It will negatively affect your internet marketing efforts and undermine you affiliate article marketing strategy for sure. Write more articles, get more backlinks, get more traffic, make more money. Thanks for reading this and I wish you the best in all of your affiliate article marketing efforts.

Affiliate Article Marketing 101

Get more affiliate article marketing strategies at http://www.easyarticlemarketingtips.com.

Internet Marketing Strategy - 4 Things You Need to Get Right

The benefits of implementing the right internet marketing strategy for your business are immense. This article outlines just four things you need to look out for when implementing your internet marketing strategy.

Stay in Touch With Existing Customers

Strategy

Keeping in touch with existing customers is crucial for improving and growing your business. Statistics show it is not only easier but also much cheaper to get an existing customer to buy from you again, than it is to attract a new customer.

It's simple, if you're not keeping in touch with existing customers, you're leaving money on the table. There is even a risk that they get pinched by your competitor. Whether you decide to keep in touch through email newsletters or social media marketing, the internet provides many low-cost and effective ways to stay in touch and make the most of your relationships with your existing customers.

Cost Effective Lead Generation

Whether you decide to advertise online, offline, or do both- measuring your cost per lead is essential and a proper online marketing strategy contains ongoing testing and tracking mechanisms that help you do just that.

A simple calculation of what each new customer or email list subscriber is worth to you will tell you how many new customers you need to make a good return on your investment.

Target your Ideal Customer

Most likely your business has an ideal customer demographic, ranging from their age to their disposable income. Knowing who your ideal customer is, will make your online advertising and marketing efforts razor focused. When advertising online, you can use more effective 'direct-response' type advertising that allows you to respond to people's needs when they are most likely to need a solution - your solution. The result is a massive increase in your conversion rate and a phone that just won't stop ringing.

Beat your Competitors

The online world is a fast-moving medium. As Rupert Murdoch said "It won't be the big who beat the small, it will be the fast beating the slow". If you get online before your competitors do, you will have a clear edge over them in creating new leads, converting more prospects and keeping your existing customers tied to your business.

The opposite is also true, if your competitors are already online and have a good internet marketing strategy in place, they can put you out of business-simply because they are getting more customers at a lower cost.

Internet Marketing Strategy - 4 Things You Need to Get Right

Despite knowing the advantages of having the right internet marketing strategy, unfortunately many business owners still end up with a website that costs them too much money and doesn't generate them any business. If you want to make sure you're implementing the right strategy, download the free internet marketing whitepaper from online marketing Sydney. It shows you how to get more leads, more customers and more profits with the right internet marketing strategy at http://www.eminentonlinemarketing.com.au