Action Steps to a Marketing Mix that Sells
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Avoid waste with good information about marketing

Advertising takes up a good chunk of your budget so you should make sure that you are putting your resources into marketing campaigns that work. Through the customer surveys and ultimately through your sales figures, you should have a good handle on the most appropriate business advertising for your company.

I recommend: Incorporate a software system that tracks your return on investment, such as MainTrax, which can measure your marketing effectiveness. Target your advertising and sales leads and measure the return with 2020 Software.

Bring in an advertising agency to plan your campaign

After the surveys and plans are in place, the next step is to find the best place to put your advertising. While your marketing information tells you that you need to be on televisions, you need to decide if it should be cable or prime time network airtime that will be most beneficial. An advertising agency can help sort though all the choices.

I recommend: Kirwood is an ad agency that caters to small and home-based businesses. Outsource all your Internet marketing to an agency that offers a complete management package such as Visible Shops.

Count your marketing business revenues

There is no reason that you shouldn't know exactly how many visitors your Internet marketing ads draw and be able to translate that into direct sales. With the right kind of software and marketing experts, you can be sure that your resources are being used in the best way.

I recommend: SEO Performance is one of the most successful pay-per-click ad companies operating on the Web. Quick Track Development can help increase your online advertising with search engine optimization tools and tracking options.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If your current marketing & advertising programs are bringing in the desired business, stick with them. Consider new campaigns only when you feel the need to grow your business or sales are slacking off.

Guide to Marketing Mix Essentials for Startups

Give your budding business a boost with marketing and advertising

By Frances Sharpe

1. Build awareness about your business through your own efforts or by using marketing firms.
2. Create your brand or image using business marketing materials and strategic advertising.
3. Develop your customer base for up-selling and cross-selling.
4. Use strong marketing and advertising messages that differentiate you from the competition.
5. Understand and identify the best marketing mix for your target audience.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Establish a budget for your marketing mix

Typical expenses for a marketing mix include market research, marketing communications, advertising, publicity, events, promotions and marketing services consulting. According to the SBA, established businesses may get by with a marketing and advertising budget of 2 percent of gross sales, but as a start-up, you may need to devote 10 percent or even more of your expected gross sales to marketing and advertising.

I recommend: Check out a case study demonstrating how one small business set a budget for its marketing mix at SCORE. For more advice on budgeting for marketing services, see "How to Create a Marketing Budget."

Research your market and marketing mix

A first step is to identify your customers - who they are, what their needs are, where they shop, and what they spend. Marketing firms are experts at gathering this data. Professional marketing services will tell you that there are two types of market research: primary and secondary. Primary is research you conduct yourself via focus groups, Internet surveys, consumer polls, and more, often assisted by marketing companies. Secondary is research you buy from marketing firms or that you find in newspaper and magazine articles. When you learn who your customer is, then you can build a marketing mix to reach them.

I recommend: Check out free market research resources at ResearchInfo.com or purchase secondary market research reports from MarketResearch.com, collected from many marketing firms. For help with primary research, look up marketing services resources at Quirk's Marketing Research Review and visit the forum for advice from business marketing companies on conducting research. Dig into targeted marketing services on Business.com, such as direct mail, business-to-business marketing and channel marketing.

Choose your marketing mix

Newspaper advertising? Postcard mailings? E-newsletters? Promotional products? Word-of-mouth? Decide on your mix of marketing and advertising that makes the most sense. If you suffer from analysis paralysis, consider professional marketing services to get you on the right path.

I recommend: Kick start your marketing and advertising brainstorming with "100+ Marketing Ideas" from the SBA. Find ideas for guerilla marketing techniques from expert Jay Conrad Levinson and check out "7 Low-cost Marketing Ideas" from AllBusiness.com.

Put a marketing and advertising plan on paper

Writing a marketing and advertising plan is key to creating a campaign that meets your goals and stays within budget. Your business marketing plan should include basic information about your business products and services, positioning, your target market, your overall business marketing strategy and your market research. In addition, your plan needs to detail the ways you'll promote your business and how you'll measure the return on investment in marketing and advertising and on your marketing services.

I recommend: Discover what goes into a marketing and advertising plan at the SBA Web site, then find sample business marketing plans, a marketing plan outline, a glossary of terms, a marketing calculator and more at Mplans.com. If you like the idea of a software program that will guide you through writing your plan, try popular business marketing plan software such as Marketing Plan Pro. Find more business marketing software at Business.com.

Get professional help from marketing firms

Marketing companies will guide you through the entire process of defining your business marketing strategy, establishing an effective marketing mix and selecting the right marketing services for your budget.

I recommend: Find marketing firms, industry specific marketing firms and marketing companies specializing in corporate branding at Business.com

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Stay alert to trends that might impact your target market, product or business marketing strategy.
• •  Hold a monthly business marketing meeting with employees or associates to discuss strategy, status, and to solicit marketing and advertising ideas.
• •  Keep an eye on how the competition is marketing by monitoring ads in the local media. There are marketing services that can monitor the competition for you and send regular reports.
• •  Regularly reassess your relationship with your marketing firms to make sure the marketing services you receive meet your ever-changing needs.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find your place among the online marketing & advertising trends

As marketing and advertising companies learn more about how consumers navigate the Web and use their Internet connections, they are becoming savvier about where to place your ads to reach your audience. B2B Internet advertising is facing more of a challenge, so you need to stay on top of the trends.

I recommend: Stay up-to-date with advertising and marketing online trends at eMarketer. You can get a daily email from the online publication with news and information. Interact with other Internet marketing pros and read up on the some of the latest analysis of online market trends at the What’s Next Blog hosted by B.L. Ochman.

Stay on top of the advertising business

While you can't spend your whole day reading about what every other marketing company is doing or what latest ad scheme your competitor has come up with, you need to stay informed about the latest news affecting your industry. Find niche publications that can narrow your focus and regularly feed you with the important news that you need so have each day.

I recommend: AdWeek is the premier, must-read publication for the advertising industry and covers the news and trends affecting the advertising and marketing world globally. Find out who got the latest big account and what new avenues are being broached for ad revenue from Smart Brief.

Get involved with advertising and marketing pros

You often can hear about the latest news affecting your industry before it even hits the press from a good gossip. Find ways to interact with your peers and be prepared to give and get important information on marketing.

I recommend: The American Association of Advertising Agencies holds regular meetings and conferences where you will have a chance to talk with your peers and find out the inside scoop. The Advertising Educational Foundation is supported by universities and private ad agencies to give industry profesionals a ton of resources from which to choose. Look for groups with local ties that affect your community.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Develop a corporate culture of information sharing by asking each team member to read an industry publication and present regular reports on the information about marketing that they've found.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Marketing plan

A marketing plan is a detailed outline of a company's product or service, who it plans to market it to, how it plans to market it, its marketing strengths, its marketing weaknesses, its competition and its budget.

I recommend: Marketing Plan Pro gives you a good example of a marketing plan and what it includes for you to look at.

Target market

Target market describes the specific group of people that a company plans to market to in order to sell its product or service. Target markets can be broken down by various factors, including age, gender, socioeconomic status, race and geographic location. Each business has its own target market and sometimes a business will have several target markets with different marketing strategies for each.

I recommend: Entrepreneur Media has an excellent definition of what a target market is and how you can identify yours.

Brand

A company's brand is the image that company conveys to its target audience through every aspect of its business operations. The branding of a company's image must be achieved and be consistent through print pieces, logos, product, word of mouth, customer service and more.

I recommend: American City Business Journals has a great article on company branding, what it is and tips on how to achieve it through all of your marketing efforts.

Marketing mix

A marketing mix is a combination of marketing tools and strategies aimed to market a product in several ways to a target audience. A marketing mix always involves the four Ps: product, price, place and promotion.

I recommend: Marketing Teacher details what a marketing mix is and breaks down the four Ps to help you understand each part they play in the marketing mix.

Direct mail

Direct mail is when a business delivers a printed advertising piece directly to its target audience through snail mail. If done right, direct mail can be an effective marketing and advertising tool for a business to increase sales and awareness of its product or service.

I recommend: Marigold Technologies defines what direct mail is in its direct marketing glossary definitions.

Promotional products

Promotional products are any products that a company gives away to raise awareness of its product, service or company brand. Examples include calendars, umbrellas, pens and more. Promotional products are an essential marketing and advertising tool for any business.

I recommend: Advertising Specialties Associates explains what promotional products are, why you should use them and how they can help your business.