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Today we’re talking about how to write the Marketing Overview Section of your business plan.

A. Remember this section will come just after the Business Overview once you have a clear understanding of your business’s . . .
1.    industry
2.    objectives
3.    mission
4.    available opportunities

C.    So, before we get started, I want to know how you are doing with the first part of your Marketing Overview.  I am excited, as always, to hear from those of you who have emailed us with your excitement and enthusiasm over finally being able to get your business plans written.  If you are having any problems with writing the Business Overview section or have any questions, please email us at comments@microbizcoach.com or you can comment in our blog as well at www.microbizcoachblog.com.

D. So, we have divided this section into 2 parts to preserve the short and sweet length of the podcast Creating your Business Plan lessons.  The major components of Part 1 were, Defining Your Market & Researching the Competition.  Now you are ready to determine how you will penetrate your market and what your general marketing strategy will be.


1.    Penetrating Your Market
a)    It’s important for you to give yourself a game plan of how you will enter the market for your product or service and make people take notice that you are open for business and ready to compete.
b)    To do this you must ask and answer for yourself three major questions:
c)    First: How will you penetrate or break into this market and claim your share of the target customers?
Now that you know there is a market for your business and you know who the market is, you must decide on the best tactics to use to introduce your business to this target market.

So, you’ll want to give them a reason to look at you for example, will your price be different?  Will your promotional strategy be different?  Will your product have an edge over your competitors product?  These are things you can promote about your business to make it stand out so your target market takes notice.
d)    Second: What percentage of the target customer should you be able to reach with this strategy?
Once you decide how to penetrate your target market you should indicate the percentage of customers that you will attract with that particular method.  

Most small and micro business owners will used multiple market penetration strategies that are fairly inexpensive.  For example, some may choose to write a Press Release introducing their business.  The Press Release would highlight the characteristic that makes it different from the competition.  

Press Release Distributors
www.PRlead.com
www.i-newswire.com
www.pr.com

Micro Biz Coach will also write or review your press release for a nominal fee.
e)    Third:  What is your 3 – 5 year growth projection?
Now, why would we want to do a 3-5 year growth projection?  Well, at least 44% of businesses fail after 4 yrs and many do so because of an incomplete plan.  Actually, many businesses start quickly out of necessity or on a whim and never actually create a plan.  And those that do have a business plan, have not created it themselves so for all practical purposes, they don’t have a plan because they don’t implement the one that was created for them.  I mean haven’t you seen those long intimidating business plans? Most investors don’t even want to read them!  

So we suggest a 3-5 year growth projection partly because if you still have strategies for growth at this time it gets you over the common period of down-turn in the lifespan of a small or micro business owner.

The next questions is, how do we do a growth projection?  Let’s do some internet searches on the normal growth of a similar company in your industry.  Yahoo finance is a good place to go to look at the market trends and analysis of similar companies.  You can find this at finance.yahoo.com.
2.    The fourth and final major component of this section is the overall Marketing Strategy.
a)    The first question to answer here is:  How will you promote your business?
Do you know the best or most common form of advertising for your type of product and/or service.  For example, will you customers benefit from word of mouth promotion or do they need to experience your product (or service) first and aren’t primarily influenced by popularity?  Just go back to the data you gathered about your customers to figure this one out.
b)    Second:  Will you use the preferred ad method right away or wait until your business revenues increase to a certain amount?
The preferred advertising method is always encouraged as long as there is money I the bank so to speak.  However, if you are running off slim pickings (i.e. Finances) you should try all sorts of guerilla marketing strategies first.  Large companies have even benefited from some guerilla marketing strategies:  the great comeback of the Hushpuppies for example.
c)    Third:  What frequency is needed for the type of advertising you will choose?
Each advertising media has it’s own frequency that is most effective for its genre.  Guerilla Marketing, by Jay Conrad Levinson is a great resource for determining these frequency rates for different advertising media.
d)    Fourth:  When is the best time to employ each strategy?
Because some businesses are affected by the changes in the seasons whether it’s the holiday season or the actual seasons of the Earth.  So be cognizant of this when you choose your method of advertising.  For example if your selling Independence Day products, you may just want to do some low cost subtle advertising to keep your company name in the mind of your target customer through the off season.  You may even choose not to advertise at all.

3.    Well, again, you should take a week or two to complete this second part of your business plan and stay tuned to the Micro Biz Coach podcast for Lesson 3 of Creating Your Business Plan when we will talk about how to write the Organizational Section.

II.    Micro Biz Newz
A.    Enter the Forbes “Boost Your Business” contest – Forbes.com for your chance to win 100 thousand dollars!
1.    Goto boost.perfectprize.com
2.    Submit the name of your business (a small but growing companies) along with a 500 word description of how you would use the money.
3.    How does your business make money, it’s value proposition to potential customers, advantages over competition.  
4.    Map clear reasonable chart for growth demonstrating how you will use the 100K to boost you business to greater revenue.

5.    Deadline is May 31.

III.    Micro Biz Spotlight
A.    Today in the Micro Biz Spotlight:  BodyEez.com
B.    Body Eez is a multi-purpose gel. Use Body Eez for temporary relief of body aches and pains associated with arthritis, rheumatism, or just tired aching muscles and joints from strenuous activity or overuse.
C.    So it sounds like a good cure-all for weightlifters or other athletes, and definitely the aging population.
D.    Body Eez® is a registered trademark and the product is proven in it’s industry and has been around for over 20 years!
E.    To learn more about this life changing analgesic visit them at www.bodyeez.com.  That’s www.b-o-d-y-e-e-z.com.
F.    If you find a micro business you feel is worthy of our spotlight please email us at spotlight@microbizcoach.com.  That’s spotlight@microbizcoach.com.

 

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