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Marketing Plan

July 25th, 2010

Creating a marketing plan for your business is crucial. Without one, it would be difficult for a business to generate revenue and successfully make a profit. It’s essential you devise a plan that will clearly define the value of your products or services, with the end result benefiting your customers.

Gathering What Counts

There are four major areas that you must have information about before creating a marketing plan: business resume`, target market, product message, and ‘how-to’ get the message to prospective customers (advertising).

Business Resume: Clarity is the objective of a business resume`. Within the text, list the strengths of your product or service. Think of it as molding your knowledge. After all, would you write a marketing plan about something you know nothing about?

Target Market: Five simple questions will assist you in identifying your target market. Who are they? What is their age? What is the average income? What is their status? Do they have children? It’s important that you evaluate your target market to determine ‘what’ product or service would sell the best.

Product Message: A product message is a ‘direct call to action.’ This message must create value in the minds of everyone, that hears it, and for every feature, you offer a direct benefit to the customer must be demonstrated.

Advertising: Advertising is an appealing and compelling invitation to buy your product or service. It is an investment that should never be an expense. Finding the right advertisement takes trial and error, what marketers` refer to as “test” advertising. First time out of the box and you can’t expect immediate results.

Every business needs an outline of how they plan to approach the market. Make certain that you address the following questions in the process.

1. What medium is the most popular among your target market? (TV or Radio)

2. What is the percentage of participants in watching or listening to these mediums?

3. Do they read the local paper or magazine?

4. Should you consider direct mail?

Think of writing a marketing plan as breaking down the important elements and charting a path to success. These strategies will be of great assistance when faced with possibility of failure. Business owners need to step into the world of marketing with confidence and knowing where to begin writing your marketing plan is a start.

By: Matt Bacak

About the Author:
Matt Bacak became “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours. Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories. Discover The Secrets To Unleash The Powerful Promoter In You! Sign up for Matt Bacak’s Promoting Tips Ezine ($100 value) just visit his website at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or http://promotingtips.com

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Realtor’s Guide to Lead Management

June 2nd, 2010

You’ve done your homework, invested in software, worked hard and now you have what you were after…leads–and plenty of them. But now what? You are so busy showing properties, getting feedback, and going to closings. And as your day-to-day tasks as a realtor begin to overwhelm you, your leads just sit in your database. You try to make contact with the prospects here and there but nothing is done with consistency. You even spend money on marketing postcards, but there really isn’t much of a response. You feel hopeless.

Don’t worry, you are not alone. Did you know it takes on average 7 contacts with a prospect before you make a sale? A lot of realtors never achieve that number. Why? To put it simply–lack of time.

There are two ways to solve the problem of a nonexistent lead management system. One–come up with a detailed plan of contact or two–enlist a real estate virtual assistant to manage your database for you.

If you go for the first option, you have to be specific and consistent. Say you have 100 leads in your database who fall into your niche. You should come up with a monthly plan of contact. Say month one you send a sales letter, month two you make a follow-up call, month three you send a postcard and month four you email an interesting real estate article. You continue doing something every month for one year. Guess who many of your leads will call when they decide to list? You would probably make the short list of agents. This is just one example of a system you could incorporate into your schedule. But there is still that dreaded time issue.

If you really want to solve your lack of marketing predicament, hire a real estate virtual assistant. What is a virtual assistant (VA)? It is someone who works from her office and applies her unique skill set to assist you. In this case a VA could help organize your database, create and execute a marketing plan as well as design your marketing pieces; thereby setting you free to work face-to-face with your clients.

Whether you manage your marketing on your own or hire a virtual assistant to handle it for you, you must take action. Expensive lead management systems won’t help you succeed if you don’t put them to good use.

By: Evy Schwartz

About the Author:
Evy Schwartz is an expert at copywriting, marketing and lead management for realtors. She owns ELS Virtual Solutions, a company that helps realtors grow their business and gain success. You can find more informations at http://elsvirtualsolutions.com

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Contractor Business Marketing – Canvassing As a Marketing Tool

May 2nd, 2010

Have you considered canvassing for your contractor business? Are your leads trickling in? A well-run canvassing campaign can boost those lead numbers and increase sales in no time.

Canvassing Basics

Most people are familiar with canvassing as it pertains to political campaigns, or those annoying religious groups who ring the bell just as you sit down for dinner. In fact, it is often because of the negative connotations with canvassing established by such groups that contractors don’t consider this option for their overall marketing plan.

Yes, canvassing is going door-to-door. When run properly, canvassing can be a very effective direct contact marketing tool that, at the very least, will put a brochure with your company’s name and phone number on it in the hands of a homeowner. In a best-case scenario, the canvasser will leave the doorstep with a scheduled estimate or demonstration, or have the homeowner scrambling to call the sales rep to schedule such an appointment.

Who does the canvassing? This depends on how you want to run it. As the contractor business owner, you can go door-to-door yourself, although this probably isn’t a good use of your time. You can have employees ringing doorbells in the neighborhood where an install is happening (or has just been completed). Or, if you really want to do it right, you can hire part-timers (many political campaigns will employee college students looking to make an extra buck or two) to do the canvassing. How you choose to go about it will be influenced by a number of factors, including workforce, time, and budget. If you do choose to hire part-time canvassers, you’ll want to hire a canvassing manager to oversee these new employees.

Your canvassing manager can be you, the owner, an employee hired from within the company, or an outsider. Having a canvassing manager is vital to a successful canvassing campaign. The manager is responsible for recruiting, interviewing and hiring, training, and tracking of canvassers. This is no small task. It is wise to consider assigning this role to someone within the company, as they will be very effective when it comes to training the canvassers on the particulars of the business.

To conduct a canvassing campaign, the canvassers need to be trained, and they should have a “script” that they follow when the door opens. Having the dialogue arranged and practice is crucial to moving things along to compel the homeowner to action, i.e. scheduling an estimate or calling the business to do so. When canvassing in a neighborhood where the business is doing-or has done-a job, it is smart to point homeowners in the direction of that job, so they can see what kind of work you do. This is why it is wise to canvass in neighborhoods where you are currently doing an install.

Investment and Return

It is difficult to put a number on the return expected from a canvassing campaign, but there can be no doubt that this form of marketing can increase leads, particularly when done correctly. And in this economy, generating leads is on the fore of every contractor business owner’s mind. What to do with those leads is another matter. Canvassing leads can be slightly different from other leads, and it is a good idea to prepare your sales staff to deal with them. They may require a little extra attention.

With regards to the cost of such a campaign, it will depend on how it is run. When hiring part-time help to do the door-to-door work, you’re looking at evaluating payroll ($/hour, hours/week, # of employees, etc.), and other overhead costs (pamphlet or brochure costs).

For contractor businesses inclined to run a canvassing campaign but short on specifics, consider hiring a professional canvassing consultant, like CanvassKing, LLC (www.canvassking.com). These consulting companies will work over the phone with contractors, to train the canvassing manager, help put brochures together, guide the sales staff on dealing with canvassing leads, and offer suggestions on the “script” that the canvassers will use. CanvassKing charges $297 per month for their entry-service, which requires a year-long commitment. It’s a worthwhile investment for the business hoping to get their canvassing campaign right.

By Benjamin E. Hardy

By: Benjamin Hardy

About the Author:
http://www.contractorblab.comhttp://www.canvassking.com

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