business marketing

Market Planning Checklist

9:19 PM |

Before you launch a marketing campaign, answer the following questions about your business and your product or service.

Have you analyzed the total market for your product or service? Do you know which features of your product or service will appeal to different market segments?
In forming your marketing message, have you described how your product or service will benefit your clients?
Have you prepared a pricing schedule? What kinds of discounts do you offer, and to whom do you offer them?
Have you prepared a sales forecast?
Which media will you use in your marketing campaign?
Do your marketing materials mention any optional accessories or added services that consumers might want to purchase?
If you offer a product, have you prepared clear operating-and-assembly instructions if required? What kind of warranty do you provide? What type of customer service or support do you offer after the sale?
Do you have product liability insurance?
Is your packaging likely to appeal to your target market?
If your product is one you can patent, have you done so?
How will you distribute your product?

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Improve Sales With a Marketing Plan

9:18 PM |

Are you serious about growing your business? Then it's time to ditch your old "catch as catch can" marketing approach and put together a plan that you can manage along with the daily operations of your business. Too many entrepreneurs focus on marketing only during the slow times and, as a result, put their businesses on an economic roller coaster where it's always feast or famine. A well-planned marketing program helps you build sales year-round and is easier to manage because it removes the stress and anxiety of having to play catch-up every few months to jump-start sales.

Choose Your Tactics

The best marketing programs reach prospects with a smart mix of tactics. When it comes to marketing, being a Johnny-one-note is a bad idea because a single tactic is rarely sufficient to move prospects through the sales cycle.

Most every small business has three types of prospects: cold, warm and hot. Cold prospects know little or nothing about your business. Warmer prospects are familiar with your company and are about midway through the sales cycle. Your company's hottest prospects are those closest to closing or who've purchased from you in the past. Either you've successfully moved them through the sales cycle by exposing them to multiple marketing messages and sales contacts, or they've come to you by way of referral and simply need a bit more information or personal selling to make a purchase or sign a contract.

When creating your marketing program, it's essential to include at least one marketing tactic to reach each of these types of prospects. Cold prospects, for example, might be reached through newspaper ads or direct mail, warm prospects via an e-mail marketing campaign, and hot prospects might respond best to PowerPoint presentations along with face-to-face selling to add the final heat to close sales.

Choose a mix of tactics that'll reach and motivate your prospects--and fit your company's marketing budget. Whether you're bootstrapping or flush with funds, there's a group of tactics that'll work for you. Tighter budgets sometimes require tactics that take a bit more hands-on execution. For example, a cable TV campaign will reach cold prospects, but so will home parties-and for considerably less cash.

Put It on Paper

The trick to successfully balancing all your marketing tactics is to have a written plan with a manageable timeline. That way you can create your campaigns and materials well in advance of your deadlines and have them ready to go when you need them. You can also save money on design and copywriting fees by having many of your marketing tools--from ads and brochures to website copy--created at the same time. And you can lower your printing costs by having all your new marketing materials printed together.

Unless you're creating a marketing plan to help win funding (in which case you'll need a more elaborate, in-depth document), your company's marketing plan can be simple to create and easy to follow. There should be five principal parts:

1. Situation Analysis: Generally only about a page in length, this section provides a brief overview of your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This is a helpful benchmarking tool because when you review your plan a few months from now, you'll be able to see how your situation has changed.

2. Target Audience: If you're marketing to consumers, write a target audience profile based on demographics, such as age, gender and household income. If your target audience consists of other businesses, include a one paragraph or less description of those businesses here. This target audience description is absolutely invaluable when evaluating whether a particular publication or media opportunity will help you reach your best prospects.

3. Goals: Write a short, bulleted list of your company's marketing goals. Be sure to make them measurable, such as "increase new accounts by 10 percent by March 31," so you can evaluate the performance of your campaign.

4. Strategies and Tactics: Outline your company's overall marketing strategy and the list of tactics you'll use to reach prospects as they move through your sales cycle. Create a timeline or use software with a calendar function to note important production deadlines.

5. Budget: Price out the execution of the mix of marketing activities you've chosen. If they appear to take you over budget, don't get discouraged. Remember, there's a tactic to fit every budget. Rethink your plan until you have a mix of strategies you can afford and that'll reach out and motivate your prospects year-round.

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2 Businesses, 1 Marketing Plan

9:17 PM |

Can you imagine bringing together two different businesses for a single advertisement? Say Bud Light and GEICO create a Super Bowl ad together, or a local clothing retailer and a delicatessen join up to co-invest in a Yellow Pages ad. It's a strange idea, but it's not so unusual in a world in which marketing is more about adding value to customers' lives. Many businesses are discovering a way to drive efficiency, sales and happier customers by joining with other businesses around their common interests. This is one example of how the future of marketing will look a lot different--and a lot better--than the past.

Success with marketing increasingly does not lie in crafting new and better ways of placing advertisements in front of a customer. That traditional model is falling apart thanks to people's growing use of digital technology. In a world of growing customer control, the only thing we as businesses can do to attract people and grow sales is to create advertising that people choose to engage with and marketing that itself improves people's lives; a concept I call "Marketing with Meaning."

When you think about how your marketing can add value, seemingly strange ideas like partnering with another business suddenly make sense. Two businesses working together can create a better, combined solution or experience that benefits their joint customers and bottom lines.

For example, each year my suburban township holds a "Daddy-Daughter Dance." The dance is such a big event that it actually stretches over two nights to accommodate all of the demand. Herein lays an opportunity for relevant local businesses to band together, making the experience even greater for all and to sell heaps in the process. A children's clothing store and men's clothier could combine to host a fashion show for mothers and daughters to pick out dresses and ties.

The core idea of marketing with meaning is that businesses must take a step back and consider the higher level needs of your customers. People don't visit a restaurant for a meal--they actually want to have a lovely night out. Therefore a restaurant owner might partner with local theaters and babysitting services to help deliver on this need. People trust their accountant with their taxes, but they have higher level needs for income security and professional advice on life changes. Therefore an accountant might team up with a personal attorney to offer a seminar on retirement planning and living wills.

Before moving forward with a partnership, make sure both your target customer base and business cultures overlap. Building a strong, personal relationship with your partner business is crucial--so if you don't feel trust, back away quickly.

And don't limit yourself to other small businesses. Even large companies and brands may be willing to partner. Specifically look for those with a strong local presence and desire to bond with the community. For example, recently at my neighborhood Starbucks the store allowed a personal trainer to hand out fliers offering a free class.

Whether it's a Starbucks store manager or a fellow entrepreneur at a community luncheon, it costs nothing to reach out and pitch the possibility of partnership. Just make sure you know what's in it for them, for you and for your joint customer. You just might reach a new audience, lower your marketing costs and create something that customers rave about.

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Five Reasons Why Your Mission Statement Probably Stinks

9:16 PM |

I can probably count on one hand the number of great company mission statements I've seen in my over two decades in marketing. While most business owners have been told that they need to have a mission statement, not everyone has been instructed on how to create one that's useful and meaningful.

By definition, a mission statement communicates the fundamental purpose and values of a business or organization. In simpler terms, your mission statement should make it clear why your company exists. It guides decision making and keeps your business on track over the long term when micro- and macro-environmental factors can make it easy to veer off course. For example, marketing messages, brand image and new product development must complement the mission statement. Discord may lead to reduced results or worse -- failure.

Even corporate marketing executives have trouble understanding what makes a mission statement useful. Take for instance the following mission statement which belongs to the management company behind a popular airport in the U.S. (Note: The city name has been replaced with "City-Name."): "Our Mission: Provide safe, secure, customer friendly, affordable transportation services, and facilities that promote the City-Name Experience."

What's wrong with this mission statement? It demonstrates several of the most common mistakes that make a mission statement, well, stink. Here are the five primary reasons why mission statements fail, and how you can avoid them.

Reason 1: Generalization

Insert the name of your local airport into the real airport mission statement above. Does the mission statement work? This mission statement stinks because it could apply to just about any airport in the world. Yours should be specific. A mission statement must be tailored to your company -- otherwise it's useless.

Reason 2: Fluff

There is no room for corporate rhetoric in a mission statement. The airport mission statement example is filled with buzz words that are vague and meaningless. Get to the point. If your employees can't relate to your mission statement, then it won't mean much to your customers, either.

Reason 3: Confusion

Did it take dozens of people and meetings to develop your mission statement? Sometimes simplicity is the key to clearly communicating the root of what your business is about. If your mission isn't obvious from the start, then you should consider going back to the drawing board, because you're not ready to put it into an official statement yet.

Reason 2: Fluff

Reason 3: Confusion

Bottom line, your business's mission statement is the nucleus of your company and, by extension, its marketing communications. If you and your employees can't clearly communicate your purpose for being in business and what makes your company unique and meaningful, then you most likely won't be able to create effective marketing strategies and communications. Start at the beginning by developing a solid mission statement that defines your company.

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How to Keep Your Marketing Rolling While You're on Vacation

9:14 PM |

Do you plan to work during your summer vacation? Or at least check email and voicemail?

If so, you're not alone. Fifty percent of salespeople and 37 percent of information technology and financial services professionals check in with work while they're on vacation, CNN says. It's often just too tempting to check in when your iPhone or BlackBerry is in your beach bag next to your sunscreen, bottle of water and a bestselling novel on your Kindle.

But even though mobile technologies help keep us connected 24/7 from practically anywhere on the planet, it's important to find a balance between monitoring your business and disconnecting from the daily grind. With that in mind, here are seven ways you can put your engagement marketing campaigns on autopilot while you take a well-earned break:

1. Keep email newsletters brief. If you usually include two or three features in your e-newsletter, write just one. Or, if you publish a monthly newsletter, combine two months into one. Think of a topic related to your business or industry that will help your customers through the summer months and write your summer email newsletter in advance so you won't have to work on this as your vacation nears.

2. Pre-schedule your social media posts. You can pre-schedule your business's Twitter and Facebook posts by using a tool such as HootSuite. Just remember, if you're going to start a conversation on social media, someone has to be available to monitor and respond to feedback. Either pack your smartphone so you can respond to tweets from the beach, or assign a reliable employee to monitor the channels for you.

That goes for anything you preschedule -- whether it's an email newsletter, a social media discussion or other form of customer engagement. Make sure there's someone there to respond when customers express interest.

3. Set an email auto-reply that says "we're open for business." Don't leave your customers hanging while you're off parasailing. If you're prescheduling your email newsletter, an event reminder or other marketing campaign, change your standard auto-reply email that says, "I'm currently out of the office" to something more fun and creative that lets customers know the business is still operating in your absence. Direct queries to whoever is covering for you so your customers won't have to wait too long to get the help they need.

4. Consolidate social media activity. If you just can't bring yourself to completely disconnect, consider using a free service like NutshellMail, which delivers your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media activity right to your email and smartphone.

5. Schedule "work time" on vacation and stick to it. Make a promise to yourself and your friends and family that you'll only check your email once in the morning and once again at night. That's it. Then leave your phone in your hotel room or turn it off and enjoy your day.

6. Add new acquaintances to your mailing list. Admit it: You'll probably slip a few business cards into your beach tote, backpack or Bermuda shorts. Whether you meet new friends at a resort or on a cruise, or gather with old friends at a backyard barbecue, don't miss an opportunity to grow your connections. Ask your fellow summer celebrants if they'd like to join your mailing list or connect with you on Facebook and Twitter.

7. Clear your head. Sometimes creative brainstorms happen when you're not working at all. While you're soaking up the rays, reading by a lake or hiking up a mountain -- however you kick back -- take a moment to think about what's worked and what hasn't in this year's marketing campaigns. Muse about what would be important to retool or try, and put those items on your post-vacation to-do list.

If you plan ahead and use the tools and technologies at hand, you'll be able to relax and enjoy your vacation while also remaining productive.

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Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

9:12 PM |

While your business plan generally outlines your entire business, a standalone marketing plan focuses specifically, and in more detail, on just that one function. When business owners want to dive deeper into their marketing strategy they will likely put together a detailed plan that outlines their marketing goals -- as well as the steps needed to accomplish them.

The standard components of an effective marketing plan can vary depending on who you ask. Here is my recommended five-step process for developing a marketing plan that will help you achieve your goals for business growth.

Step One: Look inward.

Think of your company as if it were a person with its own unique personality and identity. With that in mind, create separate lists that identify your business's strengths, weaknesses and goals. Put everything down and create big lists. Don't edit or reject anything.

Then, find priorities among the bullet points. If you've done this right, you'll have more than you can use, and some more important than others. Kick some of the less important bullets off the list and move the ones that are important to the top.

This sometimes requires input from your managers as well. For example, your management team thinks being conservative on spending is a weakness but you don't. That might be something to drop off the list.

Step Two: Look outward.

The next list you'll need to make outlines your business's opportunities and threats. Think of both as external to your business -- factors that you can't control but can try to predict. Opportunities can include new markets, new products and trends that favor your business. Threats include competition and advances in technology that put you at a disadvantage.

Also make a list of invented people or organizations who serve as ideal buyers or your ideal target market. You can consider each one a persona, such as a grandmother discovering email or a college student getting his or her first credit card. These people are iconic and ideal, and stand for the best possible buyer.

Put yourself in the place of each of these ideal buyers and then think about what media he or she uses and what message would communicate your offering most effectively. Keep your identity in the back of your mind as you flesh out your target markets.

Step Three: Focus on strategy.

Now it's time to pull your lists together. Look for the intersection of your unique identity and your target market. In terms of your business offerings, what could you drop off the list because it's not strategic? Then think about dropping those who aren't in your target market.

For example, a restaurant business focused on healthy, organic and fine dining would probably cater to people more in tune with green trends and with higher-than-average disposable income. So, it might rule out people who prefer eating fast-food like hamburgers and pizza, and who look for bargains.

The result of step three is strategy: Narrow your focus to what's most in alignment with your identity and most attractive to your target market. In other words, focus on the area that is shared by all three lines in the diagram here.

Step Four: Set measurable steps.

Get down to the details that are concrete and measurable. Your marketing strategy should become a plan that includes monthly review, tracking and measurement, sales forecasts, expense budgets and non-monetary metrics for tracking progress. These can include leads, presentations, phone calls, links, blog posts, page views, conversion rates, proposals and trips, among others.

Match important tasks to people on your team and hold them accountable for their successes and failures.

Step Five: Review often and revise.

Just as with your business plan, your marketing plan should continue to evolve along with your business. Your assumptions will change, so adapt to the changing business landscape. Some parts of the plan also will work better than others, so review and revise to accommodate what you learn as you go.

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Writing a Business Plan? Don't Forget About Marketing Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225358#ixzz2kary1p54

9:10 PM |

For those who dream of escaping cubicles to pursue a passion, drafting a business plan is the first step. One of your plan's most critical elements is your marketing strategy. Too often, people don't think through that all-important component with the same rigor they tackle aspects like projected cash flow and long-term goals.

Or, they do put thought and effort into planning for market research, promotion and positioning -- and then never follow through on their great ideas.

One problem is that most entrepreneurs don't have marketing experience. They may be skilled tradesmen, savvy financial advisers or talented writers -- expert in the niche they plan to build their business around -- but they're not marketers. Some don't realize that executing a solid marketing strategy is essential to any venture's success. Others know it's important but don't know where to begin.

Here's why it's so important: No matter how ingenious your product or service, no one will find it if they don’t know it’s there.

The marketing component of your business plan should include a budget for time, if you plan to tackle the job yourself, and money. You need a timetable and a professional website that attracts visitors and makes it easy for them to learn more about you, your product or service -- and equally easy to purchase what you're selling.

Here are some other points to consider as you're developing your marketing plan:

What is my message?

Your message needs to be more than "My product is great." What's the problem it solves? If you're a professional, what's the value you and your service offer? How are you different from your competition? As an example: At my marketing firm, we create visibility and credibility for our clients using a pay-for-performance model that guarantees media exposure and sets us apart from our peers.

Who is my audience?

Unless you have a niche product, consider your potential audience in terms of ever-expanding ripples. For instance, a collapsible coffeepot may be just the thing for a college student's tiny dorm room. That's your initial target audience. But his parents and grandparents, who are helping outfit that dorm room, might also be audiences. If they've downsized their living quarters, they might just want one for themselves, too. It also could be great for campers, boaters -- anyone living in a small space.

Which are the appropriate media outlets for a public-relations campaign?

Social media is great for niche products because online forums build communities around common interests. Daytime TV talk shows tend to have audiences with lots of women. Most newspaper readers are now 55 or older. Once you have decided who your audience is, figure out what they're watching, listening to, reading and doing online, then customize your message for that medium and audience.

What's your budget?

When you've answered these questions, you should be able to determine how much marketing you can do yourself, if any, and how much you'll need help with. If you're handling it yourself, budget for the time it will take to do things like keeping your website active with fresh blog posts once or twice a week, posting content on social media and developing pitches to get print, radio or TV interested. If you plan to pay a professional for marketing services, use your marketing plan to explore the costs and timetable, and budget accordingly.

Whether you're launching a dream or re-evaluating your existing business, it all starts with a solid plan. Marketing should be fundamental part of that plan. It's what drives the business, so it can't be an afterthought.

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Apple's Simple Marketing Manifesto

9:09 PM |

The first glimmer of what was to become tech giant Apple Co. appeared in 1971 when electronics engineer Steve Wozniak developed the circuit board that would evolve into the Apple I computer. But in Walter Isaacson's new biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Wozniak says Apple probably never would have existed had it not been for Jobs' vision for selling the computers in consumer-focused packaging.

In the book, Isaacson describes an encounter between Jobs, Wozniak and Wozniak's father, Jerry, a rocket scientist who usually discounted the merits of anyone who wasn't an engineer. During the exchange, Jerry told Jobs (in slightly more aggressive language) that he hadn't actually created anything and didn't deserve a 50 percent stake in the burgeoning business. To that, Jobs, still a teenager, began to cry, and said he'd walk away and let Wozniak run the operation himself.

But Wozniak understood the harmony between himself and Jobs, and knew the company wouldn't exist without Jobs' entrepreneurial drive. "It was Jobs who had turned his [Wozniak's] ingenious designs into a budding business," Isaacson writes.

Indeed, it was Jobs who pioneered Apple's customer first, a "computer for the rest of us" marketing plan. Instead of creating products they wanted to make, Jobs aimed to produce products that addressed consumers' needs, feelings and motivations.

By 1977, as Jobs and Wozniak were frenzied, taking orders for the Apple I and looking for venture capital as they developed the Apple II, the men brought on investor Mike Markkula into the business. In addition to injecting $250,000 into the company and becoming a third partner, Markkula penned "The Apple Marketing Philosophy," a three-point call to action that has served the company well. It can also be an example for other startup businesses.

Point No. 1: Empathy
Apple should strive for an "intimate" connection with customers' feelings. "We will truly understand their needs better than any other company," Markkula wrote.

Point No. 2: Focus
To be successful, Apple should center its efforts on accomplishing its main goals, and eliminate all the "unimportant opportunities."

Point No. 3: Impute
Apple should be constantly aware that companies and their products will be judged by the signals they convey. "People DO judge a book by its cover," Markkula wrote. "We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities."

What do you think has been critical to Apple's marketing strategy? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Seven Ways Business Owners Can Beat the January Doldrums Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222488#ixzz2karJFZuK

9:08 PM |

Well, it's after Christmas -- and after the after-Christmas sales.

For many businesses, especially in retail and ecommerce, January can be a dead month -- even in a good economy. Employee morale may plummet, and yours may not be so upbeat, either.

How can you perk up your post-holiday bottom line? Here are seven suggestions:

Have a clearance party. If you need to clear out leftovers from holiday time, make an event out of it. Maybe give customers who turn up first pick of your new merchandise, too.
Take a poll. Now is a great time to involve customers -- letting them help shape your plans for 2012. Give limited-time coupons to participants and up your winter traffic. Then, when you give customers exactly what they asked for, they'll flock back.
Trim expenses. This lull is a great time to revisit all those niggling little costs that bug you, but you never have time to address. Get new, competitive bids on your phone service, insurance, copying, shipping, accounting and any other outsourced, independent services. Remember, spending less grows your net income just as much as selling more does.
Network. Take advantage of the downtime to get to those networking events you've been meaning to attend. Or maybe start a new mastermind group of local business owners and play host.
Buy closeouts. Be on the lookout for stores that are closing down after the holidays, and see what you can snap up at bargain prices. You can also attend merchandise auctions, or hit closeout websites online. In this economy, there should be tons of activity for the next couple of months, as retail losers ditch their leftovers. Remember, the secret of many big retail chains' profits is end-caps full of $1 items they bought for a penny.
Look for opportunities. Are new retail spaces opening up near you? January is a time when desperate landlords make deals to keep stores occupied. If competitors are going bust or scaling back, it might be time to market more aggressively to capture market share.
Learn. Take a class, attend a conference, or connect with a mentor. Read more widely to understand trends in your industry. Make sure you're keeping up with the technology you need for success -- if you're boggled by how to make your website more mobile-friendly or how to create an app, now's the time to solve it. Increasing your knowledge and skills now will lay the groundwork for success in 2012, no matter what the economy does.

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The Five Broad Strokes of Marketing

9:05 PM |

A lot of marketing theory confuses people because it’s more complicated than it has to be. While wondrous new technologies can help you in your mission of raising your profits, marketers don’t let those technologies blur that mission. Keeping it simple is a powerful competitive advantage when it comes to speed and profitability.

The seller is happy when the buyer is happy. So make as many buyers happy as you can. That requires quality and service, but that’s why you’re here -- and it’s not complicated.

The entire process is made up of five broad strokes. Take those strokes and add as many bells, whistles, systems, technologies, apps and economic doodads as you want -- but be sure that all five broad strokes are taken. Do that and you’ll never think that marketing has to be anything that Simple Simon couldn’t handle with his right hand tied behind him.

1. Listen to find a problem you can solve. The first broad stroke doesn’t require any of your hands -- only your ears. The first broad stroke is your ability to listen. Be alert for problems. Be alert in social situations and the social media. Be alert in the attention you pay to the mass media. Are people talking about problems they have, problems that need solving?

Zero in on the problems that don’t yet have solutions. Pick a problem that you can solve. That’s how you respond to opportunity.

2. Pricing the solution. The second broad stroke is determining how much it will cost you to solve that problem. Maybe you can solve it with information and with service. If not, how much will it cost you to make it or buy it? Be very careful with this step, as with all the broad strokes, to overlook nothing. Broad strokes tend to magnify errors, so you don’t want to make even the most minor mistake.

3. Marketing. When you tally the costs of producing your offering, don’t overlook the costs of marketing it. And don’t overlook the necessity to market it.

If you build a better mousetrap, the world won’t beat a path to your door unless they know about that mousetrap. They learn about it from your marketing, especially if it’s marketing.

If you’ve come up with a truly nifty solution, the marketing for it will catch wind and fan out to others who have long been searching for a solution. It’s nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you market.

It is now well understood why people patronize the businesses that they do. It’s known that they favor products and services that they trust, a human characteristic that has given rise to a phenomenon called “branding.” Branding helps people trust you. One of the jobs of a marketer is to convince customers to trust his or her offering.

Of course, quality is one of the factors that earn trust. And that’s why it’s part of the third broad stroke. Another factor that gains gobs of trust -- and gives the little guy an edge over the big guy -- is the ability to service what he sells. Don’t forget that one of your sacred goals is make your customers happy. Terrific service does just that.

4. Service what you sell. Terrific service is not necessarily free for you to provide. And yes, it does require effort. In particular, it requires a person who wants to deliver it and doesn’t do it just because he’s supposed to.

Factor in the cost of service right along with the cost of marketing and cost of goods.

5. Earn profits. The fifth broad stroke is what marketing should be all about. Not sales. Not store traffic. Not turnover. Not responses to an offer. Not hits to a website. Not awards. Not sales records. Not any metric you can name. That fifth broad stroke is profits, what’s left over after you’ve deducted the cost of everything else in your business. No matter how glowing the other numbers in your business may be, it’s the profits that should glow, that keep you in business, that enable you to grow your business, that attract investors, that entice buyers of companies, and that ought to be the prime reason you went into business.

It’s your job to grow healthy profits every year. You owe that to yourself, your employees, your family, and your future. That’s why profits best reflect your success. Profits are elusive. Profits are honest. Profits are hard-earned. But profits are not complicated.

They are the fifth of the five broad strokes of success, and they are crucial to your company’s health. But earning them is not a winding road. Instead it is a straight road, possibly uphill, but always leading to exactly where you envision going.

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business marketing

Blogroll

Market Planning Checklist

Improve Sales With a Marketing Plan

2 Businesses, 1 Marketing Plan

Five Reasons Why Your Mission Statement Probably Stinks

How to Keep Your Marketing Rolling While You're on Vacation

Five Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

Writing a Business Plan? Don't Forget About Marketing Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225358#ixzz2kary1p54

Apple's Simple Marketing Manifesto

Seven Ways Business Owners Can Beat the January Doldrums Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222488#ixzz2karJFZuK

The Five Broad Strokes of Marketing

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