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WHAT IS AN ACTION MARKETING STRATEGY PLAN?

    The first step is an interactive marketing brainstorm session that covers the elements of a strategic and tactical marketing plan. It is a great opportunity to get out of the day to day to think broader and more strategically. It is also a great way to bring the management team together to build excitement about the company.

 

Marketing Strategy must come first.
Innovative companies have great product ideas, but often fail because not enough attention is placed on marketing. It’s important to know who your target customer is and how your offering will appeal to them. 

 

Marketing Tactics come second.
It’s easy to design an ad or send an email and think that everyone will call to order your product. But unless the message and audience are right, these efforts can be a waste of money. By taking a strategic approach to marketing, tactics are not executed until the strategy is solid. This will save you money because the tactics you execute will be more effective in reaching your best target prospects.

THE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF AN ACTION MARKETING STRATEGY PLAN 

MARKETING STRATEGY:

STRATEGY COMES FIRST.

  • Features and Benefits: what does the product do, but more importantly, how does it make a difference

  • Positioning: Product X is the {what} for {who} because {why}

  • Competitive Advantage: what does your product do that no other product does

  • Target Customer: market to everyone and sell to no one!

  • Name and brand identity: a logo and a tagline that clearly conveys what you are offering

  • Pricing strategy - low price, high quality, or value pricing

MARKETING TACTICS:

TACTICS FOLLOW STRATEGY.

  • Collateral: This is a fancy name for your fact sheet and materials. It is important to talk about the benefits of your product and not just the features. Keep your main piece to one page and point your prospects to a website.

  • Website: Having an effective website is critical and will save you money as less printed materials will be needed.

  • Direct Marketing: It is easy to think that everyone will respond to a mailing. A good response rate is only 2% so if you send 100 postcards, a good response is 2. The mailing list is more important than what your creative looks like.

  • Advertising: It is often hard to measure advertising. It is important to have a call to action in your ad. 

  • Digital Marketing: Having an online presence in the right mediums can be effective for generating conversation.

  • Conferences/Trade Shows: Talking to prospects in person is very helpful for gathering market input. Offer a creative giveaway to remind people to contact you. Gather contact information from attendees and follow up.

  • Public Relations: A published article is a way to get free exposure and encourage people to call you. The press is more interested in a human interest story than  a product announcement. 

NEXT STEP: EXECUTE

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