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Paul Elliott
02-19-2009, 01:11 PM
I found this site that gives several links to marketing articles that make a very nice overview of marketing: HowStuffWorks "How Marketing Plans Work" (http://money.howstuffworks.com/marketing-plan.htm).

There are some valuable nuggets there.

Paul

Jagella
02-22-2009, 05:54 PM
I found this site that gives several links to marketing articles that make a very nice overview of marketing: HowStuffWorks "How Marketing Plans Work" (http://money.howstuffworks.com/marketing-plan.htm).

Well, Paul, whenever I have five hours free I'll have to finish that article. ;) What's impressed me so far is the need to have all employees of a business involved in its marketing efforts. That makes sense to me. I might add that it's a good idea to provide brand and marketing information to employees in written form—maybe a manual of some kind on a CD, printed, or on the company's website.

I think it's fair to say that few businesses go to that much effort to formulate a marketing plan. Maybe those are the businesses we don't hear much about anymore. I remember taking a course in college called “Business Policy and Strategy.” An essay question on one of the tests asked what's the most important segment of a business. I answered that marketing is the most important thing a business does. I still think marketing is the most vital effort in business.

Jagella

vangogh
02-23-2009, 01:28 AM
Thanks for the link Paul. I agree, it's a pretty good overview of marketing and worth a read. 5 hours Joe? C'mon it wasn't that long. 5 or 10 minutes is all you need to read it. More time to actually grasp it all, but not that long to read it.

Joe I think many businesses, at least successful ones, do have a marketing plan. It might not always be a formal document, but I do think many businesses know how things fit into their overall plan. For example I have no formal marketing plan written down, but I do know what my overall marketing plan is. I can tell you how just about everything I do fits into that plan and I'm always conscious of the brand I'm trying to build and how my actions might further that brand or detract from it.

Just H
02-23-2009, 11:01 AM
Looks like some great detailed info. Definitely a bit on the long side - want to set aside a good hour or more to read the 40 pages and try to let it sink in, much more if you click on all the links along the way. Not sure where 5 hours or 5 minutes came from but somewhere in the middle seems to be about right as far as I can tell from clicking through.

As far as I can see, every viable business has a marketing plan and any successful one has an extensive marketing plan and department with a hefty budget. These generally aren't all that visible to the casual consumer until you think about where you saw that ad and what caught your eye and how many times have you seen and what about the "hype" of the product made you want to purchase? How many have an online, in print and/or phone options for surveying your opinion of the product/service, offer promotional specials and other discounts, extensive warranties/guarantees? Did you notice the colors of the branding, the logo b/c it stood out as unique or didn't stand out at all b/c it just flowed so well? All these pieces and SO many more are generally the time, thought and energy of . . . you guessed it - the Marketing Department.

For me, the hard part is just being me and trying to figure out all these aspects with very little money to do it with. I will spend some time reading through this article and gleaning whatever useful info for my biz that I can.

Jagella
02-23-2009, 11:16 AM
Joe I think many businesses, at least successful ones, do have a marketing plan. It might not always be a formal document, but I do think many businesses know how things fit into their overall plan. For example I have no formal marketing plan written down, but I do know what my overall marketing plan is. I can tell you how just about everything I do fits into that plan and I'm always conscious of the brand I'm trying to build and how my actions might further that brand or detract from it.

In your case, Steve, a written marketing plan may not be necessary. You're a one-man operation, and you may not need to explain your marketing plan to other people. If you did have employees or partners, then I think a written plan would be necessary. Everybody involved could reference it.

Jagella

vangogh
02-23-2009, 12:00 PM
Did I miss something in the article. I saw about 7(?) pages. Was there a lot more after those 7 pages.

Joe most of us here aren't huge companies. I'd say one man (or woman) operations describes many of us here. All I'm saying is that we should still have plans for how we go about marketing our businesses. Even a company with a handful of employees can easily do the same thing. When the large corporations start visiting the small business forum we can worry about their problems.

H, don't think of it as needing a marketing department to make all these specific decisions. You want to be you. Think about who you are as a brand. How do you want other people to see you and your business. If you want others to see you as professional then make sure to be professional in everything you do publicly. Think about how you want people to see you and then be conscious of that.

An example on the opposite side might be a company that wants to get across the message they're the highest quality in the industry and then prices everything dirt cheap. That's an inconsistent message and any marketing isn't likely to succeed.

I think if you start with branding a lot of the rest falls into place a little more.

As far as other marketing it really comes down to figuring out who your market it (not always the easiest thing to do) and narrowing it down and refining it if necessary. Think about the different places your market probably spends its time and then make sure to have a presence in some of those places. If your market is elementary school teachers you want to make sure you're visible in the circles they frequent. Maybe that means a magazine ad or maybe it means running a class that can help them be better teachers.

I'm clearly being general and the above isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do, but I think it's the basic behind marketing success.

Paul Elliott
02-23-2009, 02:58 PM
Did I miss something in the article. I saw about 7(?) pages. Was there a lot more after those 7 pages.

Drop down to the bottom of the article. There are 40--some good, some not applicable to small companies.

Paul

vangogh
02-23-2009, 04:57 PM
That's what I get for jumping into the reading and clicking next right away. I never bothered to look below the ads. I guess I've only read the first article so far.

It does show how AdSense can interfere with a site. Had you not pointed it out I never would have noticed the other articles and I'd be done with the site. Had they been above the ads it might have kept me engaged with the site.

Paul Elliott
02-23-2009, 06:12 PM
It does show how AdSense can interfere with a site. Had you not pointed it out I never would have noticed the other articles and I'd be done with the site. Had they been above the ads it might have kept me engaged with the site.

Yep, I missed "the rest of the story" too when I first went to the site. Had I not clicked on the "more" button in the first list I would never have read all the ones below the ads.

There are several things that are not very good design elements of their site and content. But ... I guess not everyone can be as superb as those of us on the SBF. :D

Paul

vangogh
02-23-2009, 06:28 PM
Funny.

I've found some decent content at the site in general over the years, but yeah it could probably be better in the design. Of course I think their primary source of revenue is the ads so they're likely more interested in having us click one than worrying about us finding more content.

Paul Elliott
02-23-2009, 10:18 PM
Of course I think their primary source of revenue is the ads so they're likely more interested in having us click one than worrying about us finding more content.

You're probably correct.

Paul