Definition of "Marketing".
"All those things we do in business
that assist in developing a more satisfying relationship with
present and potential customers and with the community at
large."
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Marketing should be done "From
The Inside Out".
Inside out marketing
means you start your marketing plan from the core of your business, your
order fulfillment.
Staff training is paramount.
Inside out marketing
breaks down into several components.
-
Staff
- Is your staff aware, and comfortable with, the procedures to
fill an order?
- Are you understaffed/overstaffed?
- Do you have a staff backup plan in case the order processing
staff member is suddenly unavailable?
- Is the replacement "up to speed" in the procedures?
-
Routines/Procedures
- Are your order fulfillment routines and email handling
procedures automated as much as possible to reduce staff overhead?
- Are they secure?
- Do you have a systematic email address plan in place?
- or -
- Do you have to manually deal with ever increasing amounts of
SPAM?
- Do you have a system to add your client information to a
database?
- Do you plan to monitor your email and your website on a regular
basis?
- Do you plan to allow your visitors real time text and voice
communications FROM YOUR WEBSITE?
-
Backups
- Do you automatically back up your orders in case of equipment
failures?
These are primary considerations when developing a Marketing
Plan. Once you have these in place you can continue with the development
of your real world and virtual marketing programs.
Once more I must
stress:
If you are not prepared to deal with a steadily increasing volume of
orders/inquiries,
your CRM (Customer Relationship
Management) will suffer.
Lost sales - angry customers - refunds - poor ratings, will increase,
which in turn will increase your overhead.
Staff communications with customers multiply - lowering your profit
margin.
- Are your systems in place to handle a large volume of
email?
- Is your staff aware of what is involved?
- Is your website ready to SELL?
On-Line Marketing
- Major Search engines;
- As the major search engines will
account for the majority of traffic these should be your primary
targets.
Search engine listings take time to show. I recently received a
report stating that the Excite search engine just updated it's
database, the first time in 3 months!
- A top ranking listing will
guarantee a steady flow of referrals.
Setting up links, contacting partnering sites, search
engine marketing programs, and newsletter production are useless unless
you are ready to supply customer service. |
