The scope of this article deals with developing and implementing a specific marketing project, as opposed to the broader issue of developing an overall corporate or small business marketing strategy.
Definition of a Marketing Project Strategy
A Marketing Project is a step-by-step plan for achieving a specific goal. For example, targeting a specific market niche through a print ad in one or more local newspapers for the purpose of promoting a seminar. Developing a Marketing Project Strategy involves looking at the bigger picture of that specific project. Which group of people or businesses do you wish to target? How do you plan to measure your success? The plan for the project itself is one piece of that strategy.
Developing an effective strategy involves going through the following steps:
- Identifying a Business Opportunity
- Identifying a Target
- Creating a Problem Statement
- Coming up with a Metric
- Designing a Test
- Developing a Marketing Project Plan
- Implementing the Marketing Project
Identifying a Business Opportunity
A “business opportunity” (within the context of this article) is finding identifying a group of one or or more qualified customers along with a way to reach out to that group and say, “Hey, I’m here! Come and spend your money with me.”
A qualified customer, by the way, is an individual or business that wants or needs the product or service you provide, can afford to pay for it and is ready or getting ready to buy. In some cases, a qualified customer needs to be educated in regards to what it is you provide and may not even be aware that their need exists.
Identifying a Target
In order to succeed in any marketing endeavor, be that advertising, public relations or whatever, you efforts must be targeted. Specifically, you must identify a place where qualified customers congregate. That could be sitting in front of a TV set and watching a particular show, reading a specific publication or driving to and from work each day and passing a particular billboard on the freeway.
Creating a Problem Statement
The bottom line is this: you cannot solve a problem or approach an opportunity until you can succinctly and specifically state what that problem or opportunity is. The more specific this statement is, the better your chance for success. Something such as, “We want to target potential clients with 502 (drunk driving) violations” is a bit on the weak side. Be specific: “We want to target potential clients who live in Torrance, CA, within 48 hours of the time they received a 502 violation so that we can bring them into the office for one of our free Tuesday night seminars.”
Coming up with a Metric
A metric simply refers to a way of measuring the outcome of your advertising (or other marketing) campaign. ROI (Return On Investment) is one common and very useful method. In essence, ROI is a ratio of how much you spent vs. how much you got back in any of your campaigns. Other metrics might simply be the number of phone enquiries you received from one ad vs. another, or the percentage of new clients who attended a seminar and actually signed on for your services.
Designing a Test
Many marketing campaigns are created for the purpose of comparing the effectiveness of specific variables within your campaign. For example, a pizza delivery business might mail goldenrod fliers to even numbered addresses and blue fliers to odd numbered addresses. “Which color works best?” is a common question in regards to flier distribution and mailings.
So, then, what does work best for your business? You need to perform an experiment to find out. In general, a marketing experiment revolves around three areas of interest: One or more variables (different colors, different offers, etc.); development and measuring a metric, and evaluating your results in a meaningful way. (See my post on Experimental Design for an interesting take on experimentation.)
Developing a Marketing Project Plan
I can’t overemphasize the importance developing a plan that is well thought out, timely and realistic. Simply delegating broad tasks, to employees or vendors, simply doesn’t work. Furthermore, if there’s any level of complexity to the plan then there’s a lot to manage. The complexities involved in dealing with manufacturing, engineering and legal project management and scheduling often pale in comparison to like-sized marketing projects. The scheduling is crazy, the demands are tough and the eclectic variety of people with which you’ll work can drive you mad.
In any event, task lists, gantt charts, really good delegation skills and so forth are critical, as well as the skill and patience to work within the marketing fray.
Implementing the Marketing Project Plan
Having been through all the rest there’s no real definition or instructions here beyond the obvious. I do have a couple of tips for you though. First and foremost, if you’re involved in with even a moderately sized plan, (e.g. a local seminar including advertising,) don’t let the day to day happenings create unnecessary stress. Schedules change and its important, in the scheduling phase, to plan for the unexpected. A photograph that doesn’t get taken will set back your ad layout which will set back publication of your ad… which will lead to a multitude of calls to be made and received.