Relationship marketing Relationship marketing was first defined as a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns

gns which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on sales transactions.[citation needed] As a practice, relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages.[citation needed] With the growth of the internet and mobile platforms, relationship marketing has continued to evolve and move forward as technology opens more collaborative and social communication channels. This includes tools for managing relationships with customers that goes beyond simple demographic and customer service data. Relationship marketing extends to include inbound marketing efforts, (a combination of search optimization and strategic content), PR, social media and application development. Relationship marketing is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a companys interactions with clients and sales prospects.[citation needed] It also involves using technology to organize, synchronize business processes, (principally sales and marketing activities), and most importantly, automate those marketing and communication activities on concrete marketing sequences that could run in autopilot, (also known as marketing sequences). The overall goals are to find, attract and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. [1] Once simply a label for a category of software tools, today, it generally denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all client-facing departments and even beyond. When

an implementation is effective, people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce operational costs.[citation needed]

[edit]Development Relationship Marketing refers to a long-term arrangement where both the buyer and seller have an interest in providing a more satisfying exchange. This approach attempts to transcend the simple purchase-exchange process with a customer to make more meaningful and richer contact by providing a more holistic, personalized purchase, and uses the experience to create stronger ties. According to Liam Alvey,[1] relationship marketing can be applied when there are competitive product alternatives for customers to choose from; and when there is an ongoing and periodic desire for the product or service. Fornell and Wernerfelt[2] used the term "defensive marketing" to describe attempts to reduce customer turnover and increase customer loyalty. This customer-retention approach was contrasted with "offensive marketing" which involved obtaining new customers and increasing customers' purchase frequency. Defensive marketing focused on reducing or managing the dissatisfaction of your customers, while offensive marketing focused on "liberating" dissatisfied customers from your competition and generating new customers. There are two components to defensive marketing: increasing customer satisfaction and increasing switching barriers. Modern consumer marketing originated in the 1960s and 1970s as companies found it more profitable to sell relatively low-value products to masses of customers. Over the decades, attempts have been made to broaden the scope of marketing, relationship marketing being one of these attempts. Arguably, customer value has been greatly enriched by these contributions. The practice of relationship marketing has been facilitated by several generations of customer relationship management software that allow tracking and analyzing of each customer's preferences, activities, tastes, likes, dislikes, and complaints. For example, an automobile manufacturer maintaining a database of when and how repeat customers buy their products, the options they choose, the way they finance the purchase etc.,

is in a powerful position to develop one-to-one marketing offers and product benefits. In web applications, the consumer shopping profile can be built as the person shops on the website. This information is then used to compute what can be his or her likely preferences in other categories. These predicted offerings can then be shown to the customer through cross-sell, email recommendation and other channels. Relationship marketing has also migrated back into direct mail, allowing marketers to take advantage of the technological capabilities of digital, toner-based printing presses to produce unique, personalized pieces for each recipient through a technique called "variable data printing". Marketers can personalize documents by any information contained in their databases, including name, address, demographics, purchase history, and dozens (or even hundreds) of other variables. The result is a printed piece that (ideally) reflects the individual needs and preferences of each recipient, increasing the relevance of the piece and increasing the response rate. [edit]Scope Relationship marketing has also been strongly influenced by reengineering. According to (process) reengineering theory, organizations should be structured according to complete tasks and processes rather than functions. That is, cross-functional teams should be responsible for a whole process, from beginning to end, rather than having the work go from one functional department to another. Traditional marketing is said to use the functional (or 'silo') department approach. The legacy of this can still be seen in the traditional four P's of the marketing mix. Pricing, product management, promotion, and placement. According to Gordon (1999), the marketing mix approach is too limited to provide a usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships in many industries and should be replaced by the relationship marketing alternative model where the focus is on customers, relationships and interaction over time, rather than markets and products. In contrast, relationship marketing is cross-functional marketing. It is organized around processes that involve all aspects of the organization. In fact, some commentators prefer to call relationship marketing "relationship management" in recognition of the fact that it involves much more than that which is normally included in marketing.

Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne, and David Ballantyne[3] at the Cranfield School of Management claim that relationship marketing has the potential to forge a new synthesis between quality management, customer service management, and marketing. They see marketing and customer service as inseparable. Relationship marketing involves the application of the marketing philosophy to all parts of the organization. Every employee is said to be a "part-time marketer". The way Regis McKenna (1991) puts it: "Marketing is not a function, it is a way of doing business . . . marketing has to be all pervasive, part of everyone's job description, from the receptionist to the board of directors. [edit]Approaches [edit]Satisfaction Relationship marketing relies upon the communication and acquisition of consumer requirements solely from existing customers in a mutually beneficial exchange usually involving permission for contact by the customer through an "opt-in" system.[4] With particular relevance to customer satisfaction the relative price and quality of goods and services produced or sold through a company alongside customer service generally determine the amount of sales relative to that of competing companies. Although groups targeted through relationship marketing may be large, accuracy of communication and overall relevancy to the customer remains higher than that of direct marketing, but has less potential for generating new leads than direct marketing and is limited to Viral marketing for the acquisition of further customers. [edit]Retention A key principle of relationship marketing is the retention of customers through varying means and practices to ensure repeated trade from preexisting customers by satisfying requirements above those of competing companies through a mutually beneficial relationship[4][5] This technique is now used as a means of counterbalancing new customers and opportunities with current and existing customers as a means of maximizing profit and counteracting the "leaky bucket theory of business" in which new customers gained in older direct marketing oriented businesses were at the expense of or coincided with the loss of older customers.[6][7] This process of "churning" is less economically viable than retaining all or the majority of customers using both direct

and relationship management as lead generation via new customers requires more investment.[8] Many companies in competing markets will redirect or allocate large amounts of resources or attention towards customer retention as in markets with increasing competition it may cost 5 times more to attract new customers than it would to retain current customers, as direct or "offensive" marketing requires much more extensive resources to cause defection from competitors.[8] However, it is suggested that because of the extensive classic marketing theories center on means of attracting customers and creating transactions rather than maintaining them, the majority usage of direct marketing used in the past is now gradually being used more alongside relationship marketing as its importance becomes more recognizable.[8] It is claimed by Reichheld and Sasser[9] that a 5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of between 25 and 85 percent (in terms of net present value) depending on the industry. However Carrol, P. and Reichheld, F.[10] dispute these calculations, claiming they result from faulty cross-sectional analysis. Research by John Fleming and Jim Asplund indicates that engaged customers generate 1.7 times more revenue than normal customers, while having engaged employees and engaged customers returns a revenue gain of 3.4 times the norm. According to Buchanan and Gilles,[11] the increased profitability associated with customer retention efforts occurs because of several factors that occur once a relationship has been established with a customer.

The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship, so the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost. Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs (or as a percentage of revenue). Long-term customers tend to be less inclined to switch, and also tend to be less price sensitive. This can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume. Long-term customers may initiate free word of mouth promotions and referrals. Long-term customers are more likely to purchase ancillary products and high margin supplemental products.

Customers that stay with you tend to be satisfied with the relationship and are less likely to switch to competitors, making it difficult for competitors to enter the market or gain market share. Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service because they are familiar with the process, require less "education", and are consistent in their order placement. Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into better customer satisfaction in avirtuous circle. Relationship marketers speak of the "relationship ladder of customer loyalty". It groups types of customers according to their level of loyalty. The ladder's first rung consists of "prospects", that is, people that have not purchased yet but are likely to in the future. This is followed by the successive rungs of "customer", "client", "supporter", "advocate", and "partner". The relationship marketer's objective is to "help" customers get as high up the ladder as possible. This usually involves providing more personalized service and providing service quality that exceeds expectations at each step.

Customer retention efforts involve considerations such as the following: 1. Customer valuation Gordon (1999) describes how to value customers and categorize them according to their financial and strategic value so that companies can decide where to invest for deeper relationships and which relationships need to be served differently or even terminated. 2. Customer retention measurement Dawkins and Reichheld (1990) calculated a company's "customer retention rate". This is simply the percentage of customers at the beginning of the year that are still customers by the end of the year. In accordance with this statistic, an increase in retention rate from 80% to 90% is associated with a doubling of the average life of a customer relationship from 5 to 10 years. This ratio can be used to make comparisons between products, between market segments, and over time. 3. Determine reasons for defection Look for the root causes, not mere symptoms. This involves probing for details when talking to former customers. Other techniques include the analysis of customers' complaints and competitive benchmarking (see competitor analysis).

4. Develop and implement a corrective plan This could involve actions to improve employee practices, using benchmarking to determine best corrective practices, visible endorsement of top management, adjustments to the company's reward and recognition systems, and the use of "recovery teams" to eliminate the causes of defections. A technique to calculate the value to a firm of a sustained customer relationship has been developed. This calculation is typically called customer lifecycle value. Retention strategies also build barriers to customer switching. This can be done by product bundling (combining several products or services into one "package" and offering them at a single price), cross selling (selling related products to current customers), cross promotions (giving discounts or other promotional incentives to purchasers of related products), loyalty programs (giving incentives for frequent purchases), increasing switching costs (adding termination costs, such as mortgage termination fees), and integrating computer systems of multiple organizations (primarily in industrial marketing). Many relationship marketers use a team-based approach. The rationale is that the more points of contact between the organization and customer, the stronger will be the bond, and the more secure the relationship. [edit]Application Relationship marketing and traditional (or transactional) marketing are not mutually exclusive and there is no need for a conflict between them. A relationship oriented marketer still has choices at the level of practice, according to the situation variables. Most firms blend the two approaches to match their portfolio of products and services.[citation needed] Virtually all products have a service component to them and this service component has been getting larger in recent decades.[citation
needed]

[edit]Internal marketing Relationship marketing also stresses what it calls internal marketing. This refers to using a marketing orientation within the organization itself. It is claimed that many of the relationship marketing attributes like collaboration, loyalty and trust determine what "internal customers" say and do. According to this theory, every employee, team, or department

in the company is simultaneously a supplier and a customer of services and products. An employee obtains a service at a point in the value chain and then provides a service to another employee further along the value chain. If internal marketing is effective, every employee will both provide and receive exceptional service from and to other employees. It also helps employees understand the significance of their roles and how their roles relate to others'. If implemented well, it can also encourage every employee to see the process in terms of the customer's perception of value added, and the organization's strategic mission. Further it is claimed that an effective internal marketing program is a prerequisite for effective external marketing efforts. (George, W. 1990)

Relationship Marketing Relationship marketing is critical to any organization that wants to maintain and grow revenue and profitability from its existing customer base as well as attract new customers. Effective relationship marketing aligns to various means and channels that are permission based and provide accurate and relevant information to each recipient. Relationship Marketing Relationship marketing is not about having a "buddy-buddy" relationship with your customers. Customers do not want that. Relationship Marketing uses the event-driven tactics of customer retention marketing, but treats marketing as a process over timerather than single unconnected events. By molding the marketing message and tactics to the LifeCycle of the customer, the Relationship Marketing approach achieves very high customer satisfaction and is highly profitable. The relationship marketing process is usually defined as a series of stages, and there are many different names given to these stages, depending on the marketing perspective and the type of business. For example, working from the relationship beginning to the end: Interaction > Communication > Valuation > Termination

Awareness > Comparison > Transaction > Reinforcement > Advocacy Suspect > Prospect > Customer > Partner > Advocate > Former Customer Using the relationship marketing approach, you customize programs for individual consumer groups and the stage of the process they are going through as opposed to some forms of database marketing where everybody would get virtually the same promotions, with perhaps a change in offer. The stage in the customer LifeCycle determines the marketing approach used with the customer. A simple example of this would be sending new customers a "Welcome Kit," which might have an incentive to make a second purchase. If 60 days pass and the customer has not made a second purchase, you would follow up with an e-mailed discount. You are using customer behavior over time (the customer LifeCycle) totrigger the marketing approach. Let's say a customer visits your site every day and then just stops. Something has happened. They are unhappy with the content, or they have found an alternative source. Or perhaps theyre just plain not interested in the subject anymore. This inaction on their part is a trigger telling you something has happened to change the way this customer thinks about your site and perhaps your service. You should react to this and then look for feedback from the customer. If you improve the content, e-mail them a notice, and if the customer starts visiting again, the feedback has been given. The cycle is complete until the next time the data indicates a change in behavior, and you need to react to the change with communication. Lets say this same customer then makes a first purchase. This is an enormously important piece of data, because it indicates a very significant change in behavior. You have a new relationship now, a deeper one. You should react and look for feedback. You send a welcome message, thank the customer for the trust they have displayed in your site, and provide a second purchase discount. Then you await feedback from the customer, in the form of a second purchase, or increased visits. Perhaps you get negative feedback, a return of the first purchase. React to this new feedback and repeat the process.

All of the marketing decisions in the examples above were triggered by customer behavior, the actions of the customer as tracked by their activity (or lack of activity). This activity tracked over time is the customer LifeCycle. If you can track customer LifeCycles, you can begin to predict them, and if you can predict them, you can target your marketing efforts at the most critical trigger points in the customer LifeCycle. This approach eliminates a lot of wasted marketing spending, and creates very high ROI marketing campaigns. You spend less money overall, and the money you spend is much more effective. All of the above is accomplished by using the data customers create through their interactions with you to build simple LifeCycle models or rules to follow. The relationship marketing approach then uses this LifeCycle model as a "timing blueprint" to follow, targeting the right customers at the right time, with the most profitable offer. This site and the Drilling Down book are about teaching you how to build and use LifeCycle models yourself in 30 minutes with an Excel spreadsheet. If you want to increase sales while reducing the costs of customermarketing, you have to get this book.

Customer relationship Customer Relationship Management (CRM), also known as relationship marketing or customer management, is an information technology industry term for the methodologies, strategies, software, and other web-based capabilities used to help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships. The goal of CRM is to aid organizations in better understanding each customer's value to the company, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of communication. CRM captures, analyzes, and distributes all relevant data from customer and prospect interactions to everyone in the organization. This distribution of information helps an organization better meet customer, product, and service needs. CRM has replaced traditional marketing techniques that focused on key marketing mix elements, such as product, price, promotion and place. By being too functionally-based, traditional marketing techniques neglected the customer in the after-sales process and failed to meet customers' desires.

CRM emphasizes customer retention over customer acquisition and is recognized as one of the most viable tools used to further a company's success in the highly competitive business world. There are three major areas that focus on customer satisfaction: sales, marketing, and service. The functionality of and between these three fields is essential to successfully connecting a company's front and back offices to facilitate effective, enterprise-wide coordination. The professional sales force predicts and proposes the real-time analysis of information and distributes this information to the company and business partners. Marketing concentrates on personalizing customer preferences and offering them satisfying experiences. Service is associated with the companies' call centers and coordinates interaction between Web, e-mail, and other communication medias. These fields are developed further with the help of CRM automation. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a companys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processesprincipally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments. Measuring and valuing customer relationships is critical to implementing this strategy.

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a new approach in managing customer relationships at the level of corporate and business so as to maximize communication, marketing through the management of a variety of different contacts with customers. This approach possible to retain customers and continuously add value to our customers, as well as gain a sustainable advantage. CRM implementation will be optimal only if assisted by technology. Because, the technology will increase the depth of knowledge about customers, improve access for customers, create customer interactions

more effective and integrated through all channels. Without the right technology, CRM solutions will not be optimal. One of the leading companies in the world who use CRM is theDell Company. Dell is a company engaged in the computer industry which is very familiar with the technology.

THE BENEFITS OF CRM It is very probable that your company is composed of several distinct silos including: Sales Operations Marketing Information Technology Customer Service Support This division of labor is necessary for specialization, for each department develops their own role within the company's workflow. However, a company must have a reliable method for sharing and managing business information across these distinct areas.

Marketing By providing management with full visibility of the business pipeline, revenue forecasts become more predictable. Salesforce also provides campaign management, allowing for customized campaigns and reports to measure your return on investment from lead creation to close. Sales The automated features in Salesforce help to maximize sales efficiency by simplifying the process of tracking new leads and converting them to sales. Additionally, upsell opportunities can be identified and pursued.

Service and Support A comprehensive view of customers and open support enquiries allows for easy access to relevant customer information. This data will help to ensure your customers receive a consistent and rewarding service response. Partnership Relationship Management Salesforce allows you to keep track of your entire sales pipeline for both direct and indirect channels. This allows for easy collaboration with partners or other company branches in multiple regions worldwide. Analytics Analytics tools provide access to real-time information by using preconfigured or even customized reports to analyze and report on your CRM data. Salesforce dashboards also provide management with organizationwide visibility into pertinent sales and customer needs. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) What is Customer Relationship Management? CRM is a term that is often referred to in marketing. However, there is no complete agreement upon a single definition. This is because CRM can be considered from a number of perspectives. In summary, the three perspectives are:

Information Technology (IT) perspective The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) perspective Business Strategy perspective 1. CRM from the Information Technology Perspective. From the technology perspective, companies often buy into software that will help to achieve their business goals. For many, CRM is far more than a new software package, the renaming of traditional customer services, or an IT-based customer management system to support sales people. However, IT is vital since it underpins CRM, and has the payoffs associated with modern technology, such as speed, ease of use, power and memory, and so on. Read more... 2. CRM from the Customer Life Cycle (CLC) Perspective. The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) has obvious similarities with the Product Life Cycle (PLC). However, CLC focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer i.e. looks at the products of services that customers need throughout their lives. It is marketing orientated rather than

product orientated. Essentially, CLC is a summary of the key stages in a customer's relationship with an organisation. Read more... 3. CRM from the Business Strategy Perspective. The Business Strategy perspective has most in common with many of the lessons and topics contained on this website, and indeed within the field of marketing itself. The diagram below shows the MarketingTeacher Model of CRM and Business Strategy. Our model contains three key phases customer acquisition, customer retention and customer extention, and three contextual factors - marketing orientation, value creation and innovatove IT. Read more...

A commonly cited definition of CRM is that of CRM (UK) Ltd (2002), as follows: Customer Relationship Management is the establishment, development, maintenance and optimisation of long-term mutually valuable relationships between consumers and organisations.

Marketing strategy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.[1]

[edit]Developing a marketing strategy

Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketingobjectives.[2] Plans and objectives are generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the current year. Time horizons covered by themarketing plan vary by company, by industry, and by nation, however, time horizons are becoming shorter as the speed of change in the environment increases.[3] Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned and partially unplanned. Seestrategy dynamics. Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments.[4] Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints.[5] External environmental factors include customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success.[3][6] A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission statement.[7] Besides SWOT analysis, portfolio analyses such as the GE/McKinsey matrix [8] or COPE analysis[9] can be performed to determine the strategic focus. Once a thorough environmental scan is complete, a strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail implementation.[3] A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the plan. [edit]Types of strategies

Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the individual business. However there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic strategies. A brief description of the most common Strategies based on market dominance - In this scheme, firms are classified based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four types of market dominance strategies: Leader Challenger Follower Nicher Porter generic strategies - strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the market penetration while strategic strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. The generic strategy framework (porter 1984) comprises two alternatives each with two alternative scopes. These areDifferentiation and low-cost leadership each with a dimension of Focus-broad or narrow. Product differentiation (broad) Cost leadership (broad) Market segmentation (narrow) Innovation strategies This deals with the firm's rate of the new product development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types: Pioneers Close followers Late followers Growth strategies In this scheme we ask the question, How should the firm grow?. There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the most common gives four answers: Horizontal integration Vertical integration Diversification Intensification A more detailed scheme uses the categories[10]:

Prospector Analyzer Defender Reactor Marketing warfare strategies - This scheme draws parallels between marketing strategies and military strategies. [edit]Strategic models

Marketing participants often employ strategic models and tools to analyze marketing decisions. When beginning a strategic analysis, the 3Cs can be employed to get a broad understanding of the strategic environment. An Ansoff Matrix is also often used to convey an organization's strategic positioning of their marketing mix. The 4Ps can then be utilized to form a marketing plan to pursue a defined strategy. There are many companies especially those in the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) market that adopt the theory of running their business centered around Consumer, Shopper & Retailer needs. Their Marketing departments spend quality time looking for "Growth Opportunities" in their categories by identifying relevant insights (both mindsets and behaviors) on their target Consumers, Shoppers and retail partners. These Growth Opportunities emerge from changes in market trends, segment dynamics changing and also internal brand or operational business challenges.The Marketing team can then prioritize these Growth Opportunities and begin to develop strategies to exploit the opportunities that could include new or adapted products, services as well as changes to the 7Ps. [edit]Real-life marketing Real-life marketing primarily revolves around the application of a great deal of common-sense; dealing with a limited number of factors, in an environment of imperfect information and limited resources complicated by uncertainty and tight timescales. Use of classical marketing techniques, in these circumstances, is inevitably partial and uneven. Thus, for example, many new products will emerge from irrational processes and the rational development process may be used (if at all) to screen out the worst non-runners. The design of the advertising, and the packaging, will be the output of the creative minds employed; which

management will then screen, often by 'gut-reaction', to ensure that it is reasonable. For most of their time, marketing managers use intuition and experience to analyze and handle the complex, and unique, situations being faced; without easy reference to theory. This will often be 'flying by the seat of the pants', or 'gut-reaction'; where the overall strategy, coupled with the knowledge of the customer which has been absorbed almost by a process of osmosis, will determine the quality of the marketing employed. This, almost instinctive management, is what is sometimes called 'coarse marketing'; to distinguish it from the refined, aesthetically pleasing, form favored by the theorists.

Marketing strategy process: 1. Understand Your Customer Develop a clear picture of your target customer using market research and analysis. Understand their pain points and the benefits of your solution. 2. Analyze the Market Some basic market research should allow you to find market data such as total available market, market growth (historical numbers and projections), market trends, etc. 3. Analyze the Competition Ask yourself what other choices your target customers have to solve their pain point. Research and assess the strengths and weaknesses of each. Take a look at this article for more info on competitive marketing strategy. 4. Research Distribution Channels What is the best way to deliver your product or service to your target customers? This will impact your sales strategy and your financials, as well as your marketing mix.

5. Define Your Marketing Mix Check out this article about defining your marketing mix: Product,Price, Place and Promotion. 6. Analyze the Financials Put together your marketing budget and evaluate projected marketing ROI, customer acquisition costs, etc. 7. Review and Revise Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy, and revise or extend as needed.

Objectives of mktng strtgy: 1. Identify, evaluate, and develop marketing strategies. 2. Evaluate a firms opportunities. 3. Anticipate competitive dynamics. 4. Evaluate the sustainability of competitive advantages.

Mktng plan process:

Define your vision and goals: Start with a vision that describes what you want your business to be. The vision should inspire, energize, motivate and stimulate your creativity. Define goals you would like to accomplish in a 12 month period. Your goals set the direction you want to take with your marketing activities. Do you want to create visibility for your company? Are you trying to generate demand for your services? Do you want to establish yourself as the expert in your field? Your goals need to be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Understand your ideal client and competition: Determine what motivates your ideal client, what causes them pain, and why they would be interested in buying from you. Then determine how you are different from your competition and how you want to be viewed by your target. Highlight why you are different and what value you offer to your clients.

Develop your core message: Your core message is a short description of your business that enables prospective buyers to know who you work with and what value you bring to the relationship. It conveys this message in a manner that literally attracts the right customers to you. A good core message projects what makes you unique and a benefit to your ideal client. Identify your brand identity and apply it consistently across all of your marketing efforts: You may need to define your personal brand and your corporate brand depending on your business. In either case, your brand should fit your personality and help get you noticed. Determine marketing strategy and budget: Identify the strategy you will use to achieve your goals. Strategies will fall within the 7 marketing categories: Internet (including social media), advertising, direct marketing, public relations, events, word of mouth, and strategic alliances. The types of marketing you choose within your strategy will depend on your unique requirements. Your budget will help you determine your cash flow by mapping the budget needed for your sales tools and each area identified within your marketing strategy based on the tactics you decide to use. Identify activities for each strategy: Your activities should be selected so they accomplish your goals, reach your ideal client, make sense for your business, can be executed regularly and effectively, and are affordable. Create your sales tools to support the tactics: These tools can include business cards, brochures, a web site or blog, white papers, testimonials, or promotional items. Execute, track and measure results: Read the post on the Masterful Marketing blog calledMarketing Execution Plan, Execute, Track, Measure.