Marketing Associates knows the marketing business. At Marketing Associates, they’ve been developing successful marketing and business plans for clients over the past several years, and their efforts have helped many businesses succeed during tough economic times. Tight budgets have led to many businesses cutting back on their marketing strategies, but the people at Marketing Associates have developed strategies for maximizing marketing dollars for maximum returns. Recently, Oceans2003 sat down with the team at Marketing Associates to learn some of their industry secrets.
Q: How should a business approach a marketing plan?
Marketing Associates – At Marketing Associates, we’ve found the best approach is to divide the business plan up into five distinct parts.
Q: What are those five parts?
Marketing Associates – It’s simple: There’s the planning phase, the obstacle identification phase, the strategy development phase, the analytics phase, and the review phase.
Q: Tell us more about the planning phase. What goes into that?
Marketing Associates – The planning phase involves a business owner taking stock of his or her assets and vision and being honest about the strengths and weaknesses of their idea. At Marketing Associates, we’ve found that many business owners are reluctant to make an honest assessment, as they may find things they don’t like. They should also identify their goals both in the immediate and distant future.
Q: What’s next?
Marketing Associates – The next step is to identify any potential obstacles you might run into. Many of our clients at Marketing Associates have been able to identify obstacles that they may never have thought of initially, and after removing those obstacles, they found they had a much easier path to success than they ever could have imagined.
Q: So, form a plan, then remove obstacles. Now what?
Marketing Associates – Now’s one of our favorite steps at Marketing Associates—the strategy development phase. This is when you draw up your war plans and really roll up your sleeves and get things done. What do you want your marketing strategy to look like? What are ways that it could succeed? What are ways that it could fail? How can you help ensure its success? Those are the important questions to ask.
Q: After you’ve nailed your marketing strategy, what do you focus on next?
Marketing Associates – Once the marketing plan gets rolling, it’s time to analyze how it’s doing. Adjustments must be made constantly to achieve the best results. At Marketing Associates, we know that you can’t just sit back and rest on your laurels—you must constantly tweak and revise your efforts in order to have long-term success.
Q: Finally, what’s left in the five step plan?
Marketing Associates – After you’ve done the hard work and analyzed the results, it’s time to review your efforts. We at Marketing Associates have found that the review stage should be an ongoing part of your business. Whether you schedule it monthly, quarterly, or yearly, it’s important that you realize that what works today may not work tomorrow.
Q: Are there any unexpected benefits to marketing plans?
Marketing Associates – We’ve found that many of our clients at Marketing Associates have seen new opportunities simply from their marketing plans alone. Whether it led them to revise a product or service, or break into a new niche, solid marketing plans offer tremendous insight into your business and can lead to some very unexpected and lucrative results.