Guide to Startup Marketing Plans

Get the strategy right.

You will hear it said that marketing is about the four 'P's: Product , Place, Price and Promotion. This is true, but an over simplification. You also need to answer the What, the Why, the When, the How and the Who questions.

I recommend: That you take a logical approach to considering your marketing strategy. It need not be complicated, but make sure you cover the bases. Not just once; go back over time and re-consider your strategy in the light of how things turn out. One good place to start organizing your thinking is the Savvy Marketing Strategy Grid.

Describe your customers right.

You know your business, but you need to describe who your customers are - very carefully. If you take an analytical approach to the task, you are likely to surprise and delight yourself by coming up with tighter definitions and customer groups you had not thought of.

I recommend: That while you are certainly going to ask who your customers are, you need to be very precise about it. Do you know what needs, wants and indeed cravings, they have? What is their age group and where do they buy? If you are going to make an accurate definition, I suggest that you do some Customer Profiling.

Do the right promotion.

Consider the old joke: "half one's advertising is effective, but the trouble is knowing which half. " It is also true about all kinds of promotion. A startup business has very limited funds for promotion and loan or investment money is seldom available for it. So it must be very cost-effective.

I recommend: That you allow your intuition to guide you, but take a step back and look at the pluses and minuses of each promotion medium you are considering. Not just from the budgetary point of view, but also think about the amount of time that you are going to commit. Remember too, that many promotional tools are available for free or next to free (except for your own effort). The Savvy Promotion Media Grid will give you a very handy way to look at all the options you are considering and reach a conclusion about how cost-effective they really are.

Be sure that your marketing is going right.

You may have heard of CRM (customer relationship management). CRM is where the rubber meets the road - where all that marketing is funelled into sales. Startups often do CRM on the 'fly'. The entrepreneur keeps a mental note of where all the prospects are, where they came from and what the next steps are to turn them into sales. But pretty soon, if you start being successful, this becomes too complex a task and has to be managed. this is where a formal CRM comes in. Big companies spend a fortune on it, but happily you can 'buy into' very good software without spending a penny.

I recommend: That you do take a formal approach to CRM as soon as you get on the road selling. Not only will it help you understand the effectiveness of your marketing, but it will also ensure that sales campaigns are efficiently run and that sales people (yourself included) can make the best use of their time. Take a look at Zoho CRM, an elegant but simple on-demand Web-based CRM solution that is free for up to 3 users. You might also want to look at salesforce.com, the world leader in the business; their Personal Edition is free too.

Check that the right message is getting through.

I am not one to suggest that you do extensive market research before your startup, unless the project is very large. You can collect a great deal of data to form the basis of you marketing decisions from published sources. But without some kind of research, you cannot have an accurate idea of whether your marketing messages are getting through to their targeted audiences.

I recommend: That you follow up on your promotional activities. You will naturally log inquiries and sales, but your messages will be received by many people whom you do not hear from. Find a way to get feedback. You can use a forum on your website, satisfaction questionnaires, customer follow-ups - and you can use market research and polls. Thanks to the Internet, you can do both online. Try Zoomerang, or find other options for yourself via an Internet search.