Better Marketing Results

For those of you in the retail business here are the key dates to plan for your marketing and sales campaigns.

• Late January & early February - Back to School
• 14th February - Valentine's Day
• 25th - 28th March - Easter
• 8th May - Mother's Day
• 17th May - Click Frenzy
• Last week of June - EoFY
• 4th September - Father's Day
• 31st October - Halloween
• 1st November - Melbourne Cup Day
• 11th November - Singles Day
• 25th November - Black Friday (following Thanksgiving Day in the USA)
• 28th November - Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving Day in the USA)
• 25th December - Christmas
• 26th December - Boxing Day Sales

In the lead up to these dates you should be developing your marketing campaigns to drive sales traffic to your web stores.

As always, PMZ Marketing is here to help with anything you need.

Better Marketing Results – Patrick Zuluaga

PS> Signup for your FREE 30-day eMail Marketing offer at www.pmzmarketing.com.au/free-email-marketing-trial-offer-mobile

The three of the most common and difficult small business and medium enterprises marketing challenges are:

• Finding new clients and customers
• Using engaging marketing messages that generate results
• Implementing business oriented marketing systems

I have published an article on the Marketing Challenges of Small Business & Medium Enterprises (SME) that provides useful information and tips on how these challenges can be handled.

Many of you that have been in business a number of years will have encountered these challenges and have survived the experience to grow their businesses.  For those of you that have kindly share with us your successes in managing these small business and medium enterprises marketing challenges.

• Understanding your Customer Market
• Adequate Planning
• Managing Cash Flow
• Operating a Marketing and Sales Development Process
• Targeted Marketing Campaigns and Programs

What do you think? In your own business situation have you faced these issues or other more significant challenges? Share with us your views and expereinces.

[Read the complete article]

You most likely will have heard this before “businesses that fails to plan, plans to fail”.

It is a simple truth – you need to know where you are going to get there!

Small business owners must recognise that marketing planning is essential to achieving their company’s full potential for success. I am not talking about a huge document that sits in the desk drawer never to be taken out again once it has been prepared.

In small business, you need a practical and concise document that you can refer to regularly. It should not be more than two to three pages long because you need to post it in front of your work space where you can see it and refer to it frequently.

How can you put together such a marketing plan?

Here’s how to build your small business marketing plan:

1. Define and list your top three marketing objectives
2. Formulate your marketing strategies for your target markets
3. Identify the marketing programs needed to implement your strategies
4. Outline how you will track and measure your marketing results
5. Create a marketing calendar

The question is - as a small business owner what support would you need to be able to prepare such a plan? or from your experience as a small business owner can you do it yourself? or perhaps you feel you can do without a plan?

What do you think? Let us know your views and comments!

1. Defining Target Markets
2. Increasing Repeat Business
3. Getting Consistent Referrals
4. Increasing Sales Conversions
5. Finding Time & Resources for Marketing
6. Developing a Marketing Plan

Please share with us your own experiences in handling these top 6 small business marketing challenges.