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Business Growth 2
Marketing Communications Planning Guide
A practical
approach to marketing communications requires that you:
1. Plan:
Put together a brief written plan and calendar covering the next 12
months including both in-house and outside support activities.
2. Maintain
a Single Point of Contact:
You are better served when you manage one supplier rather than four
or five. Your point person can be an independent practitioner or
from a small firm, but be certain that you hire a leader with a
support team of experts to call upon. The idea is that this person
will manage your marketing communications vendors to save you time
while minimizing your costs.
3. Allow
Time to Succeed:
Marketing communications works over time so it’s best to have a
program that includes doing something every month. Designate a
12-month budget and work within it
4. Focus on
Generating Leads: Support
the selling effort as your top priority. Branding, corporate image
and other marketing concerns are easier to deal with when sales are
moving forward.
What’s
working today?
Mid-size and smaller
companies involved in business-to-business sales are finding the
following activities to be effective in generating leads and
building their networks. Please feel free to add to the list.
Print Media
·
Brochure for use at
trade shows, events and sales meetings
·
Post card campaign to
drive traffic to your website
·
Sales letter to
introduce yourself to prospects
·
Proposal document to
tailor for quotes
Electronic
Media
·
Website acts as the
center for your marketing communications
·
Search Engine
Optimization to draw traffic to your website
·
Google Ads to draw
traffic to your website
·
Blog supplements the
website with a personal online experience
·
Business Social Media
to serve your networking activities
·
E-Newsletter to
maintain contacts
Other
Activities
·
Public Relations to
keep your name in the trade journals and general business press
·
Peer Advisory Groups
to expand your network in a non-competitive way
·
Trade Shows to expand
your network within target industries
·
Events to expand your
network through personal contact, to feed into your Peer Advisory
Group, to expand your e-newsletter list.
Zuk-Lloyd
Associates can help
As experienced
professionals, we can act as your virtual marketing department to
help you plan and implement an effective marketing communications
program within your budget. Please call for details.
Zuk-Lloyd Associates, Inc. – Creative writing and art solutions.
We help
clients increase sales by turning ordinary business information into
extraordinary stories.
Contact:
Paul R. Lloyd
630-393-6516
info@zuklloyd.com
www.zuklloyd.com
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