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The Web Design Business Kit Chapter 6 - Market Your Business
A Plan Of Action
In this chapter, we’ve talked about getting out there and doing some serious marketing to get your business up and running. If you don’t do any marketing, you won’t be in business long. If you implement poor marketing, you may be in business for less time.
If you effectively market on a regular basis, you will have the foundations of a successful business.
Develop a plan of action to get yourself in the game. There's an example Marketing Plan, which should give you a good starting point, on the CD-ROM in this kit.
But what marketing methods will work best? As I’ve said throughout this chapter, there’s no simple answer to that! It’s important to identify the best way for you to implement your marketing strategy. What works for one won’t necessarily work for another.
If you market yourself well, you should expect that:
- Qualified prospects will respond to the marketing you do. The best business comes from people who call you—these people are motivated and keen to go. These are the prospects you want!
- You’ll be able to convert more prospects into paying clients.
- You’ll generate referrals—an excellent (and probably the best) way to land more business.
Over the years, my marketing plans have shifted from being long, boring documents to quick summaries of just a page or two. Instead of writing pages and pages regarding each newspaper’s demographic and geographic reach, and how it’s relevant to whatever campaign we’re planning, I’m likely to scribble down “Classifieds, $100 worth on Saturdays for ten weeks in Daily Planet. Contact Clark Kent, Ph. 555-5555.”
That approach works for me only because I know the local newspapers and their readership, and, through experience, I have a general idea of the impact of those advertisements.
A two page summary might not work for the next person, who might need a plan that contains a little more documentation and review. Whatever the size of your plan, there are a few essential points that you’ll need to include.
An Objective
The first thing your plan needs is a goal. Make it simple, and make it achievable. For example, your goal might be as simple as “Sign up four clients within two months.” It might be “Generate sales of $10,000 in a month.” Or even “Have ten prospect meetings in a month.”
Make the goal as specific as possible—no airy fairy language like “My goal is to implement an appropriate range of actions to assist clients in developing effective Web-based strategies.” Not only are all of those words hard to spell, but they’re too ambiguous. You need something simple, easy and measurable.
Market Information
OK, you’ve set a simple goal. Now, take a look at your market. Using the example from before, you may have defined your market to be small businesses within a fifty kilometer radius, participating in high-tech industries.
As we discussed earlier in this chapter, perhaps you’ve also completed a survey to find out exactly how these companies choose Web developers (if any). Maybe you also asked about their level of interest in Web development and what factors influence the decisions they make (you might find, for example, that they all are members of the local Chamber of Commerce).
To fully profile your market, you might also like to know:
- size of the market
- market segments
- who the competition is
- the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
- your target market
- what their buying patterns are (Many businesses are seasonal. For example, the local toy shop may generate most sales at Christmas.)
Once you have this information, you’ll be a little better armed to attack!
Competitor Information
Complete a competitor analysis using the research techniques we discussed in Chapter 2.
For each competitor, make sure you know who, what, when, where how and why. See how they advertise. Review their client list. Benchmark against them. Now, plan to beat them!