Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
AIA

Advising your clients on marketing planning. By Nigel Temple

by
12th May 2008
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

If you find yourself discussing marketing with a client, you could begin by asking them whether they have a written marketing plan. The marketing plan should be separate from their business plan. It should include the following sections.

Firstly, there should be a management summary. This provides an overview of the marketing plan and what they feel the marketing function should deliver. Suggest that they think in terms of building a well known and sought after brand. It is important to include sales targets for the year ahead and the number of customers needed in order to hit that target. (Could they use some help with some 'spreadsheet thinking'?)

Next, ask your client to write an overview of the market. This should map out their target market in terms of geography, customer needs, trends and market growth. Suggest that your client conducts some market research. How many potential new customers are there? They need to think about the profiles of different types of customer and analyse their specific needs. This is highly important. Now they can begin to think about their segmentation strategy. Smart businesses focus on niche market areas. They need to think hard about this: it may be the single most important thing they do.

Once your client has decided who they are going to market to, they can think about their positioning strategy. How do they want their customers to perceive them in their marketplace? For example - lowest price? Best service? Highest quality? This is all part of the differentiation process. The decisions they have made on segmentation and positioning, combined with a competitive analysis, will help them to decide on how they are going to make their business 'stand out from the crowd'. Thinking about differentiation should also help your client to decide on their key messages. It is important for them to keep repeating consistent messages throughout their marketing campaigns, as it will take a while for them to 'sink in'.

Approximately how many competitors does your client have? They could open a file with a brief profile for each of their key competitors, including a SWOT analysis. This should be put together with a print-out of each competitor's website homepage; key products / services; key messages; pricing; and how they differentiate themselves.

Now your client can think about the all important 'marketing mix' (also known as the ‘Four Ps’):

  • Product(s) / Service(s): how many products / services do they have? They should include key features as well as the associated benefits. What, if anything, is unique about them? Are they planning to launch new products or services? If they are a service business, suggest that they 'productise' their services (i.e. create a brand identity, fixed price and promotional mix).
  • Price: are they operating on a ‘cost-plus’ basis (i.e. calculating their costs and adding a gross profit percentage on top) or a ‘market-based’ pricing basis? Alternatively, are they bold enough to set their own prices, using a 'value added' approach? Clearly, you could provide valuable advice and analysis in this area.
  • Place: where will they sell their products / services? Can people buy directly from their website? Will they ask other people to promote them, in exchange for a finder's fees?
  • Promotion: ask your client to consider which promotional tools they are using / will use to create awareness and generate sales enquiries. For example advertising, direct mail, direct selling, the internet, corporate literature and events.

Now that your client has thought about their marketing mix, they need to step back and consider to what extent it is integrated. For example, is there a consistent look and feel? Do they highlight cross selling opportunities?

Your client then needs to consider how their promotional campaigns will be implemented. Which members of their team have marketing knowledge, previous experience, sales skills, copywriting ability, etc? Where there are gaps, they could consider training courses or hire marketing agencies.

Next, ask your client to write down the marketing actions which need to be done. For example, new advertisements, an updated website, new marketing literature etc. Do they need to talk to a marketing consultant? With all of this in mind, you can help them plan a detailed marketing budget for the next 12 months, showing budgeted costs for each promotional item.

Once the marketing plan is working for your client, they need to measure the results. They should always do their best to discover where new sales enquiries come from. This information should be tracked, in order to find out what's working. Results and feedback needs to be gathered on a monthly basis and compared with their marketing plan. Your client needs to take appropriate action as necessary to correct their marketing ‘flight path’. They should declare what their 'marketing milestones' will be and celebrate when they achieve them!

Having talked about the marketing plan / marketing strategy, a key area of discussion is your client's website. Most websites are inwardly focused 'brochureware'. The way to turn them into customer magnets is to focus on the needs of customers and to pack them full of useful information and resources. For example: dos and don'ts lists, case studies, tips and hints and guides. This material can be presented as website articles, e-newsletters and blogs. This approach will attract search engines and customers.

In order to get more visitors to a website, you could suggest to your client that they use both internet marketing and traditional forms of promotion. The twist is that these promotional items don't have to use the 'hard sell' approach. All they have to do is to point consumers/business buyers in the direction of the useful content that we have been talking about. For example, a banner ad could say that a free buyer's guide (to a product/service) is available if you 'click here'.

To help convert visitors who are just browsing into buying customers, your client could tempt the visitor to sign-up to some form of regular communication, such as an e-newsletter or blog. In order to do this, they should provide an incentive, in terms of packaged information which is relevant to the target market they are communicating with. The final step is for them to send useful and helpful material to their subscribers on a regular basis, i.e. at least monthly.

Now that your client has built their online presence, they need to get out into the marketplace and build a positive reputation for their business. Some of the best promotional techniques are either free or low cost. There are over 250 ways to promote a business, including advertising, websites, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, newsletters, blogging, leaflets, business cards, postcards, direct mailshots, networking, press releases, articles, media interviews, promotional gifts, seminars, public speaking, alliances and referrals. Ask your client to take a moment and to count how many they are using. If they are a small business – the chances are that they are not using enough techniques.

Finally, encourage your client to take massive action to ensure that their marketing generates sales results! Although marketing is a time consuming business, it is one of the best ways your clients can invest their time.

Tags:

Replies (4)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By gordonberry
31st Jul 2008 16:53

We, generally, as Accountants, need to get better at marketing
Yes, Bob from "More", that would be interesting.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By Verystar
13th May 2008 19:00

It's the right thing to do...
It makes sense. Its the right thing to do. Every business book tells you the same thing. Yet, I have NEVER seen a company actually doing it. The closest I have come to seeing this were documents generated around specific events - e.g. an important seminar/marketing event.

Case in point. Do you have a busines plan and marketing plan for your firm? Any firm you deal with? Any of your clients?

My short sighted advice is - do specific documents around specific challenges:
Doc 1. What are we about? Hybrid vision/branding exercise
Doc 2. What are our offerings/solutions about (same as 1 but for each product/service offering)
Doc 3. May be for example how to gain more market share / how to attract investors / how to sell more

This seems less daunting and more focused around what the perceived issue is they are trying to address.

Anton Verster [mailto:[email protected]]

Thanks (0)
avatar
By AnonymousUser
14th May 2008 08:03

Lessons so far
This is a really good article for clients and accountants. At the end of the day marketing is an investment everything else is a cost.

Having worked in the field of marketing accountancy firms for the last five years I've picked up a few things that may help:

The importance of sales training
If you want to capture and maximise the return on your marketing investment it's worth assessing your sales skills and taking some professional training.

Do you know how to open a meeting and motivate the client to give you their buying strategy? Can you eligantly develop the conversation and build value to the close? Do you have an effective strategy for objections and can you prevent clients changing their mind and staying with their current accountant after you've gone back to the office?

I've been asked a lot about this from working with over 200 firms and I'm considering setting up a free online resource for accountants. Would this be of interest?

Methodology
Having seen so many people approaching marketing with an outdated approach that doesn't work any more. Permission Based Marketing is vital in all cross selling and lead generation activities.

Preparation
When I was a marketing director of a £1m practice we brought in a marketing expert to advise clients, just like the artcile says. One of the things I learned from him was to produce all the collateral like adverts, letters, leaflets campaigns, so they are ready to go before kicking off the marketing.

I wonder if accountants here would like to see an example...this could be a kick start to pulling their marketing planning into shape?

Sales and Marketing Management
Based on the Balance Sheet ScoreCard and AVNs One Page Plan I've developed a management system and I've called it The "Q" Report. This tracks the quantity and quality of the sales and marketing function. It's vital this is ready BEFORE any money is invested.

There's a real opportunity for accountants in the field of marketing. Not necessarily in the implementation but in the management. This is becaise so many business and marketers don't measure and qualitify the marketing function and we're good with numbers.

I'm courious, would a one-day workshop on this be of interest to reader? Or maybe a home study program when over six weeks all this is covered online? Maybe a mix of the two?

Bob
www.moresoftware.biz

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
13th May 2008 10:14

resources for online reputation management
My small business has had a good experience using a business search directory called BView (www.bview.co.uk) which has enabled me to take control of my profile and actively seek reviews from my customers. This enables me to stay on the competitive edge through an open dialogue I can have with my customers. The more reviews I get the higher I am ranked within my industry on BView. I also get good google opitmisation from this. So far it has been a useful tool. I believe there may be other tools out there such as Yelp.com but this is specific to US.

Thanks (0)