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Saturday 24 November 2012

Importance of Marketing Consultant and Plans to Grow Your Business

Marketing plans are an essential component for all businesses. All businesses that are successful have followed a plan. Their success did not happen because of luck, it happened because the success was planned. A marketing plan helps establish, coordinate, and direct marketing efforts. It forces the organization to take a good, hard look at the market of your field and what is currently happening to it. It’s a time to establish marketing goals and objectives, which can be later used for benchmarking yourself. Marketing plans helps keep the organization on the right track by following the guidelines it sets. It is also critical when trying to borrow money. When an organization plans to allow you to borrow money or invest in your organization, they require to examine your business plan. The marketing plan is a critical part of the business plan.
Marketing Plan Elements:
•    Executive Summary: brief explanation of what the organization does its mission statement, the management’s infrastructure, and a short summary about the marketing objectives and the proposed plan.
•    Current Marketing Situation: provides information about the current location, the target markets, and competitors in the market.
•    Competitor and Issue Analysis: a more detailed description about the competition. Also includes potential challenges that could arise in the future due to business issue.
•    Marketing Objectives: where the marketing goals and financial objectives are set. Objectives should be challenging, yet attainable for the organization.
•    Marketing Strategy: plan for meeting the marketing objectives. Incorporates the marketing mix.
•    Action Programs: an explanation of the different tasks of the marketing strategy. What will be done? When will it be done by? Who will do it? What will it cost?
•    Budget: A more detailed look at the cost of the proposed marketing activities.
•    Measurements: sets levels to measure if objectives are being met. Sets timeline to meet these measurable objectives.
•    Supportive Documents: references to support the marketing plan. Includes the marketing research report.
•    Controls: monitoring system for the marketing plan. Monthly or quarterly checklists to insure that the plan is operating effectively. Also included contingency plans. Plans of action in the event of a crisis.
•    It is important to regularly update your marketing plan. The market changes almost by the hour. The first marketing plan you create probably will not be effective in the future.
Marketing is as important as the production, design, export, sales etc. Unlike agents who are middlemen between your company and the ad agency, a marketing consultant is the one who has education and experience in the marketing field.

Marketing consultants must be recruited in the company because they not only help in marketing products but also suggest tips and tactics to improve the marketing strategy of the company. Since they are consistently in the marketing environment, they know the recent trends and the competitors, thereby improving your business with their marketing skills.Marketing consultants provide new ideas and are generally creative, innovative people.