Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Start ups: Business Plans and Marketing Strategy

Pay attention here because the Lancaster SCORE has a great website for start up businesses. So take a look at all of the Score Lancaster Blog. During this recession this kind of information is even more important than during more normal days. Business Plan Elements - 5 & 6 is a good example of the information and its quality:

An Overall Marketing Strategy would likely include these elements:

Market penetration strategy for growing your business. This growth strategy might include: an internal strategy such as how to increase your human resources, an acquisition strategy such as buying another business, a franchise strategy for branching out, a horizontal strategy where you would provide the same type of products to different users, or a vertical strategy where you would continue providing the same products but would offer them at different levels of the distribution chain.

Channels of distribution strategy. Choices for distribution channels could include: original equipment manufacturers, an internal sales force, distributors, or retailers.

Communication strategy. How are you going to reach your customers? Usually some combination of the following works the best: promotions, advertising, public relations, personal selling, and printed materials such as brochures, catalogs, flyers, e-marketing, etc.
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