You’ve done all your research and think you’re ready to open up shop and start selling your product. How do you know you’ve got the product or service right? Like every other step in this process, you need a well defined goal and plan to get you there. Outside of running out of cash, lacking a marketing plan is one of the leading causes of business failure. Having the right product, at the right price, in the right place, with the right promotion, is a difficult balancing act.
Marketing Strategy
- Unique Sales Proposition
- Brand
- Product or Service
- Promotion Goals
Unique Sales Proposition
What makes your company so special? We touched on this idea earlier. If you don’t know, how will your customers know? Hopefully, you have a very clear and organized way of thinking about how you are different from your competition. We call this your unique value proposition (UVP) or unique selling proposition (USP).
You probably decided to go into your particular line of business because you have a clearly defined USP. You hate the way your industry or old employer handles a particular situation and you want to open a company that does it differently. Maybe it has to do with building customer loyalty or how you treat employees. Whatever your particular USP, you need to define it in a way that your customers can not only understand it, but also embrace it.
Let’s face it; your customers do not care that you feel passionately about a particular cause or situation. They only care about what it means to them. If you feel strongly that you will use only recycled packaging and shipping materials, what does that mean for them? Unless it means you’ll have a cheaper price, lower shipping costs, or can tie the recycling to some specific benefit to the environment or local market, they probably will not really care. If you haven’t got a good answer to that, then you need to put your thinking cap on and figure it out. If you can’t put into words how you are different and why your customers will care, then they probably will not care, and you probably are not different from your competition at all. Be honest with yourself, and don’t try to fabricate something out of nothing.
Stay connected with us on social media and our blog. Next week we will look at brand strategy.