Our Services

Marketing Education

Bring your team up to speed! We can train you, your team and other key staff members so that everyone understands the ins-and-outs of getting and keeping customers. Foundation modules include:

Step 1: Building a Strong Foundation-Your Business Strategy & Business Plan

A standard MBA template will be our roadmap for an in-depth discussion on business strategy. We'll also discuss the impact of making business assumptions and subjective decisions. We'll look at who your competition is and what your unique offerings are as compared to the competition. This approach will help you define who your target audiences are and drive many of your business decisions. We'll also touch on your business strengths and weaknesses as well as key marketing issues for your product or service.

A business plan is a foundation for success. As a business owner, it's critical for you to write your own business plan, thinking through the tough questions and the implications of your choices. From a dollars-and-sense perspective, all legitimate financial institutions will require some form of business plan as part of a loan application. Your investors and supporters will also ask to see your plan. But if you're like many business owners, a business plan is often the last thing you want to do, and you probably haven't spent enough time on this pivotal first step.

Having a coach to facilitate the process will help keep you on track and won't allow you to push it off or get off base. You'll have series of 2-hour sessions of uninterrupted time to develop your business plan. Halfway through the process, we'll review what you've completed. I will edit what you've done and work with you on the sections you're struggling with. During a final review, we'll collaborate to fill in any gaps and polish the overall plan.
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Step 2: Establishing Your Brand-Creating an Identity

Establishing a brand includes creating an identity. The first step in creating that identity is defining your business essence and personality. Brands are like people; they have personalities and are often described in human terms such as friendly, reliable, fun, trustworthy and innovative. Thinking through who you are (and who you are not) is critical. This is the foundation for clearly presenting yourself, your business and your niche.

We'll brainstorm together and define your brand attributes. We'll identify imagery that reflects and supports your brand image and discuss color symbolism, type fonts and graphical elements. The end result will be a clear definition of your brand and a creative brief that can be shared with a graphic designer to develop a logo.
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Step 3: Marketing Research

A critical marketing element that is often overlooked is market research. You need to truly understand your target audiences, and that means that you have to literally talk to your constituents and really listen to what they need, want and are bothered by. That's where the opportunities for a truly successful business lie, and reaching out to your constituents should be an on-going part of your marketing efforts.

We'll discuss the different types of research, how to generate (and collect) ongoing feedback and how to assess, analyze and funnel some of that information back into your business planning and marketing planning process. We'll also talk about how research may not always tell you what you want to hear, and how you can use negative feedback to improve your business.
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Step 4: Marketing Your Brand: Part A-Defining a Marketing Strategy

Once you have a clear business plan, you can start to formulate a marketing strategy. With your target audiences defined, you're better equipped to identify specific groups and special niches. From there, you can focus on how you will reach them and communicate with them. Once you know what you want to do, you can create a marketing plan to implement your marketing approach.

A clear marketing strategy drives all of your activities and ties them all together. To get the most out of your time and money, your marketing must be integrated. Each component ties into all of the other components, and they reinforce one another. Together we'll define a strategy and outline a strategic approach, and then we can move on to the marketing plan.
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Step 5: Marketing Your Brand: Part B-Creating a Marketing Plan

With market research and a solid marketing strategy under your belt, you're ready to create a marketing plan to implement your strategy. A marketing plan can be simple or complex. It maps out what you're going to do over a period of time. There's a fine balance between following a plan and seeing (and responding to) what's effective for you. The best plans allow for flexibility so that you can take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. There are many creative ways-including inexpensive and free options- to market your business. Over time you adjust your plan, and subsequent plans will expand based on your knowledge about your business and industry.

In this module, we'll brainstorm a range of tactical ideas and then generate a marketing plan outline.
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Step 6: Extending Your Brand-Building a Web Site

A web site is almost expected in today's business climate. It gives your business credibility. If you decide to invest in a site, you need to commit to doing it well. It doesn't have to be a large site, but it does need to be clear, user-friendly and show value.

We'll walk through all of the critical components of a web site, industry standards, and the pros and cons of technical "bells-and-whistles". We'll also talk about the language of the web and how you can speak that language. Together we'll create a site map and a creative brief so that you can take the next step with a web designer, technician, and copywriter.
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Step 7: Creating a Buzz-Public Relations & Promotions Basics

Public relations and promotional activities are often the last marketing tools to be considered even though they are often your most cost-effective options. Because word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of marketing, encouraging people to talk about you and write about you is well worth your time. The goal is to build awareness and create "buzz."

We'll talk about the two sides of PR-what people write about you and what you write about yourself-and how to approach both. We'll go over the benefit of setting yourself up as an expert in your industry, and we'll discuss different types of promotions. The end result will be to create an outline of next steps including templates and "sound bites".

Fees

Each unit includes three (3) meetings, 2 hours per meeting. Additional time beyond the 6 hours will be billed at an hourly rate. Pricing is available for each of the seven individual modules as well as module bundles.
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