The marketing plan Treasure Hunt is when you conduct an analysis, looking for that little treasure or gem that will help you gain the edge over your competitors, attract and retain key customers and find opportunities to grow your business.
The business and market analysis is an important step because the information you find will form the basis for your marketing plan.
It can also be a bit daunting if you have not completed one before so using the KISS way here are some tips:
Get Help
If you are a solo business then it can be difficult collecting the information, analysing it and working out the importance for your business all by yourself. Why not ask for help from family, business partners, trade associations or even online forums. If your business has employees enlist their help to conduct a market or business analysis.
Sources of Information
There are so many resources available now including free industry reports from government associations, trade magazines, online newspapers from around the world etc. Also set up news alerts with keywords about your industry, competitors, your own company and products and services to let the information come to you.
Get Organised
You can collate the information over time instead of spending an entire day or days. Try allocating 20 minutes a day for a week to collect different pieces of information before you even consider analysing it. For example Monday you could look at your competitors, Tuesday gather information on your past marketing activities etc. You will also find that the analysis is better as you will have the total picture and not just some information in isolation.
Ask Questions
To make the analysis easier set down some questions you need to answer as some information may be interesting but will not take your business to the next level. Questions should revolve around what, why and how. For example if you are analysing your sales from your customers over the last year, you could ask yourself; what are the sales trends from your key customers, why are some customers increasing in sales and not others and how will this affect your business.
Keep Notes
If you are conducting a business and market analysis for the first time you may not be able to find all the information or there may be questions still unanswered. Just write down so you don’t forget as you can always update the analysis and your marketing plan throughout the year.
Do you have any other tips to make the business and market analysis a better Treasure Hunt?
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.