In the last few years, customized, personalized marketing campaigns have been posting strong results compared with traditional, static campaign styles. Regardless of industry well-designed and well-executed personalized integrated marketing campaigns clearly demonstrate their ability to outpace the competition. This report provides a look at some of the data and conclusions that support that claim.   Learn how integrating email, variable data direct mail and personalized URL’s (pURL) can significantly impact results.  This FREE Response Rate Study is available for download.

Welcome to the 4th installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 4 of 4 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Communication Channels

The final element of a successful marketing plan is determining your method of distribution or communication channels. Any marketing plan, no matter how well it is developed, will fail unless it is distributed along effective communication channels to the market segmentation or target market.

Selecting effective communication channels is a major element of a business’ marketing mix. Businesses must properly use direct marketing, sales promotion advertising, personal selling and public relations to communicate the existence and value of a product or service to the target audience.

In order to properly select effective communication channels or distribution methods, business must focus on getting their message, product or service to the target audience at the right time with consideration for profit and effectiveness. Successful marketing does not end when an individual or business has developed a successful service or product and has found its ideal client or target audience. Marketers must then decide how they are going to distribute this message, product or service to their target audience.

Businesses that successfully identify an ideal client or target audience, differentiate their business from their competitors, properly segment their target audience and create a message that is distributed through the proper channels to reach their target audience will ultimately be successful. By following these steps you will be reaching potential customers with an effective message and will ultimately see an increase in sales and profit.

Welcome to the 3rd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 3 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Segmentation and Messaging

The next element of a successful marketing plan is segmenting your target audience and tailoring a specific message that will address their wants and needs. At its most basic level, market segmentation refers to dividing a market in terms of commonalities or similarities. Meaning that the members of a specific market segment have something in common.

The major purpose of market segmentation is the concentration of marketing energy or marketing solutions to a specific subdivision or market segment to gain an advantage over the competition within this specific subdivision. Concentration of marketing energy or solutions is the key component of all marketing plans, and market segmentation is the marketing solution or tool that allows us to help achieve this focus.

There are numerous ways to segment a market for business-to-business marketing, the most common of which is firmographics. Firmographics refers to the characteristics of a specific organization. Much like demographics to an individual, firmographics paint a portrait of an organization based on factors such as industry, number of employees, revenue size, number of locations and the location of the company.

Marketing segmentation is important because it is a great way to apply marketing solutions or energy to a subset of a specific market. However, crafting a message that resonates with that specific subset is equally important. If you choose to segment the market by focusing on firmographics make sure to target your brand or message to the largest segment that fits your niche. Segmentation’s greatest value lies in targeting a subset of businesses and allowing your business to craft a specific message that is tailored to the needs and wants of that specific subset.

Welcome to the 2nd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 2 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Differentiating Your Business

The next element of a successful marketing plan is differentiating your business from your competitors or positioning yourself properly to your target audience. Positioning can be defined as how your product or service is perceived by your target audience relative to your competition. Your goal is to create the perception, or an image, that is differentiated, unique and definable in the mind of your target audience. To successfully position your service or product, try the following:

• Define and create a list of your business’ competitive advantages
  These advantages might include lower costs, better customer service, higher quality, etc.

• Choose the competitive advantage that differentiates your business
  What you choose, or which benefits of your business you select, will depend on what positions your competitors have chosen and how you wish to position yourself amongst these competitors. However, some competitive advantages may be inconsistent with other products or services, too costly to develop or simply not strong enough to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.

It is essential that your marketing solutions and materials support the image or position you are trying to create. It is also essential for your business to know your potential and present competitors, both direct and indirect. You should examine your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your business. This will help you select marketing solutions and a market position that provides your business a competitive advantage.

Your market position should emphasize the factors that your customers or clients value most and those which differentiate or set yourself apart from your competition.

Welcome to the very first installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we will share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 1 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Defining the Ideal Client

The first element of a successful marketing plan or the first step towards successful marketing solutions is identifying your ideal client or target audience. A target audience consists of the businesses and individuals that are most likely to want or need what you have to sell. Before creating a marketing plan, it is critical to define your target audience and create a profile of your ideal client so you can properly generate marketing solutions that will attract this audience. After identifying your ideal clients and target audience it will be much easier to create marketing solutions around their identity and needs.

There are numerous questions you may want to ask in an attempt to define your target audience. These questions include:

• Where is the business located?
• In what industry is the business?
• How big the business?
• How long have they been in business?
• What is the business’ annual revenue?
• Is the business a multi-unit business or a sole proprietorship?
• Who in the business are you marketing to? CEO, CFO President, Etc.

There are other questions that may need to be asked, but once you have answered the correct questions and created your ideal client profile, you can then incorporate this information into your marketing solutions. Incorporating this information into your marketing solutions will ensure that you spend less time looking for clients, and once you find these clients they will be more likely to purchase your product or services.