Creating a marketing strategy for your business

• What are your product and service benefits? 
• How are you pricing your products and services?
• How will you advertise your product and service benefits?
• What are your channels of distribution?
• Where is your business located?
• How large is your marketing budget?

Marketing addresses the four "Ps" of your business: product, price, promotion and place. The combination, or mix, of these elements will define your marketing strategy. In earlier sections of your business plan, you already described your product and service benefits, and how they will meet the needs of your target customers. This section addresses how you will price your product and service benefits, how you will promote them, and how you will deliver them to your customers.

Once you have established how your product and service benefits will satisfy a prospect's needs, such as being the most economical, the fastest, or the most entertaining, you must consider an appropriate pricing strategy for these benefits. Pricing, especially for small or start-up businesses, can lead to its success or failure. After all, pricing will determine the level of profits for your business, and ultimately whether it will remain solvent in the years to come.

In order to communicate your product and service benefits to your potential customers, you will need to develop a promotion and advertising strategy. This strategy involves the creation of a message that stresses your product and service benefits for your potential customers. It also takes into account the most appropriate forms of media communication, such as direct mail or print advertising, and establishes a budget for advertising expenses.

The last P in the four "Ps" of marketing stands for place. Place, or your channels of distribution, describe where and how your customers will actually take possession of your products or services. If your business involves retailing. you will want to describe the location and layout of your store. If you are a direct marketer, you will want to describe your methods of transportation for delivering your products. If your business involves face-to-face selling, you will want to describe your salesforce.

Effective marketing is expensive, particularly if you have to pay rent, hire a direct salesforce, or do a substantial amount of advertising. Therefore it is important that you develop a realistic budget for these expenses, and incorporate them into your financial management plan.