If you haven’t set any objectives for your company and your marketing activities, how can you decide at the end of the year if you have achieved what you set out to do?
The best way to implement marketing successfully into your company is to create a marketing plan.

So, what is a marketing plan?

There are 7 stages to a comprehensive marketing plan:

1. Objective Setting
 defining the business purpose
 setting objectives and goals 
 assessing the market situation
2. Defining the messaging
 messaging, branding and positioning
3. Defining a strategy
 mission and vision
4. Defining the target audience
 by demographics, behaviour and profiling
5. Developing the tactics
 covering advertising, PR, personal selling, direct mail, online and sales promotion
6. Implementing the plan
 suggested timelines and tips
7. Measuring and evaluation
 tips on how to measure success

Example - using a locally based supplier and fitter of quality office furniture (known as “company A”):

Objective & Goal setting

The objective is to increase the number of Company A’s customers in the local area (in a 5 to 10 mile radius of High Wycombe) to more than 10% of the total customer base by January 2010.

Defining the Messaging

What is it we want the marketing activities to say about Company A to the customer/s?

What perception do we want to create and what message do we want to give across through the emails, website, PR, any advertising and so on?

The messaging needs to be defined and used in conjunction with the existing wording in the brochures and on the website and utilising the existing branding. Company A’s unique selling point, to be maximised, is the company is a furniture full service specialist and the level of customer service and detail given.

Defining a strategy considering any constraints – utilising the Promotions Mix

This relates to how the objective will be achievable in marketing terms. The strategy encompasses the 7 P’s e.g. the product, place, price, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

1. Product is the furniture itself
2. Place is where the furniture will be fitted
3. Price is the price of the furniture and of the full service including design concepts and fitting
4. Promotion refers to how the furniture and fitting service will be advertised, sold and publicised
5. People are those involved in the service happen e.g. the staff of Company A
6. Process refers to how customers are sourced, marketed to and converted to sales and then to repeat/loyal customers
7. Finally, Physical evidence refers to something to give to potential customers and companies proving the worth of the furniture, the service and so on. As we are selling part product and part service, this element is key. Examples are brochures, website and customer testimonials.

Defining the target audience

This step essentially focuses on who to target and with what message. This process involves breaking down the total potential market into smaller groupings, which determine the marketing mix used in the tactics.

Developing tactics

These are the day to day promotional activities used to deliver the marketing plan. The tactics are grouped into 6 key elements which each have their own uses but using them in conjunction with each other to support the messaging enhances the effect.

1. Advertising
2. Personal Selling
3. Direct Mail/Email marketing
4. Online marketing
5. Sales promotion
6. PR/publicity

Implementing the plan

This is the auctioning and carrying out of the strategy and tactics outlined above. Successful implementation depends on gaining approval of the plan and assigning people responsible for the execution of each step of the plan.

Measuring and evaluating afterwards

Evaluation is vital to measure and constantly review to minimise risk and failure in this ever changing industry. Evaluation is necessary, but control is more so as this ensures that the results and feedback from a plan get reported back to the appropriate people who are in a position to change things and to ensure the objectives are being met both now and in the future e.g. more events are taking place with the highest possible attendance. 
Company A would review the marketing plan monthly to ensure we remain focussed and on track.

Website: Pinpoint Marketing Consultancy Ltd

Enter Appointments 4U, who are regularly called upon to contact potential customers as part of Taribo’s marketing drive.

“Every month, we send out marketing letters to potential customers and pass the contact details to Appointments 4U,” explains Yasmin Cumberbatch, office manager at Taribo. “Their team then follows up the letters and makes appointments for us, then they get back to us with dates, times and the details of each meeting.”

Yasmin believes that Appointments 4U are invaluable to Taribo’s success securing new business. “They’re brilliant! They do all the cold calling for you, which means you don’t have to worry about it. When they come back to us, their information is so clear – it’s all colour co-ordinated and super-organised – you couldn’t fail to understand it, it’s just so easy for people.”

Having been working together for over a year, Taribo are clearly impressed with Appointments 4U. “They have got us quite a few new clients, and quite a lot of new work. We’d definitely recommend them – and yes, we’ll be using julie’s Appointments 4U team again in the future!”

Website: Taribo computer support and maintenance

“Instead of using the people referred to me by my head office, I was looking to bringing telemarketing back to a local level, to remain in control of the process,” says Angela. “I found that working on a more personal level yielded far better results.”

She met up with Julie from Appointments 4U a couple of times, so that both could to get to know each other. “One of my criterion was for me to meet the telemarketers personally so we could get to know each other’s expectations and ask each other questions.”

Angela was very impressed with the service offered by Appointments 4U. “I thought Julie was very good at finding me appointments. Obviously within the criterion that I’d asked for, there were going to be some that didn’t pan out, but she made a huge effort to replace those. For me that was particularly useful: if a person didn’t confirm the appointment or cancelled our appointment prior to me going, Julie would go out of her way to replace them, which is quite unique in her field.

“We also set up a KPI monitoring system prior to the start of each campaign, so Appointments 4U would feedback to me every week (or if it was a short campaign on a daily basis) and then I could compare the number of conversions from those calls.”

So would Angela recommend using Appointments 4U? Yes! “Choosing a telemarketer is a personal choice – you have to get on with them and they have to understand where you’re coming from. But certainly, with quality of service and professionalism that Appointments 4U offer, they can’t be beat.”

Website: ActionCoach Business Coaching

But with an ever-growing target audience (the proportion of the population who are retired is continually growing), Lorreine realised she needed some help contacting former clients.

“I had gained promotion within my previous job and moved away from working directly with customers, and so lost contact with some wealthy private clients,” explains Lorreine. “I didn’t want to just call them out of the blue after so many years, so I asked Julie from Appointments 4U to get involved. They not only telephoned them all and generated a number of appointments, Julie also critiqued the script I had supplied her with, making a number of valuable suggestions.”

Lorreine subsequently contracted Julie for another campaign, this time contacting care homes. “When I gave her the script, she didn’t just go off and start phoning care homes, she tested it on about 10 first, to see what parts of the script worked and what didn’t. She got me quite a few appointments from that campaign – I was really impressed with her work. She researched my business so that she had a good understanding of what I could offer and this helped her when she was asked questions by the care home.

“Appointments 4U are a pleasure to know and to work with. If you need cold calling done, a survey undertaken or just your client base re-warmed up, then they cannot be recommended highly enough. They will continue to be a part of my business.”

“Making appointments, cold calling and chasing leads is actually quite difficult,” says John, “and I’m usually too busy selling our printing services to be able to do it properly. But since Appointments 4U are doing it professionally – why not use experts to do it for you?”

John had previously considered using other telemarketers but didn’t like the way they wanted to do business. “Other companies quoted per appointment, which wouldn’t have suited me. Appointments 4U works for me one day a week, and keep me very busy with a constant supply of leads and appointments. Obviously not every appointment pans out, but it’s certainly worthwhile. I’m a lot busier these days and there’s a real buzz about the business.”

John doesn’t have any doubts about recommending Appointments 4U.

“Julie and her team do a fantastic job: in fact, the only way they could improve is if they physically brought the business in themselves – and I guess that’s my job!”

Website: H20 Printing

That’s where Appointments 4U come in. From generating leads to creating market awareness of your product, from cleansing old databases to supplying targeted data, from rejuvenating lapsed customers to following up leads and maintaining contacts, Appointments 4U can help your sales team maximise their potential.

And don’t worry: we’re well aware that first impressions last. Our expertise lies in establishing warm relationships quickly and ensuring that your product or services are portrayed in the best possible light. It’s our job to promote your business in a professional and efficient manner, generating maximum exposure and heightening awareness in your services.

Appointments 4U is perfectly positioned to generate sales leads on your behalf, arranging diarised sales appointments for your company representatives. That way, they spend minimum time trying to arrange meetings with prospects – leaving maximum time to generate sales from new, pre-qualified customers.

As professional telemarketers contracted to call customers on your behalf, we’ll spend time researching your business before ever dialling a number. We will visit you at your corporate headquarters, prior to commencing the sales generation process, to gain insight into your business and familiarise ourselves with the main goals of your campaign. Understanding your company and the services it provides helps us to play our part more effectively and field general enquiries in a professional manner.

We offer business-to-business appointment making and sales generation from supplied data; we talk directly to the key decision makers and arrange meetings at times convenient to both these potential clients and your sales team. In short, we offer your sales team the freedom to concentrate on selling!

“Obviously, as a wedding planner, I had a lot of contacts who might have been interested in exhibiting,” explains Jenny. “But since I was going to be co-ordinating the entire show, I thought the easiest way of contacting them would be through a direct telesales campaign.
“We needed someone with sales skills to get people excited about the fair. I’d met Julie through the Athena network, so she was one of the first people I thought about. I gave her a database, and she was very successful in drumming up interest, which I then converted into sales.”

As a professional herself, Jenny really appreciates professionalism. “Julie’s team have a really rigorous approach – they do a lot of homework before they ever pick up the phone, anticipating what potential objections might come up and making sure they can overcome them. The feedback was very good – I would thoroughly recommend their work.”

So impressed was Jenny with Appointments 4U that she asked them to follow up their initial calls, offering exhibitors the opportunity to include their information in the event’s branded welcome bags.

Website: Make Our Day Event planning and management

After doing a mail-shot to new businesses, and established businesses relocating in the area, he asked Julie’s team to follow up with calls, to generate leads and secure appointments.

“Appointments 4U were very thorough in following up our mail-shot,” he says. “They really stuck at it, and kept plugging away to try to generate more leads for us. I think it was quite difficult for her to make appointments for us, but if I’d had to do it, it would have been nigh on impossible!

“I’d certainly recommend their services – they do a very good job.”

Website: Cavendish & Co. Chartered certified accountants

Appointments 4U is expert in data validation – we specialise in identifying current decision makers and updating relevant telephone numbers and email addresses. We know the success of future marketing and sales campaigns largely hinge on recognising the correct targets, and efficient data validation is the key tool in this process.
Once your data has been upgraded we can convert contacts into valuable leads and set new sales appointments for your team. Having a validated database saves time on calls, makes mail shots and email marketing far more effective and prevents wasted communication to long departed non-prospects.

And of course, while we’re engaged on your behalf, you have the added benefit of increased market awareness, which may ultimately generate further interest in your products or services.