Strategic Marketing
Michelle Reed – VP. Strategic Marketing
Strategic Marketing Ways To Protect Gross Profitability Over Sluggish Economic Periods
Article by Craig Corbel
The main goal of a typical organization confronted with challenging tactical decisions is to survive a financial slump. The organization should stay dedicated to its marketing plan, and find harmony in creating profitable revenue and lowering costs. The goal is always to uncover solutions to cut costs without eliminating essential revenue producing expenses. I hope to be able to provide you with some of these possibilities, as prospective methods to retaining gross profits for the duration of short-term periods of an economic downturn.
Creating Client ReferralsBeing a marketing and advertising consultant, I am often amazed by the blank stares I get after I ask a client: “How many referrals did the company create last month?” If they know, it is rarely anything substantial, for the reason that very little effort is dedicated to the growth of this income source. Bringing in customer referrals, particularly targeted at repeat purchasers, is a skill of salesmanship, that appeared to disappear with the invention of computers and the Internet.
Every company has a cost per sale metric they are comfortable with. Your sales staff, your customer support department, your email efforts, and the home page of your website, are all touch points to market a customer referral program. Just take your cost per sale figure, divide it by three, and use that amount as a referral promotion. It is an low-cost method to obtain customers and new revenue. A well maintained referral plan can contribute 2% to 5% towards your gross profit.
Customer Retention PlansI often receive the same blank stares once I ask clients: “How many former buyers did you reactivate last month?” Like bringing in referrals, this is a sales technique that has almost been forgotten. For every customer you lose, you need to find two new customers, in order to grow your business. Typically, customer retention is simple if you take some time to discover why they no longer use your service.
You can expect to hear isolated incidences related to shipping and delivery problems, a rude customer service encounter, and products, which did not satisfy buyer expectations. All you need to do is address the matter and fix the problem. Your client will be pleased their account seemed valuable enough for you to contact them. A properly supervised customer retention plan can add an additional 2% to 5% to your gross profits.
Strategic Retail PricingA lot of companies use a flat rate method for establishing their retail prices. In good times and in bad, I am a huge advocate of strategic retail pricing. I do not believe in decreasing selling prices, and profit margins, during sluggish periods to generate revenue. Strategic pricing is about advertising and marketing the value of your goods and services. A best selling product is worth more whenever it offers greater customer value. Before lowering prices on slower moving products, examine how the merchandise is being presented.
Does the product have a great sales story that underscores its worth? Is the art of professional quality and compelling? Your sales presentation may need a tune-up. Packaging multiple best selling products into exclusive offers is yet another easy way to elevate average order value. Like you, buyers like to get value for their dollar too. Strategic retail pricing may help boost your gross profits between 5% and 10%.
Negotiate with VendorsVendors feel the same economic pressure as retailers, but on a larger scale. If you, and your industry is selling much less, so is your supplier. This enables you to work out a better price because it suggests to the vendor you will be prepared to look around, but you want to give them the opportunity of first choice. Can you save 5% with a pre-pay discount? Could you find some price reduction on parts of the product line for promotion? Ask your vendor how they could help you to keep them as a business partner, and allow them create offers to you. Target at least a 1% increase in gross profits when you bargain with your distributors.
Employee DownsizingIn some instances, this might end up being the only option you have to decrease company expenses. I do wish to emphasize the word expense. Your employees can easily be broken up into two categories: Overhead, and revenue generating. Sales agents and marketers generate revenue. Many of the actions mentioned above would be hard to implement without sales and marketing expertise. A few states offer a partial unemployment program in which you keep employees three days a week, and unemployment compensates your personnel for the other two days of the week. Always be sure to think through all of your alternatives, and their implications, before you take action.
Teaching new employees is less desirable compared to keeping experienced and trained existing personnel. You may save a dollar right now, and lose two down the road with the growing pains, and learning curves, typically related with employing new personnel. If you do downsize, be certain to create, or revise, a company organization chart so everyone understands their new assignments. Properly downsizing your personnel should have a favorable effect on gross profits, and you should be able to prove that to the CEO on a regular basis.
Improve Employee Efficiency and ProductionAn employee can spend up to 25% of a workday making use of business computers and the Internet for personal use. They can shop, chat, email, search for jobs, go to Facebook, and keep track of their fantasy sports leagues, just to name a few examples. I have personally seen email metrics proving 75% of buyers responding to the email, are purchasing from their office.
Some of my recommendations are old-school, but this one capitalizes on the latest technology. OfficeShield is an affordable employee monitoring software program that you may install on your network. It will inform you how many hours per day your employees are not working. It can also block and prevent access to personal use websites. If you add up your payroll and find a decrease of just 12.5% (an hour or so a working day) in employee productivity, that converts to some substantial weekly dollars, which should go directly in the direction of increasing your gross earnings.
Of course, there are no vanilla or chocolate solutions to the tough issues that a business faces as it attempts to maintain profits during an financial slowdown. However, if you discover and evaluate areas of opportunity, create options, plan and implement steps, and assess the initiatives of your work, your organization is more likely to keep and increase gross profits.
Strategic Planning for Public Relations
strategic marketing – click on the image below for more information.
strategic marketing
This innovative and popular text provides a clear pathway to understanding public relations campaigns and other types of strategic communication. Implementing the pragmatic, in-depth approach of the previous editions, author Ronald D. Smith presents a step-by-step unfolding of the strategic campaign process used in public relations practice. Drawing from his experience in professional practice and in the classroom, Smith walks readers through the critical steps for the formative research, strate
Strategic Planning for Public Relations
Click on the button for more strategic marketing information and reviews.
Former Cisco Executive Simon Aspinall Joins Virtustream as Chief Marketing Officer
strategic marketing
Aspinall brings extensive high tech marketing and business development experience to Virtustream having spent more than a decade at Cisco Systems, Inc., a cloud innovator and worldwide leader in networking. Aspinall will drive strategic marketing …
strategic marketing question by Tam K: how to sell a product by using marketing strategic?
strategic marketing best answer:
Answer by bithertybop
Like in commercials for beer when they have a big party and all the girls go over to the average guy drinking the beer. etc.