Strategic Marketing vs. Tactical Marketing

Most businesses have both a strategic marketing plan and a tactical marketing plan, and it’s important to keep these two platforms separate. People often mistakenly assume that when you talk about marketing, you’re speaking of “tactical” marketing, which consists of placing ads, generating leads, sending out mailers and brochures, etc. However, strategic marketing focuses on the message and communication of the message. Simply put, tactical marketing is the execution of your marketing plan—the medium by which your message is delivered, and strategic marketing focuses on the content of your message—what you say and to whom you say it.

The key difference is the focus on making sure overall customer situations mesh with your overall company direction. Not to get distracted, or veer off course of your overall company direction, but at every step of development for your strategic plan, and execution of your plan, you are indeed on course for the overall vision and goals of the company.

Content vs. Execution

Many companies try to figure out how to sell more before they find out how to provide a solution to their consumers’ needs. The procedure for accomplishing this is exactly the same every single time, for every kind of business. It is the advertiser’s job to pay attention to human nature, to research human nature, and to have some insight into how people make their purchasing decisions. Strategically, marketing programs and advertising should get the attention of target market prospects and facilitate their decision-making. This lowers their risk for taking the next step in the buying process. By understanding what’s important to your target market, you can then put together a strategy that gets more qualified prospects to call, reduces your sales cycle, and increases your conversion ratios. After the strategy is in place, the tactical execution simply consists of testing and implementing your strategic plan.

Business-to-business Strategic Marketing

There is a business-to-business aspect to many companies, in which case these business-to-business transactions count as customer situation. For marketing to businesses that are your clients and customers, this means combining industry sector segmentation and product use with other factors related to purchasing decisions. For example, this would include purchase criteria and decision motivations that effect larger, enterprise sized purchases. In this case, part of your strategic marketing plan is to build strong, personal relationships with these larger businesses, and focus on providing customized service, products and even anticipate the needs of your business clients. Although a business is obviously a larger entity than a single customer, many of the same principles prevail; the most important being a keen sense of service, and making them feel they are important and that you pay special attention to them.

A strategic marketing plan encompasses developing a message, and developing the best way to communicate this message—and contemplates the best strategy to deal with communicating this message. Tactical marketing is important as it executes the strategic plan, but it is important to keep these two subjects divided as you develop a successful marketing plan for your company.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Email Strategies for Strategic Marketing

If you run an online business, you already know that email is an essential portion of how you do business and communicate with customers - a veritable lifeline to your client base. There are several email strategies, besides the overused spam and direct mail, which will help you reach potential new clients, inspire them to want to reach you, and to build stronger relationships with your existing clients.

Email Signature

A very simple and obvious way to raise your company’s awareness is to install an automatic email signature at the bottom of all outgoing correspondence. This is something that most companies are probably already doing, but it’s important enough to be mentioned. If you do not already use an email signature, it is time to start, and if your company is using an email signature—bravo—but this is also a good time to re-evaluate the autograph and company information that appears in the signature. Is it clear? Easy to read? Does it contain a link? These are a few things to consider when designing your email signature, and evaluating the effectiveness of an existing signature.

Email Newsletter

Publishing an email newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your prospective customers, raise brand awareness, share information and build relationships. It may sound like a lot of work, but you may only choose to release a newsletter monthly or quarterly, so it need not be intensely time consuming, and it is an excellent, non-invasive way to reach out to customers.

An email newsletter on the surface is simply a way of sharing news and information with customers and potential clients who have usually voluntarily asked to receive this letter. Email newsletters are usually sent to existing customers who have signed up for the service, so it is a way of keeping in touch with and reaching out to customers who are already interested in your business and services. An effective tactic here is to personalize each email/newsletter by using distribution technology that uses the client’s first name. Use of a client’s first name will further solidify your relationship by extending personal attention and courtesy that the customer may not get from another website business.

Special Offers

Sending coupons to your existing customers and letting them know of special offers via email is a useful marketing strategy. This will make customers feel that you are looking out for their interests, that you appreciate their business, and want to reward their loyalty. This will make those customers feel that they have been recognized, and that their business matters to you, further increasing their loyalty to you.

This need not be a costly strategy for your business. You can offer a small percentage-off coupon, which in the long run won’t affect your bottom line, but will benefit customer alliance. In addition to this, the percentage of customers who actually redeem these coupons and special offers tends to be small - they may not need to re-order products at this time- but the effect of increased loyalty will be achieved whether the customer redeems the coupon or not. These compatible marketing strategies are a strategic choice, and an effective way to build relationships with your customers, and to increase your business.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Focus Your Energies by Forming a Joint Venture

Doing what you do best and only what you do best is the ideal situation for everyone. For example, if you make an excellent widget, then you want to keep perfecting those widgets, not deal with the online sales and shipping of your widgets. Or, if you are a writer of children’s books, than you want to focus on the writing, not the distribution and marketing of your books.

Obviously, sales and marketing are still very serious needs that must be met in order for you to even have a business, but other people can provide those needs if you’re willing to let them do so. Makers of widgets can hire companies to process their orders, ship the widgets, and even handle customer service in its totality. Children’s book authors often work with agents and publishers to create successful marketing campaigns for the distribution and sales of the new book . These types of partnerships are joint ventures in which both companies win.

Focus on your expertise

The first step in forming this type of joint venture is determining what you do best. If it is a product you provide or an excellent service, you need to pin down how your time is best spent.

Then figure out what part of your company you would like someone else to handle. It could be as small as having an outside vendor handle your payroll, or as large as forming a joint venture for future advertising campaigns. Creating a joint venture for a large or even small part of what you are doing now will allow you more time and energy to focus on what you already do.

Seeking out joint venture partnerships

On the other end of the spectrum, if you are an excellent sales and marketing professional, you might want to seek out a company that has synergies with your business. If you love their widgets, then propose a joint venture marketing campaign that will propel both of you into the forefront of the target audience. Or, if you find a great children’s book author and you sell children’s toys, then you can propose a joint venture email campaign.

The most important aspect in forming a joint venture is your personal belief in what you do. If we are honest, we all know there is something in which we excel. Indeed, we may have become good at many things, but chances are we all have a special skill or talent.

If you can discover your specialized talent, then you will see where others are not as adept in that area. Actually, you are likely to find people that despise doing what you love to do, and vice-versa. This is a great thing! The beauty of a joint venture is that your strengths are the other partner’s weaknesses, and vice-versa. This helps you create a marketing campaign or business strategy that is more powerful than your individual efforts. Finding the synergies and capitalizing upon those differences in a joint venture can take your business to the next level.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Consider Collaborating With Other Business Owners for Increased Profits

Let’s say you have a successful Internet business with a successful e-marketing platform, and you feel you have good relationships with existing customers and fair success at gaining new business but then you hear about Collaboration Marketing and you wonder why all the hype? Why should you consider changing anything or expanding in a new direction?

Collaboration Marketing may not be a must for your business, but it’s certainly something worth exploring. You may not need to collaborate with other companies to grow your business, and you may be satisfied with the size and scope of your business. But even if you are not looking to grow, change, or expand, a collaboration strategy may help you maintain the smooth running of your current operations, which could mean less day to day work for you.

There are two distinct types of Collaboration Marketing that are important to understand. One deals with the actual advertising and marketing of your products, the other relates to the market in which you sell and distribute your products. Before making a decision about whether a collaboration strategy is right for your business, it is important to understand and explore both aspects of this type of marketing.

Advertising Collaborations focus on shared industry resources and word of mouth partnerships. If you have a small business specializing in making wedding cakes, you will benefit by making contact with other wedding industry professionals such as photographers, caterers and consultants. If a photographer has a client who has not yet decided on a bakery for their special cake, the advertising collaboration creates a point of contact and referral to recommend your wedding cake business to the client.

By the same token, if you have clients who have not yet selected a photographer for their wedding, you can recommend your collaboration partner, who is a wedding photographer. The success of your Advertising Collaboration will depend on your ability to form and develop successful business relationships.

Market Share Collaboration deals directly with the market in which your products are bought and sold and may be a large undertaking, but it’s an important process to understand in any marketplace. This type of collaboration has to do with banding together with other small businesses in your area, and forming a small cooperative to maximize cost savings for products you all use or need to do business.

For example, the Central Minnesota Buckwheat Growers formed a 16 member cooperative in order to market their buckwheat directly to larger buyers, and they received a substantially higher price for their product than they could have received individually.

You are probably not growing or selling buckwheat over the Internet, but this model holds true and translates across the board for any business. If you are a small business, you may benefit from partnerships with other small businesses in your same industry just like the Buckwheat Growers did when they formed a collective.

Collaboration Marketing is a model I believe you will find merits exploration. If done properly, it will provide a helpful way of expanding and solidifying your business for years to come.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Joint Ventures: 5 Key Points for Successful Partnering

Forming a partnership with another company can be a great marketing injection into the revenues of your business. By combining your strengths with that of another company, you will become a greater force in your industry. However, making it a successful partnering does require careful consideration.

Creating the Joint Venture groundwork

First you will have to know your company, inside and out. This means you have a clear understanding of your own vision, and you know how the public receives you. Once you’ve determined these elements, it will be the rock on which you are founded. When searching for the right partner, your vision cannot be compromised - even if that means moving onto the next prospect.

Analyzing prospective partners

Next, do your homework to find a company that is genuinely interested in a joint venture. If you are a small business, look for other small businesses to team up with, which will allow you to become a competitor to a larger company. Both you and your joint venture partner will win in this situation. However, small and large companies should both be open to a joint venture together, as this too could be beneficial from a marketing and revenue standpoint.

Consider the separation

Once you have found the company, which compliments yours, plan your exit from the partnership. This is a business tactic used by many, where in forming a united front, you carefully consider everything and anything that could go wrong. You cover all of your bases in the planning stage before you launch. This ensures confidence in each entity and gives you both a clear future because you have removed the fear of the worst-case scenario.

Open the lines of communication

Now that you have formed your joint venture, remember the relationship will require quality communication. Set up weekly conferences to monitor progress as a whole, as well as checking in on how each entity is feeling about the partnership.

Chances are, as with any relationship, there will be issues. Staying on top of any problems is critical. These issues can grow into such a large problems they ultimately destroy the partnership unnecessarily. Communicate on a regular basis. Weekly meeting agendas should include any current issues as well as revisiting your mutually planned “way out” to make sure you are still in agreement.

Create the business plan

Now form your business plan. Once you know each others strengths and weaknesses, shared ideas and compromises, make a plan together. Agree upon suppliers, structure, and allocations. Be sure to do this together.

If completing any of these steps you run into conflicts, then it may be time to move on and find another partner. Any negotiating should be left to less critical items when fulfilling your own vision. If you stay grounded in the fundamentals, the joint venture you form will be a win-win situation for both parties involved.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Strategic Marketing: Customers and Competition

To begin an effective strategic marketing strategy, it’s imperative to know your customer, as well as your competition. Knowing what your target audience is, and who your target customer is, will be the first step towards developing a successful marketing strategy. Once you have identified your audience, you can begin to tailor your strategy to include your collaborative marketing efforts.

Who is your customer?

Start by making a series of imaginary profiles of your potential clients and customers, asking specific questions such as:

• What is the age range of my potential clients?
• What is their income range?
• What are their lifestyles and hobbies?

Depending on the product you are marketing, your phantom client profile will vary. The motivation here is to think of the customer as an individual, rather than as an amorphous group of unknown clients. Once you identify a potential client profile, it will be a more natural process to tailor a marketing scheme.

An effective marketing plan begins with thinking specifically in terms of whom your market is, and who you are trying to entice to use your products and services. An advertisement, email or website display will vary greatly depending on whether you are targeting college age, financially conservative students, middle income families, or single, young professionals. However, a cohesive, well thought out series of advertisements is more likely to appeal to a diverse variety of clients rather than an assortment of ads tailored to reach a specific audiences. Your product or service may very well be suitable for a variety of clients, but is less likely to sell to a varied consumer base with too many individual marketing strategies.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

Knowledge of your competitors’ marketing scheme and how they market their products is almost as important as being able to identify your prospective clients. There’s a lot to be learned from studying a competitor, especially if they are a well-established business with a solid marketing strategy.

Build upon what has proven successful

If you know of a business in your industry that has catchy marketing ads, it’s a good idea to understand what they’ve done to be successful. This is important for two reasons: you don’t want to exactly replicate another marketing strategy, and you want your advertisements to stand apart from what is already being produced. This will help you to develop and tailor your marketing scheme to your target audience, in a way that is different from your competition and get you noticed!

Awareness of how similar businesses in your industry approach marketing will help you develop the edge you need to target your own clients. Intimate knowledge of which these prospective clients are will set you in the right direction for developing a successful marketing strategy that is unique and specific to your business. Knowing your target market, and how others target the market in your industry, will put your business on a successful path for growth and recognition. Based upon this knowledge, you can even choose a synergistic competitor and create a collaboration marketing campaign.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Using the Media as a Strategic Alliance

Millions of people read the newspaper every day. Many others read magazine articles. Most of these two groups combined believe and trust the better part of what they read.

What is published on those pages becomes regarded as truth, or at least it holds an inkling of truth. The stories are often the topics of morning radio talk shows, people chatting at work or among friends. In short, the stories that make it to print have an impact on consumers.

Therein exists a very effective form of collaboration marketing. With the media, you are building the trust of consumers, who will in turn be more likely to buy your product or service. The trick is to get the newsmakers to write about you and your business, which starts with news releases. In accomplishing this goal, you will form a strategic alliance with the media. The key to success with this strategy is to have well written releases. The media receives countless press releases each day and if it’s not in the proper form, or you’ve a made a mistake, your release goes in the trash.

Hiring a communications firm to write them for you is a great idea. They will have a large media list with specific contact information for publications in your area and around the country. Getting your release to the right person is important. These contacts can be found on your own in most cases, although it make take a lot of work. Chances are you will have to make your way through many gatekeepers before you find the right person. There are online services where if you subscribe, you will have access to their media lists. However, some of these sites can be hundreds of dollars to obtain.

If you are going to give it a go yourself, here are a few key things to remember in writing a news release. Never call members of the press members of the press. It is thought of as a negative term these days. So, at the top of your page it should read ‘News Release’, not Press Release. If the content of your release is time sensitive, then the words - for immediate release’ should be in the second line. This will tell the media that the info in the release has an upcoming expiration date. If it can be used for a while, then it should read ‘for release at will.’ This will give your release a longer shelf life and it has a better chance of seeing its way to print. Be sure to include your contact information. Keep paragraphs very short, one or two sentences. Keep the entire news release to one page when possible.

Consistency is going to play an important role in this strategy. Forming a strategic alliance with the media will be key to your collaboration-marketing plan. Some will choose to send media releases once a month for an elongated period of time. Some plans span 3 months, while others choose a more secure year or more. Of course, not all releases will turn into articles because big news happens and you’ll get sent to the bottom of the pile. But chances are if you consistently send your releases, you’ll see your name in print.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Joint Ventures: Who, What, Where, When and Why

When two business entities enter into a partnership, this is a joint venture. The defining factors of this union are equal risk and equal reward. That means that each party will divide the costs evenly, and will also share the profits. The parties may enter into a legally binding agreement that covers the responsibilities and expectations of each, but lets get started by having a more complete understanding of a joint venture.

Who should I partner with?

At times, choosing the right joint venture partner can seem overwhelming. After all, you have a company to run. If you have your own research and development team, they can help find good prospects that will help your company develop into its next level of success. However, consider that there are joint venture brokers who can do this job for you. After collecting information regarding your company’s vision, they will help you find the best match for you particular goals.

What form of Joint Venture is best for my company?

A joint venture will most commonly take the form of a corporation, a limited liability company, or a limited liability partnership. Many things should be considered when choosing which is right for you. Each of these have different tax implications, and it is recommended to consult a tax professional in deciphering the best fit for both parties.

Where do I find the right company to partner with?

You’ll have to ask yourself what parts of the country or Internet you’d like to reach. Once you have made a determination as to where you would like to see your business expand, then you’ll have a better idea of where to begin your search for potential partners. If part of your company’s vision is to become international, then a joint venture may be required. Many US businesses must form joint ventures with international companies in order to do business in those countries.

When is the right time to partner?

You’ll have to take a good honest look at your company. Consider the timeline of your success. Where did you begin? Where are you now? Where do you see your company in 5 years or even 10? After grasping that perspective, explore the key components needed to reach your short-term goals, and then your long-term goals. If partnering with a company can help you meet those goals, then now may be the time to form a joint venture.

Why a Joint Venture?

Entering into a joint venture has known benefits. The first and maybe most appealing of them is the concept of spreading the liabilities between the two parties. Most businesses are willing to put in their share of equity; feeling assured that the other party is equally invested. As the saying goes, people follow their money. Because of this, a joint venture is a more secure form of partnership since both entities share the risk. Each party’s reputation and profitability depends upon both doing their part to succeed.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Strategic Alliances: Finding the Right One for Your Company

A strategic alliance can significantly open your market opportunities, connecting you with a desired audience. Forming an alliance should begin with taking an honest look at the many aspects that make up your business and making sure the other partner is a good fit. Finding the right strategic alliance is crucial.

The following are critical elements to take into consideration:

Vision: Assess what the company wants to become. Then, based on current practices, compare the vision with the company’s potential to achieve its vision. With that information, you will have a clear idea about what the company needs to achieve that vision.

Core Values: Determine the organization’s values. Ask what it cares about and whom will it benefit. These answers will play an important role in choosing your alliance, as you’ll want to find a company with beliefs comparable to your own.

Evaluation: Evaluate your strengths and be objective about your weaknesses. Determine where you succeed and where you are challenged. Your time is best spent doing what you do best. If you spend more time doing things you struggle with, you are losing money. Find a company who succeeds where you struggle. Chances are an alliance with them will come with added value to your own clients and will give you more time to pursue your strengths.

History: Evaluate when the company started, its major successes and failures. Make sure your understanding of their history is detailed and complete.

Real Issues: Now it’s time to start thinking about the real issues the company has. Make bullet points of everything that is happening internally and externally. Include economic conditions, legislation, and public perception.

Goals: The Company’s goals should be not be to make money, but to provide a tangible benefit to someone or something. Making money is a symptom of filling a need. Strategic alliances could enhance the benefit to your clients, which will equally greater profits.

Key Publics: This may be the most important aspect to consider when shopping for an alliance partner. Pick at least ten of your key publics and prioritize them. Define their importance: who they are and why they are important. When two companies have mutual publics, they have a common goal.

Message Statement: Consider the perception your public will have about your company. Now ask yourselves what are the top three things you want to be known for. Forming an alliance can create or re-enforce the essential message you want your clients to hear. Sending the desired message is invaluable and many companies have used alliances as a creative marketing tool ultimately getting the attention they desire.

When considering a strategic alliance, there are many issues to consider. Once you’ve collected all the data, analyzed the company’s current situation in comparison to where they are going and ultimately where they want to be, you may find an alliance a great vehicle to get you there.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Joint Ventures: Benefits of Utilizing a Business Architect

The term Business Architect continues to grow in prevalence, but many people are still unfamiliar as to what they actually do. These business professionals can be especially valuable to joint ventures in the way they bring companies together to create innovation, see the “bigger picture” and benefit all involved.

Business architects can be highly effective in some of the following areas:

• Directors of corporate leadership change
• Creators of joint ventures
• Developers of innovative programs
• Managers of new ventures and partnerships

Although these professionals can work in many different types of business settings, their underlying goal is always the same: help business achieve greater effectiveness and success.

Role of the Business Architect

Organizations prosper because of congruent, continuous decision-making on all levels of business. Performance measures need to be aligned with the organization’s strategy. A Business Architect documents and defines a business strategy using requirements provided by their clients. They evaluate the big picture, how the work process is directed and then design ways to take revenues to the next level. Fundamentally, their purpose is to allow businesses to have the highest probability of success against the competition.

In a joint venture, they will develop the best strategy through an analysis of the companies’ objectives and goals. Often creating strategies and innovative techniques the joint venture partners can embark on together. Much like the traditional building architect creates a plan and how to implement the building process, the business architect can be the primary foundation for a successful joint venture.

Advantages of Using a Business Architect

The business architect can assist the business owner with developing a joint venture strategy by assisting in every aspect, from defining goals to choosing partners. They can put in place strategies to define governance and accountability, as well as organizing information to assist in the decision making process. Having this kind of support can make the difference between whether a joint venture will succeed or not.

The business architect usually is a savvy communicator. Their experience and expertise can establish a connection with venture partners, define rules and support you in the joint venture process. They can provide a completely unbiased view of the advantages or disadvantages for engaging in a particular joint venture deal.

If you are looking to expand your business, or perhaps engage in a joint venture, a business architect can help you bridge that change to enjoy greater success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free JV Wealth e-zine.

Next Page »