Customer service is an important component of a marketing strategy.
As a business owner, your marketing strategy is the key to the ongoing success of your company. Your marketing strategy provides you with the information you need about what products and services to offer, and spread the word about them. It also sets targets for limiting expenses and provides an opportunity for you to evaluate how much money you expect to spend on marketing, as well as the results you expect in return.
Evaluating Customer Demand
Learn from your customers about what they want, and how you can best provide it for them. Conduct formal surveys either online or by mailing or distributing questionnaires. Alternately, perform informal research by simply speaking to your customer base and asking them what they want and how you can most effectively meet their needs. Collate the information you receive, either by quantifying the results of surveys or by writing down comments as you hear them.
SWOT Analysis
Perform a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) on your company's situation. Assess your strengths and weaknesses, identifying the qualities that make your company unique or in a particularly advantageous position, as well as its weaknesses, or the areas where you are vulnerable, such as dedicated equipment that you cannot adapt to new uses. Also evaluate your opportunities and threats, such as specific experience in a field that is becoming popular or a sudden increase in competition because of this same popularity. Use the information in your SWOT analysis to create a plan that enables you to take advantage of your strengths, circumvent your weaknesses, make the most of your opportunities, and constructively address the threats you face.
Budgeting
Prepare a marketing budget detailing how much you will spend on advertising and outreach, and how you will use the money. Base your marketing budget on your company's operating budget, using it to obtain information about how much your business can afford for these endeavors. Also base your marketing budget on the cost of the particular marketing activities you plan to implement. Choose cost-effective alternatives, but don't skimp on an expensive idea if it will provide reasonably certain results.
Feedback
Create feedback systems for evaluating the relative success of your marketing efforts. Develop indicators to measure the response to ads, such as offering a small freebie and then counting the number of customers who take advantage of your offer. Ask new customers how they heard about you, and examine Internet statistics to glean information about how users are finding your site. Use this information when planning future marketing activities by redirecting your resources toward the endeavors that are producing the best results.
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