Welcome To Startup Students

Good morning Startup Students. While we have not yet explored the core aspects of a bullet proof business plan, I’d like to take today to discuss with you the benefits of your promotional plan. Without marketing and promotion, the idea, management, and financials of a business plan won’t take you anywhere. Here’s a quick list of 5 easy steps to rock solid promotional plan.

1. You must first determine your sales and marketing objectives. Utilizing a matrix is ideal for this type of analysis. I discussed using a matrix analysis to select your opportunity, but the underlying techniques still apply.
2. Develop strategies to achieve your goals. Brainstorming and mind mapping are ideal solutions for coming up with these goals.
3. Create a well defined method for carrying out your strategies. Use your best judgment for now, but we’ll explore this a bit more at a later date.
4. Determine a budget and then enact a program to assure the success of your promotion.
5. Continuously evaluate the results of your promotional objectives and adjust your strategy as needed.

A variety of promotional strategies exist, some more mainstream than others. Here’s a few to get your creative juices flowing:

• Traditional media advertising – Not recommended for startups
• In store displays – expensive yet effective
• Creative packaging – High quality, memorable, and fun works best
• Guarantees – Low cost and effective
• Trade shows and conventions – Expensive, but professional
• Direct mailings – Creative, memorable pieces
• Catalog sales – A dying breed
• Press releases, news stories, and other “free ink” – Holds more value than ads
• One on one personal selling – Great for bootstrapping startups
• Industry specific trade magazines – Every industry has at least one
• Mailing lists – Utilize your web site or a paid list
• Networking – Online and in person
• Top notch customer service – Model after some of your favorite companies
• Paid search results – Find low cost, effective keywords
• Top quality web presences – A necessity these days
• Adwords campaigns – Varying results
• Stumbleupon campaigns – Highly recommended

If you have any additional suggestions you’d like to share, please comment! That’s all for today students, see you tomorrow.