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Q. I am a small employer with just 10 employees. How important is marketing for a company as small as mine?
A. Thanks for the question. Thinking about it has led me to want to ask you some questions in return. Developing a strategic marketing plan for your company will require some thought about your company's future. Before you really get to work on a marketing plan, take some time to answer the following questions. These will help you determine how detailed a marketing plan you will actually need, and can help you decide what kind of marketing investment will be necessary for you to reach your business goals. Assuming that you have a product or service that would benefit from additional marketing, think about these critical questions before you proceed:
- Are you satisfied with the number of customers you have?
- Are your profits where you want them to be?
- Are you making enough money?
- How much money do you need to make?
- How hard do you have to work to make a comfortable living and still have a life?
- Do you plan to grow the size of your business in the future, or are you happy with its size now?
- Is your product or service one that could be marketed to a larger group of people than it is now - what is your "universe" of prospective buyers?
- Do you plan to expand outside of the current office(s) you have now?
- For the future, would you consider expanding to other offices around the same city, to other cities in Oregon, or to other states?
- Do you have problems recruiting or retaining employees at your present business?
- If the answer to #6 is "yes," how do you plan to recruit and retain employees as your business grows?
- Do you have any money to spend on marketing? According to the Service Corps of Retired Executives, consumer or retail-related businesses spend 10 percent or more of gross revenue on marketing. The ultimate determination depends on a number of factors including: how much competition you have, how unique your product or service is and how fast you can physically grow your product or service.
- Finally, you must decide how much risk you are willing to take.
Spending some time writing down your answers to these questions and others like them is the first step. In the next issue, we'll review an outline of a basic "fill in the blanks" marketing plan that could help you expand your Oregon business.
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