Thursday, January 30, 2020

How to Create a Marketing Plan Essay Example for Free

How to Create a Marketing Plan Essay When was the last time you dusted off that marketing plan you created for your business? Wait, you do have a marketing plan, right? Well, if your marketing plan somehow found its way to the recycle bin or if you have actually never planned out a marketing strategy for your business then BusinessMarketingBlog is going to help you. Before we jump into the 6 Simple Steps to Developing A Marketing Plan, it is important that you understand the following elements of every successful marketing plan: 1) Spend the time and resources to plot out your marketing strategy and budget 2) Implement your marketing plan 3) Analyze and adjust your marketing plan as needed 4) Refine your marketing plan for the upcoming year, quarter, month, etc. 6 Steps to an Effective Marketing Plan Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your Marketing Efforts Before you can create a successful marketing plan you must have a strong understanding of what the purpose of your marketing plan is. QUESTION: What do I want people to do after they have been exposed to my marketing? Your answer should be something very specific, not something vague like â€Å"I want my marketing to help my business grow.† Here are some common purposes that business owners use to drive their marketing efforts: * Get someone to pick up the phone and call me * Entice someone to email me * Get people to tell others about my marketing / business HINT: The more thought and planning you put into this first step, the higher your conversion rates will be throughout your marketing efforts. Step 2: Determine Your Competitive Advantage and Emphasize It Now that you have pinned down a couple of the purposes for your marketing plan it is time to think about and plan out how you are going to get people to complete these actions. QUESTION: Why will people take the specified actions you have identified? You must determine what your competitive advantage is over your competitors. Sure, you probably have a lot of great benefits and value adds,  but you need determine your one strongest and most specific competitive advantage. HINT: Stress your competitive advantage as a solution to a problem (if possible). Step 3: Determine Your Target Audience Your marketing plan cannot be effective unless you know the specific demographics of the customers you are trying to reach. Again, try to be as specific as possible as the most effective marketing plans are centered around targeted, accurate broadcasting and not so much reaching the highest number of people possible. A thousand random prospects will usually not earn you as much profit as 10 of the right prospects. QUESTION: Which group of people will be most accepting and willing to receive my marketing message? You can save a ton of money by knowing who your target audience is and tailoring your marketing to that group of people. HINT: Identify ALL of your target groups, BUT market to each group with tailored, targeted messages. Step 4: Determine Your Marketing Methods There are so many ways to market a business these days; however, only a few marketing methods and mediums are raising to the top as being the most cost effective and penetrating. Get out of your old, set ways of how marketing needs to be and expand your efforts into some of today’s most effective means of reaching prospects. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: Which marketing strategies will allow me to reach my prospects where they are without annoying or interrupting them and will I be able to directly track the results of these efforts? Online marketing is one of, if not, the most cost effective ways to market a business these days. We recommend a comprehensive marketing campaign that includes all of the following online marketing methods: * Business Website and/or Blog * Paid Search Marketing * Search Engine Optimization * Social Media Marketing * Email Marketing * Video Marketing HINT: Hire a professional to implement and maintain these online marketing services for you. You will save a ton of money in the long run. Step 5:  Determine Your Niche Now that you have pin-pointed your purpose, benefits and target market, you need to define your niche. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: When people hear your product / business / company name, what’s the first thing that crosses their minds? Is it price, speed, exclusivity, service, value or something else? Your answer to this is your niche, also known as positioning, and it is what your prospects see and expect from you. The more defined and specialized your business becomes, the more likely it is to succeed in the long run so put some thought into this one. HINT: Once you define your niche, specialize in it as much as possible and communicate this niche throughout all of your marketing Step 6: Determine Your Marketing Budget Last, but most definitely not the least important, is to define what your marketing budget is for your business. Your marketing budget is something that should be evaluated at least 4 times a year, if not more. You should stick to your planned budget as much as possible. Too often do we see businesses get nervous in tough economies and decide to cut expenses with marketing being one of the first to see cuts. QUESTION: Do you really think that cutting your marketing budget or holding off on aggressive marketing is going to position your business appropriately in any economy? Marketing is not something you should ever cut corners on, especially in down economies when opportunities are ripe for cheaper market penetration. We recommend preparing to spend at least 10% of your gross sales on marketing your business. HINT: Calculate your marketing budget using your projected gross sales; this will help you operate in a growth mode. If you work off of your current sales then you will be plan ning a marketing strategy to just tread water. Putting It All Together These 6 steps are more than enough to get you started on developing a real marketing plan for your business. There are many more elements to a full scale marketing plan that deserves time, research and planning; however, once this work is done and you are able to see, follow, analyze and refine your marketing plan we can almost guarantee that your business will be taken to new levels of success that you have not experienced yet. Good luck and  please let us know if you need assistance or have specific questions about any or all of the steps outlined above.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

State Laws :: essays research papers

Most legal disputes involving state law are initially decided in the trial courts or by an administrative agency. But after such a decision, an individual may turn to the state’s appeal courts if he or she believes a legal error occurred that harmed the case. In fact, thousands of cases are appealed every year.(1) They include criminal convictions as well as civil cases involving personal injury, contracts, employment, real estate, probate, divorce, child custody and many other issues. Whenever an appellate court reverses a trial court decision, it almost always allows that court to rehear the case using the correct law and procedures. In the vast majority of cases, the decision of a Court of Appeal is final. The state Supreme Court does not review the vast majority of cases – it steps in to resolve new or disputed questions of law as well, as to review death penalty cases. Death penalty cases proceed directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing the lower Court of Appeal. The appellate courts of California consist of the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal. The judges who serve on these courts are called appellate justices. There are seven justices on the Supreme Court and 93 justices on the Courts of Appeal. The Courts of Appeal are divided into six geographical districts and hear cases arising within the district. Proceedings in appellate courts are very different from those in trial courts. In trial courts a judge or jury hears the testimony of witnesses and reviews physical evidence, exhibits and documents before deciding a case. Appellate courts do not decide an appeal by taking new evidence or reassessing the credibility of the witnesses who testified in the trial court. Instead, they review the written record to determine if the trial court properly interpreted the law and used the correct procedures when considering the case. The opposing parties submit written documents, called briefs, to assert their position. The parties also participate in oral arguments before the appeal court justices. To ensure that the cases are examined from several perspectives and receive a thorough analysis, each Court of Appeal case is decided by three appeal court justices. All seven justices decide the Supreme Court cases. In both cases, a majority of justices must agree on a decision. All justices are bound to apply the law whether they agree with that law or personally disagree with it.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Leading Change Custom Research by Essay Writers

As the modern business world becomes more complex, so too do the things that are required for organizations to emerge as viable competitors in the challenging international environment of the 21st century.   In his book â€Å"Leading Change†, John P. Kotter discusses the needs of 21st century organizations at length; through the course of his discussion, Kotter makes several assertions that correspond directly to certain areas of education.   In this paper, two of these areas will be further discussed. The Impact of Kotter’s Book on Educational Administration Generally stated, from Kotter’s point of view, the organizations and organizational leaders that will be most successful in the 21st century will be those that embrace learning as a lifelong pursuit (Kotter, 1996), which of course should lead to better leadership, decision making and hence stronger organizations. With this premise in mind, the impact of Kotter’s theories on educational administration becomes much clearer; administrators in the modern educational system must not make the mistake of viewing education as something that the individual pursues in their earlier years as a means of starting a career, but must view education as a holistic process that is the common denominator in the life of an individual, even after starting on a career path to upgrade skills, become more proficient in present job responsibilities, and perhaps to be promoted to higher positions where they can have more of a positive organizational impact. The demand that will exist for lifelong learning will mould the role of educational administrators into a sort of career coach or adult mentor, whereby they will be consulting the long-term learner on the best educational path to take; moreover, based upon the demands for certain curricula, the administrator will undoubtedly be involved in the creation and implementation of new courses to meet growing demand. How Kotter’s Work Could Shape the Knowledge of Educators As a consequence of the directional change of educational administrators, Kotter’s work could also shape the knowledge of educators in several significant ways.   Kotter, in â€Å"Leading Change†, puts forth the philosophy that without learning, no major positive change can take place in an organization, and with this end in mind, the members of a given organization need to be encouraged to â€Å"learn how to continue learning† and â€Å"learn how to lead† (Kotter, 1996). Therefore, just as the administrator will play a mentoring role in this new learning process, the educators themselves will become the main drivers of these new learning strategies, in pursuit of the end result.   Educators will also need to renew a commitment to lifelong learning, as they return to the classroom as students in order to learn the kinds of material that they in turn will be required to teach to the lifelong learner. In addition, their educational approach to the student will surely change extensively due to the fact that they will be directing lessons toward a much different demographic than usual, with different goals and ways of retaining material that is given to them.   Lastly, the educators will need to keep in mind that the adult learner may be resistant to the educational process, at least initially. Summary John P. Kotter poses a challenge to leaders, organization members, and the educational community in â€Å"Leading Change†.   This challenge comes in the form of a call to action that, if followed, will undoubtedly advance the modern organization and change the face of business for generations to come.   With business and education working in tandem, a new revolution is on the horizon that will provide, along with challenges, endless opportunity and promise. References (Kotter, 1996) (Kotter John P 1996 Leading Change)Kotter, John P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Â