21-Step Marketing Process

1.

If an existing product/service, collect copies of all marketing materials along with whatever is known about the results achieved by each one. (We need to know what has done so far and how it worked).

2.

Using the input from people in the business, write "Customer Value" statements. There are two types of statements and they need to be written in the first person: (1) your prospect's frustration with his situation and then (2) his frustration with possible solutions.

3.

Distill the "hot buttons" out of the "Customer Value" statements and write up a couple sentences summarizing each hot button.

4.

Do surveys with as many "prospects/customers" as necessary to verify if we have the right hot buttons and the right importance of each.

5.

Using the innovation matrix, define what it is you do to alleviate your prospect's concerns on each hot button.

6.

Define what the industry as a whole does to alleviate your prospect's concern on each hot button.

7.

For each hot button, if we're not already better than the industry as a whole, define what innovations we would need to implement to be dramatically better than the industry on each hot button. (Ignore cost or practicality at this stage—this is the innovation step).

8.

Competitor Surveys —verify what our competitors really do to solve customers hot button concerns. Go back to step 7 if we find surprises and re-do that step.

9.

Customer and Prospect Surveys—Make up a survey and call both customers and prospects to see what they think of our "innovations"—do they suck or are they great? DO NOT do this by email or mail—you need to get the feedback from a phone conversation so you can explore their answers.

10.

Decide which innovators to put in place based on the survey results and a cost/benefit analysis.

11.

Define whether we have a defined or undefined target market. If we have a defined target market, we will need to market to them around 25 times/year with direct marketing. If not, we need to run advertising to get people to raise their hands and qualify for being in the target market and then market to them as with a defined market.

12.

Decide which lead generator marketing pieces need to be created and for what media.

13.

Write at least 100 headlines for each ad, brochure, etc.

14.

Test/survey all headlines with actual target market people to determine the winners.

15.

Prepare marketing pieces for each target market and media. Note any competitive efforts in the same media directed to the same target market and research to see if they are being repeated—an indication they work.

16.

Test ads and measure results—compare to both past results and competitive results of the marketing process—use split testing and Taguchi methodology where appropriate to optimize ads quicker.

17.

Determine marketing budget, allocate the strategic plan to the most effective media first, set up media plan for coming year.

18.

If successful, roll out. If not, go back to #16 and repeat!

19.

Compare all leads against cost per lead, cost per sale and cost per source to determine the most cost-effective way to spend the marketing budget dollars.

20.

Roll out, test, adjust.

21.

Roll out, test, adjust.