Defining the Key Elements of Your Marketing Program

Creating a marketing program can be a daunting task, especially if you don't know what your ultimate goal is. All the little details can and do make all the difference. In order to ensure you don't miss any opportunities and control your budget, you need to identify your inconsistencies in order to get the message across clearly and consistently.

Given the reality that some of your influence points may be partially or fully uncontrolled right now, draw up a list of inconsistent and/or uncontrolled elements of your marketing program. I think you'll find some inconsistencies in each of the Five P s of your program (don't worry, though, that's common!). If you can make even one of your marketing elements work better and more consistently with your overall program and its focus, you're improving the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Answering the following questions can help to pinpoint elements of your marketing mix that you need to pay more attention to.

Customer Focus

• Define your customers clearly: Who are they? Where and when do they want to buy?
• Are they new customers, existing customers, or a balanced mix of both?
• Understand what emotional elements make customers buy: What personality should your brand have? How should customers feel about your product?
• Understand what functional elements make customers buy: What features do they want and need? What information do they need to see to make their decision?

Product Attraction

• What attracts customers to your product?
• What's your special brilliance that sets you apart in the marketplace?
• Do you reflect your brilliance throughout all your market- ing efforts?

Most Effective Methods

• What's the most effective thing you can do to attract customers?
• What's the most effective thing you can do to retain customers?
• Which of the Five Ps (product, price, placement, promotion, and people) is most important in attracting and retaining customers?

Controlling Points of Contact

• What are all the ways you can reach and influence customers?
• Are you using the best of these right now?
• Do you need to increase the focus and consistency of some of these points of contact with customers?
• What can you do to improve your control over all the elements that influence customer opinion of your product?

Action Items

Draw up a list of things you can do based on this analysis to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing program.

Do you have any tips to help improve the effectiveness of a marketing program? Share your thoughts below!