Practical marketing training for SMEs
For many small businesses, marketing is something they undertake when sales drop or when they’ve got the time to fit it in. Rarely is it a planned activity that is central to the business and many even see it as an unnecessary expense.
Targeted marketing, however, can be very effective and can mean the difference between the feast and famine periods so often experience by a small business.
If any of this applies to your business, First Impression can help with this practical marketing training programme, to help you think about your business and to work with you to develop a marketing plan that you can implement going forward.
Investing in such a programme means that your marketing budget is going to work much harder for you and have much greater impact as you will have really worked on your proposition, your target market and how to communicate effectively to your audience.
This programme is eligible for funding through the Train to Gain Leadership & Management Initiative.
Session 1 Preparation
In an initial half day training session we will work with you to understand what are your business objectives, what you want to achieve and how marketing can help you get there, including:
- Defining your objectives
- How this will be measured
- Defining your proposition
- Identifying your target markets
- SWOT analysis
- Competitor analysis
Session 2 Building your proposition
The first session may have identified some areas of research that were necessary which should be completed before the second session which will concentrate on building a clear proposition for the business and how to communicate that to your customers, including:
- What do your customers want
- What are your products and services
- What are the features of your products and services
- What are the benefits of your products and services
- Matching up your customers want with your benefits
- Developing a clear proposition
- Developing clear messages of how to communicate that proposition
Session 3 Marketing plan
Now you should have a very clear idea of what your business offers and how to communicate it to your clients. This third session will concentrate on how best to reach your clients using the most appropriate tools in the marketing toolbox, and includes:
- Identifying target markets
- Identifying the tools available to your business, such as leaflets, website, email marketing, customer service, pr, etc
- Develop a marketing plan of action appropriate to budgets available.
- Working through existing marketing activity and how this needs to be changed, improved, and increased in necessary.
The programme is designed to take place over 3 full day sessions depending on customer requirements, however telephone support is available for up to 3 months to ensure you are totally comfortable managing your own marketing activity going forward.