Ready, set… plan!

Have you thought about what your goal is for your business?  To help you incorporate the marketing concepts we’ve previously discussed into a marketing strategy to understand your goal, I am going to use the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum as an example of a business.

Here is a quick recap of our previous marketing concepts blogs:

• The six P’s of marketing — Product, Price, Promotion, Placement, Positioning, PR/Publicity and People
• The customer is key.
• Identifying customer problems and product benefits (Ideal buyers — our strategic assets)
• Communicating with customers for market research

With these concepts in mind, we’ll develop a marketing goal which will be the basis of a marketing plan for the Forum.

Marketing and PR Strategy Planning Template for:

Company —  Felt and Fiber Studio Forum

• Who (members/customers)
  • Fiber enthusiasts from all over the world working/playing in a variety of art forms

  

• What (problems the forum solves for members) also the Forum Product
  • Information, sharing, techniques, resources, engaging experts, experience, problem solving
  • What actions does the Forum want members to take
    • Participation

• Why (How is the forum remarkable?) (Positioning)
  • It is self supported, membership of experienced to novice fiber enthusiasts around the world, full of resources for a variety of fiber arts, free to the user (Price)

• Where
  • Website online (Placement ) http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com , Studio blog  http://feltingandfiberstudio.com, Facebook (PR/Publicity and Promotion)

• How
  • Personality — friendly, giving, nonjudgmental  (Positioning)
  • Creative/Design (Look and feel) — fiber graphic, easy to navigate  (Positioning)
  • Tone of Voice — casual  (Positioning)
  • Keyword Phrases — Fiber, Nuno Felting, Weaving, Knitting, Dyeing, Needle Felting, Wet Felting, Spinning, Crocheting, Surface Design, Business, Fiber Festivals, Studio Challenges, Wool and Other Fibers, Hand Stitching, Machine Stitching, Fiber Marketplace, General Discussion, Shows and Classes, Take a Stitch Tuesday, Beads/Beading  (PR/Publicity and Promotion) — This is how members find us with search words in addition to word of mouth.
  • Marketing Tactics and Content Strategy –Blog, Facebook, free tutorials, quarterly challenges, quarterly newsletter, welcome email, occasional giveaways, holiday exchange, resources for information, supplies, tools, links to other blogs, resources (Network of People and Promotion)

• When — Things to do today, next week (Actions to take)
  • Blog posts every other day by Moderators or guests (Promotion)
  • Monitor posts daily, encourage members to post new projects, questions, resources, events

 

Generally, the goal of the Felt and Fiber Studio Forum is to build a community of fiber enthusiasts who can share their work, ideas, techniques, resources and get information and questions answered in a friendly, caring environment.

The Driving Action for the goals of the Forum are primarily:

• Participation
  • Registering to be a member
  • Like on Facebook
  • Subscribe to the Studio blog
  • Participate in conversations and/or challenges on the Forum
• Download free tutorials
• Ask questions, submit projects, tutorials, resources (share)
• Refer the Forum to friends (word of mouth)

This is a road map of the thought process of planning our marketing strategy and understanding our business goals.  You can use this as a general guideline to ask yourselves the same questions about your business.

Ready, set….plan!  What does your road map look like?

Look for more discussion on the Forum http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com