This guide has been designed to assist you in researching and selecting the right marketing channels for your business to use, in support of your sales and marketing plan. It describes what marketing channels are, why they are important and the key elements you should consider when selecting channels as well as how to construct the best content for these channels.
This guide also contains a series of practical steps to help you gather the information you will need to understand and plan your marketing efforts around the most appropriate marketing channels suited to your business and target customers. There is also a template to use that will assist you to plan quickly and effectively the marketing channels you will use and the content you will produce for these. This template can be used as a ‘stand-alone’ planning document or can be used as a monthly template to re-focus your marketing channel plans consistently. Taking the time to understand the marketing channels that are best suited to your business and target customer groups will enable you to effectively construct marketing plans which successfully reach your target customer groups and support you in developing a strong sales and marketing plan document.
Intended Readers: This guide is primarily aimed to assist:
• Individuals who are thinking about starting their first business venture, who are exploring a business idea and the potential opportunities that may exist for it in the market.
• Individuals who have developed their business idea and recently started their first business venture. This includes those who are at the stage of having conducted some Market Research and are now beginning to promote their business and plan marketing campaigns using different marketing channels.
The information provided in this guide has been prepared for individuals as an initial ‘First Step’ towards better understanding how to prepare and use marketing channels for their business. This is a key area of business development for reaching new customers, so it is recommended that you read around the topic area when using this guide to further broaden your understanding of each of the marketing channels. You should also consider speaking to a professional business advisor who can answer any specific questions you may have.
