Objectives

Increasing market share is the ultimate goal of any small business marketing plan. Small businesses enter their industries as the underdogs, taking any competitive advantages they can to gain customers from their established competitors. "Each company must find the game plan for long-run survival and growth that makes the most sense given its specific situation, opportunities, objectives, and resources. This is the focus of strategic planning—the process of developing and maintaining a strategic fit between the organization’s goals and capabilities and its changing marketing opportunities." as it says in Chapter 2. We would also need to track how many new customers there are. Even if it's just a simple system in place to ascertain whether each customer we serve during our marketing campaign is a new or existing customer and compare the new customer numbers each day during the campaign to gauge progress toward our goal.

Keeping existing customers happily coming back is just as important as gaining new customers. "To create value for customers and to build meaningful relationships with them, marketers must first gain
fresh, deep insights into what customers need and want. Companies use such customer insights to develop competitive advantage." as it says in Chapter 4. Market share can be gained temporarily with price promotions and grand opening sales, but the most effective marketing plans increase market share permanently.

Sales growth is especially important for us, we can't afford to be experiencing too many problems over the next one to three years. "Examples of sales promotions are found everywhere. "A freestanding insert in the Sunday newspaper contains a coupon offering $1 off Pedigree GoodBites treats for your dog. An e-mail from LLBean.com offers free shipping on your next purchase over $100". as it says in chapter 13. Growing sales numbers is also going to be a main concern for us to have an eye on.

The marketing department has a responsibility to keep costs as low as possible, contributing to bottom-line profitability in addition to income. Specific cost goals can be put in place to maximize the cost efficiency of sales promotions, public relations activities and some advertising, and generally ensuring that we get the most bang for our marketing buck.