Update your Business Plan for the New Decade

January 15, 2012

It’s now 2012… do you have an updated business plan or marketing plan to address the new decade?

If you’re a software company, the industry is changing with the move to SaaS, mobile apps, outsourcing and other trends. It’s important to make sure you have a current business plan to make sure you’re positioned to take optimal advantage of these changes.

Check the links to the right, and take advantage of our SaaS business plan template, or the Software Company business plan template, and get started optimizing your business today!

Leave a Comment » | business planning, software, software marketing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by jlc

Using a SWOT Analysis to Fine-Tune Your Marketing

January 22, 2010

SWOT AnalysisA SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is an effective way to make sure your marketing activities align with your business strategy.

Why is that a good thing?

It means that the money you spend on marketing is more likely to produce the business results you’re looking for (more customers, larger market share, increased revenue… whatever your particular objective is).

When you do a SWOT analysis, you brainstorm and list out your company’s

  • Strengths (what are the positive attributes of your company, product or service?),
  • Weaknesses (what are the negative attributes of your company, product or service?),
  • Opportunities (where are the market opportunities for your product or service?),
  • Threats (what are the main threats to your company?).

The SWOT analysis can help you find a way to use your company or product strengths to take advantage of market opportunities, and identify and work on weaknesses that might inhibit your ability to take advantage of those opportunities.

To be successful, it’s important to always be on the alert for market threats. Leverage your strengths to either eliminate or reduce the impact of threats, and work to address any weaknesses that may increase the criticality of threats.

Finally, prioritize marketing activities and messaging that highlight your strengths, and help you take advantage of opportunities.

For more on doing a SWOT analysis, take a look at this article: “Doing a SWOT Analysis to Focus Your Marketing Strategy.”

SWOT analysis is also included as part of our Software Company Business Plan Package and the SaaS Business Planning Package.

2 Comments | business planning, marketing strategy | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jlc

Update your Business Plan for the New Decade

January 7, 2010

New Year start business planning It’s now 2010… do you have an updated business plan or marketing plan to address the new decade?

If you’re a software company, the industry is changing with the move to SaaS, outsourcing and other trends. It’s important to make sure you have a current business plan to make sure you’re positioned to take optimal advantage of these changes.

Take advantage of our SaaS business plan template, or the Software Company business plan template, and get started optimizing your business today!

Leave a Comment » | business planning, saas, software, software marketing | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by jlc

Who is the Audience for your Marketing Messages?

December 7, 2009

For marketing messages to be effective, you need to really think about who it is that you are speaking to. Too many marketers only think about a single audience for their message: the end customer. The end customer may be your primary audience, but they are not the only one.

marketing message audienceThere are a number of other audiences that may need marketing messages crafted specifically for them, including:

  • Online influencers, such as prominent bloggers in your field, influential websites and analysts,
  • Distribution channels,
  • Sales and marketing partners,
  • the press and media,
  • your ecosystem partners, such as complementary software vendors, hardware vendors or system integrators,
  • other key stakeholders that your end customer looks to for guidance or approval on their buying decision (this is especially important for B2B applications).

Your end customer will be influenced not only by your marketing messages directly targeted at them, but also by these other stakeholders and influencers. The more consistent messages they receive from different channels, the more likely they are to make a positive buying decision in your favor.

Bottom line: when crafting your marketing messages and marketing plan, don’t forget to build target messaging and budget marketing activities for all audiences that are important in influencing your customer’s purchase decision.

Leave a Comment » | marketing strategy, software marketing, technology marketing | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by jlc

Get Your Software Marketing Plan in Order

December 3, 2009

It’s December already… a good time to be thinking about your software marketing approach for 2010. Hopefully the economy will be picking up, customers will be looking for options, and you need to make sure your product is top-of-mind when they get into a buying mood.

At Software-Marketing-Advisor.com, we have just released our detailed, professional software marketing plan template package. It gives you all the pieces you need to easily put together a customized marketing strategy and plan for your software product, and we’ve even thrown in free consulting as well. You can check out the Software Marketing Plan package here.

2 Comments | marketing strategy, software marketing, technology marketing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by jlc

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