Marketing, communications, public relations and media are the most important aspects of establishing a new business.
These are the ways to get your products and/or services promoted and to keep your customers coming back.
Marketing plan
A marketing plan is essential to develop your strategy for communicating with your customers over the long term. Your plan should identify your customers and your competition by looking at:
- demographics
- trends and spending habits for your customers
- communication platforms; social media, website, written publications, advertising
- pricing and sales strategy
- competitors strengths and weaknesses
- sales targets
- monitoring and feedback measures
- goals and objectives of the plan
- sales and marketing personnel
- budget.
You can download a Marketing plan template from Business Victoria.
Market research
To add weight to your marketing plan you will need data and statistics about your potential business, location, customers and current trends.
In addition, market research may also include gathering qualitative data through focus groups, surveys or interviews. This data will give you a good understanding of your customers, competitors and the market you are trying to sell into. The information will be essential in preparing your business and marketing plans.
Visit our Stats and Data page for assistance about the local market.
Branding
Branding is the term given to the ways people identify your business and is the process of creating, maintaining, strengthening or changing your business brand.
Effective branding enables people to relate to what you are selling, to create a perception and meaning to what your business represents.
Digital marketing
Digital marketing includes a range of online communications such as websites, social media, online advertising including display ads and search engine optimisation.
To establish the marketing needs for your business, you can explore free online tools such as: