Mark AdamsMarketing is a core component of any business. The marketing function encompasses advertising, promotions, public relations, product pricing, packaging, distribution and sales. A marketing plan serves as a guide to exactly who a company serves, how it serves them and how it communicates with them, as well as how marketing activities are funded. Creating a marketing plan for a delivery service can help you to spread the word about your services and build a client base quickly.
In recent years, competition has increased considerably in the delivery industry. Delivery service companies are competing for market share and they must adapt to the new environment. In order to adapt, a meeting or planning session is a must. A meeting or planning session will enable company owners, drivers and customers to identify problems and to create solutions to meet the challenges that they will face. By creating a marketing plan and executing it in a timely manner, a company can grow its delivery business and ensure that it is successful.
What is a Marketing Plan?
Writing a marketing plan is not the same as writing a business plan. A business plan is more of a ‘roadmap’ for a company and it is designed to have fixed goals. A marketing plan is more of an ‘assignment’, meaning that the plan is not necessarily determined and completed in the same way that a business plan is.
A marketing plan is more of an outline of a strategic game plan. Implementing strategies can include a marketing plan that targets both current and new customers. The objective of a marketing plan is to put the plan into business practice, to have a system to attain goals and to achieve the ultimate aim – profits.
The Business Plan
A marketing plan is important to the business. To design a marketing plan for delivery service, you must first determine what you are trying to achieve. This is done through a well-written business plan. A business plan should have the following:
Who is the company addressing?
What is its purpose?
What services does the company provide for customers?
The response to questions regarding the business plan is a marketing plan. A marketing plan is designed as a continuous, ongoing plan for a delivery service to meet the needs of current and potential customers.
To design a plan for marketing, the following steps must be taken:
- Determine a vision for the business
- Decide upon a mission statement
- Determine the audiences
- Develop the extended market
- Use Of Marketing Tools
Marketing tools refer to a variety of methods that are used by companies in the marketing process. Marketing tools are arranged in an order of their importance and effectiveness based on results:
- New products and services
- Sales promotion
- Advertising and public relations
- Direct mail
All marketing flows from new products and services. The marketing tools vary depending on the nature of your new products and services. New products and services are products and services that have not yet been introduced to market and that are being developed or improved.
It is imperative that your new product and service are given the right name, as it is what consumers see and read when they are planning to purchase the product or service. It is also important to include a number so that customers can be contacted if the product or service is unavailable.
Advertising and public relations
Advertising can be used when there are new products and services, or when there is a need to improve certain aspects of a service. It is important that advertisements are placed in journals that have the power to influence large numbers of people, for example, in magazines and newspapers. It is also important for advertising to use related keywords, for example, “automobiles for sale, and “cheap apartments for rent”.
A direct mail campaign is a type of advertising that can be used to promote both new products and services, as well as improvements to existing products.
Creating a marketing plan is an important activity. This way, a company can use the marketing plan as a guide to meet its potential customers’ needs better. Also, the marketing plan allows a delivery service to have a system of how it aims to get revenue and how it will allocate funds for marketing.
Marketing Plans in Business
A concern with marketing plans is that they do not fit into all types of businesses. Companies that sell products that are not easily changed, for example, like computers, social security numbers and jewelry, will find it less complicated to take them out of the marketing plan and use them instead for sales promotions or “inside” communications.
Marketing plans are flexible and are written in order to meet a company’s needs. This may mean that a marketing plan must be adjusted on a yearly basis.
A marketing plan should be flexible and written in a way that it can be altered, clarified, and enhanced according to the needs of the company. Marketing plans can be written as a part of the strategic plan of a company or they can be written independently of the company’s strategic plan. The consequences of not writing a marketing plan are that the company is not targeting the whole market, which could mean that the company is not reaching the entire number of people that it should.
The Strategic Plan
A strategic plan is important for a shipping service because it outlines where the company is heading. The plan will help to ensure that the company is heading in the right direction so that it does not lose clients or customers. A strategic plan should encompass two main areas: business and people.
The Company Business
A business plan is a set of documents, including the marketing plan, that explains how the product or service is being produced, and where it is likely to be sold.
A business plan helps ensure that a shipping company can continue to grow and meet the needs of the market. Thus, a company can continue to make it easier to communicate with customers, and it can also continue to develop new business opportunities.
The Business Operations
Business operations are divided into the following categories:
- Control Zones
- Planned Growth
- Business Improvement Program
- Planning Zone
- Research & Development
- Human Resources
- Capital Expenditures
The Business Competency
The business competency should outline the types of products and services that the shipping service will be providing. This should include information on the company’s market position, benchmarking with other companies in the industry, and a detailed analysis of competitive pricing.
Control Zones
Control zones are the areas where a delivery service is busy. As such, they are vital to a delivery service in order to ensure that operations are smoothly carried out.
Control zones represent a set of demands that must be carried out in a timely manner. Therefore, the implementation and execution of a marketing plan is a continuous process. Therefore, a delivery service will have to order new loads, while it will also need to keep up with changes in demand levels, the client base and new packaging and delivery boxes.
Planned Growth
Planned growth is a section of the business operations that explains the projected growth, and the way that the delivery service will be able to meet it. It can be understood from this that planned growth will help ensure that the company can have minimal fluctuations in revenue, even though it may also mean that some increased costs are included in the accounting. For example, if a delivery service receives 10,000 orders to deliver in one week, then it must provide a service that matches this.
Business Improvement Program
The business improvement program describes the programs that will be carried out to ensure that the shipping service can have a steady growth. This boost in growth will prove to be something of a challenge for the company, but will be worth it if it helps to help the company continue to get successful company growth.
This growth will have to be achievable in order for it to minimize any fluctuations in revenue. It is also important to get a good foundation for a company’s growth. Customers will be more likely to return to customer businesses that are well run.
Planned Growth
The problems with planned growth is that it does not consider the possibility of a failure in the company. It is possible that the expected growth may never happen, which would mean that profits will be reduced. Also, some people who are hired in the middle of the economic recession may leave the company and the company will have to start all over again, with the loss of much-needed qualified workers. If a supply chain company knows that it is facing economic downturns in the future, it should consider delaying a growth phase of the company until the economy improves.
Hire New People
If possible, the company must hire people who have skills that it does not possess, and let them start performing certain tasks, as a means of completing tasks on a growing company.
It should remember that it is always better to hire more people, rather than to hire fewer people who are of a higher skill level.
Business Facing Competition
The business facing competition is the headquarters of the competition that the shipping service will be faced with. This means that a delivery service needs to watch out for competitors who are providing services of better quality and lower prices.
Skilled competitors are those delivery services that have the most efficient strategies in place and are able to reach the greatest number of customers.
Competition with Agencies
It is important to recognize the level of competition that a company will be faced with.
Full service 3PL companies are faced with full-service competitors, which are 3PL service suppliers with whom the client company has to partner in order to meet the needs of the customer. Therefore, the client company has to establish a strong relationship with a 3PL service supplier in order to meet customer needs. A 3PL service supplier will only have full service competitors if it is the most efficient in providing services.
Even though a full service competitor is not as good as 3PL service suppliers, a full-service competitor usually has certain advantages over 3PL service suppliers. Full-service competition means that 2PL and 3PL companies will have to focus on a 3PL service supplier. In order to keep pace with the growth of the company, the delivery service must match any increase in sales.
Competition with Service Suppliers
A service supplier is a company that provides services to companies. This means that the delivery service is competing with service providers.
Sometimes the delivery service is competing with more than one service provider. For example, the delivery service may compete with the service suppliers, because it provides a value-added service that the service suppliers do not provide.
If possible, the company should try to cultivate a strong partnership with service suppliers.
Skilled Competitors
Skilled competitors can be identified by the fact that they are beating the company in revenue and profit. The company can take this as a warning that it needs to up their game. Also, the need to invest in the company by hiring new workers and paying more to attract and retain skilled workers.
Credibility
It is crucial that a delivery service manages to establish itself as a credible and reliable shipping service provider. It is vital to have credibility among customers, as it is difficult to cause a customer to want to use a delivery service that is not credible.
Credibility can be defined in many ways. One way is to consider the level of experience (the amount of time that a service provider has been in the business) that it has achieved, as well as the quality of its services.
It is essential that a shipping service highlights its efficiency and performance to gain credibility.
