Ellis Communications, L.L.C.

Haven’t Even Started On Your 2002 Marketing Plan?
Try These 5 Simple Steps to Get Your Marketing in Gear

            It’s still a new year full of opportunities for nutritional retailers.  The big question is this - do they have their 2002 marketing plan prepared?

            "Retailers who haven’t even started on their 2002 marketing plan shouldn’t feel guilty because they probably have lots of company," says Martin R. Baird, president of Phoenix, Ariz.-based Nutritional Marketing.  "Even marketing experts can have difficulty getting a plan done.  Any time you start with a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen, it just isn’t easy."

Baird offers the following five simple steps that nutritional professionals can take to at least get their 2002 marketing moving forward.  These tips and others are offered on a daily basis by Nutritional Marketing through its Web site nutritionalmarketing.com, a site that provides free marketing information just for nutritional retailers.

Number 1 - Look at what you did last year.  What did you do in early 2001 that you can do again now?  "You don’t have to select January or February," Baird says.  "You can use any month that was well planned and generated strong results."

Number 2 - Look for natural marketing opportunities.  What will happen in the next 90 days that will cause people to make nutritional decisions?  "What are common situations that you want to make customers and prospects aware of?" Baird asks.  "For example, do you want to focus on colds, flu, stress?  What about the bigger picture of aging?"

Number 3 - Look for any marketing effort you have done that worked well.  It doesn’t matter what year you did it.  "Repeat the effort in the first quarter of 2002 to kick of the year the right way," Baird recommends.  "What can you replicate so you don’t need to start from scratch?"

Number 4 - Assess what your customers and prospects may be worrying about in light of changes most everyone has experienced the past several months.  "This process could generate great ideas for seminars or even small town meetings," Baird says.  "You don’t need a fancy presentation.  Prepare a couple of interesting PowerPoint slides and open the session up for discussion."

Number 5 - Browse magazine stands.  "The next time you’re in a bookstore or supermarket, look at the cover stories on major magazines," Baird suggests.  "These can give you ‘hot’ topics to use in your marketing.  You don’t need to create the news story. Just be able to comment on it or answer questions about it."

Nutritional Marketing provides a variety of services to nutritional retailers to help them improve their marketing methods and increase revenues, including seminars and conference speaking engagements on such topics as referrals, marketing, goal setting and customer service. 

Nutritionalmarketing.com is the premiere Internet-based source for free marketing advice, information and tools for self-driven, success-oriented nutritional retailers who are demanding information that helps them market their business, meet the needs of their customers and increase sales.  It offers such services as a free weekly electronic newsletter, free reports on how to conduct different kinds of marketing and evaluation of retailers’ marketing materials that is provided at no charge when the critique is posted online for all nutritional professionals to read.  Nutritionalmarketing.com also offers an electronic forum where retailers can learn from each other by discussing common problems, sharing ideas and gaining new insights from their peers.