The marketing plan summarizes strategies to target the West Coast of the USA for an offshore IT services provider. It includes a situation analysis and identifies target services. The budget focuses on understanding current spending. The target market is California and Washington for their advantages of being open to offshoring. The marketing strategy includes pull strategies like advertising, press releases and customer events as well as push strategies like events, branding, and mail campaigns. Execution details activities for each strategy with goals of generating qualified leads and converting accounts. Implementation covers resource needs and targets. Financial projections include assumptions, pro forma statements, and break even analysis. Scenarios predict the future and plans are outlined quarterly.

1. Marketing Plan
Prepared
Prepared using my experience, for a potential Offshore IT Services provider for West Coast of USA market.
experience, market.
Situation Analysis:
• Macro Environment – Economy, Government, Technology, etc…
• Market
• Consumer
• Internal – People, Skills, Infrastructure, Financial and Time
• Objectives & Reports
• SWOT Analysis
• Requirements
Services:
Target Services:
• Product Engineer Services / Testing Services to ISVs
• Enterprise Collaboration Services, Business Intelligence Services, SaaS and Cloud Enablement
Services, Web and Mobile Apps. Development Services to Enterprises - includes Selling of Solutions
around Internal and Partner Products and Frameworks
Budget:
• Understand current spending and activities that are carried out
• Results from each of the activity in terms of Leads Generated
• Limitations and Failures
• Prepare new activity plan, budget requirement
• Spent all of it wisely to create required results
Target Market:
• California and Washington States (West Coast) of USA
o Market Advantages
Used to Off-shoring to Indian Companies
Open to explore
Rich States
Long Term Revenue Potential
Largest Market in USA with many potential Companies
Relationship and Trust based business deals
o Market Disadvantages
Receives too many mails and phone calls from Offshore Vendors
Near Saturated Markets
Less Interest to talk to new vendor – Less hit ratio
Take time to build relationships and trust
Expensive
Marketing Strategy:
Pull Strategy
1. Advertising
2. Press Releases
3. References
4. Customer Event
5. Offers
6. Channels
7. Contribute to Communities

2. Push Strategy
1. Events (Stalls / Demo)
2. Gorilla Marketing - Viral Marketing – Social Media, Twitter
3. Branding
4. Mail Campaigns
5. Demos (Webinars/ Webcast) and Promotions
6. Online Search
Execution:
Execution:
Pull Strategy:
1. Advertising:
• Partner with Technology Magazines in the CA & WA markets that focuses on the Target
Verticals, Companies, etc…
• Google Ad Words, Banners, Contests, Survey Forms and SEO
• Blogs – Blogger, etc…
• Write Articles in Popular Websites like ZD Net, TechCrunch, etc…
• Work with Forrester, Gartner and IDC and release Articles and make your organization become
part of their reports
2. Press Releases:
• Announce Customer Acquisitions
• Customer Success Story involving End Customer
• New Packaging
• New IP released or Solution Delivered
3. References:
• Carry out an event for generating Referrals – Work with Sales Team as required
• Reach out to existing customers – offer something when they refer
• Increase word of mouth
• Reach out to customers on important dates and offer something
4. Customer Event:
• Conduct focused event
i. Road show – Once a quarter – different part of the geography like LA, SFO, Seattle,
Santa Clara - Invite all existing customer and prospects
ii. Annual Event - Conduct it if the number is high at places like Reno, Anaheim, etc…
5. Offers:
• Send out fliers on special offers / discounts on specific solutions and engagement models
• Partner specific discounts on products and services
6. Channels:
• Open up Strategic Channels for increasing Leads, Brand Awareness
• Create Marketing Collateral specific for the Partner
• Offer Incentives to partners when they refer business
• Conduct Partner Enablement Programs
• Understand Partner products and come up with Fliers based which we can offers Solution &
Services
• Sign up partners – Strategic

3. • Register yourself as a vendor with Targeted Large Accounts – get flagged when they need your
services
7. Contribute to Communities
• Open source Communities
• Targeted Service Communities and forums
Push Strategy:
1. Events / Conferences:
Conferences:
• Participate & Sponsor in Target Events / Conferences – Look at 1 Premier Event a quarter or
Half Yearly (Dreamforce, Microsoft Partner/Customer Conference, StarWest, Enterprise 2.0,
etc…)
• Have Demos at Events or Stalls
• Tie-ups with local associations on the Technology – offer speakers, Though leadership
materials (release them in Tech. Websites)
• Sponsor Snacks, Food, etc… at meetings through Tie, SD Forum, VC Network
2. Gorilla Marketing:
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Wiki and other social media Sites
• End Customer Interaction
3. Branding:
• Innovate and reinvent
• Partner with Vendors, Industry Associations, Websites and Other Leaders in the Target Space
• Emotional Branding
• Brand Development, Brand Substance
i. Focus Groups
ii. Depth Interviews
iii. Structured Observation
iv. Questionnaire Surveys
v. Consumer Intercepts
vi. Spot Interviews
vii. Knowledge Sharing – Slideshare, Scribd, etc…
4. Mail Campaigns:
a) Review Existing Database
• Understand how it is managed (Any CRM), data completeness, etc…
• Look at the categorization of companies – add / delete columns
• Understand the number of companies in the ISV and Enterprise Space
• Level of Contacts and Number of Contacts in each account
• Any Subscriptions for collecting data, Team Size, etc…
b) Review of Infrastructure
• Understand the Mass Marketing System in place and Metrics we can collect
• Number of emails that can be sent at a time / in a day and its availability
c) Existing Campaigns
• Understand the number of campaigns that are carried out in a week/month currently
• Who is sending it, responsible and how the content is prepared
• Understand the resources available for creation of fliers, marketing collateral
• Bandwidth of Technology Resources
• Metrics and Reports

4. • Existing Fliers, Success Rate – Responses and History – Spam, Open, etc…
• Limitations and Failures
d) Review of Targets
• Number of Leads we want to generate
• Number of Campaigns we want to run
• Database Size – Increase
• Database Categorization
• Infrastructure and Resources Availability
• Plan for follow up number – 1 (based on the Metrics)
• Plan for further Qualification of Positive Responses
e) Creation of Database
• Get Subscriptions in place – Zoom Info, Jigsaw, Sales Genie, InsideView, etc…
• Increase Team Size
• Categorize Database
i. For ISV – Use Technology, Product Delivery Type, Target Customer Domain, etc…
ii. For Enterprises – Look at creating Create Verticals based database, BFSI,
Manufacturing, Healthcare, Pharma & Life Sciences, Internet Businesses, Travel
and New Media
• Create atleast 3 contacts in every account
f) Mailing System
• Optimize and add required Infrastructure – in such a way that we can send out the target
number of mails any given point of time or in a day
g) Creation of Fliers
• Plan to have atleast 2-4 unused Fliers ready anytime for running campaigns
• Work with Practice Heads, Monitor Technology/Market Demands, Talk to Sales Folks on
the customer needs and trends
• Work with Content Writer and Designer to get the flier ready
• Run campaigns based on
i. Product Technology
ii. Product Delivery
iii. Vertical
iv. Type of Business
v. Designations
vi. Market Trends
vii. ROI across the Target Services
viii. Internal Products & Frameworks
ix. Customer Success Stories
x. Whitepapers
xi. Case Studies
xii. Engagement Model
xiii. Product Life Cycle
xiv. Service Comparison
xv. Pricing, etc…
h) Mail Campaigns:
• Targeted Mail Campaigns can run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
• Monitor Metrics
• Being Responsive and Responsible to Customers
i) Plans:
Follow up Plans:
• Metrics based follow up mailer – Step 1
• Lead Qualifying Process – Step 2
• Handholding of Leads with Sales/Pre-Sales org
j) Handover and Tracking of Leads:
Leads:

5. • Review the existing System for managing leads generated, reports, etc..
• Follow up Mechanism – Internal for better conversion
5. Demos:
• Webcast / Webinars
• Recorded Demos or Solution or Success Story or Best Practices
6. Sear
Online Search:
• Spend 1hr every day searching for opportunities online
• Subscribe to RFP and RFI sites
Implementation:
1. People Requirement – Responsibilities, Incentives, training on selling methods
• Data Collection Team – atleast 2 people
• Campaign / Flier Designer and Content Writer – 1 or 2
• Bandwidth of Practice Heads – atleast should give ideas/content for arriving at 1-2 fliers every
month. Also Require Sales People Bandwidth.
• Mass Mailing Team – 1 person (Depending on the Size)
• Leads / CRM Tracking Team – 1 person (Depending on the Size)
2. Financial requirements – MIS requirements, monthly agenda, PERT
• Timelines
• Target Activities
3. Targets – Number of Leads, Number hits at our websites, Number of Response, Brand Visibility,
Partners, Lead Generation Cycle at Named Accounts, etc…
4. Infrastructure Requirements
• Access to Online People Search Databases
• Purchase Offline Databases
• Subscriptions to opportunities / RFP sites
• Mass Marketing Software with Dashboard
• CRM and VoIP phones
5. Monitoring results and benchmarks
• Target Vs Actual
• Success Rate for activities
• Failures and Leanings
• Reports and Formats
6. Adjustment mechanism
7. if’
Contingencies (What if’s)
• Risks and Mitigation

6. Financials:
1. Assumptions
• Define Assumptions
• Layout Risks and Mitigation Plan
2. Pro-forma monthly Leads and Income statement
3. Margin Analysis
4. Breakeven analysis
Scenarios:
Scenarios:
1. Prediction of Future Scenarios
2. Plan of Action for each Scenario
Plan for each quarter:
• Run 6-8 Targeted Mail campaigns every month
• Release 1-3 adds in Tech Magazines every quarter
• Release 3 -9 Banners in Websites every quarter
• Conduct 1-3 online events / surveys in top website every quarter
• Release 1 White Paper every month
• Release 1 Case Study or Success Story every month
• Release 1 PR every month
• Visit once every quarter for 1 month to West Coast
o Conduct 1 road show - $3000 to 5000 – Invite Customers and Prospects
o Sponsor 1 conference - $ 5000 to 10000
o Sponsor and build brand at 2 local technology events - $500 to $1000
o Meet with Potential Conducts at Industry Leaders, Associations, Forums, Communities,
Partners/ Alliances and at Named Accounts, etc… Explore potential Branding and Lead
Generation Opportunities
o Sign up Potential Partners
o Meet existing customers for success story, ideas, references, interviews, etc…
o Carry out Gorilla and End Customer Direct Marketing - $500 to $1000
o Also helps you to generate authentic contacts
• Write 1- 2 articles in websites every month
• Tweet every day
• Write 1 Blog on a weekly basis
• Schedule 2 Webinars or Webcasts every month
• Send out minimum of 50,000 mails every month – Try to convert 0.1 – 0.2% of it as positive responses
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• Convert 1 Named Account every month as customer – Starting from 4 Month
• Conduct Annual Customer Event – Invite Potential Customer - $10,000