Module 8: Business Operations and Organizations
Objectives:
At the end of this Lesson, you are expected to do the following:
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Analyzed market opportunity
Formulated creative problem-solving skills required in entrepreneurial
business.
Identified marketing and sales strategy effective to a business
Unit 1: Identifying Locations and Premises
A good location for your business is vital but choosing the right one can be
something of a balancing act. Ideally, the location should be convenient for your
customers, employees, and suppliers - without being too expensive for your
business. You should weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of various
locations when deciding on a suitable place for your business property.
Location factors for business property
To judge the best location for your business you should consider key location
factors and how important each of these are for you and your business priorities.
You should consider:
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Foot fall - depending on the nature of your business, the amount of passing
trade can have a huge impact on the success of your venture especially if
your business operates in the retail sector.
Competitors in the area - although some businesses, like estate agents, can
benefit from being in a cluster of similar businesses, for many others having
too many close competitors can have a severe impact on sales and
profitability. It is always worthwhile surveying the local area to see if there
are potential competitors in the vicinity and considering how this could
impact on your trade.
Transport links and parking - good public transport links and local parking
facilities make it easier for employees and customers who don't live within
walking distance to access your business.
Delivery restrictions - these can cause problems for your suppliers, so you'll
need to make sure that your premises are easily accessible if you expect to
have regular deliveries.
Planning restrictions - make sure you check whether you're allowed to use
the premises for the commercial purpose you have in mind.
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Business rates - these can add greatly to the ongoing costs of locating in a
particular area, which may make the premises less desirable from your
point of view - see estimate your rate bill to get an idea of what you may
have to pay.
Local amenities - employees generally prefer working in areas with good
local facilities, and you may need to make regular trips to the bank or a
postal depot.
What sort of area it is - the image of your business may well be affected by
the nature of your location.
Whatever option you go for, there are likely to be advantages and disadvantages
to the business location that you choose. An office in a rural setting might be
relaxing but could be awkward for staff or suppliers making deliveries to access.
Being right in the middle of the city could be very convenient but might also be
expensive in terms of property cost and business rates payable. It may also be
costly and inconvenient for car parking within city or town centers.
Location has a major impact on business costs. If you need property in a prime
location the extra costs may be justified.
Unit 2: Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy is a long-term, forward-looking approach and an overall
game plan of any organization or any business with the fundamental goal of
achieving a sustainable competitive advantage by understanding the needs
and wants of customers.
A marketing strategy is a broad strategy that encompasses everything from how
a company positions itself, to the creative, the strategic partners, the media
relations, the marketing mix, and the channels and tactics.
A marketing strategy refers to a firm's overall game plan for reaching prospective
consumers and turning them into customers of their products or services. It also
contains the company's value proposition, key brand messaging, data on target
audience and customer demographics, and other high-level elements.
The broad marketing strategy is what used to fall under the term "branding" back
in the more ambiguous days of marketing. It's a practical summary of the key
details of the strategy and some of the broad goals and methods used to achieve
them.
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1. Define your brand value and offering
Your brand strategy is about defining the core values of your brand to make sure
that they align with what your prospect and existing customer find important, that
they align to your industry trends and competitive environment, and to what you
actually offer your product.
That’s not an easy task, but without it, all the other marketing tasks become much
more difficult.
A simple formula to find the right values that define your brand is this:
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Think about the main pain points/needs/frictions your brand is solving
Translate it into a value-based language
Make sure it fits your beliefs and motivations
2. Identify customer pain points and expectations
One of the top reasons why products or services fail is when their makers fail to
identify the customers' pain points. In other words, they don't meet the customer's
need, or they don't solve a vital problem in their lives. Also, those needs may
change over time so it's important to continue examining the customer journey
and solve your current customer challenges.
What are the different types of customer pain points?
a.
Financial
The most basic pain point is financial. Does your product help your customers save
money? Is it more cost-effective than the alternatives? Are the savings short-term
or long-term? And if your product is cheaper than the alternatives, does that price
difference create enough value for the customer?
b.
Convenience
Another important pain point is convenience. Does your product make your
peoples' life more convenient? The classic example of this is Netflix, a brand that
became a household name because it was incredibly more convenient than it
competitor Blockbuster.
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c.
Service
Service is another major factor in solving a customer's pain point. Service refers to
the entire customer experience and includes things like - warranty, maintenance,
replacements, customer service, and ease of use. A good example of this is the
solar company SolarCity, which was acquired by Tesla in 2016. SolarCity's solar
panels weren't cheaper than the competitors they simply had a better warranty
and maintenance on them and that's why customers preferred them. This is one
of the major drivers that helped SolarCity become the nation's largest residential
solar provider.
3. Identify market trends and competition
That brings us to our next topic - creating a competitive analysis. This is a crucial
step in the marketing strategy plan creation because this is where you will identify
what differentiates your product or service from the competition. You can do this
through a simple SWOT analysis to determine your brand's strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. Without this step it's going to be very difficult to create
a product that provides unique value to the consumer and stays competitive with
the market trends of the day. So, this analysis is crucial, and this is how you go
about it:
a.
Identify your competitors
The first step of any competitive analysis is to find out who your competitors are.
Find out all the different companies that have similar products and services. Look
at their social media content, search in related or niche online communities, news
mentions and product reviews.
b.
Categorize your competitors
Now that you have a detailed list of all your competitors it's time to categorize
them. Put them into different groups - primary, secondary, and tertiary
competitors. This will help you get clarity on which of your competitors are directly
competing with you and which ones you should focus on in your analysis.
c.
Look at their social media and branding
The next step of the competitive analysis is to find out all you can about each
competitor. Look at all the various social media pages, the content and the
branding that they use on their site and email campaigns. This will give you a visual
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understanding of their brand positioning and how your product or service differs
from theirs. Be sure to check out their influencer marketing campaigns to see the
kind of branded image that they try to portray online. Look at their display ads
(owned media) and UGC (earned media).
d.
Conduct a site audit to look at traffic sources and positioning
This part is the more technical side of the branding audit. Use a tool
like Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, or Alexa to check the keywords that each competitor
ranks for and their various traffic channels. This will give you the precise search
terms that the user searches for and the specific needs that your competitors
meet. For example, you might discover that a competitor is using a type of media
or content that you're not using yet, or a traffic channel that you haven't
expanded into. This is super valuable information to have for your online marketing
strategy.
4. Create your Value Proposition
Now that you have your story right, it’s time to build the right strategy for your
marketing. That means making business decisions about what are you delivering
and to whom.
Your product or service tells the most about your brand.
This is the actual hands-on experience prospects and customers have with your
brand, and it can affect their perception about it the most.
Use your values to make sure you walk the talk and implement what you said
about yourself in your offering.
5. Identify your target audience
Deciding on your target audience could change the way you present your brand
and even the language you use to do it.
We love to use simple models for complex decisions.
We found it is much more effective and fun.
Use this model to map the different target audience groups that you have and
prioritize them accordingly in your audience analysis.
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6. Identify partners and potential collaborators
Identifying your potential partners or collaborations is a critical step of reaching
your ideal customer. It may be that there are online communities that already
exist where your customers hang out. It could be that you need to work with a
distributor or get a marketing partner to help you reach them.
This is a critical point to consider before you execute your inbound marketing
strategy. Sometimes finding and working with the right partner could give you
access and help you achieve 10X the results. This could be through revenue
sharing or an affiliate program. It could also be done by social networking at
industry events or online conferences.
We’re on the digital marketing portion of our guide and it contains 3 parts deciding on your creative & messaging, selecting the marketing channels that
you’ll be using, and deciding on a strategy and a marketing budget for each
channel.
7. Decide on the messaging and creative of your brand
Most businesses (and especially startups) can’t afford to hire a digital marketing
specialist in-house, so they use the services of freelancers or digital agencies.
From now on, you have a critical job of guarding your brand’s values and strategy
in the messaging and creative you’ll create and the different tactics you’ll use.
That’s what storytelling is about.
Make sure that the service provider you hired is aligned with your brand and the
various marketing strategies that you want to employ, so they can apply your
strategy to the actual marketing communication you’ll have with your potential
customers.
8. Define your marketing channels
Now that you have defined your value proposition, your partners, and your
creative assets and messaging it's time to select the right marketing channels for
your marketing mix. This is one of the most crucial steps of the process of creating
your marketing strategy. Each digital marketing campaign will vary greatly based
on the marketing channels that you'll pick.
You need to select those marketing channels that fit your brand and your
product. Let's cover a few of the main marketing channels and their best
practices.
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Social media
Social media marketing is a vital part of any digital inbound marketing strategy
and there are certainly a lot of things that you could do. Also keep in mind that
successful social media campaigns can help you get more traffic from search.
Organic social media is used for the awareness stage, or the lead generation
stage, of the marketing funnel while a Facebook ad is used for the last stage, or
the conversion stage. There are a lot of various platforms and strategies you could
use and it's important to pick the right channel for your product.
Social advertising
Ads are becoming more and more popular on social media platforms because
the recent algorithm changes continue to favor them and decrease organic
reach. After all, that’s how the social platforms make their money, so you have to
use paid media to get anywhere these days.
Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram are the most popular platforms for
advertising. For B2B you can use Quora, Reddit or LinkedIn.
Top Advertising Tips:
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Create a lookalike audience on each platform and for each type of
campaign that you're running
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Organize your campaigns based on the marketing funnel (top,
middle, and bottom)
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Match your copy and designs to your target audience
Retarget your audience and site visitors on Facebook, Pinterest, and
Google.
Paid advertising
Social media advertising is just a subset of online advertising. Other digital
advertising can include native advertising, Google ads, Google shopping,
banner ads, and much more. Each ad requires thorough strategic planning to
make sure that the messaging and creatives match your market segments to help
attract new leads and retain current customers.
Influencer marketing
Working with influencers is one of the most lucrative marketing channels you
could go into. Studies show that businesses make $5.20 for every $1 that they
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spend on influencer marketing. And 49% of consumers depend on influencer
recommendations for their purchase decisions. That means that on average
about half of your customers are going to be searching for influencer posts so it is
essential that these people are recommending you and your product
online. Now, influencer marketing is different than when your users post image of
your product. Influencer shots are called paid media (just like ad campaigns)
while user-generated content (UGC) is called earned media.
Top Influencer Marketing Tips:
✓ Pick influencers based on the type of audience they have, and their level
of engagement (not the size of their following)
✓ Run giveaway campaigns with groups of influencers
✓ Run stories on Instagram because they are clickable
✓ Conduct competitor research to see which influencers they are using on all
the relevant platforms
✓ Use YouTube influencers to create videos about your product or service
✓ Use real data to determine which influencers are your best performers
Email marketing
Push notifications
Push notifications are those messages you get on your browser on a desktop
device or on your mobile screen. They work well when combined with emails. You
could send off the email in the morning for example, and then follow it with a push
notification 30-60 minutes later, to remind the user to check out your deal of the
day.
Chatbots and messaging
One of the quickest and most effective ways to communicate with customers is
through text messages and this has become its own marketing channel. You can
set up automated messages and flows that gets sent to a customer or even a
chatbot that is able to bring them from product discovery all the way to purchase,
without any human involvement. You can also use this channel to send people a
product promotion, a cart abandonment flow, or a content promotion.
Search engine optimization
One of the most overlooked strategies is Search Engine Optimization, especially
for eCommerce. It involves optimizing a site's content to make it easier for search
engines to find it and display it. There are numerous new ways to get displayed
on search engines than ever before - in the images section, as videos, quotes,
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products, how-to's, Q&A, and much more. SEO is a super effective marketing
channel and can bring a lot of targeted and high-quality traffic to any site.
Top SEO tips:
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Use Google Search Console data to find the keywords and searches that
you get the most traffic from
Optimize your on-page content with a tool like Ahrefs or Moz
Build a comprehensive backlink strategy based on competitor data and
best practices
Content making
Finally, let's talk about your content marketing strategy. Content provides a way
for users to find your product or service online. Use content to target your ideal
buyer persona, acquire new customers, and delight and retain your existing
customer base. To use content marketing successfully, brands have to create
different content for each part of their marketing or sales funnel. For example, a
company might put out educational content for the top of the funnel, for firsttime visitors, and more promotional content for those shoppers that are ready to
buy.
Top Content Marketing Tips:
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Write long-form blog posts for organic search traffic
Publish comparison and shopping guides for the middle of the funnel visitors
Use UGC, video content, and longer descriptions on your social media
posts to tell your story.
9. Select a strategy and budget for each channel
It’s now time to select a specific strategy and a budget for each of the marketing
channels that you’ve chosen for your brand. Here are a few helpful steps:
a. Identify your business goals
What are your goals? Pick a few strategic business goals or KPIs to focus on in the
short-term. A really helpful rubric for this is what’s called SMART goals. Smart stands
for:
✓ Specific - describe clearly what you want to accomplish
✓ Measurable - set goals that you could measure
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✓ Achievable - these goals have to be achievable and not way out of reach
✓ Relevant - set goals that improve the specific aspects of your marketing, so
no vanity metrics.
✓ Time-bound - pick objectives that you can achieve within a certain time
frame.
b. Conduct market research
Gather information about your market - the size, growth, social trends, search
trends and demographics of your target market. Find out what is possible and
feasible to accomplish and which channels, content types and media, are used
to reach your target customer, and which you should add to your marketing
mix. You can use a PEST analysis or a SWOT analysis to help you with your research.
c. Align your strategy with your ideal customer
Go back to the customer personas that you’ve created in the beginning of this
process and make sure that your strategy aligns with your personas. Look at the
trends, at the type of customers that you are going to be able to reach and tweak
accordingly.
10. Analyze your results
This is one of the most crucial steps in anything you do in marketing. Once you test
something you have to analyze the results and continue testing. Data is crucial in
every aspect of marketing and the business data you get from testing marketing
strategies is the best kind of data to have. Smart marketing managers use data
to continue iterating and optimizing their growth strategies.
Once you have the results of your strategy you can then make the changes you
need to make and A/B test various aspects to get even better results.
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Unit 3: Ordering, Processing, and Inventory Control
A critical element of order fulfillment, order processing is the workflow that ensures
customer orders are properly prepared and delivered to the right place.
Depending on the scale of a business’s operations, order processing can happen
in a distribution center or warehouse where pickers, sorters and packers work in
sync toward order fulfillment, or it can be done by a single person or small group.
While order processing can be conducted manually with pen and paper, as a
company grows, so does its complexity and the viability of that method declines.
That’s where order processing software showcases its value — it can minimize
human error and ensure customer satisfaction, regardless of how large an
operation is.
Order processing software stores and shares data on orders, checks stock
availability, and tracks order delivery, all of which can help ensure orders are filled
accurately and on time. This is important because accuracy and reliability
increase customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction leads to more sales. An
order management system (OMS) can be integrated with other software, like
billing and accounting, to combine order processing and all related tasks in one
centralized platform.
Key Takeaways
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Order processing is a key component of order fulfillment, and
efficient order processing workflows can help keep customers satisfied.
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This workflow includes picking inventory, sorting items, packing
orders, and shipping them.
Order processing software can provide major benefits for a company
because it helps automate warehouse processes, improves accuracy, and
decreases the time it takes to fulfill orders.
5 Steps in Order Processing Workflow
Order processing includes five main steps from order placement to delivery —
and sometimes continues if a customer starts a return process. But what is
happening while an order is processing? Here’s a breakdown of the typical
workflow:
1. Order placement: When the business receives a customer order, order details
(including items, item quantities, shipping details and delivery addresses) are
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typically sent to an order management system. If the company has several
fulfillment centers or warehouse locations, the OMS will automatically determine
the appropriate warehouse location to ship from, based on the delivery address
and item availability. This helps reduce transit times and delivery costs. In some
instances, one order with multiple items may be fulfilled from several warehouse
locations to ensure faster delivery. For example, if one fulfillment center does not
stock a certain item or that item is out of stock, the customer may receive two
shipments from two different locations, so they do not have to wait for items to be
re-stocked.
2. Picking inventory: The process of collecting a specified quantity of items from
inventory to satisfy customer orders. Order picking must be a highly controlled
process because it directly influences the productivity of the overall order
processing workflow — the sooner orders are accurately picked, the sooner they
can be packed and shipped. To efficiently pick orders, organizations generally
employ different picking strategies, including but not limited to:
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Piece picking, where each picker collects the necessary products for one
order at a time.
Zone picking, where each picker is responsible for picking items within a
zone of the warehouse. All items are collated in the end.
Batch picking, where order pickers collect products for several orders
simultaneously, in batches.
Picking can be done manually by using picking slips and spreadsheets, or
automatically using barcodes and scanners, or even picking robots or machines.
3. Sorting: This is when picked items are separated according to their destination.
If zone or batch picking strategies are used, for instance, each item must be
sorted into its respective order before it can be packed and shipped. Sorting is an
essential step toward accuracy and customer satisfaction because it’s the
perfect time for workers to ensure all ordered items are present and in good
condition for shipping.
4. Packing: The process of protectively packing items into appropriate shipping
boxes. The packing process also includes weighing the packages and labeling
them with recipients’ addresses and any necessary delivery instructions. Whether
items are packed in custom packaging or plain corrugated shipping boxes, it’s
important to prioritize dimensions and weights that can be easily handled and are
cost-effective.
5. Shipping: The process of transporting orders to their final destination. Orders can
either be shipped directly to the customer, or they might first be consolidated with
other orders going to nearby locations to cut costs and minimize the total number
of shipments. If orders are consolidated, multiple orders are usually shipped with
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the same carrier and then forwarded to specific locales as necessary. When
shipping, it’s important to use a reliable tracking system so you — and your
customers — can monitor orders.
Once items are delivered, businesses often follow up with customers to ensure
satisfaction or answer any questions regarding the product purchased. If the
order processing steps are carried out effectively — meaning all items are
delivered accurately, timely and safely — customers are more likely to be
satisfied.
Order Processing Factors
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to processing orders. Methods and priorities
differ across businesses, distribution centers and carriers, and often depend on
factors such as:
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The nature of the products. Perishable items such as food or flowers,
for example, generally need to be shipped in temperature and/or humiditycontrolled environments to uphold quality, whereas clothing may not.
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The number of items. Items ordered in bulk are packed and handled
differently than small orders. Small orders might be sent directly to a
customer’s address via the postal service, whereas bulk items might be
freight shipped to a distribution center.
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Shipping packaging. Not all items can be shipped in the same
packages, and the size of packaging containers can affect how they’re
handled. For example, a vinegar producer that carefully boxes bottles and
gallon containers for retail must take a different packaging approach to
commercial 55-gallon drums and 275-gallon totes, which must be
packaged and palletized according to their larger sizes.
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Productivity of workforce. Whether a workforce can keep up with
order processing needs can be a key element in deciding whether to
incorporate automation.
Seasonality. Busy shopping seasons (around the holidays, for example)
can put stress on the entire order processing workflow. Workers have more
orders to pick, sort, pack, and ship, meaning the process often takes longer
than usual and customers may receive orders later than they’re used to.
Types of Order Processing Systems
Order processing systems exist to help make order fulfillment more efficient and
more accurate. To do so, they capture and store all order-related data —
everything from available inventory to shipment tracking — in a central database.
This makes it easy for relevant business departments to access real-time order
information at any given moment. For example, the shipping department can use
the system to determine which orders need to be shipped and where.
There are two main types of order processing systems:
1. Traditional order processing systems rely on handwritten files and manual
labor. From writing order slips to dropping off hand-packaged orders to the
carrier company, all order processing is done by hand, usually by one
person or a small team. This person or team is also responsible for tracking
all order and inventory data, which can be a tall task in and of itself.
2. Modern order processing systems are technology centric. All data,
including inventory, customer profiles and tasks related to order processing,
is fed into specialized software. This minimizes the possibility of human error
while expanding a business’s capabilities and growth opportunities. For
example, a North American retailer could seamlessly accept European
orders online and coordinate shipping with a local fulfillment center.
Order System Advantages
Order processing systems can be a boon for businesses and enhance the
customer experience. For example, order systems make it easier to keep track of
orders in progress, from picking to shipping. This can help improve picking, sorting,
and packing accuracy. Order systems also make it easier to prevent lost or
misplaced orders. In turn, this can provide a more reliable shopping experience
for the customer, which can subsequently lead to recurring business and positive
recommendations that help draw in new clients.
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Order System Disadvantages
Though order systems are generally beneficial when implemented effectively,
they’re not without some disadvantages. Highly technological or overly complex
systems might require additional specialized personnel to ensure functionality,
making implementation costly. On-premises order management software also
brings significant upkeep costs that may include adding to your IT team. If an error
does occur, it can be hard to track down given that order processing data is
automatically captured by a software program, not manually entered by a
warehouse worker who could retrace their steps.
Order Processing FAQs
How do you improve order processing?
You can improve order processing by implementing systems, manual or
automated, that help ensure accuracy, timeliness and smooth customer
relations. Technology-centric systems can virtually eliminate human error while
simplifying processes. This can help customers receive accurate orders quicker,
thereby improving customer satisfaction.
What does it mean when the order is processing?
After an order is placed, it will appear as “processing.” This means the order is in
the process of being picked, packed, and prepared for shipment. Some order
processing systems will notify customers during each step of the process, from
order placement to delivery.
What are the six steps in the order fulfillment process?
The order fulfillment process involves these six key steps:
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Receiving: Accepting incoming inventory from a manufacturer or supplier.
Inventory storage: Storing and organizing stock, usually in a way that aims
to facilitate the picking process and keep the warehouse organized.
Picking: Finding and collecting ordered items to prepare them for shipping.
Packing: Putting orders in packaging with sufficient protection, either in
custom-branded or standard shipping boxes.
Shipping: Sending the finished packages either directly to customers or to
third-party carriers for delivery.
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•
Customer support: Ensuring that the customer is satisfied and, if not,
processing returns and/or refunds as necessary.
How do you effectively manage order processing?
Order processing begins by first picking the correct inventory from a warehouse
after the order is placed. Items are then sorted and compiled with their respective
orders. Next, orders are packaged and shipped to the customer.
Unit 4: Competition and Buying Patterns
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