Five Quick Steps To Your Marketing Plan
Marketing is essentially project management. A marketing plan
consists of several projects designed to promote your small
business using various methods. There are five basic steps to
follow when putting together your marketing plan that will
ensure you get the most marketing bang for your buck.
Step One: Marketing Goals
The first step is to write down the marketing goals you have for
your small business. Whether it be increasing sales by 10%,
releasing a new product, or improving online sales, you should
write down all of your goals. Once you've got everything written
downs, go over each goal and make sure it is realistic (do you
have the staff to service 10 new clients?), if not, revise.
Step Two: Set Your Marketing Budget
Before you can plan how to achieve your goals, you've got to
know who much you can invest in the methods you'll use. Be
realistic about your budget and don't spend more than you'll
make back; there are plenty of low cost ways to market. But, DO
invest in marketing, it will pay-off. If you're not willing to
spend money on your small business' success, you devalue your
products or services. Plus, if customers forget about you, they
don't buy from you.
Step Three: Evaluate Marketing Methods
There are many ways to market your small business. In his book,
The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Business, Jay Lipe
shares a list of what he calls marketing "vehicles." His list
includes (Taken from The Marketing Toolkit for Growing
Businesses, by Jay Lipe, 2002):
Newspaper Ads Magazine Ads
Yellow Pages
Television Ads
Cable TV Ads
Radio Advertising
Direct Mail
Billboards
Telemarketing
Internet
Publicity
Trade Shows
Event Marketing
Direct Sales
I'd also like to add a few more methods or "vehicles:"
networking events
public speaking
article marketing
press releases
e-mail
event sponsorship
donating
Another great resource for inexpensive marketing methods is
Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal
Marketer," by Heather Jacobson. This ebook offers just what
it says, 101 great tips that are inexpensive yet, effective.
Based on your goals and budget, choose the methods that will
work best to help your small business achieve the desired
outcome. Some of the methods will support multiple goals, others
will revolve around one goal. Just choose the methods that best
suit your small business.
Step Four: Time-line Out Each Project
Once you've chosen the marketing methods you'll use to achieve
your goals. It's time to put them in the calendar. Each goal
should have a deadline for achievement and each method should
have a target completion date. Work backward from these dates,
planning out when each part of the goal/marketing method needs
to be done to move to the next step of the process, (For
example, if the method is a postcard mailing, the post card
needs to be designed by approx. 2 weeks before it is mailed,
printed by one week before the mail date and labels need to be
pulled the day before, etc...).
As you calendar out each item, be conscious of how busy you'll
be and balance out your daily/weekly to-do's and the frequency
your methods will 'hit' your customers/audience. Balance out
each communication to ensure there's no overload.
Step Five: Execute!
Once you've got your plan and timeline, it's time to get
started. Outsource the work you can't or don't want to do, but
make sure things keep on track. Review everything for
consistency of message and feel--remember, every time you
communicate you are reinforcing your small business 'brand' with
the public.