One of the most important parts of any marketing initiative is the creation of a marketing plan. Let’s begin by discussing a general marketing plan. Although I admit that specificity rules, we are going to start with the basic guidelines.
There are some important details and “things” YOU have to decide. Where are you in your business? Where do you want to go? What do your product(s) and/or service(s) look like as compared to your competition? What do they sell that competes with you? You should look at your competitors’ prices – for reference only and not necessarily to change what you charge – to gauge where your business is in the general scheme of things. And, I want you to take that knowledge to create your strategic marketing plan.
Make a long list of all the marketing strategies and tactics you want to incorporate, implement and/or facilitate in order to take you (and your business) from where you are, to where you want to go. Then prioritize the list. And, you’ll want to write down all of your goals (strategic objectives) with each of your marketing as well. These include: more leads, more business, greater name recognition, referrals, building your brand and fame, press, publicity, etc.
There are dozens of different marketing strategies and tactics that you can use to explode your business. But again, you’ve got to know where you are right now – this is your baseline – and where you want your business (and any or all of the strategic objectives mentioned above) to go before you launch.
Why are you better/different than everyone else? When any business, company, corporation, restaurateur, professional, etc., launches a marketing campaign, a good part of the marketing message is about why you are better/different then everyone else. Most of the time this is accomplished by listing your features, benefits, education, services, etc. So, write out at least 20 reasons why you and/or your business are different?
After you have your general marketing plan laid out and you start to launch specific marketing initiatives – you must take note of what works and what doesn’t work, because marketing is all about testing and we’ll talk about that in next weeks post. Try to take notes on every aspect of the marketing campaign so you can truly gauge the success or failure of the effort.
When you have a PLAN, you have a guideline. This guideline will serve you well as you grow. Keep track of all of your results so you can effectively measure your growth, statistics, successes, failures, etc.
To Your Success,
Dr. Len Schwartz