Setting up a Marketing Plan
Posted by 
on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 
at 9:28 AM 
in Alright, it’s time for a question! Now, please be truthful… The question is – do you have a marketing plan for the next 12 months? How about the next 6 months? 3 months? Next week?
If you have answered yes to any of those questions, that is great.
But I am guessing a lot of you may take the approach of “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” marketing. When inspiration hits, or you receive bad news from your finance and accounting team, you put the wheels in motion to do a direct mailer.
In business, you absolutely need to be flexible. You need to be willing to make adjustments to your priorities and marketing activities when circumstances call for it.
However, by laying out a marketing plan ahead of time, we can avoid a lot of the crashes and emergencies that arise every year. Along with that, we can avoid the trouble that some of us fall into – doing hardly any marketing at all!
I’m sure we all have the best intentions when it comes to promoting our business. We all want to do the right things to create a buzz about our product and services. But obstacles arise – maybe it’s time and resources… maybe we have a mental block on what the creative should be, or what the message should say. Or we feel that we don’t have the tools to execute it.
A marketing plan can help us prepare for and overcome those types of obstacles.
A marketing plan should be simple. It certainly involves a bit of thought and planning, as well as some honesty. But there is no need to make it complicated. Let’s take a minute to discuss what to put in your marketing plan.
The first step is to define the right marketing mix. Have you heard of the 4 P’s? Here they are:
- Product – define exactly what it is that you have to offer. Outline the brand, the appearance, and what challenges your product helps to solve.
- Price – How much are you willing to sell your product for? How much are your prospective customers willing to pay? Are there times throughout the year where Discounts might help increase sales?
- Placement – It’s all about getting the right message to the right people at the right time. When the customer is ready to buy, will you be in there?
- Promotion – How will your prospective customers hear about your product? This is where we really start to look at the channels that are available to us. Advertising, Direct Mail, Email, Websites, Social Media, etc.
Filling in the 4P’s on a blank piece of paper may seem challenging. But, it doesn’t have to be. Start by thinking of what you’ve done in the past… How did you market your company last year? Or 3 years ago? Pay attention to how other people are marketing their business. A little bit of inspiration can go a long way.
After you’ve taken the step of defining your mix of marketing activities, the next step is to get out the calendar. Yes, you need to set goals for your business, and then set the actual dates for when you will execute the activities that you will reach those goals.
For example, here are a few possible activities that you should put dates on:
- Send out an e-Newsletter to my current customers on the 1st of every month
- Send out a promotional direct mailer 4 times a year (Jan., April, July, Oct.)
- Run Holiday promotions (July and Dec)
- Place advertisements in March, May, and November
- Open House in June
There are certainly other items that you could identify on your marketing plan… But starting with the 4P’s and your calendar can really help you to succeed. Once you have it all filled out, don’t file it away! Make sure that it is visible to you over the months to come. This will help serve as a reminder for the activities that you have planned out…. it will help keep fresh in mind the priority and urgency that we all strive to have in regards to promoting our business.
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