It is the start of a new year. Time to start working on that plan. If you are like me, and many other entrepreneurs,
you jump in feet first or do you step back and come up with a plan of attack?
All too often, small business owners jump in feet first with no real plan. Most business owners are good at thinking on their feet and making rapid decisions. Unfortunately, the lack of planning often means they miss opportunities along the way.
Or worse then no planning, they adjust their marketing based on whoever they talk to last. Visit with a social media consultant, suddenly they focus all their attention on Facebook. Talk to a Representative from Comcast, and they are saving their pennies for an interactive TV commercial. This is no way to plan your advertising!
So how should you approach building your marketing plan?
Marketing strategist Lorraine Ball is the Creative Director or Roundpeg, an Indianapolis digital agency.
All too often, small business owners jump in feet first with no real plan. Most business owners are good at thinking on their feet and making rapid decisions. Unfortunately, the lack of planning often means they miss opportunities along the way.
Or worse then no planning, they adjust their marketing based on whoever they talk to last. Visit with a social media consultant, suddenly they focus all their attention on Facebook. Talk to a Representative from Comcast, and they are saving their pennies for an interactive TV commercial. This is no way to plan your advertising!
So how should you approach building your marketing plan?
- Start with simple questions: Who is your target customer? How many sale do you want? What's a customer worth?
- Decide how much you feel comfortable spending, either as a percent of sales or based on the number of contacts you need your marketing to generate. A good starting point is the old rule of thumb 2% - 5% of sales for stable businesses with an established customer base and 7% - 10% of projected sales for companies in growth mode.
- Evaluate marketing alternatives. How many leads do you expect each activity to generate. This evaluation should not just look at quantity, but also quality of leads. Ad Words may generate a lot of traffic to your website, but if you don't have a good landing page, you may not get any qualified prospects as a result.
- Decide how you will measure success. If you measure this year, budgeting will be a lot simpler next year.
- Tune in to More than a Few Words today Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at 10:30 am. We will be talking about Marketing Plans. If that time is not convenient, you can always download the program from iTunes and listen on the go.
- If you are in Indy, join us for Marketing by the Numbers - A short seminar on putting the numbers of your marketing budget together. January 15, at 4:00.
Take advantage of one, two or three of these resources to get your plan in place for a terrific 2013.
Marketing strategist Lorraine Ball is the Creative Director or Roundpeg, an Indianapolis digital agency.
