Your Marketing Plan for the New Year from @hjkdigital

Your marketing plan for your business consists of multiple facets and because we live in such a digital age, one of those facets is inevitably Social Media.  Planning an effective social media strategy can be overwhelming-especially if you aren't sure where to begin.  Here are 5 simple steps to get you started.

1. Look at where you are right now.  Go through each of your social media accounts and write down how many followers you have, how many likes, how many connections, etc. Then, take a look at your engagement statistics.  This doesn’t have to be an intensive view. For now, just get a general idea of how well your connections respond on each platform.  Don’t forget to include your blog and your newsletter list while you’re at it. 
2. Based on where you’re at now, does continuing to have a presence in all the places you’re currently at make sense? For example, if you have very little response (likes, shares, comments and of course sales conversions) from your posts on Facebook, is it because it’s not a good social media platform or is it because your content needs to be modified? Remember, you need to invest your time into where you are going to get the most bang for your buck.  Just because one social media network is good for one person does not mean it’s the perfect fit for you.
3. Once you determine where you want to focus your social media efforts (whether it’s the same or if you’re taking away or adding something new), set a goal for how much you want to grow each month.  If you want to increase your newsletter subscribers by 10 each month then write that down.  If you want 1000 new Twitter followers by the end of the year, then write that down. 
4. This step is the secret.  Action.  Consistent Action.  If you intend to grow from where you are now, you’ll need to take consistent action to make that happen.  This is true in all aspects of your business, including social media.  So, write down—not just in your head—how many posts, status updates, blogs, newsletters, etc. you are committed to doing each month to achieve those numbers you wrote down in Step 3.
5. Make it easy on yourself and choose a topic—come up with a theme.  Think about something you want to focus on each month and create all of your content (your tweets, your newsletters, your blog entries, etc.) around that topic.  This will not only make it easier for you to focus and create your content more consistently but it gives your audience that same sense of consistency across all channels.

Planning is the key and writing down that plan is essential.  There are lots of great forms out there you can use to help organize your plan but we also invite you to download our free social mediaplanning worksheet.

From Guest Blogger HJK Digital Solutions

Do You Have a Plan?

by Lorraine Ball

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? 

• 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.     

Want to learn more about building your budget, Roundpeg has  several tools and resources for you: 

• Download our free marketing calendar

• 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.  

Marketing Madness Runs Amuck the First of Every Year

The first of the year is a time for some small business owners to start with new marketing madness initiatives. In some cases these have been well thought out, but more often than not these actions are disjointed and not aligned to any well thought out and written strategic plan less alone a goal driven marketing plan.

Probably more than in any other aspect of business does the Captain Wing It behavior takes over when it comes to marketing. Actions are sprayed all over the place with prayers that something will stick.

This marketing madness has small business owners, entrepreneurs to even sales professionals resembling the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland running from this business to business networking event scattering business cards looking for some quick ways to increase sales.

First, there is nothing quick about marketing.  To think buying this advertisement or writing one blog article is going to generate increase sales is just plain foolish. Sales research suggests that most sales (80-90%) are made between the fourth and 12^th contact while 90% of all sales people stop after the third contact.

Second, marketing today is a little different than even in 2000.  Today’s small businesses must and I emphasize “must” have an integrated marketing, goal driven action plan that unites inbound marketing actions with outbound ones. With the explosion of social media, interactive website sites and referrals, inbound activity has reduced the cost of sales leads, yet people still buy from people and those personal interactions are also required.

Third, having a united and emotionally compelling message is also a must in any marketing plan. If what worked last year is still working, then continue to use that message. However, if your marketing message is not delivering you results, then maybe it is time to refresh and revitalize what you are saying to your potential customers.

Fourth, written goals are required in these traditional outbound areas:

1. Internet – Website
2. Networking including tradeshows
3. Direct Mail
4. Paid Advertising including sponsorships
5. Promotional Items including business cards
6. Professional Development

Social media has expanded the Internet to include these areas:

1. Blog
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. LinkedIn
5. You Tube
6. Other such as micro-blogs or Social Media websites such as Pinterest

Fifth is measurement.  If you cannot measure the results from your marketing actions both inbound and outbound, you cannot manage it.  This potentially creates wasted resources and lacks overall sustainability. Measurement also extends into your sales plan and customer loyalty plans found within your strategic plan. Knowing how many calls will generate a sale to knowing the acquisition cost of each new client as well as maintaining existing clients are all part of measurement.

By creating an integrated marketing goal driven action plan that looks to including some if not all of those areas as noted above, will increase sales for you in 2013. So if you are engaged in the roles of “Captain Wing It,” considered casting off that costume and embrace the role of “Captain Focus It.”: You just may be surprised by the results.

About the Author

Leanne Hoagland-Smith is an author, speaker and the Chief Results Officer for ADVANCED SYSTEMS a 15 year young executive coaching and organizational development consulting practice. What makes Leanne’s approach unique is she looks for her clients to have crystal clear clarity because she brings strategies and ideas; processes and tools; and connections allowing her to just be valuable to her clients.  She can be reached at 219.759.5601 Chicago CST or visit her website to learn more about her current webinars.