| Will Your 2007 Marketing Plan Make You Money? |
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Wait—what’s that? You haven’t had a chance to put a marketing plan together? You’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs mistakenly think they need to spend months creating a marketing tome. But a simple, straightforward plan is a better goal. Follow our steps below, and you’ll be well on your way.
Looking Back
Clients & Services
Before you begin on this year’s marketing plan, you need to do a client and services analysis for the last two to three years. What are the services you provide, and how much revenue did they generate? For clients, compile a list and note the following:
- Industry
- Revenue
- Years as a client
- Projects completed for this client
- Potential based on your knowledge, what is the chance for additional revenue?)
- How acquired (networking, referrals, company website, etc.)
The goal is to see trends—do you generate a lot of business from a particular company or organization? Should one of your services be bringing in more money? What services bring in the most money? What existing clients have the greatest potential to increase your revenue in 2007?
2006 Marketing Analysis
Analyze your marketing from last year. Remember, marketing is everything you do that touches your customers—e-mails, newsletters, postcards, trade shows, website, phone calls, etc. What did these activities yield? How much money did you spend on each of them? Did these marketing activities target the right audience? Have the right message? Use a clear call-to-action? The goal is to identify what worked, what didn’t and why.
Looking Ahead
Pipeline Dreams
Now that you have a good handle on last year, it’s time to create a plan for this year. Here are some things you must know (or find) the answers to:
- How many clients do you need for the year and what revenue will each be bringing in?
- How long will it take close business?
For example, if you close one deal out of every three opportunities and you need 50 clients to meet your revenue goals, then you need to be “working” 150 potential clients over the course of the year to yield those 50.
Once you have these numbers, you know how big your pipeline needs to be. If your current one isn’t big enough, you’ll need to determine a strategy to increase it, such as networking. If your pipeline is so big that you don’t even know who’s in it, your marketing will focus on identifying and courting your “A” clients and nurturing those you want to convert to the A-list.
Devote Dollars to Marketing
Set a marketing budget. It doesn’t matter what size business you are or if it’s only $500 Set a budget. You can’t make a spending plan if you don’t know what dollars you have to spend.
Know Your Marketing Message
Decide on one clear message that you want everyone to know about your business. FOCUS on that message in every single piece of marketing you do for the year.
Choose Your Marketing Actions
Focus on four marketing actions that will yield results and fit into your budget. This is what you’ll schedule into your marketing calendar. Each month’s activities should build on the previous one.
Create a Comprehensive Calendar
Do at least six months. Detail and specificity are the keys. Outline everything. For example, let’s say you plan on networking at organizations X, Y, and Z in February. In your calendar, you should clearly label the weekly follow-up e-mails you’re sending out to contacts you met at Organization X. Then, you should mark when you’re mailing these contacts your company brochure and letter. From there, you should schedule when you’re going to follow-up with a phone call. You’d do the same scheduling for Organizations Y and Z.
If you want to be even more specific, schedule time for drafting the letter templates, e-mails and phone scripts. If you’re developing a postcard mailer, schedule vendor meetings, such as copywriter, printer and post office.
How Often Should You Market?
Remember, marketing to someone only once—even if the person is on your A-list—isn’t going to be effective. Here are some good rules of thumb:
- For your A-list clients and referral sources, you need to communicate with them 10-12 times per year.
- For people you’re nurturing and trying to convert to the A-list, you need to communicate with them 8- 10 times per year.
- You should communicate with anyone else in your database 4-6 times per year.
If you have contacts in your database that you can’t commit to communicating with 4-6 times per year, then prune them from your contact list.
Final Thoughts—Marketing Magic
Remember, if you don’t plan your marketing now (and include a budget and calendar), then you can’t get to the end of the year and claim, “Hey, my marketing didn’t work.”
Marketing isn’t magic. But if carefully planned and executed, it sure can look like it to others.
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| About Precision Marketing Group |
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Precision Marketing Group helps companies make more money with their marketing. Call or email us if you are looking for practical marketing solutions, programs or advice that will move your business forward!
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Marketing Plans: Myths & Reality |
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1. Marketing plans need to be long, wordy documents.
Myth. Marketing plans don’t need to be onerous documents. Being specific is key. Being long winded isn’t.
2. Only big companies need marketing plans.
Myth. All companies need marketing plans, which include marketing budgets. Even if the budget is only $500, you need to know what dollars you have for marketing—and how you’re going to use them.
3. When crafting your 2007 marketing plan, you need to revisit marketing from 2006.
Reality.You need to know what worked— and didn’t work—from last year so you can create the most effective plan.
4. Creating a marketing plan is a one-time deal.
Myth.Marketing is a dynamic, ongoing process. You must continually measure, implement, measure, assess and revise. This includes your marketing plan.
5. A solid marketing plan can help increase my company’s bottom line.
Reality.Creating a solid marketing plan adds time and money to the business by ensuring you focus your resources on the marketing activities that deliver results.
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