Most entrepreneurs have one thing in common – they want their business to thrive. Sadly, a good percentage of them miss the boat because they do not plan for their own success. Here’s what you need to know to develop a workable marketing action plan, so that you make smart, cost-effective decisions (with a very positive effect on your bottom line).
Be Honest
An assessment or plan will be worthless if you exaggerate, pretend or wing it.
Be Clear
Write up an accurate overview of your firm, its personality, mission, core services, demographic markets and geographic footprint. List company selling points, challenges and competitors.
Cover all Your Bases
Take out business books and gather information from business resources like this one so that you don’t leave anything out. Figure out what you can reasonably expect to achieve in year one, two and three. That means you have to first price out your services or products, and the number of widgets or deliverables you have to sell in a month, in a quarter, in a year to add up to the gross annual income figures you come up with.
Once you’ve got these elements handled you can create a sensible marketing budget. Standard rule of thumb on the conservative side is at least 10% of your expected annual revenues. So if you plan on making $100,000 USD in year one, you should dedicate at least $10,000 to marketing your firm over the course of the year. It is important to note here that well-funded (or seasoned owners of) startups typically allocate lots more money to marketing – 30% and up is not unusual. The fact is – you will most likely not produce a steady stream of income through your friends, business colleagues or word of mouth – so that means you need to plan on spending some hard cash to get your sales engine churning. The smart marketing budget covers the expenses of:
- A graphic designer – for your brand, logo, business cards, letterhead, print ads, direct mail, sales sheets, brochure etc.
- Copywriter
- Web master
- Website hosting firm
- E-marketing service partners (for your e-newsletter or blog)
- Printer (for all your collaterals)
- Marketing consultant
- Print advertising buys (which can include newspapers, networking groups journals, program ads for non-profit fundraisers, flyers sent through your local Chamber of Commerce mailings, etc)
- Radio or cable TV
- Online ad buys – tile or leaderboard advertising on networking websites sites and other high traffic sites where you can connect with your end consumer
- Membership dues and meeting attendance costs for various networking groups
- PR – professionally written press releases to online and local media outlets at least four times a year
- CRM tools – software to help you manage and track client and prospect interaction (ACT or Salesforce.com)
There are many more details to outline, but these are some of the basics that should be included in your own personal success marketing blueprint.
Remember - it’s not enough to dream big. If it was, every business owner would be a millionaire. Whether you are starting a part time venture, a full time firm, or want to jump start a current company, a well thought out plan will help you to get where you want to go.
Great marketing plan resources:
www.marketingsherpa.com
www.marketingprofs.com
