The 5 Minute Marketing Plan
If I were to ask you right now, what marketing tactics have
you used, umm, say in the last month, could you tell me? Chances are you probably could rattle them off quickly
enough. Now, say if I asked you if you knew the results those tactics
brought. Meaning do you know specifically what each tactic
brought in as far as sales, new leads and/or new subscribers,
could you tell me that? If you can, then fantastic!!! If you can't, then know that you aren't alone, many business
owners fall into the trap of not planning and tracking. When
you think about it though, the word "plan" seems so, daunting,
doesn't it? I mean really, all you want to do is "get at it," right?? What if I gave you a little tool that would take about ten
minutes to set up and it would give you a clear picture of
where you are, what is working and what isn't? Doesn't seem so daunting now, huh?? Ok... hang with me for a bit and I will give you a tool that I
use and many other successful marketers are using as well ;o) First of all, why do you need to set a plan of action in the
first place? I think we all know "why" we should be doing it. In order to
know what is working and what isn't. If you are paying for
advertising and you aren't tracking the results, then how do
you know if that investment is paying off? If you knew the
answer to that, then you could decide a few things: 1. If it is working then of course you continue on with it. 2. If it isn't then you let it go and spend that money elsewhere. You should track EVERYTHING...yes even the free classified
ads you place. People will dispute this with me and say "what
for, it's free, if I get a hit, cool, it didn't cost me a thing!" Valid point...but consider this...what is YOUR time worth? Sure,
it's free, but the time you take in submitting to the "free" stuff,
takes you away from the other tasks that could be making you
money. We call that "opportunity cost." Your time then is not FREE.
If you have a "submitter" and it takes a few minutes, you just click
and it runs then fine, you should try and always automate as much
as possible. However, if you are posting on an individual basis...and
it takes you an hour or more and you aren't getting anything out of
it...is it really worth it??? Put a price on everything, even your time ;o) Ok, let's get to the Plan. This Plan can be used for each and every tactic that you put into
place or you can use it as a General Plan as an overall game plan,
the idea is to at least use it. --------Sidebar------
Note that this mini-plan is NOT the same as a Marketing Plan
you would need to provide to your Banker for securing a loan.
They require much more information that what is here. This
is a tool to be used "in-house" only
-------------------------- -------Start----- Mini Plan For: _____________________________ Dated: _________________ 1. Purpose (what is the purpose of your marketing, ie to add
subscribers to my list) 2. Target Audience (the specific group that you are trying to capture,
ie start up eBusiness owners, pet owners..etc). 3. What Tactic Are You Using (if it is a classifed in a newsletter, then
be specific, provide a sample of the ad and what newsletters you have
put this ad in). 4. What Is Your Budget I have this much time per week ___________ I have this much money to spend: $________ 5. What Is Your Schedule (break it down into steps of the things
you need to have in place for this particular tactic) 6. Results (log to day your ad run or the day tactic was implemented
from there track your results. Day 1 ad placed no hits, Day 2 received
2 hits). 7. Final Evaluation/Notes (once the particular campaign is over, then
you look at the purpose, if it was to add subscribers, how many did
you receive in the then and based on that was it worthwhile to spend
the money you did. Also are there things you had to do during the process
to adjust for and any other notes that you want to keep track of if you
decide to use this down the road again) 8. Samples - I personally keep a folder that has all the advertising samples
that I have used along with a results log (like the one in step 6). I keep a
running log for each piece of marketing I use so that later on if I want to
use the same piece again - then I can quickly look and see how succesful
it was in other similar newsletters that I ran it in...saves me having to
look through past plans to find the ad, keeps things all in one place. You can make this as easy or as elaborate as you wish, this is your
plan and its purpose is to serve you. The important thing to understand
is that you use it to track the successes of tactics so you know if it
is worth it to you to use again. A mini-marketing plan like this keeps you organized and on track. You
can tell very quickly which of your campaigns worked and from there
determine if you want to re-use it again. Good luck! Denise Ryder is a Marketing Coach writing from her home
office in Northern Ontario (Canada). Hey... are you a do-it
yourself marketer? Are you struggling a little? Need just a
little help??? Can you imagine how far your business could
grow with a Marketing Coach in your pocket? Take a no
cost Test Drive TODAY! http://www.profitspace.com/coach
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