 |
| Diagram describing the integration of business planning, marketing and engineering/OSS in Network Resource Planning, as well as its end results. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Small Business Marketing Plan Strategies ~ http://lpcmarketing.com/
A marketing calendar is indispensable to any profitable business. It is the heart of the business, the starting point from which all other operational and management plans are derived. Marketing and advertising provides you a wealth of meticulous information that can guarantee your success.
1. Organization
The preliminary benefit of a small business marketing plan is simply plain looking at your business in terms of profitability, what your advertising is or is not accomplishing, and determining exactly what you want your business to be.
Study your competition. Look at their mainstream media buys and web sites. See if they are sending out direct mail. You want to be eating their lunch, not having them eat yours.
By planning a marketing calendar, you will keep any tasks in house that you do well, and farm out any tasks that take away from your core business strengths. Delegate.
2. Marketing and Advertising Plan
Many businesses profit from a thorough marketing calendar. And not just a short term advertising plan. A good marketing plan will stretch out for at least a year with details on what needs to be done each week to promote the business, brand online and offline, and increase customers.
Establish in advance how much you need to spend, since that can have a significant influence on the strategies you choose to put into place. Budgeting and deadlines for each marketing activity are critical.
Calculate the category and price of marketing communications and compare with set specific sales forecasts.
3. Understanding Your Niche
A detailed marketing plan forces you to take a deep look at your market and industry, learn what the competition is doing, and develop a plan to master your industry.
4. Testing
Even experienced marketing professionals have trouble tracking which media, advertising, and promotional buys result in profits. Tracking is a pain, but needed. You will need to get rid of those activities that do not add to the bottom line.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I do not know which half." John Wanamaker ~ http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1992.html
5. Accountability
A good quality marketing plan holds everybody accountable. Also make sure to include plans for implementation of a marketing calendar. Plans are great, but if you do not also designate responsibility, set deadlines and hold people accountable, marketing efforts cannot succeed.
Benchmarks also help keep your workers and distributors on the same page, with all working on the same objectives. Make sure you identify who is going to do exactly what and exactly when they need it to be completed.
A decent advertising and marketing calendar is more than a simple step-by-step of digitally and offline promotion. Marketing is part art, part science.
Come to LPC Marketing to learn more about a small business marketing plan, as well as using reputation marketing to boost your SERPs and prevent having to deal with reputation management.
http://lpcmarketing.com/
Tags: sample small business marketing plan,small business marketing plan example,sample marketing plan for small business
