Marketing Plans Made Easy

Marketing Plans Made Easy

What are your goals for your business next year? And what are your plans for making them happen? Whatever your goals are, one thing is absolutely certain – marketing is going to play a vital role in achieving them.

If you don’t create your marketing plan here’s what is likely to happen…

• You won’t know what to do or when to do it

• Your approach to marketing will be haphazard

• You won’t do anything properly – you’ll start things but you won’t follow through

• You’ll waste your time, money and energy on quick fixes and lucky dip marketing tactics in the hope that something will work

• “Do Marketing” will sit on your to do list all year

• You won’t get the kind of results you want or need to achieve the business you want

• And all of these things are a big cause of frustration, stress, guilt and pain

I’m pretty confident that you know all this already but let me ask you something… Have you got a marketing plan for the year ahead? In fact, did you have a marketing plan for the last 12 months? If you did, how did it go? Did you follow it? Did you get the results you wanted? I’m guessing that if you didn’t have a plan or you didn’t implement it effectively, then the results in your business weren’t as good as they could have been.

Now if you don’t have a plan for your marketing this year I’m going to help you start one because it’s going to make a big difference to your business over the coming months. Nine times out of ten, when I work with a new client and we investigate what’s been happening in their business, it quickly becomes apparent that a number of important things are missing. One of the things that’s missing is a marketing plan. And even if there is some kind of marketing plan in place, it’s usually the case that there have been some problems executing the plan and it hasn’t been followed. And in some cases it has been written and then hasn’t really been looked at ever again.

I’m going to share some tips for creating your marketing plan for 2011 based on an approach I was taught a few years ago. It works for me and you might like it too. So here goes…

1. Get yourself a ring binder for your marketing. Once you get familiar with this system you could use a notebook. I use an A5 notebook simply because I like to be able to work on my business anywhere so I like to be able to carry it with me easily. There’s no reason you can’t turn this into an online system but for many, a paper system like this works really well.

Divide your ring binder file into these sections

1. Master List – Big Projects, strategies and Actions

2. Marketing Project plans

3. 8 Week Actions sheet

4. Weekly Actions

5. Future Projects and Ideas

2. The Master List – What are your objectives?

This is where you put down all of the projects, strategies and actions relating to the marketing of your business over the next 12 months. What is it you want to achieve?

Raising your profile, getting known for what you do, building your database, filling a bootcamp / workshops / classes, getting x number of 1-1 sessions clients, selling x quantity of a product you’ve created? Just as it’s important to get clear on the vision and goals of your business, so it’s important that you are clear about what it is you want to achieve from your marketing. And that your marketing objectives are congruent with and support your overall business plan.

3. Develop your mini project plan

Take each project from your Master List and start breaking it down into a mini project plan. List everything that will need to be done to do what you want to do. Start putting timeframes on these projects too so you start to build a picture of when these projects will be done over the year.

4. 8 Week Marketing calendar

Now you take the content in your mini project plans and start placing it in your 8 week calendar.

Example: 10/01 – write article for newsletter / create newsletter template / create sign up box on website / identify one networking event to go to / follow up on leads

17/01 – plan workshop / write article promotion for workshop / draft promo email about workshop for existing clients / follow up on client leads

This is the key to this system because now, instead of big long lists that have no relation to your business, your life or your time – you now have a calendar of small, simple actions that you know contribute towards the achievement of projects that you want to carry out. You have a plan.

5. Create Your weekly List

Now each week you will spend some time at the beginning of your week looking at your calendar and deciding what you are actually going to do. If you know you won’t or can’t do something that week, move it to the next.

6. Plan time to work on your business in your Diary

Plan and secure blocks of time when you know you can focus on working on your business rather than seeing clients or taking classes.

7. Transfer actions to your daily diary

Now you can take the actions from your weekly list and place them in your everyday diary so that they are actually planned in. This will help you to actually implement your marketing plan. Now you aren’t faced with an enormous list of things to do. On any given day you can simply focus on the one or two actions that need to be done in the knowledge that you are on track with the bigger project.

8. Start doing it?

It’s not a race to see who can do the most. In marketing it’s not about quantity necessarily but quality. Remember that marketing isn’t a one off activity on your to do list. Successful marketing is about steady and consistent action and following through with projects to get results.

9. Review your plan regularly

Choose a day each week where you look at your plans and ensure that you are pulling out the key actions and steps and that you are doing them. Plans only work if you are looking at them and using them.

Tips and Pitfalls

1. Start off small. If the idea of writing a 12 month marketing plans fills you with dread, so much so that you know you just won’t get round to it, then start small. Start with a 3 month plan just so you get used to the process of preparing a marketing plan.

2. Remember that marketing isn’t a one off activity that you do and cross off. Successful marketing is about doing little things consistently over time.

3. Don’t put too many things on your weekly lists or your daily lists. Think carefully about what you put in your diary. Put in the things that you will do rather than the things you think you might or ought to do. Your confidence will grow in your ability to follow through on your plans and over time you will get better and quicker at planning and completing actions.

4. Avoid getting caught up in the idea trap – this is when you have a great idea and start working on it immediately before you’ve established how it fits in with your plans and whether it’s a priority. This can waste huge amounts of time and push other more important actions further down the list. Instead, park this idea in your Future Projects section in your folder and schedule time to think about it later.

5. Schedule big chunks of time to work on bigger projects. Things like your newsletter or developing a workshop or creating a product or programme – these projects are often done best when you have a good run at it rather than ten minutes here and there. Avoid fire fighting by giving yourself enough time to produce good quality work rather than rushed work that lets you down.

6. Make the most of every minute. By the same token – if you are really pressed for time – just by breaking your work down into the detailed and specific actions, you can always use your time effectively. If you have a spare 15 minutes between clients or appointments you could write one paragraph for your next newsletter article or make one follow-up phone call. We are all pressed for time but knowing what you CAN do in small chunks of time means that you can still make progress.

7. Make a commitment to use this planning system for at least 30 days because that will get you used to it and get you into a new habit. Once you discover for yourself how much more you get done and how much easier and more enjoyable working on this essential part of your business can be, you won’t want to go back to your old ways.

So there you have it – some tips and tools to help you start working on your marketing plan for 2011 because if you really want the year ahead to be better than the last you have to do things differently. As with anything in life – it’s all about taking action and just getting on with it. Great marketing is about doing little things consistently.

The PT Business Gym Challenge

Right now, get a piece of A4 paper, write the heading “Business and Marketing Brainstorm” and spend the next 15 minutes writing down everything you want to achieve with your business in 2011 and all of the marketing ideas, projects, strategies and actions that you want to do.