Your Marketing plan does not have to be HUGE, realistically it is just a way of collecting your thoughts and turning them into practical activities that generates awareness, sales or improves customer relationships. A successful Marketing plan for your business can be created in short space of time, so don’t worry about writing style (spelling and grammar) or making your plan look pretty. Just go get a pen and paper and start putting your ideas down. Below are a couple of pointers to think about during this process:

• One of the mistakes that many business owners make is latching on to a brilliant idea, product or service without first understanding who they are trying to sell to (not what you want to do). Remember - If you try to sell a concept that people don’t want, they won’t buy into it.

• Developing a realistic budget can be penny precise or a ball park figure, but it defines an amount of money that you are comfortable with spending and gives an indication of the activities can / cannot be done in your Marketing plan.

• Understanding yourself, what are you comfortable with? There is no point setting yourself an activity if you know in your heart you are not comfortable with doing it. Whereas if you look forward to doing the activity, you are more likely to complete it and get a positive response.

• Remember – if you aim for gold and fall short, you’re still on the winner’s podium  

PLAN IT

Now that you have your ideas down on paper you can start putting them into a realistic plan, with goals and objectives.

• Goals are critical to the success of your business and Marketing plan. When creating a goal use the SMART formula, to ensure that your goals are Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time specific.

• Stand out from the crowd – Developing a unique message will help your customers to remember you and help to close more sales.  It will also help you to define your targeted customers, reducing time and money spent on activities that give little return.

• Choosing how you want to tell people about your Marketing message is your next task. The options available are virtually unlimited, covering everything from key rings to television adverts. It’s important to choose a Marketing medium that gives you the highest return. The trick is to match your message to your Market using the right medium.

Put simply - it would do no good advertising beer on an anti-alcohol website.

• Write up your plan in a clear format that shows your goals, objectives and deadlines, then put it where you will see it every day. Clearly identifying everything that needs to be prepared before you start, and your follow up activities.

• Finally set a review date for the plan – when you ask yourself ‘what would I do different next time?’

JUST DO IT!!!

So what are you waiting for, now that you have spent all that time planning, it’s now time to start doing, but this is where your great plan comes together or dramatically falls apart. We believe that successfully delivering a Marketing plan is based on two factors:

• Activity - Ask any successful Marketeer, the secret to a winning Marketing plan is not what you do but actually doing it! Unless you do everything you’ve planned your Marketing will never deliver the result you want and you’ll probably be disappointed. 

• Support - Having someone hold you accountable and help you to overcome the problems that you will inevitable face, is vital. Having the support from someone who has the experience to know what is going to work and how to overcome the problems when you meet, will help ensure a successful result from your Marketing plan.

This article was written by Simon Washbrook, ALKALiNE Design & Marketing. ALKALiNE provides the Elements Design & Marketing support program, provides no-nonsense support, training and accountable for Small and start up businesses throughout the Midlands. If you think we may be able to help you or your business please call us on 0845 467 1074  or contact one of our business Design and Marketing team