Pitchrate | Deadliest Marketing Mistake #1, Not Having a Focused Marketing Plan

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David Kimball

David Kimball is a family financial coach, author, and speaker with a passion to help families and individuals save money, get out of debt, and live financially free. Visit his website at http://www.household-budget-made-easy.com. Click around for my writing style and what I could write for yo...

Category of Expertise:

Business & Finance, Personal Finance

User Type:

Expert

Published:

03/15/2011 04:11pm
Deadliest Marketing Mistake #1, Not Having a Focused Marketing Plan

There is a similar attribute common in most entrepreneurs and business owners. Most are "doers" rather than "planners". In reality, being a "doer" is perhaps the ultimate character trait of a successful person. Rather than thinking or wishing, you get out there and make something happen.

Although there is amazing benefits of being a “doer type”, the trouble comes from not thinking through things thoroughly. Can you relate to this?

With this as a foundation, many small businesses are "doing" the wrong marketing activities. Specifically, marketing activities that were programmed into you since birth. You may think, “Well, I need to market this business so I will put $500 or $1,000 per month into Radio, Yellow Pages, or Newspaper Advertising and then see if it generates any results.” This is advertising, not marketing.

Now do not get me wrong, I am all for testing to see if different things may work. However, you end up falling into a pattern of just seeing what advertising sticks in traditional popular marketing channels. There is no concrete basis (or statistics) for it. Can you tell me your advertising return on investment (ROI)?

If you want to "do" the right marketing activities the right way, you must start with a solid marketing plan, not just “spray and pray” advertising.

What is a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is a written document that is an organized set of activities designed to promote your product, service and/or company. It is designed to increase customers and profits and is "planned out" for a specific future time frame, such as three months, six months, or one year.

A solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan. It contains a list of specific actions to obtain and retain clients and customers.

Without a sound strategic foundation,
advertising is of very little use to your business.

WISDOM
Focus Your Efforts on a Few BIG Things

1) Conduct quality research as the foundation to build your marketing plan.
2) Business & Marketing Mission Statements (they should be different but connected).
3) Determine specific goals and time frames to reach these goals.
4) Determine your marketing budget (do steps 1-3 first).
5) Determine what your effective "marketing channels" are.
6) Delegate responsibility to carry out each segment of your plan.
7) Measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and re-valuate.

Keywords

marketing, marketing plan
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