Digg it UP - What is a Marketing Plan Anyway?

Now imagine that you didn't have the time to plan your home but went ahead and hired a builder to get started. How would he know what to build? Without a plan, the result would be unlikely to meet your needs and you'd have wasted a lot of time and money.

Everyday I get calls from frustrated owners of small businesses. Their marketing isn't helping them generate a steady stream of new clients or bring in the revenue that they think they should be making.

My conversation with Ken, from Toronto, was typical. I asked Ken to describe his business and his business goals. I asked him to tell me about his target market and what he is doing to market his business.

He easily described his technological and design expertise, his Web services and the ads and mailings he was using to promote his business. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn't have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as building a web site, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home.

Here's how to start putting your marketing plan together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals

Everyday I get calls from frustrated owners of small businesses. Their marketing isn't helping them generate a steady stream of new clients or bring in the revenue that they think they should be making.

My conversation with Ken, from Toronto, was typical. I asked Ken to describe his business and his business goals. I asked him to tell me about his target market and what he is doing to market his business.

He easily described his technological and design expertise, his Web services and the ads and mailings he was using to promote his business. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn't have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as building a web site, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home.

Here's how to start putting your marketing plan together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals

False Earning Claim Fraud in Business Opportunities
Most business opportunity specialists and practitioners are indeed legitimate. Most business opportunity sellers really do care about their customers and the buyer. However, it is a wide known fact that many Biz Op companies are fraudulent and will lie just to make the sale.The Federal Trade Commission is now onto this and has proposed new rules to prevent this from harming consumers. Below is a copy of the proposed rules that would prevent business opportunities salesman from lying abou making.

My conversation with Ken, from Toronto, was typical. I asked Ken to describe his business and his business goals. I asked him to tell me about his target market and what he is doing to market his business.

He easily described his technological and design expertise, his Web services and the ads and mailings he was using to promote his business. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn't have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as building a web site, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home.

Here's how to start putting your marketing plan together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals

Successful Workshops: Drawing The Audience
Speak of workshops and people generally perk up with interest. It could be a workshop about gaining confidence. Or it could be about being able to find romance. Workshops are big business these days. So, learning how to attract your audience is the first thing you will need to learn if you are to run a successful workshop.My art workshops are generally smaller than most workshops you might be imagining. I am not talking about the kinds of audiences that Anthony Robbins and Jack Canfielness. Then I asked the question that stumps almost everyone who calls me for advice: I asked Ken if he had a marketing plan and what it was. He didn't have one.

Do you?

You know what your goals are and where you want to take your business. You also know that marketing involves activities such as building a web site, mailings, advertising and phone calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home.

Here's how to start putting your marketing plan together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals

Changes, How to Make Them
Change can be good or it can be bad, change of any kind good or bad has an effect on individuals. This effect is some times positive. However, most of the time it is negative. People naturally resist change and this resistance to the change cause's stress and then stress leads to other problems. If we work in an environment where change is occurring all the time, employees will be under constant stress, quality and quantity of production will be lower. We must make changes if we are to improvne calls to prospects. But without a plan tying these efforts together, these activities by themselves may do little to help you achieve your goals.

You need a well thought out blueprint for your marketing, just as you would for your dream home.

Here's how to start putting your marketing plan together.

1. Identify Your Marketing Goals

What specifically does your marketing need to achieve for your business to grow? You can state this in terms of the number of qualified leads generated each week, the percentage of leads converted to s.ales, total revenue, and profit.

What are your marketing goals?

2. Define Your Marketing Strategy

This is your overall approach and positioning relative to your goals and your competition. My marketing strategy is an educational one. It is based on giving people ideas and information they can use as a means of getting their attention and demonstrating the value I provide.

What is your marketing strategy?

3. Set Up Your Marketing System

Develop a plan of action. To increase sales, your marketing activities and the media you use need to reflect your marketing strategy and work together as one.

I use articles and pay-per-click ads to get people to my web site, a free marketing guide to generate contacts, forms to generate leads, and follow up with autoresponders, my ezine and phone calls. Each individual activity supports and works in harmony with the others to bring me a lot of business.

What is your marketing system?

4. Map Out Your Marketing Activities

Now flesh out the details. You've decided what your marketing activities will be; now for each marketing activity you’ll need to determine who will create and implement it and when.

Who will be responsible

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