Every small business has to market itself, but not many small businesses have a marketing plan of any kind. Even fewer have one they actually use. That’s why I developed the Simplified Marketing Plan, back in 2006. It’s high time to update it.<\/p>\n
The plan is simple, so you’ll actually do it. There are just four steps.\u00a0 You can create your plan in any form that makes sense for you: outline, mindmap, notecards, etc. Just be sure it addresses each of the four parts.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n 1. Name and describe each market.<\/b> If you think in the broadest terms, a customer is anyone whose actions affect your results. (I borrowed that definition from Steve Yastrow, at tompeters.com<\/a>, and see his one minute video explanation<\/a>.) If you are not sure about yours, sit down and brainstorm with a friend.<\/p>\n 2. List potential methods you can use to reach your markets.<\/b> How do you find out where your customers are online? Ask them.<\/i> I realize that sounds like an overly simplified answer, but it is the best way to find out.<\/p>\n 3. Establish the cost in time and in money, and decide. <\/b> Now, balance those costs against the benefits. Which methods get you more contact with your targeted markets? Which methods generate interaction and deeper connections? Which ones have the best potential to drive sales?<\/i><\/p>\n Finally, decide. Decide which methods to use and which to let go of. Pare your list down to just the most effective and do-able. Unless you are a brand new business, now is the time to get rid of some things you may have been doing for a long time that have lost effectiveness. Recapture that time and money for more effective methods.<\/p>\n 4. Integrate it into your daily activities. <\/b> Line up your methods, and see where you can multiply your efforts. Write once, reuse or customize many times. Once you write the text for a blog post, it can automatically post to your Facebook Fan page. The same words could be reworked for a printed newsletter or a information sheet for customers. Status updates and links shared on Facebook can go automatically to Twitter and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n Use checklists to organize the work. Once you’ve selected your methods for reaching customers, draw up a daily or weekly checklist for actions to be completed. Here’s a bit more about creating a checklist for your social media marketing actions<\/a>.<\/p>\n After I presented this plan to the Bartlesville Marketing and Communication Association, David Austin interviewed me about the four parts of the plan. If you don’t see the embedded video, click here for the full post.<\/a><\/p>\n New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? Get our updates<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every small business has to market itself, but not many small businesses have a marketing plan of any kind. Even fewer have one they actually use. That’s why I developed the Simplified Marketing Plan, back in 2006. It’s high time to update it. The plan is simple, so you’ll actually do it. There are just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,7,5,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10202,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/10202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEvery business has more than one market to reach. A restaurant markets to hungry people, but also to event organizers. A local photographer may market to individuals, event organizers, families, schools and many other separate markets. For a chamber of commerce, your markets may be local businesses, people in the community, plus businesses you are trying to attract.<\/p>\n
\nYou may start with listing your traditional methods, including newspaper advertising, word of mouth, or printed materials. Add to that all the online methods you can think of. Facebook Fan Pages are a natural for small town businesses. Other ideas might be participation in local forums, contributing to groups on Flickr, blogging, uploading videos to YouTube, or updating your status and sharing links on Twitter or LinkedIn. The key is to identify the areas where your customers are online.<\/p>\n
\nGo through your new list of potential methods. Start estimating the cost in time and money to use that method. Blogging might cost 8 hours of your time and $5 in expenses per month. Billboards might cost 18 hours of work to create and have posted, plus $1500 per month. (Those are just wild guesses. The point is to do your own estimates.)<\/p>\n
\nThis is where things get interesting. You have a plan. You’ve decided on methods. Now use the plan to help guide your scheduling.<\/p>\n