Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Small Business Marketing Plan Revealed

Business Card (png file)
Business Card (png file) (Photo credit: docpop)

Small Business Marketing Plan Revealed ~ http://lpcmarketing.com

Times are tough.  Competition is fierce.  Your business requires each benefit a small business marketing and advertising calendar can offer it to survive and succeed.

1. Concentration and Discipline

The first advantage of a small business marketing plan is simply plain focusing on your business in terms of profitability, what your advertising is or is not accomplishing, and determining where you want your business to be.

Research your competition.  Look at their mainstream media buys and websites.  See if they are sending out direct mail.  You want to be eating their lunch, not having them devour yours.

By planning a marketing calendar, you will keep any tasks in house that you do well, and farm out any jobs that take away from your core business strengths.  Delegate.

2. Advertising and Marketing Calendar

Most businesses profit from a comprehensive marketing calendar.  And not merely a short term advertising plan.  A good marketing plan will stretch out for at least a year with details on what needs to be done every week to promote the business, brand online and offline, and gain customers.

Many business owners blur the lines between branding, promotion, advertising, and public relations. Those are the media channels of a message or campaign, not the marketing itself.

Once you have mapped out an annual plan, you can decide to take the actions yourself, or outsource your ongoing marketing to a professional.  For many businesses, an outside contractor is more effective than an in-house worker.

3. Understanding Your Industry

Many advantages can be extracted from the market if you know how. The small business marketing plan is an excellent tool for identifying and developing methods for taking advantage of these advantages.

4. Test

Even seasoned marketing professionals have difficulty tracking which media, advertising, and promotional buys result in profits.  Testing is a pain, but necessary.  You will want to get rid of those activities that do not contribute to the bottom line.

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." John Wanamaker ~ http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1992.html

5. Benchmarks

A good marketing plan holds everybody accountable.  Now that you have an understanding of marketplace conditions, you can flesh out your plan. This plan does not need to be a formal document, but ought to at a minimum consist of a written outline to communicate with employees or outside consultants.

Benchmarks also help keep your employees and distributors on the same page, with all working toward the same goals.  Make sure you recognize who is going to do what and exactly when they need it to be finished.

A good advertising and marketing calendar is more than a simple step-by-step of digitally and offline campaign.  Advertising and marketing is part art, and part science.

Come to LPC Marketing to learn more about a small business marketing plan, as well as using reputation marketing to boost your SERPs and prevent having to deal with reputation management.

http://lpcmarketing.com/

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