You Have Your Marketing Plan…Now What?

Planning your marketing is like planning a trip…

So you’ve picked your trip destination and you’ve mapped it out, but do you go by car, bus, train, plane,
motorcycle, bicycle or hot air balloon? It all depends on your answers to some important questions:

1. Why are you going there?  Work or Pleasure?
2. How far is the destination?
3. How fast do you want to get there?
4. Do you want to stop anywhere along the way?
5. Are you going alone? Or is someone going with you?
6. And of course…how much money do you have to spend on your trip?

Again, we can apply similar questions for how to best implement your new marketing plan.

1. Why are you doing a certain promotion?

For instant sales? Get rid of inventory? Or primarily for branding & name recognition?

2. How long do you give each promotional event to achieve results?

A day, a week, or a month? Or or is ongoing?

3. How long did you set for your marketing plan?

30 days, 1 quarter, 6 months or a full year?

4. Do you have more than one goal for each promotional event?

Gather customer research on response to your products or services?

Gather customer information for your database?

Or just increase sales and/or decrease inventory?

5. Are you handling this project alone?

Or do you have employees, vendors or strategic partners involved?

They can offset the cost and labor as well as add value.

6. How much did you or CAN you budget for each promotional event?

Do you need to do some cheaper ones first?

Or do you need to do a bigger, more expensive event first, to really get your name and product out there?

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Once you’ve answered these questions about what elements and events you’ve put in your new marketing plan, then you will be able to easily get started and start achieving your marketing goals, one by one. (Yay You!!)

If you own a small business and would like some help with your marketing plan, call me at 256-468-4506 or shoot me an email at [email protected]. Also, please let me know in the comments below what you think and if you’ve found other questions to ask that have helped you in your marketing planning.