5 Simple Ways To Plan Your Marketing

As entrepreneurs and go-getter businesswomen, life is busy and if you don’t have the expertise or the budget to focus on your marketing then you may be losing business, missing opportunities or becoming obsolete. Marketing channels, techniques, ideas and best practices change rapidly, not to mention your target market, your products/services, your industry and, of course, technology. So it’s essential that you have a strategic, targeted, actionable marketing program to keep your business focussed and growing. Not sure where to start? The good news is, getting an effective strategy off the ground up doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Here are five basic ways to fire up your marketing:

1. Discovery – A little bit of relevant data and analysis can go a long way to helping focus your marketing efforts, and can help hone a small budget in the right direction. So before you do anything else, find some key statistics, analysis and metrics that can help you spot trends, and benchmark them so you can monitor them regularly. A few places to start:
   1. Your business metrics – total no. of customers, no. of active and inactive customers, no. of contacts in your database, revenue, most sold product/service, most profitable product/service etc
   2. Website – visitors, most viewed pages (indicating what visitors are interested in), traffic sources, length of time on site, etc
   3. Keyword search –  use Google’s Keyword Planner to see what people are searching for
   4. Social Media – no. of followers, most liked posts, trending topics in group discussion, etc
   5. Pick three competitors and do a quick snapshot review. For example – business overview including size/ products etc, strengths/competitive advantage over you, weaknesses, marketing – e.g. where they are marketing and how many LinkedIn followers they have.

2. Planning – Even if you don’t have the budget to pay a marketing expert like Blaze Marketing to develop a comprehensive strategy and marketing plan, take a couple of hours to develop a quick one or two page marketing plan to get you focussed and keep you focussed. A basic plan should include:
   • Objectives
   • Target market – their need, your beneficial contribution, relevant products/services and any offers you can use in marketing to that segment
   • Brand vision / Overview – what you want your brand to stand for or represent
   • Marketing budget
   • A snapshot of the 4 P’s – Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and I like a fifth ‘P’ – Position (where you want to position yourself in the market)
   • Measurement / Review – set some quantifiable targets, then decide how and when you to review your marketing
   • Create a table of marketing activities, encompassing the full marketing lifecycle – from creating awareness to generating leads to closing sales to retaining customers and reselling. Consider all aspects of the marketing mix and use an integrated approach to generate as much bang for your buck as possible. Include target markets, offers, timings, budgets and target goals against each activity.

3. Take Action – a marketing program and monthly schedule will make it easier to manage your marketing activities. When working with our small business clients with limited budget or time who just need to get going, Blaze Marketing develops a three-month priority map to help them start getting some marketing rubber on the road. If you can’t afford to outsource your marketing management, nominate someone on your team to make sure it happens.
4. Report and Review – Pick a few key metrics you are going to track and develop a one-page snapshot report that you can complete each month or quarter. Regular monitoring will show what is working or isn’t working, enabling you to review your strategies accordingly, and can help you stay focused.
5. When in Doubt Give a Shout – If it’s all too hard or you’re not quite sure you have it right, then consult a marketing expert like Blaze Marketing to review your ideas, give advice, put together a priority map of activities to get you going. You don’t have to blow your budget or commit to a monthly retainer, just a couple of hours of consultation with an experienced professional can help you kick start your marketing and drive business growth. To assist with this we are offering ABN members a Fire Up marketing consultation and coaching session until the end of Sept for $525 – https://blazemarketing.com.au/fireup

So the key takeaway is to plan and get started, even if it is just in a small, basic way. Data discovery coupled with a back-of-envelope style strategy and plan of action might be just enough to get your business marketing firing.