’tis the Season for Marketing Planning

October 3rd, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (2 Comments)

For many businesses, the holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year. For others, the holidays are a bit slower. Regardless of which category your business fits into, you should be looking ahead to 2008.

Why now? Year end is ideal for reflecting on what you’ve accomplished during the year. What new products, services or programs did you implement? What customer service strategies did you employ that increased business? Which marketing strategies successfully put your business in front of your target customer, and what didn’t work and why?

Armed with this information, take a look at your goals for next year. What do you want your business to accomplish next year? Do you want to increase revenue? Grow your client base? Venture into a new niche market? Now think about how you’re going to get there. This is where your marketing planning for 2008 comes in. Spend some time thinking about what marketing tools you can implement next year that will help you to reach your goals.

Although some marketing planning techniques are complex and require weeks to fine-tune, I’ve found that a simpler method works for my clients. To develop a marketing plan that will work for your business, try the following.

First, identify the types of marketing you want to do next year such as advertising (print and online), events, promotions, referral programs, newsletters, press releases, coupons, online marketing, direct mail, e-mail marketing, etc. Choose methods that have worked well for you in the past as well as ideas you’d like to try.

Next, decide how often you will do each type of marketing. Some methods like advertising, newsletters, and online marketing will require consistent use and implementation to be successful. Others (press releases, events and promotions) can be done less frequently or can be implemented when you’re expecting a cyclical slowdown in activity.

Third, pull out your calendar and start penciling in marketing ideas. As you tentatively post items to your calendar, consider what marketing methods are going to yield the best results. Most of my business, for example, comes from my website and client referrals, so I want to focus my efforts on posting new content to my website, networking with potential business partners and clients, and regularly communicating with my existing client base (newsletters, postcards, referral program, etc.)

Here’s a sample to get you started:

January: Send cards to clients thanking them for 2007 business and wishing them well in the New Year (2nd) Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

February: Hold customer appreciation open house (5th) Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

March: Distribute press release about latest award won or new product/service launched Advertise in Sunday real estate section of local newspaper (weekly) Advertise in local Homes & Land publication (15th) Send out e-newsletter to existing clients and prospects (20th) Networking lunch (22nd) Post new content to website (25th)

Now compare your ideas and your initial marketing schedule to your budget and staff. Can you afford to do all of the marketing you’d like to do? If not, scale back the list. Retain items that will most often put you in front of your target customer and that offer the best return on your investment. If you have a wildly successful year, it is much easier to add a marketing tool than to take one away, especially if your customers have gotten used to it.

Based on what’s left on your list, do you have the staff to implement your ideas? For example, who will write your monthly newsletter? Who will make sure postcards get mailed to prospects, and how will you get website content updated regularly? If you don’t have the staff or you are a one-man show, can you hire an intern to help out, exchange services with a colleague or hire an independent contractor to fill in the gaps?

Finally, review your 2008 marketing plan on a quarterly basis to see what’s working and what may need tweaking. The document can be adjusted as needed, depending on your changing needs. As you evaluate your plan, be sure to note which marketing methods worked well for your business and which ideas didn’t yield the expected results. Keep this in a folder marked “2008 Marketing Results.” Also, note the items that you would like to try and save them in a folder marked “Marketing Ideas.” This information will help you to plan for subsequent years.

For small businesses, this simple marketing planning formula is an easy way for you to look ahead to 2008 without distracting you from the holiday business at hand.

Here’s to an incredibly successful 2008!

Virtually Yourz,

Dana Blozis

Copyright © 2007 by Dana E. Blozis

Dana Blozis of Virtually Yourz is a freelance writer, editor and marketing professional based in the Seattle area. In addition to writing for publication, she offers writing, editing and marketing services to small businesses and nonprofits. For more marketing ideas, subscribe to Dana’s monthly marketing newsletter.

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3 Elements of Successful Marketing Planning

September 27th, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

Many small business owners and managers approach marketing in a shotgun approach. They throw money at different marketing activities and hope that something hits their target. In most of these cases, the results are poor. Owners and managers start blaming the radio stations, the ad agency, or even the marketing consultant who told them marketing was the most important activity of their business. They don’t understand the need to plan and map out their marketing efforts. Planning is key to reduce marketing costs and increase effectiveness.

Why create a marketing plan?

When an entrepreneur starts a business, they decide on the product or service, determine where they are going to get it, and plan on how they will sell it. Most owners and managers don’t realize that this planning actually coincides with marketing planning, but in order to be successful a conscious effort has to be applied to planning marketing activities that correlate to creating the product or service and selling it.

As we discussed in the marketing concept of consistency, marketing must be consistent. In order for marketing to be consistent, it must be planned. You must plan each step of your marketing just as you do a business plan. Most businesses have realized the need for a business plan. It helps to guide where the company is going, what is expected, and what they will do when they fail or succeed. These are the same reasons for creating a marketing plan. You must know what the goal of your marketing is, how much you are budgeting, the expected results, what to do if you exceed or fall short of your goals and expectations, and how to relate your marketing to the rest of your company.

What is the difference between planning and strategy?

Planning consists of your marketing roadmap. It tells you where you are starting, what’s your end point, and what the path is to get there. Your organization’s goals are included in planning. Budgets, analyses, and forecasts go into your planning.

Strategies are how you accomplish your goals and forecasts. In fact, strategies are part of the plan. Strategies tell you how you will get from the starting point to the end point and the specific way you will take your planned path. Strategies consist of the action steps that you will implement to obtain the forecasted results. To sum it up, planning creates the big picture and strategies make up the individual parts of the big picture.

What goes into marketing planning?

Marketing planning is typically conducted by your executive staff. The top-level managers usually provide input and feedback for the necessary goals and objectives to make your company successful and maintain a high level of growth. If you have a dedicated marketing department, they will ultimately be responsible for the marketing plan and its contained strategies, but the entire company must be involved in creating the basic outline of your marketing plan.

The marketing planning should begin with an overview of your business and what you intend on selling. When starting here, you should define your business specifically and break down your products and services so that everyone involved understands the basis for all of your marketing planning. Your marketing planning should consist of goals and objectives that relate to the goals and objectives of your business plan. From there, you should analyze your target market, competition, strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (SWOT). You should also include what you are budgeting for this marketing plan so you can plan strategies correctly. Forecasting your expectations will give you benchmarks to evaluate your marketing planning, which leads to the need to determine how you will assess your results and what types of metrics need to be installed to successfully review your progress and success or failure.

Creating a roadmap is vital to being successful in business and marketing. Marketing can be expensive, wasteful, and ineffective if not properly planned. The old adage, “Failure to plan is planning to fail,” is very true in the realm of marketing. Even though many of today’s marketing activities include free and low-cost tools such as social networking, engaging marketing activities without planning can become expensive in regards to time spent.

Nate Stockard offers free consulting at freemarketinganswers.com, created by Stockard & Associates, Inc, a marketing and design firm in Houston, TX specializing in small business solutions.


His 13 years of marketing experience is also put on display at The Market Seedling, an informative source of information, articles, tips, and advice for small business owners and marketers.

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Planning Your Future With The Right Auto Insurance Policy

May 31st, 2010 | Posted by admin in Auto - (0 Comments)

Individuals seem to change their lifestyle options as they mature. For example, an individual tries to maintain a sedentary lifestyle when his or her body begins to show a sign of breaking down. We set aside monetary funds for our medical bills instead of saving for a vacation. In this type of situation, it is very surprising that we do not put the same effort into concern for our vehicles.

It is important to keep in mind that your vehicle depreciates in value the instant you drive it off the car lot. The blue book value is known to decrease to nothing at a certain point in its short lifespan and because of this selling your car down the road is known as receiving a profit. The question that we should always ask ourselves is, “Do we really want to put monetary funds out to insure a vehicle which you would not even consider to fix if it were in a bad accident?” Putting out thousands of dollars on repair bills on an older model vehicle is not at all what you would call a feasible. You may want to consider what the rates would be to dispose of your old car so that you could put those funds toward that of a new vehicle of your choice. If this is the case, you would not want to get your car insurance to cover the repairs of a wrecked vehicle. This would be a waste.

If you just renew your automobile insurance policy without checking around and just agreeing to the same old rates that you had before might not be such a great idea. Keep in mind that the correct way of implementing these actions will depend on the exact personal circumstances. It is quite a simple process nowadays. Due to the luxury of the Internet, you have a vast amount of tools available at your fingertips to assist in getting you numerous different automotive insurance quotes. This will help you to get the best price for the best coverage that is out there. Utilizing an automotive insurance quote comparison website can assist you in this and save you vast amounts of time! Let’s say that you can very easily figure out the amount of money that you would need to be put into a vehicle that is around ten years old. Automotive Insurance Companies figure that keeping close watch on the newest ideas available is very important. With this said, being in the loop and having all the information that is most pertinent can help you to make the correct decision of which policy is the right one for you.

You can be totally confident in your decision when you make sure to have all the facts on what is available to you. This can help you save much time and a lot of money that can be used on other more important factors of your life. Compare auto insurance quotes completely before you decide on one policy. It is so important! http://www.247autoinsurancequotes.com

Get & compare free auto insurance quotes. compare auto insurance quotes. Get auto insurance rates from top insurance agencies in all states.

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Business Planning – A Guide For This Crucial Stage

May 21st, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

A business plan is a summary and appraisal of your business concept. It is the written result of the planning process.

A business plan shows the likelihood of success of the business and your ability to make it work. It affords the means to work through all aspects of a business and to scrutinise the consequences of a variety of strategies relative to marketing, management, finance and human resources.

It is a management instrument to provide direction to you as the business owner. If you are starting a business, the process of preparing and writing a business plan provides a great opportunity to test your motivation and commitment.

Why complete a business plan?

A business plan enables you to take an objective look at your business, identifying areas of strength and weakness and indicates requirements and problems that might otherwise be unnoticed. If your business enterprise is at best, marginal, the business plan will demonstrate to you why.

Having a business plan that is well prepared also provides a foundation for monitoring the progress of the business.

Lastly, if you require external financing, your business plan will provide the information needed to evaluate your business enterprise. A carefully prepared business plan routinely becomes a complete financial proposal that will in most cases meet the requirements of most investors and lenders.

Understand the business you are in.

Most business owners spend a considerable amount of time pondering the future of their business, but not all actually complete any formal business planning. What the planning provides is a measure of structure and a focal point, allows one to analyse alternative strategies that may have been missing on first thought.

There are a number of ways and formats including software packages that assist in preparation of a business plan. The following list is just a guide to a standard business plan layout; we hope it is useful to you.

1. Front cover

2. Statement of purpose

3. Summary

4. Table of contents

5. The business

* Business objectives

* Name, address, contact details and ABN

* Business activity, commencement date, commencement capital and business structure

* Competitive advantage

* Owners’ profiles

* Major clients

* Licences and registrations

* Business advisors

* Current performance

6. Industry analysis

* ANZSIC category, political/economic, social, technological, industry and competition

* Key success factors

7. Product and services

* Product range analysis

* Competitor analysis

* SWOT analysis

8. Marketing plan

* Target market

* Marketing objectives

* Marketing strategy – product, price, promotion and place

9. Operational strategy

* Location and premises

* Plant and equipment

* Inventory

* Human resources

* Environmental strategy

10. Financial strategy

* Financial objectives

* Capital structure

* Statements of financial performance and financial position (Income statement and balance sheet)

* Cashflow forecasts

* Sales and collections from debtors forecasts

* Purchases and payments to creditors forecasts

* Breakeven analysis

11. Appendices

* Financial statements

* Legal documents, leases, contacts, letters of intent

* Research documents, patents, trademarks

For further information on Business Planning, please visit the Business section of Income Resource Club.

Steven is the co-founder of the Income Resource Club, a business portal with hundreds of resources on business, property and trading.

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Good Business Planning

May 20th, 2010 | Posted by admin in Business - (0 Comments)

Sadly, when it comes to being successful in business brilliant innovative ideas, boundless energy and enthusiasm are not enough. You need a plan. Good business planning and good business plans are the key to getting a new business off the ground and to growing an existing one.

You know what you want to achieve you have given it a lot of thought and now you are raring to go. So why waste time writing a formal business plan?

A business plan is critical element of effective business planning. It formalises your thinking, communicates your vision and intent to potential investors and customers, and provides a strategy for moving forward.

Put simply, business plans provide a road map for getting from where you are now to where you want to be and in the process identify potential mistakes at the business planning stage.

As part of the continuous business planning cycle It should be reviewed and updated regularly. Not only do your personal business conditions change but those of your suppliers and customers. In addition the overall economic conditions can change. The combination of all these things means that unless your business plan is regularly updated, it will quickly go out of date. being out of date might be more than just a convenience, it might mean you are pursuing the completely wrong strategy for your current conditions.

Whatever the level of detail all business plans should be easy to read and be logical in presentation. There are standard headings you can use. A typical format will include an executive summary, it will have sections covering your ideas, resources, finance and marketing and performance measures. It is important not to miss anything out but depending on the size and complexity of your venture it needn’t require the felling of a rain forest to produce. In fact in terms of readability its highly desirable that it doesn’t!

Business planning and business plans are critical to achieving success throughout the life of a business. Whether it is to launch an exciting new venture or to revive or expand an existing business. When you initially had your inspiration to start your new business, you were no doubt full of ideas that you abandoned once they were exposed to closer scrutiny by you, your colleagues and friends, in additional plans are always changed once hey are exposed to financial constraints and expectations. The same must also be true once you are up and running. You don’t have to continually review your business plans every five minutes, but it is a very good idea to set some kind of schedule for reviewing the business. The schedule will depend on the type of business you are involved in. Seasonal, cyclical and other factors will come into play.

Business planning need not be daunting. Should you need it there is lots of help available ranging from sample plans and software to professional business planning services. with the skills and expertise to guide you through the process.

A business plan is critical element of effective business planning . It formalises your thinking, communicates your vision and intent to potential investors and customers, and provides a strategy for moving forward.

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