CLICK ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD: 15 Steps to Writing a Winning Marketing Plan

Much focus when starting a business is about putting together a great business plan. We have covered that and you can click here to download the e-book on that type of plan. However, most don’t talk about a critical component of every business – marketing.

The marketing plan is critical and I would almost do this first so you can flesh out your product value, understand the competition and price the product/service for profitability. The business plan takes components of this plan and really demonstrate the execution and operations to make the business work. But it is marketing that is the engine and analytic proof to demonstrate why your company should even exist in the first place.

You are either someone that has been doing marketing as a part of your professional career or you look at as that “thing you do to promote your business and attract customers to buy”. Regardless of where you are along that spectrum, you have arrived here because you have been charged by the CEO of the startup you work for to write a marketing plan for your business or you need to create one for your own business.

You need to not just write just any marketing plan. You need to write a Killer Marketing Plan.

One that your boss will say “awesome, let’s get started” and which will tell all those people who have been looking for a product or service like yours for a long time. This book is written for you.

Marketing plans are sexy mistresses that tempt you to include all of the coolest of campaign ideas without the sanity of budgetary constraints. While marketing is one of the more important functions of a small business, it is one that is limited by the budgets of that business and campaigns must demonstrate a return in order to justify their existence. Since I have written more marketing plans than I care to tell you, I can share with you my knowledge and experience of what has worked almost all the time, some of the time and none of the time.

While this is not the single tome on marketing plans, I hope that this helps you balance the unlimited creative ideas with the budget you have to work with and find a mix that is both innovative and results in sales.

I invite you to explore as many resources out there, some of which are mentioned at the end of this book. I don’t need to wish you luck. Just get started, get out there and crush it.

On Online Advertising. In an eMarketer.com study conducted during 2008, $13.5 billion was spent on online advertising with a bulk of it spent on search engine marketing. Just how much? Well based on the research, 88% of money spent went to paid search and 11% went towards organic search (SEO). Should these things change in the future, especially during a recession? With budgets being tightened and everyone trying to save some money, I would imagine that while search marketing efforts are going to increase, the focus shouldn’t be on throwing out paid search ads, but on your content and truly understanding how your site is being noticed by search engines.

As part of an integrated campaign, search marketing should play a crucial role, especially now during the recession. With more people getting online and using search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live Search, having your site appear near the top of the page when certain keyword phrases are typed can generate tremendous traffic to your website and can often lead to conversions/purchases. So what steps can you take in order to make the most out of this?

One of the first things that you should probably do to help avoid firing blindly into the Internet world is to have someone come in and conduct a search engine audit on your website. Based on my past experiences in working with a consultant, they review your site and let you know what’s good and what’s bad about it – from a search engine perspective. Then they go about and take a look at what keywords will work for your site and the competitiveness of each of them. They will generate statistics, trends, reports, etc. that will help you moving forward. There are a few companies that would conduct this audit for you so look them up. The beauty is that these keywords can be used both for SEO and SEM placements.

But let’s look at search engine optimization for a second. This is probably the first place you should look when trying to promote your site versus jumping over to search engine marketing and essentially “spraying and praying” that your text ads will strike a chord with someone and have them click on your site. It is a debateable topic whether paid search garners more traffic/conversion than organic search, but it would make sense to make sure that your “house is in order” before promoting it. By this I mean make sure that your content is exactly the way you want it? Is it specific enough that if someone types in a certain keyword, that the page will have enough information for them or will it result in them clicking further which is a bad thing? Does your site adhere to search engine optimization best practices? The more care you put into your content and your website design/development overall, the better your search results will be.

However, search engine advertising/marketing should not be overlooked. In fact, the technology behind it has grown over the past few years and there are ways to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth. Perhaps the greatest asset to SEM is the geo-targeting approach. If you are only wishing to reach folks in the west coast of the United States, then you can have your text ads show up for those people with IP addresses located in one of the several states in that region. This will help avoid your text ads showing up for people who might convert but you weren’t targeting – thus avoiding wasting money. Something else to think about when you’re managing your campaign is the time and effort (and possibly cost) associated with managing this SEM campaign. Unfortunately you can’t simply choose a keyword, insert your ad and let it run for the duration. Why? Because the keywords are done through an auction-like process. The higher you are willing to bid on a moment’s notice, the greater your frequency of being seen (impressions). It’s always a state of constant monitoring, but you don’t want to break the bank to be seen all the time. That would cost thousands of dollars (depending on the keyword). One option is to check out a web marketing management solution that may wind up saving you some money overall – like Yield Software. These companies will help you monitor your campaigns and allow you to manage it on your own. So they give you the tools, you shape its path.

It should be important to note that when you’re looking at the keywords and the bidding price, if you have enough content on your site relating to that keyword, you should focus on doing organic search or SEO. The less competitive the word or phrase you’re targeting, the more you should go with SEM. I once heard an analogy “SEM is like renting your home while SEO is owning your home”. This definitely holds true. With a strong SEO strategy, your website/landing page can be the leading “authority” on certain keywords but if you’re only focusing on a temporary campaign or not sure about the effectiveness on a specific page, then you might want to also consider SEM. However, do NOT think that these are mutually exclusive. These should be woven together to help form a cohesive strategy in driving traffic to your site and when done correctly, can help bring you success during these times.

Does spending a lot of money guarantee you are going to be successful?  No, but spending it smartly does help.  I’ll get into that in a few.

Does spending very little money guarantee you are going to be successful?   It’s more than likely to ensure…you’ll get the type of client that’s looking to make the same decision about your product/service/widget as you did on your marketing pieces.  “I want the biggest bang for the least amount of money”.

I was recently talking with Steve Fisher about the upcoming “Rock Star Entrepreneurs and Your Business: a Webinar Event” and my frustration with some past clients I had.  Keep in mind; these are clients who thought that by investing very little in their own business…their success was guaranteed because people would just “want” their product/service/widget.

As if the magic Small Business Fairy was going to bless their frugalness with a line of clients stretching a mile long, a phone that magically rings every five minutes with people saying “yes” before the elevator pitch is done, and a website that has to have its bandwidth updated daily to handle the flood of internet savvy customers that magically found their website without the use of a search engine, business card, advertisement, or word of mouth marketing efforts.

Sorry to disappoint you, but that little pixie of small business goodness doesn’t exist.  Trust me I’ve been looking and I assure you when I find that winged temptress with the strategically placed golden horse shoe I will quickly pin that fictional character of business down and sell tickets to let it discontentedly bless new entrepreneurs who want to take the cheap way out.

There are things you will need, right out of the gate, which will help you.  In later posts I’ll go into each in greater detail, but to start a good brand name and identity that will resonate with your clients, a business card with your brand and company information on it, and a website with key information that will visually engage your prospects/clients.  Think of a networking event or coffee shop corkboard where you’ve seen a business card or flyer of a company that blatantly did not invest much into their business.  You have two companies side by side that offer the exact same services.  Without knowing a thing about their actual performance you have thirty seconds to make a decision on which company you will go with. Company A has a business card with a strong visual presence, their messaging and information is clear, and the quality of the card alone shows the business invested in itself.  Company B printed their business card on their home computer in black and white, the edges are perforated, and their information doesn’t clearly identify what the company is about.  Which would you choose to take with you?

Be smart with the time and money you invest in establishing your marketing pieces.  You can find some very talented designer/marketer starting their own consulting business and accomplish visually, and at a reasonable cost, what major companies pay thousands of dollars to marketing/design firms to accomplish.  You should look at the money you spend on marketing your company as, you guessed it, an investment in the way you, and your company, will be perceived.  Done right, your marketing materials should speak about your company without you even having to be in the room.  Your marketing materials should resonate the type of attitude, style, experience, and care that your customers will come to expect of your company and services.

I’m not asking you to break the bank, but what I am asking you to do is to not think with the wallet you have now, but the wallet you want once your business is established.

I’m also going to ask you to invest some time in your business, and yourself, and attend the “Rock Star Entrepreneurs and Your Business: a Webinar Event”.  This FREE, live webcast has an all-star line-up of entrepreneurs who will talk about some of the pains that small businesses will face in the areas of finance and marketing.

In the end, the money you invest into your company will come back to you through your clients.

As all ways, stay wicked.

On email marketing. What better way to be more targetive than by sending them an email? But wait, before you just put together that creative (adhering to best practices, after all), make sure that you are personalizing EACH email so every individual that will receive that email will feel appreciative and cared for. But at the same time, putting “Dear John” or “Dear Sally” in the introduction isn’t enough. When you collect this piece of information, make sure that it is relevant to their needs. So if John is a loyal customer who wanted to know about power tools or trips to Europe, don’t send him an email with a discount code on gardening books or weight-loss camp. That’s insulting and shows you just don’t care!

Think about employing email marketing as you would communicating with your best friend. It’s a natural conversation so less marketing speak and more relevancy. The costs of sending emails is relatively low compared to using printed pieces (I’ve seen the cost of sending out one email around $0.02 and multiplied by 1000, you’re looking at still sending out more emails versus regular mail) and it’s quite possible to do it yourself or have a company like Blue Sky Factory or another third-party email service provider help distribute your emails.

Email production isn’t that costly either and you can have greater control over what you want to say. With respect to the design, you don’t have to worry about the design because the goal of “keeping it simple” works out best here. Keep in mind that not every email provider like Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or even AOL will render the look the same so the simpler you make it (and adhere to the best practices), the better impression your customers will have when reading it. Remember, save your great designs for websites that will render correctly across all browsers and make the design on your emails have impact while being simple. The message is what’s important.

Speaking of messages, you have great power to make effective use of your email copy during times of recession. Don’t be too quick to simply type of something and send it out. Experiment with different messages and send it to different sample people. Gauge their responsiveness and you can help improve your targeting. As with print collateral, you need to make your information succinct and memorable. Drive them to your call to action. If you don’t have one, then you just wasted money just to send an email. That’s worse than sending it by snail mail! Make sure your content is conversational – don’t push your product onto your customers. Tell them the problem they may be having and how you can solve it. It needs to be clear in your email. Just put enough to grab their attention. Once you have that, then you convince them to click on the action button/link and drive them to convert.

In the conversion process, you’ll need to have a better chance to provide them with more information. The call-to-action in the email will lead your customers to a landing page or website. It is there that you can offer them more details about your campaign, promotion, or solution to their problem. Only there can you begin to throw in some glamour and glitz with the design, but not until the customer gets there.

But what if your customer doesn’t want to click on the call-to-action, but rather wants to explore more of your site or get straight to your website or contact you? Do not make it difficult for them to find you. Insert a phone number and be willing to take the call. Include links to vital areas of your website that your customers may be interested in based on their interests. Customize it based on segmentation. So those who are interested in women’s shoes should not see a link for “Pet Products” unless they are also part of that segmentation. The more relevant the content and links on the email, the more effective and beneficial.

You might be wondering how to get the segmentation or interests of your customers in order to customize the emails. That’s the easy part. When you ask them for their email address when they sign up for more information, you can ask them their interests. But don’t brush it off like you’re doing it for their benefit. You need this information. If you respect your customers and the business you do, then respect the time they took to provide you with that information and use it efficiently.

Lastly, do not forget to analyze everything. You can apply tracking tags as you would with online advertisements that will show you demographic and web analytical information on every link that was clicked. Google has a free way to track the link traffic that will work especially if you have Google Analytics integrated with your landing pages (and the rest of the website).

With a healthy customer email database and careful management, you should be able to build a great rapport and relationship with each person. Naturally you’ll have those that unsubscribe due to various reasons – that’s normal. Pay attention to the rate of drop-offs. Remove those that wish to be de-listed immediately to avoid CAN-SPAM violations. And I would suggest never buying/renting email lists. You’ll spend money on a list that you’ll get a few interested people off of and spend more time and expend more dollars trying to build a rapport. Too much uphill work, in my opinion.

Remember: Rapport, crafting a great message, and constant communication is the rule of email marketing. Stay this course and you’ll be able to reach more people quickly and effectively.

NEXT TIME:

We’ll look at online advertising and how you can determine whether you think spending money on text ads or banner placements is a wise thing during a time when all companies are trying to spend less but do more.

“Go BIG or go home”

For the longest time I took that to mean that the actions I took in marketing, design, and in life, had to be larger than life.  Ultimately, I learned the hard way that ‘big actions don’t all ways result in big rewards’.  I also learned the time it took me to plan, prep, and execute my Big Whatever resulted in me being well behind the time that it could have been effective or, more often than not, out a greater amount of time, money, and effort than what came back to me.

Frustrated and determined to not “go home”, I gave up on trying to create catchy messaging, flashy visual displays, and the big song and dance and focused on my results.  I toiled and planned and stressed over how to get the biggest bang of my buck, or my best Return On Investment (ROI) for those savvy.

I pinched every penny…twice.  I argued with my vendors to get the cheapest things I needed.  I used the cheapest materials from my local office supply stores.  I was confident that I could, alone, produce the same quality with lesser effort and get greater results.

Man, was I wrong.

Too wrong, this ultimately ended up with a very polite guy coming up to me at a networking event and saying, “Is everything…ok?” He explained that my materials looked like I didn’t care about my business.  That I was asking more from the people who’d invest in me that I was, appearing to, invest in myself.  I explained to him what I was trying to do.  He politely smiled and said, “Try the middle ground.”

I went home, dejected, and thought about it.  It took some time, but I realized he was right.

Initially, I spent too much time focusing on the “Look at me” factor.  What I thought was amazing, attractive, eye catching, and compelling…was only that way to me.  I didn’t stop to look at it from my future, and current, customers’ perspectives.  The mindset of “I like it so everyone else will too” ultimately cost me more, as far as lost time and money, than it did me good.

When I changed my focus, I still didn’t think of my customer, I thought of myself.  I thought of the gobs and gobs of money I would get by saving money and time. I still wasn’t focused on my customers -  I saved some coin in the long run, but I didn’t gain much either.

Essentially, I went back to the chalk board and started smaller, but more detailed.  I started looking where my best customers were coming from, where they needed the most help that I could provide, and what I could do to catch their attention, or be in a position to come to mind quickly, when they needed my services.  I started focusing on having my big result be only double the effort I put out and grew it from there.

I recently replaced the “Go Big or Go Home” quote with one I found while reading Juliette Powell’s “33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking”. That quote is:

“Do business as if you were playing a game, have fun, know the rules, and when it’s time, make up your own.” ~ Guy Laliberte, Founder and CEO, Cirque Du Soleil

Don’t get me wrong, I still love to “go big” and do things that are, sometimes, a little over the top, but I realized to improved my results that I would have to change my focus for Big to mean the impact that my marketing had on my customers.  From their experience to the outcome, the interactions my customers had with me, and my company, had to reflect that the “show” was worth the “price of admission”.

Until next time…stay wicked.

- 17% of those asked said they would increase online activities for greater impact with less budget risk.

- 15% said that they would change their marketing approach to be more focused and targeted.

- 11% would conduct segmentation research to better target.

- 9% would increase their lead generation activities & follow-up.

- 7% would do more with less budget.

- 4% would be more efficient, effective, and streamlined.

This study is really good news as businesses should not be spending their money on traditional means. Yes, we are in a recession and all budgets are tight so the goal is to maximize your reach while spending less but being effective. So let’s examine what possible roles the web can play for a small business.

Revisit your website. If you’re going to advertise your product to your customers, you obviously cannot put everything on the ad or list every other piece of information you want. You need to be clear and succinct in your messaging. Plus if you have multiple products, how exactly are you going to share them with your customers? Through a website, of course! During times of budgetary constraints, the best thing to do is to re-examine your website and make sure that it is optimized to achieve what you want. Graphic appeal is a big thing to get people to stay on your site, but perhaps most importantly is the functionality. If your intent is to have people come to your site and book a trip, buy your product, enter a sweepstake or to drop their name into your database so they can get more information about a certain topic or news, then you need to make sure that it functions how your customers want it to.

Don’t think that just because you have the functionality in place that it will work perfectly. Chances are it won’t. That’s what user testing is for. Yes, this type of additional testing is necessary but could exceed your budget. So rather than spending that money now (which I suggest would help in the long-run), you might consider crowdsourcing it – that is, have your customers offer you feedback and then you act on it. Don’t brush it off, but acknowledge the feedback and if it’s something plausible, then act. Otherwise, their feedback is pointless & you get negative credibility.

Integration of all your products, promotions, tools is highly critical. While I’m going to show you how to effectively incorporate the different web avenues like email marketing, social media, online advertising, etc, you’ll need to find a way to make it all have the end result of bringing people to your website and also pushing them to take advantage of these other tools.

Don’t be afraid to partner up with third-party vendors to make sure that your content is displayed how you want – it’s not necessarily an endorsement of their product, but it serves two purposes: you get the functionality that you want (whether it’s posting a presentation online in an interactive format or uploading a video of your product, etc.) and it’s also shareable, or viral. I’ll get more into that when we start talking about social media but you want to make sure that the information you share is portable. Remember, in this stage of the game, it’s not about emails and photos that can be spread faster than the speed of light. Practically anything you post online can be virally spread across the wonderful thing we’ve come to know as the World Wide Web.

Remember: everything comes back full circle to your website. Whether you’re promoting or communicating in social media, mobile, email, or through online banners & advertisements. In the end, your website will be the representative of your brand and company. Take pride in it. It will be your greatest asset to promote your products and increase your business.

NEXT TIME:

We’ll look at how targeted email marketing can be and how you can make the most out of the engagement. Email marketing is probably one of the most common form of communication these days and can have a lasting effect on your brand. Cheap to send, but important in making or breaking your budget. Don’t dismiss it. It can help generate big results and rewards for your bottom line.