Your Seven-Step, One-Day Marketing Plan

When you’re beginning your marketing plan, don’t worry about your writing style or making your plan fancy. Just get a pencil and paper and get started.

STEP 1 — UNDERSTAND YOUR MARKET AND COMPETITION

A big mistake that many small business owners make is to latch on to a cool product or service without first understanding the market and what it wants (not what it needs). If you try to sell something that people don’t want, they won’t buy it.

It’s that simple.

A profitable market consists of people who have dire wants that are being unmet, so much so that they’ll jump to buy your solution (product or service). A profitable market can be compared with a lake filled with thousands of starving fish. All you need to do is bait the hook and it turns into a feeding frenzy.

To understand your market, ask yourself:

• Are there segments in my market that are being underserved?
• Are the segments of my market for my product or service big enough to make money?
• How much share of that market do I need to capture to break even?
• Is there too much competition in the segment of my market to be competitive?
• What are the weaknesses in my competition’s offering that I can capitalize on?
• Does my market want or value my unique competitive offering?

STEP 2 — UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER

Knowing your customer intimately is the first step to easy sales. Until you know (1) who your customers are, (2) what they want, and (3) what motivates them to buy, you can’t prepare an effective marketing plan.

Don’t confuse 'wants' with 'needs.' People don’t necessarily buy what they need, but they’ll almost always buy what they want. For instance, have you ever known someone who went to the store to buy a pair of pants that they needed and came back with a new shirt, sweater, and shoes? Or how about the everyday shopper who goes into the supermarket to buy some milk and eggs and comes out with a frozen pizza, cheesecake, and other goodies?

People will buy what they want (even if they don’t have the money!), not what they need. And yes, this even applies to sophisticated corporate honchos.

To really get to know your customers you’ll need to ask yourself:

• How does my potential customer normally buy similar products (i.e. in a store, on the Web, door-to-door)?
• Who are the primary buyers and the primary buying influencers in the purchasing process (i.e. husband or wife, purchasing agent, project leader, secretary)?
• What kind of habits does my customer have? For instance, where do they get their information (i.e. television, newspapers, magazines)?
• What are my target customer’s primary motivations for buying (i.e. look good, avoid pain, get rich, be healthy, be popular, etc.)?

STEP 3 — PICK A NICHE

If you say that your target customer is 'everybody' then nobody will be your customer. The marketplace is jam packed with competition. You’ll have more success jumping up and down in a small puddle than a big ocean. Carve out a specific niche and dominate that niche, then you might consider moving on to a second niche (but not before you’ve dominated the first one!).

You could be a 'lawyer who specializes in child accident liability,' or a 'C.P.A. for used car dealers,' or a 'dry cleaner for the Heritage Park subdivision in West Oaks, CA.' You get the picture. Make sure to choose a niche that interests you and that’s easy to contact. I can’t stress this point enough. There’s nothing more destructive than to pick a niche that you can’t communicate with or that costs you a ton of money to contact.

STEP 4 — DEVELOP YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE

Your marketing message not only tells your prospect what you do, but persuades them to become your customer. You should develop two marketing messages. Your first message should be short and to the point. Some might call this your 'elevator speech' or your 'audio logo.' It’s your response to someone who asks you, 'So, what do you do?' The second message is the comprehensive statement that you’ll include in all of your marketing materials and promotions. To make your marketing message compelling and persuasive it should include these elements:

• An explanation of your target prospect’s problem.
• Proof that the problem is so important that it should be solved now, without delay.
• An explanation about why you’re the only person/business that can solve their problem.
• An explanation of the benefits people will receive from using your solution.
• Examples and testimonials from customers you’ve helped with similar problems.
• An explanation about prices, fees, and payment terms.
• Your unconditional guarantee.

STEP 5 — DETERMINE YOUR MARKETING MEDIA

Remember when I said that it’s critical to choose a niche that you can easily contact? When you choose your marketing media you’ll understand why it was sound advice.

Your marketing medium is the communication vehicle you use to deliver your marketing message. It’s important to choose a marketing medium that gives you the highest return on your marketing dollar. This means that you want to choose the medium that delivers your marketing message to the most niche prospects at the lowest possible cost.

The trick is to match your message to your market using the right medium. It would do you no good to advertise your retirement community using a fast-paced, loud radio spot on a hip-hop radio station. This is a complete mismatch of the market, message, and medium. Success will come when you match these three elements.

STEP 6 — SET SALES AND MARKETING GOALS

Goals are critical to your success. A 'wish' is a goal that hasn’t been written down. If you haven’t written your goals, you’re still just wishing for success. When creating your goals use the SMART formula. Ensure that your goals are, Sensible, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time specific.

Your goals should include such financial elements as annual sales revenue, gross profit, and sales per sales person. They should also include such non-financial elements as units sold, contracts signed, clients acquired, and articles published. Once you’ve set your goals, implement processes to internalize them with all team members by reviewing them in sales meetings, displaying thermometer posters, and awarding achievement prizes.

STEP 7 — DEVELOP YOUR MARKETING BUDGET

Your marketing budget can be developed several ways. Do you want to be precise, or do you need only a quick-and-dirty number? It’s good to start out with a quick-and-dirty calculation and then to support it with further details.

First, if you’ve been in business for more than a year and tracked your marketing-related expenditures you could easily calculate your 'cost to acquire one customer' or 'cost to sell one product' by dividing your annual sales and marketing costs by the number of units sold (or customers acquired).

The next step is to take your cost to sell one unit or to acquire one customer and multiply it by your unit sales or customer acquisition goal. The result of this simple computation will give you a rough estimate of what you need to invest to meet your sales goals for the following year.

There you have it, The Seven-Step, One-Day Marketing Plan. It’s simple really. Of course you’ll need to review your marketing media of choice, their appropriateness for your message, and their associated costs. But try not to make the development of your plan a laborious, drawn-out task. Remember the 80-20 rule: 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort.

My final word of advice is to make sure that you set aside uninterrupted time to develop your marketing plan. It could very well be the most important document to which you and your team members will ever refer.

Happy planning!