Think planning is difficult? Try living without one!

You opened your business and now you have to go tell someone about it. That’s marketing. Here’s a list of the top 5 things you need to keep in mind when creating your marketing plan:

1.  Right or wrong, just do something!

While it would benefit you greatly to do the right thing, doing anything is preferable to doing nothing at all. Overcome the zero inertia of “paralysis by analysis” and get in motion! Taking the first step is often the hardest so let’s not worry too much about right or wrong, just take that first baby-step and do something about growing your business.  Then take another small step, then…

2.  Save a nickel, or make a dollar.

You can only “save” your way to -$0-, then what? Additional revenue, however, is unlimited. Saving a nickel will always be a good thing as long as money is part of the commerce equation. The problem comes into play when squeezing the nickel becomes the primary focus and growing the business gets lost in the process. Focus on goals, strategies, and tactics to grow your business and don’t “trip over pennies trying to get to the dollars”. What’s more important? Saving that nickel today, or counting the dollars tomorrow?

3.  Develop your plan with the end-game in mind.

What’s the first thing you should do when developing your marketing plan? Why don’t we determine what success actually looks like when the whistle blows? Measure it in total revenue, new revenue growth, increased market or customer share, number of new locations, increased ROI on existing campaigns, you determine what your goals are. Then work backwards to determine what’s necessary to achieve it all. Essentially it’s a math question, which removes a lot of the subjectivity from the design.

4.  You can change your strategies and tactics but never change your goals.

The marketing plan document isn’t set in stone. Markets change. The world changes, and your plan must change with it, to accomplish your end-game objectives. If your goal is to increase revenue by 10% this year and something adversely affects your market, your goal is still to increase revenue by 10%! Nothing’s changed in that respect but you may need a new strategy and tactics to get there. If we’re going to Grandma’s house and the road is washed out on our way, we’re still going to Grandma’s house, we’ll just need a new route to get there.

5.  The plan doesn’t work; you do.

Your marketing plan is just a blueprint. It won’t build itself and it surely won’t implement itself. Life has a way of keeping us just busy enough that we can’t get to the important stuff and so your wonderful marketing plan becomes a coffee table conversation-piece with a lot of promise that “could have been”. Work the plan diligently and your business will grow. Let life’s problems keep you from working it and your business won’t grow. It’s that simple. Work it or assign the tasks to employees and insist they be completed, but get it done one way or another.

Ready to take that first step? What’s keeping you from building your marketing plan?

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Phillip Crum is the Chief Idea Officer of MarketingMeasure located at 2414 Arbuckle Court Dallas, TX 75229, and is committed to the idea of helping small business owners do a better job of finding their next customer or client. He and his two sons,Tyler and Preston, also own a Sir Speedy Printing franchise and employ those additional capabilities in the overall marketing services menu of offerings. Phillip can be reached at 214-213-7445, or pcrum@MarketingMeasure.com.