Creating your
Future with a Marketing Plan
By: Marjorie Geiser
Almost everyone who dreams of starting their
own business is familiar with the fact that
they should create a business plan. However,
often that’s where many people stop. When
you created your business plan, what did you
do with it? You actually have the base for
the next step, which is creating your
marketing plan. Without the plan of how you
are going to market your business, the
business plan is just an empty jumble of
words speaking of dreams and desires. The
marketing plan takes those dreams and
creates a strategy for how to make those
dreams come true.
There are several different suggestions on
how to put a marketing plan together, but
all plans have at least seven or eight
steps. These steps include preparing a
mission statement, describing the services
provided, identify and understand the
competition, spell out the marketing
objectives and strategies, create the action
plan, and create a monitoring strategy in
order to determine what works and what
doesn’t.
Prepare a mission statement
The mission statement should clearly and
succinctly describe the nature of your
business, services offered, and markets
served in just a few sentences. A mission
statement is a statement of who you are and
what you stand for. It answers the question
of why you are in business. Although there
are many, many different theories on what
makes a good mission statement, here is a
site of various examples; http://www.csuchico.edu/mgmt/strategy/module1/sld015.htm
List your ideal client
I cannot emphasize this enough. You have to
know who your ideal client is, and what
their issues are, extremely finitely in
order to speak to them. You have to visually
be able to see them in front of you and know
what makes them tick. Be very specific in
identifying your ideal client. Include age,
sex, income, education, occupation,
geographic region, lifestyle, attitudes,
purchasing characteristics, etc. What are
their values, what do they like to do.
Really get clear who this person is.
Describe your services
Imagine everything you want to do, either
currently or in the future. It’s ok if you
haven’t done it before: If it’s a dream that
you provide in-home cooking demonstrations,
include that in your list. You will later
determine how to make it happen. Include all
details of what you offer, where and for how
much. Determine what your prices must be to
cover your costs. Don’t leave anything out
even if you’re not sure it’s something you
want to do this year.
Who is your competition?
In order to know how to position yourself
from your competition, you must know who
your competition is. Do some research and
determine what your competition offers, how
they promote, what they charge for services,
and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Don’t rush through this section. Make phone
calls, check the internet, and ask people
you know. Feel free to call the people you
find and ask questions. If you don’t feel
comfortable doing that, ask a family member
or friend to do it.
Marketing objectives and strategies
Marketing objectives will indicate targets
to be achieved across several marketing
decision areas. Examples could include such
things as what products/services you wish to
offer, who you plan to offer them to, how
you plan to make your services known, your
promotional objectives, etc. Objectives
should be clear, measurable, and have a
stated time frame for achievement.
Objectives included should include both
marketing objectives and financial
objectives.
Get very specific with your objectives, such
as how many clients will you have by what
date, how much revenue you will bring in by
what date, and exactly where these new
clients will come from. Who will you include
your marketing to? For financial objectives,
you need to be clear about what growth
percentage you expect and how you will
achieve that growth.
Marketing strategy
This is your game plan to achieve your
marketing objectives. You are now getting
into the nitty-gritty. This is where it’s
time to play and play big! The marketing
strategy should include information about
your product, your price, how you will
promote or create awareness of your product
or services, and how you will distribute
that information.
Examples of basic marketing strategies
include networking, brochures, ads in
newspapers, various programs or
presentations, press releases, to just name
a few. Some may cost you a great deal, but
there are many marketing strategies that
cost you very little or just your time.
Gauge what your time is worth and how busy
you are to determine how much of these
strategies you will do on your own. You will
further determine this by the next step,
however.
When a strategy works, repeat it. If it
fails, and you did it right, drop it.
Learning to develop strategies that work for
your particular situation and personality
will take time and practice.
Create the action plan
Once the objectives and strategies have been
developed, put together an action plan
describing the steps that need to be taken
in detail. This is your actual game plan for
how you will accomplish all that you have
written about in your business plan and
previously in the marketing plan. It will
include what the specific objective is,
exactly what and when the steps will be
taken, what results you expect to see, the
marketing tactics you will employ and so on.
This will be your template for your
marketing calendar that you will create in
the following step to creating your
business.
Monitor results
By monitoring results, you can determine
which of your strategies are working and
which are not. Identify strategies that
generate increased business. This involves
tracking and evaluating clients’ responses
to each marketing strategy. Conduct regular
surveys in order to find out what clients
like and don’t like.
Client comments are invaluable for creating
or enhancing your market literature. With
permission, these comments can be used as
testimonials.
Creating a marketing plan is not something
enough people take the time to work on. I
have found this to be the hardest part for
anyone in small business and have had to
spend many hours, myself, struggling over
some of these answers. I can’t emphasize how
important it is to do this work, however.
Skipping this step can mean the difference
between success or failure. Many people who
start a small business are aware of creating
a business plan, and stop at the stage of
the small market plan topics listed in the
business plan. However, the business plan is
just the first step. The marketing plan is
not the final step, either! This document is
the template for creating your marketing
calendar that will set your projects in
motion for the year. You are creating your
future with the marketing plan, and then
watching that future become reality with
your marketing calendar.
About the Author
Marjorie Geiser is a registered
dietitian, certified personal trainer and
life coach. Marjorie has been the owner of a
successful small business, MEG Fitness,
since 1996, and now helps other health
professionals start up their own private
practice. To learn more about the services
Margie offers, go to her website at
www.marjoriegeiser.com or email her at
margie@megfit.com
