It’s A New Year…Are You Ready?
I love this time of year. We feel a sense of renewal and excitement about starting the New Year off with a bang. We let ourselves think about possibilities and push some of the realities of our lives to the background.
Unfortunately this usually wears off when we get hit with our first challenge, then the next and before we know it, we’re off track and we’ve lost that feeling of hope.
Let me ask you a few questions to see how ready you are for the new year.
Do you have a formal plan in place to increase your sales?
Do you budget your marketing based on what you have left over at the end of the month after you’ve paid your other bills or do you have a plan with specific goals you want to achieve?
Do you find that you spend a lot of time each month meeting with and talking to media sales reps?
Do you find you are guessing most of the time when you choose what to spend your marketing dollars on?
Taking the time to develop a real marketing plan is the best way to keep your business focused and on target, helping you keep that sense of renewal all year long.
As busy entrepreneurs, many of us have too much on our plates and we get caught up with putting out daily fires. Having a common sense marketing plan in place will allow you to stay focused and avoid what I call “try it” marketing where you keep bouncing from one idea to another, from one media to another, from one ad to another.
We live in the most over communicated society. Everyday each one of us has hundreds and hundreds of messages vying for our attention. Look around you, billboards, radio, TV, internet, all trying to get us to listen to their message.
It takes a tremendous amount of skill, time and effort to get a marketing program right. So every time you start and stop, you’re killing any momentum you’ve created.
I like to use the analogy of pushing a car that’s at a stand still. If you are on level ground, and you push hard enough, you can start to get the car rocking a bit, then as you keep applying pressure, the car slowly starts to move forward. As you keep pushing the car begins to pick up a little speed, and after a little while you can keep the car moving forward, but you don’t have to use as much energy as you did to get it started.
Your marketing program is exactly the same way. It takes time, and effort to get it moving forward, but after some time, it builds momentum. Every time you stop because you think it’s not working, your program (just like the car) comes to a stop and you lose all the momentum and must start over.
Every one of the dozens of small business owners I’ve worked with has told me the same three things:
1. I don’t know where to start
2. I don’t have the time
3. I don’t know how much to spend
Developing a marketing plan will help you stop guessing and be able to:
• Know what you want to be known for
• Identify who you need to target
• Determine what you will say to your target
• Determine how you will get your message to your target
• Determine how much you need to spend and how you will measure the results
The best part is you don’t have to have all the answers. Just like the people who come to you for your expertise, you can find outside help.
Investing in a marketing plan could be the best money you ever spend on your business.
About the Author
Larry Anderson is President of Trigger Marketing Works; they specialize in helping small businesses increase their sales. Visit trigermarketing.ca and sign up for their free monthly marketing tips newsletter, plus a free copy of their eBook “10 biggest mistakes small businesses make and what to do about it.”
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