Do you have a marketing plan or do you randomly do ‘stuff’ when you think about it? I used to be a completely random marketer.
I’ve seen the value of continuous planned marketing. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a professional marketing campaign with advertisements and pricey commercials.
There are many ways to market on a budget. Article placement, social media, press releases, and public speaking are all great inexpensive ways to market your company.
Consistency is key with marketing. The latest studies show it takes 9 contacts for someone to truly register your information. A person must see your information 9 times before they integrate who you are and what you do. That means 1 or 2 ads in the newspaper or in a magazine won’t do the trick. You are better off buying a nice dinner for yourself with that money.
Create a marketing plan for the year. Include all of the methods you want to use- be realistic. If you can’t handle social media and placing articles and public speaking and…. Either eliminate something(s) from your plan or bring on an intern to help.
Follow through on your plan and be consistent. It is better to market well in only one way than it is to not market well and do it using 5 different methods.
How do you get started with your plan? I will presume you have your target market, niche and story worked out.
1. Start by identifying when you want to
- release a product
- hold a sale
- offer a special
- anything that requires additional marketing
2. What is the point of those activities?
- Build your list
- Bring in new customers
- Sell out a product you want to end of life
- Other reason
3. What is the best method to get the word out about each product (sale, etc.)? Identify if it is social media, articles, joint ventures….
4. What marketing do you need to do on a regular basis (day-to-day) to keep customers/prospects coming in the door? (article submission, social media, teleseminars…)
5. When are you going to release that day-to-day marketing?
6. Take all of those individual pieces and put them on a calendar, in an excel- whatever tool you will reference to follow through on your plan.
If all of this feels like too much, work with a professional. Anything you do well is better than nothing. Do it right and your business will flourish.
