5 Simple Steps to Successful Marketing in 2009
I don’t want to over-complicate this because it really isn’t hard. Sure I want to tell you it is a painstaking process and your company will go under if you don’t hire a marketing firm like Three Hats to guide you through it, but that really isn’t the case. There are just a few fundamental principles we at Three Hats would recommend you follow to have a successful marketing effort in 2009. Here they are:
Step One: Understand your business goals for the year
Although it may not seem like a marketing related task, it really is one of the most fundamental aspects of a successful marketing plan - and one that many companies overlook. The best way to do this is to imagine what you want your company to look like in December of 2009. What would be your ideal makeup of your business? The number of employees, size of contracts, makeup of clients, percent of profit - whatever it may be, write it down and then work backwards. Decide what needs to be done (and by when) to make this vision a realty. The analogy that comes to mind here is: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
Step Two: Figure out what your time is worth
In regards to marketing (as with probably anything) there is a balance between time and money. You can spend more of your time and do much of the marketing on your own and therefore spend less money out of pocket. Or, you can spend more out of pocket money and free up more of your time. The key to understanding which is right for you is understanding what your time is worth. If you are not doing marketing could you be doing something else that makes you more revenue? Or more profitable? Or improves your service? If not, then maybe you could save some money and do some of the marketing tasks on your own.
Step Three: Create a marketing plan
Most people we talk to have two reasons for what marketing initiatives they pick: either they saw a competitor doing it, or they are trying anything that presents itself. Neither reason typically helps a business. Just because something is right for a competitor typically does not make it right for you, and a haphazard approach to your marketing efforts typically just costs you more money than you need to spend. Creating a marketing plan will give you a focus and tie your individual efforts together. You will see how each initiative is part of an overarching goal. It makes for better continuity between initiatives and a better, more consistent overall message in the marketplace.
Step Four: Assign responsibilities
Now as a business owner you probably have learned quickly that you can’t do it all. If you try, you will either ignore what you should be paying attention to, or fail miserably at everything. Look to delegate responsibilities for the marketing tasks you identified in your marketing plan that will help you to accomplish your business goals. Get other folks involved in helping to solve the problem as well. Sometimes that means using internal resources, sometimes that means outsourcing initiatives you may not have the experience or time to tackle in-house.
Step Five: Measure the results of your efforts
The running joke with marketing is that only 50% of marketing works - the problem is that you don’t know which 50% it is. The reason that this is the perception of marketing is because most people don’t truly understand the value of their marketing efforts because they a.) don’t define what success before they start and initiative and b.) they don’t measure the results to that definition. Make it a priority in 2009 that before you do any marketing effort - be it an advertisement, a membership to an organization, an update to your website, etc. make sure you define what you expect the outcome to be for you investment in what time frame and measure to see if it happened. You will have the knowledge to then do more of what works and less of what doesn’t
This really isn’t rocket science, but certainly it is all in the details. If you would like to talk further about any of these topics, or would like assistance putting together your plan for 2009, please call us at Three Hats Marketing.
We wish you all the best in 2009.
Tags: business goals, Marketing Plan, marketing principles, measure marketing results, successful marketing