Most small business owners don’t create an overall plan for their business, let alone a marketing plan. Why marketing planning for small business? Without it, you miss the deep thinking about what really drives good, profitable business and you can expect to continue to throw marketing dollars down the drain!
If your sales and marketing approach is passive, you’re at the mercy of the marketplace. Most small business owners react to whatever comes in the door. They tend to end up with customers who aren’t the right customers, like those who want price reductions or are frequently dissatisfied.
Comparatively, you could be proactively driving the right leads to your business. It’s better to go after the customers who’ll love you the most, pay you the highest prices, and cause you the least grief.
To be able to do that consistently, you’ve got to plan. There’s no way around it.
Marketing planning for small business is a must-do, not a nice-to-do. Small business owners must be deliberate about including a marketing plan in their overall business plan.
So at this quarter’s Growth Plan Workshop, the book discussion will be on David T. Scott’s The New Rules of Lead Generation: Proven Strategies to Maximize Marketing ROI. We’ll present a summary of the practical details in this marketing planning how-to book and help you add marketing planning to your overall business planning.
Today’s marketing is about Lead Generation vs Brand Awareness
Marketing today is a lot more practical and analytical than Darrin Stephens’ and Larry Tate’s brand awareness-style marketing. Today’s marketing centers around lead generation vs. McMann and Tate’s goal of hooking prospective buyers with an emotional connection.
Lead generation marketing is choosing the right combination of specific marketing tactics, testing and measuring each one to insure they connect with your ideal target market, and then executing those marketing activities in the most cost effective ways.
Marketing tactics can include a mix of activities like:
- Social media ads, pay-per-click on Google, facebook, etc.
- Online lead generation
- Direct mail
- Online and hardcopy newsletters
- Newspaper, radio, and TV ads
- Blogposting
- Online display advertising
- Cold calling
- Flyers and other printed materials
- Email marketing
- Content production
- Speaking opportunities
- Networking and referral groups (such as BNI)
- Events, and more…
We’ll help you wade through these and choose the right ones to get your marketing planning going.
Why marketing planning for small business
Most small business owners do minimal marketing. They have a website, do a little social media, attend the occasional trade show, and put an ad in the local paper… but they do these without strategy. Worse, they do these without knowing which ones are generating leads, if any.
In marketing planning for small business, it’s vital that you create consistent, high quality leads.
Plan to join us in a 6-hour group setting with other business owners who are also working on their business’ operating plans and marketing plans.
Our coaches will spend one-on-one time with you, ask you the right questions, and give you the advice you need to walk away with a completed 1-page Business Operating Plan and a 90-day Action Plan. You’ll also get the basics to put together a marketing plan.
Register here for the next Growth Plan Workshop.
Thur., Sept 26, 2019, 9 – 3 pm
Holiday Inn Indianapolis Airport, 8555 Stansted Dr, Indianapolis, IN 46241
You’ll walk away with:
- A clear picture of where you want your business to be in 10-30 years, a 3-5 year plan, a 90-day plan, & a ready-to-implement action plan to get you there
- Your 12-month goals broken into bite-size quarterly goals, monthly milestones, & weekly actions
- Strategies to build your profits
- A marketing plan draft with the right mix of marketing activities to yield consistent, high quality leads.
Marketing planning for small business is not an option. A marketing plan is not only for large corporations. It’s the way to consistent, incremental profit growth for your small business.
