In 2011, my former business partner and friend, Chris Gattis, and I published our first book together. The title of our book was “Marketing Plan Template”. I had never worked on my own book before, so I had no clue where to start. The good news, Chris had written books before, and knew exactly what to do and how to start it. The subject matter was simple, we could write marketing strategies in our dreams, but when you put your knowledge into writing that other folks will use as a guideline, totally another story.
I am going to share sections of our book with you, in hopes it helps you with your marketing strategies. The main objective of my blog post, always have a marketing plan!
Introduction
The marketing plan brings together all the market research, product discussion, customer pondering and calculating that you’ve done and uses that information to promote your business brand and your products and services in such a way that your target customers know about your business offerings and are compelled to buy your products and services. If you bring all these pieces together correctly and follow-up by delivering products and services that exceed your customers’ expectations, you will build a loyal following that will reward you with a successful and growing business.
For most small business and start-ups, marketing is some sort of ‘black magic’ that isn’t really understood. Most hopeful entrepreneurs that I coach think they don’t understand marketing at all. I’m not suggesting that developing a creative marketing plan is simple. But it’s more about doing your research and laying out a logical plan based on that research than it is ‘black magic’ wizardry.
Keep in mind that you’ll develop a separate plan for each market segment. You’ll need to approach each segment and target customer with a unique strategy. While some or possibly all parts will be the same, you should assume that all parts will be different for each market segment. After you get all the pieces laid out, you can combine and overlap where it makes sense to take best advantage of your available budget.
We like to approach developing a marketing plan just like developing a business plan. Do your market research first, then develop strategies based on customers and preferences, consider the financial implications and launch. Use the template, adopt the steps to your business, products and market, develop the strategy and action plans and put your plan into action. The businesses are different, the products are different, the people are different, but the steps required to develop the plan are essentially the same. This plan has been developed to make it as easy as possible to develop a creative and effective plan for marketing your business and products.
Stay connected with us on social media and our blog. Each Tuesday we will be posting a new selection from the book.
I am really inspired by the book written by you. After reading your article even I feel like writing my own book. It was truly a pleasure to read your article. I really appreciate all the efforts made by you to write and share this article with us. Thank you.