Create a Savvy Marketing Plan

Wanting to make a million is great, but how do you go from startup to seven-figure receivables? Successful business owners know that a combination of careful planning, solid homework and strategic implementation drive sales. Here's how you create a workable plan for your firm.

Research Your Target Market
Marketing is everything you do that facilitates sales. Done correctly, it gets the word out to your target markets in tangible, consistent ways that produce measurable results.

But before you invest a dime in marketing, you need to know who you are and be able to outline your distinguishing deliverables. That means you have to research your top prospects and your competitors. Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, ask yourself these questions:

• What demographic segment(s) will my product or service appeal to?
• What drives browsers to buy?
• What is my geographic footprint (local, regional, national or international)?

Once you've answered those questions, you are ready to develop a sensible marketing plan to reach your target markets. Be advised: If marketing is not your thing, ask people you trust for recommendations and hire someone who produces marketing plans for a living.

Newbies and seasoned businesspeople alike get burned every year because they wing it when it comes to marketing. They may have spent years putting together a strong operational plan for their company. Operational planning is critical; it's the engine. But to get the engine going, you need fuel. Marketing is the gas.

Bare-Bones Marketing
A strong marketing plan should contain short-term and long-range goals, along with strategic actions to take place within a year. Among the things to include:

• Developing a unique brand: This consists of a professionally designed logo, and specific fonts, colors and language;
   
• Creating your marketing tool kit: This includes a website, brochure, direct-mail piece, promotional items, e-newsletter and sales sheets. Once again, hire a professional marketing copywriter for this;
   
• Doing PR: Send out relevant news and comment on trends to get your firm in the news. Do this at least four times a year, submitting your releases to online media as well as print, cable and regional or national TV, as appropriate.
   
• Conducting coordinated advertising campaigns: Use direct mail, train station platform advertising, print advertising in newspapers or magazines and online advertising (which may include Google Adwords).

Creative guerilla marketers seek out speaking opportunities in a variety of local venues, as well as on radio and TV. In addition, they get the word out about their firm by attending chamber of commerce events and trade expos.

More advanced marketers are maximizing other digital or web-based platforms, including podcasting, online educational and/or client testimonial videos, teleseminars, webinars and blogs. Marketers with a little more bling are investing in radio and cable TV advertising.

Smart Planning Works
"Smart marketing plans include networking, cold calling, e-marketing, a marketing-smart website [showcasing examples of your work] and promotional materials," says Ilise Benun, a marketing advisor who specializes in helping freelancers and creative professionals nationwide around the country, through her firm Marketing-Mentor.com.

According to Benun, the best way to market your firm is to get in front of people--either through networking or cold calling. Through discussion you can identify good prospects and weed out the ones who are not. From there, Benun says, you shift your marketing into the next gear by staying in touch with the stronger leads through e-mail newsletters.

In between the ongoing outreach of cold calling and networking, Benun advises marketing your firm through the use of promotional materials (a brochure or some other collateral piece) with a "thud factor"--that is, tangible stuff that lands on someone's desk.

Peg Feodoroff, president, co-founder and spirited sister number one of Spirited-Sisters.com, a Massachusetts-based purveyor of designer hospital gowns, says great PR is the marketing tool that landed her on Oprah. In fact, this savvy new entrepreneur engaged several expert consultants to launch and promote her firm. "Having these [experts] behind us gives us incredible credibility," Feodoroff says.

Another element of her success is mining her many contacts. "You'd be amazed at how many people know people," she says.

Make a strong marketing plan your top priority. A savvy marketing plan will drive your business forward faster, without wasting time and money.