Hate doing marketing plans? Try this one

Do you have a list of things you OUGHT to do? Things you SHOULD do but never really get around to? I’ll bet that one of those things is a marketing plan.

Let’s face it, many small businesses have an ambiguous relationship with planning. They may be too busy just juggling the plates that help them survive from one day to the next or just don’t think it’s important: things always work out in the end. Marketing plans may be some way down their list of priorities.

What is a marketing plan?

Largely because there's no one definition of what it is, we over-complicate marketing. It's simple really, Naomi Dunford gave me the best and simplest definition I know, "marketing is the things you do to get people to buy your stuff". However, you don't need a 20 or 30-page plan setting out in endless bullet points.  You don't need to type it out in Word, a pen will do. It will hold on one single page or even a paper napkin!

So what do you need?

Determine three things: market, medium and message.

1. Who is your market?

Once you've determined what problem you're solving, determine who you are selling to. Who are they, do their lives resemble? Have a look at their demographics and their psychographics. Imagine your ideal customer. Does your product or service still appeal to them? Are you going to have to change it?

2. What is the medium?

How are you going to reach those customers? Communications today offers us so many possibilities but some will work better than others depending on what you're selling.

- Face to face: of all the options, this is probably the most effective across all sectors. You may come into daily contact with your customers through retail for example or in networking. It's always easier to engage and persuade something who's sitting opposite you.

- Telephone: although it's less effective than it was because people are less tolerant of "out of the blue" calls, this still works in many industries.

- Online: done correctly, online will send your sales through the roof, done incorrectly, they'll take a nose dive.

Direct mail works in a lot of sectors and so does advertising, print and online, although unless you're you're a plumber, the Yellow Pages may be in terminal decline.

3. What is your message?

What are you going to say to your customers and prospects? Is your message clear or confused? You may like to spend some time working out "why" you do what you do. This will help your message be more natural.

There you go, a three point plan, market, medium, message. All on one page and you can apply it to any industry, any product, any service.

Do you have any other simple tricks to make your marketing easier? Get on down in the comments!