Tweet

How the perfect marketing plan would work

Written by: John Jantsch

Article Overview: Depending upon who you ask a marketing plan is either a necessary evil or tremendous waste of time. - That’s such a shame, but I think I’ve finally come to understand why this is.

How the perfect marketing plan would work

Depending upon who you ask a marketing plan is either a necessary evil or tremendous waste of time. - That’s such a shame, but I think I’ve finally come to understand why this is.

A well crafted marketing plan should be one of the most important strategic steps a business takes, but there’s a disconnect. Marketing plans get created, but never used because, once put to paper or ether, they don’t easily relate to the real life experience of a business. They get created but never installed.

At a minimum your marketing plan should include:

a description of your ideal customer
your core message (vs competitors)
your key marketing strategy
your communications tools
your lead generation plan (advertising, public relations, referral)
your web plan (yes, with a blog)
your lead conversion plan
your customer loyalty plan
your marketing calendar
your marketing budget
your key strategic indicators
scads of sales, revenue and profit projections
Now, the creation of the above is a great start and a beneficial exercise for any business, new or existing, but here’s what’s needed to truly make your marketing plan work.

Your marketing must have a life and the only way it can do that is if you throw it into the middle of your day to day business. As a document it’s a fantasy and it stops breathing the minute you open the door each day. A truly effective marketing plan must integrate into the reality of the stuff you do each day.

Here’s how the perfect marketing plan would work.

You create the plan as prescribed above, you bake the appropriate elements of your plan into your CRM system, you tie the plan to your actual sales, you flow the plan projections into your bookkeeping software and you circulate actual results through your key indicators, automatically updating your projections. Now that would make a living, breathing powerhouse of a marketing plan and, now, your marketing plan would actually run your business. (As it should be)

I’m not sure the specific software to do what I’ve described actually exists today, but I’m betting a web application bringing together current offerings from some of the smart folks at a Palo Alto Software, Microsoft, SAP, NetBooks, Intuit, Sage, Zoho or NetSuite couldn’t be that hard to hack together.

I know there are plenty of BigCos and VARs out there that have created something like this for the enterprise market, but what about one for the real small business (2-50 employees)?

Related Articles
  The Worlds Shortest Marketing Plan Version 20
  6 "Easy-To-Implement" Marketing Mindsets
  A Perfect Example of Business Plans for New Entrepreneurs
  Perfection Stinks!
  All storms are perfect

Article Tags: bookkeeping software, communications tools, conversion plan, core message, crm system, customer loyalty, effective marketing, key marketing, lead generation, life experience, marketing budget, marketing plan, marketing plans, marketing strategy, perfect marketing, powerhouse, profit projections, such a shame, waste of time, web plan



Related Forum Posts
Re: 50 Inspirational Success Quotes for Entrepreneurs - "Opportunities are like sunrises - if you wait too long, you miss them." "Believe while others are doubting." "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
Re: How to Get Started - July Small Business Survey - Hi Evan, Thanks for sharing that. I have no doubt that's a common question asked among aspiring entrepreneurs. My advice would be to take your idea and turn it into a solid plan of action. Once you have a plan in place, then execute. Most people spend all of their time planning and making sure everything is perfect and down to the "T" but fail to ever execute their plan for fear that things won't go as "planned." I think Nike said it best: "Just Do It". There are many opportunities out there for entrepreneurs to grab a hold of. Look to where you have the most passion for and see if there is an opportunity that presents itself in that area.
Re: Twitter List and Hash Tags? - This is a perfect example of hash tags. Thanks a ton. Sometime, I need to have enough patience to get the perfect thing. Robert
Re: Clarity Trumps Persuasion - Jeff, Thanks, great stuff !!! Clarity or "KEEP IT SIMPLE" is probably the best advice anyone can ever give or get when involved in any business or personal situation. Over 30 years of manufacturing ladies apparel has taught me two critical business lessons: 1-You will never get a 100% perfect outcome so In the BEGINNING,take your time, exhaust all your resources and energy and plan, plan, plan. . . If it STARTS off right it you'll get close to the desired outcome. 2-Keep it simple I now will add "Clarity" to my formula for success. CLARITY AND KEEPING IT SIMPLE BREEDS SUCCESS . . . . I know the advice above is simple but isn't that what it's all about. Thanks Ringo, This information not only was great for my website but it reminded me that "keeping it simple and clear" got me and my teams through some wicked situations Best wishes Barry
Re: Who Said Twitter Doesn't Work...? - Almost any marketing method CAN work for anyone depending on a number of factors. But I consider a good marketing method to be one that works for the majority of people all the time (as long as they are doing it correctly). An example of that would be article marketing. Twitter, on the other hand, is something that does not work well as a marketing method for the majority of people, even though so many people want it to work so badly that they try to convince everyone that it does. I've yet to hear from even one internet marketer I know that the traffic they get from Twitter converts into money in some way on a regular basis. Yeah it happens on occasion but nothing compared to several other marketing methods that work for years to come such as link building, SEO, article marketing, etc... I still need more convincing before I start drinking the Twitter kool-aid as a marketing method. I have nothing against Twitter. I do have two accounts there and I get on almost every day for a little bit. But it just isn't good for business... At least not business as far as most of us here are concerned, which is internet marketing, affiliate marketing, Adsense, and a few other similar monetization methods.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Courage and Resilience

Local Marketing: 3 Simple Low-Cost Strategies

How to Ask for a Flexible Work Arrangement

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.