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Action without Planning is Fatal

Guest post by: John Bino

Article Overview: When I started my online business I did not give much thought to my target market. I grabbed on to a bunch of marketing strategies and just let it rip; without giving any thought as to what might be the consequences. And surely, the results were abysmal. Not because the traffic to my website was not high, but because the visits were not converting into leads. That clearly indicated that I am not attracting targeted leads – a clear evidence of action without planning.

Action without Planning is Fatal

When I started my online business I did not give much thought to my target market. I grabbed on to a bunch of marketing strategies and just let it rip; without giving any thought as to what might be the consequences. And surely, the results were abysmal. Not because the traffic to my website was not high, but because the visits were not converting into leads. That clearly indicated that I am not attracting targeted leads – a clear evidence of action without planning.

Have you heard the saying – If you market to everyone, you market to no one? Well, that’s exactly what I did. I did not plan ahead as to how, where, what, when, who and why. I wasted 6 months of my entrepreneurial career marketing to the wrong market. I didn’t bother to look back and see if it was working or not because there was nothing to compare it to. I hadn’t planned anything. There is a brilliant Japanese proverb that goes, “Vision without Action is a Dream, Action without Vision is a nightmare”. I have had my fair share of nightmares.

Now you might ask what do I plan about? What entails the ‘Planning’ activity? Well, to put it in plain and simple language, here is what you do in any planning program. It’s called the 5W3H

1. You decide on the ‘What’ –What are your product’s features, What are your offerings, What results are you expecting, etc.

2. You decide on the ‘Who’ – Who are your target customers, Who is going to be part of your team, etc.

3. You decide on the ‘Where’ – Where do you plan to sell your products, Where do you want to market your business, etc?

4. You decide on the ‘When’ – When do you plan to launch your products, When is the best season to market, etc.

5. You decide on the ‘Why’ – Why should your customers buy your products, etc?

6. You decide on the ‘How’ – How to market your products, How to get a website that converts, etc.

7. You decide on the ‘How many’ – How many units do I have to sell to break even, How many leads should I have in my list, etc.

8. You decide on the ‘How much’ – How much should you charge your customers, How much is your competitor charging, etc.

Find your own questions using the 5W3H. You know your business better than anybody else. Once you sit down and start planning the answers to the above will start flowing. Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend 6 sharpening the axe”. Awesome advice, but only if you apply it!

God Bless.

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Article Tags: career marketing, clear evidence, consequences, fair share, japanese proverb, marketing strategies, nightmare, nightmares, offerings, rsquo, target customers, target market, traffic



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Successes This week - Hey Andy - That is great! I just finished the second to last chapter in my new book, The 5 Fatal Flaws - things women do that make them bad at business. I'm working on getting it finished and available for purchase on my website before the end of March. Yippie!! J
Re: How do you make the most of your day? - Planning, To Do lists, and deadlines all help me. Also being self critical of my own time management helps me raise the bar. I still check email too often though.
Re: Blog sells for up to $15 million - Action speaks louder than dream. What are we doing about GT suggestion? We can make this work in 2010
Re: Success - I think it was Gary Player who said the harder I practice the luckier I become when it came to his success as a world class golfer. Planning and dedication to a task can make all the difference between success and failure. MichelleJ
Advertisement that sales - Plan your marketing programme. It should include commitment to capital resources. If you run a small business, you aren't likely to have a generous enough advertising budget that will allow you to run costly branding or campaign ads. Every advertisement you run must convey to your prospect a solid offer and attractive reasons to act quickly, and result in increased sales and an enhanced image of your company. Good advertising always pays its own way through increased sales and profits, improved cost-effectiveness, reduced selling costs and shortened selling cycles. A useful formula that will help you increase the effectiveness of your advertising efforts is A-I-D-A, which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. When creating an advertisement, always remind yourself that it should: (1) capture your prospects' Attention, (2) arouse their Interest in your offer, (3) create their Desire for your product or service, and (4) provide a powerful spur to Action, that is, turn your prospect into buyers. Remember, bad advertising is an unproductive expense, and good advertising is an investment in future profits!


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