Tweet

How to Make a Marketing Action Plan

Written by: Julie Melillo

Article Overview: Marketing your business can be overwhelming when you don't know where to start or how to spend your time. Follow these tips to create a successful marketing action plan for your business -- and see results!

How to Make a Marketing Action Plan

1) Start a marketing journal -- use a paper journal to record the answers to the following steps. Or, set up a Word file on your computer.

2) Decide which marketing techniques will be most effective for you. To do this, select which tasks you are best at and enjoy most from the following list: cold calling, attending networking events, posting flyers, calling people you know, emailing companies, being an expert speaker, writing articles online, writing press releases and mailing/emailing them to local and national media, using social media sites like facebook, writing a book or e-book, buying ads, mailing post cards or other materials to companies, being a guest on a radio or TV show, creating your own podcast or radio show online, creating your own web site, writing a blog, creating youtube videos, writing a weekly or monthly e-newsletter, handing out business cards.

3) Ultimate Goal -- determine the ultimate goal of your marketing plan: what is the big picture effect you want to create? What is your ideal outcome? Fill in the blank, "The ultimate goal of marketing my business is to_______." Example: Make an extra $100,000 a year by attracting new clients.

4) Action items -- brainstorm a list of all of the action items you can think of that could contribute to that success -- these are your long term goals. Fill in the blank, "These action items will help me the most long-term to achieve my marketing goals_______,________,and _________." Example: Writing press releases, creating a web site, and attending networking events.

5) 30 Day goal -- focus on the next 30 days. What goal can you achieve in the next 30 days? Fill in the blank, "In the next 30 days, I expect my marketing efforts to help me achieve__________." Example: Gaining three new clients.

6) Action Items -- now identify the action items you can do in the next 30 days to achieve this goal. Fill in the blank, "In the next 30 days, I will do the following action items:_______,_________, and _________." Example: Attend three networking events, research how to write a press release about my business, and submit the release to local media.

7) Break it down -- now break your 30 day action list down into daily tasks. Write a long list of every daily task. Example: "Attend a networking event." Break this action down into daily tasks like this: google "networking events" in my area, create a list of possible events, ask around about what the best events are, sign up and pay online to attend events, show up at event and bring business cards, take notes at event, make contacts, follow-up with contacts.

8) Calendar -- on your calendar, schedule all of the action items you listed for your 30 day goal. Give yourself weekends off and schedule only as much work as you can handle.

9) Next month -- at the end of the 30 days, note which marketing efforts worked best for you. Create your next month's calendar following the same steps.

Remember that consistent marketing is best! Don't worry if your plan is perfect or if every task you complete is ideal -- focus instead on creating daily marketing.

Tips:
Be flexible with your plan -- focus on what is working.
Keep in mind it can take over 30 days to see a result! You will have to plant a lot of seeds to see an effect. Have patience, persistence and courage!
Be careful not to do too many tasks your first month -- you don't want to burn out. Give yourself a reasonable amount of work.

Related Articles
  Do You have a Strategic Sales Action Plan?
  “A Strategic Action Plan For Recession Resistant Marketing”
  Breaking Through - How to Remove "Stuck" from your vocabulary - Series 3 of 5
  How to fix sputtering marketing
  Short Marketing Plan Helps Entrepreneurs Take Action

Article Tags: entrepreneur, power, risk, stress, successful marketing, trader



Related Forum Posts
Starting a New Business - Congratulations on the first step of deciding to create your own business. First, you have to ascertain if you are going to be selling your products or services to people or to businesses. People purchase products and services for three basic reasons: •To satisfy basic needs •To solve problems •To make themselves feel good. You have to determine which of these three categories your product or service is the solution to. Businesses, unlike individuals, buy products and services for three reasons as well: •To increase revenues •To maintain the status quo •To decrease expenses. Knowing the reasons why people/businesses buy, you should have a picture emerging of who you think your "Target Market" (or ideal customer) is. Once you have zeroed in on your solution, you are ready to create your Marketing Strategy. If you look at any company that has grown rapidly over the past few years, (i.e. WestJet and Starbucks), it should demonstrate to you the importance of Marketing. In simple terms these companies have: •Clearly defined what makes them different; •Who their ideal customer is; •How to reach them; •Why customers should buy from them; •And most importantly why customers should come back again. It is strong Marketing Awareness that singles out the best companies. I can not stress enough how important it is to create a "living" Marketing Plan before you even start. I hope this helps a little in the creation of your plan. All the very best of luck. Remember: "A Goal without a Plan is just a Wish" Miles of Smiles, Marketing Maven
Do what i did - I had the same dilemma. My solution? I started my own marketing firm! No, in all reality, even if you have a degree in Marketing, you will have to take crappy entry-level jobs to get your foot in the door. Make the most of them by taking on extra tasks that will give you skills that will improve your resume. It's a slow process, but if you can get just one job in Marketing, you're on your way!
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!
I could use some help with my Marketing Plan Objective - Hi guys, Well I'm off to the UK be back to work on April 10th. In the meantime, I could use some help. My Marketing Plan Objective is definitely not SMART. It doesn't have anything specific, or measurable, it is achievable, it is realistic and it is timed. You're help will be appreciated. Hope to tallk to you in April and see you in May. Judi
Business Innovation - Hi Simon If you can finish off the Business Plan and think about your strategic direction or how you are going to use your product to convince people it's a great idea, it will set the foundation for your programming project. You see, when you are looking for funding you will need a Business Plan and Strategic Plan that will convince companies to invest into your new idea. Has anyone achieved this idea before using another industry besides health and fitness that you know of? You should also design some mockups as a "preview" for your programming project. This will also help reduce your programming costs as everyone will know exactly what you want if you have detailed mockups already completed including any functionality you require. Starting mockups for websites and software applications on paper is the best way if you're not a guru in graphic editing software.


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

12 Principles to Spark Innovation

BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMING TEAM

Avoid Burnout: Do the Limbo Regularly

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.