by Robert Middleton, owner of Action Plan Marketing and Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing
Even after you've developed the foundation of your marketing, which includes understanding the game, maintaining the ideal marketing mindset, creating a powerful marketing message, materials, and strategies, you have one more important step towards marketing success.
And this step is creating a marketing action plan. You might think of this as a marketing blueprint, much like an architectural blueprint. This action plan is your step-by-step guide in implementing your marketing strategies.
An ideal marketing action plan includes the following elements:
- Your target market Who exactly will you approach? Who are your potential clients and where can they be reached?
- Price What will you charge for the service you are offering?
- Strategy How will you get the word out? What is the specific strategy you'll use to market your service? For instance, this might be networking, speaking, publishing, or mailings.
- Purpose This is the ultimate result you hope to achieve by implementing your plan. For instance, the purpose of a speaking plan may be to "Get 10 new clients valued at $5,000 each."
- Intended results This is everything else you intend to accomplish through this marketing strategy. So in addition to attracting more clients, you may want to a) get more exposure to your target market, b) increase your credibility, c) add names to your email list, c) sell products at the presentation, d) improve your speaking ability.
- Strategy game plan This is your actual approach to implementing your strategy. If you've chosen a speaking plan you need to determine where you will speak, how you will get engagements, what topic to speak on, what handouts and materials are required, and what offer to make after the talk. This will often take some research and assistance to avoid major mistakes in your implementation.
- Marketing materials and resources What written or other marketing materials will be needed? And what other resources will be required for success? This may include money, information and assistance.
- Offers and call to action For many steps of the plan you may need to ask someone to take action. You will need to approach organizations and ask them to book you. At the presentation you will be selling your ideas and ask them to buy your concepts. At the end you will deliver a close that asks your participants to request a follow-up.
- Follow-Up Once you have implemented your activity, you need to follow up in some way, shape or form. You can't just cross your fingers and hope the phone starts ringing.
- Action steps and timeline The final step in your marketing action plan is to outline, in chronological order, all the steps you will take.
For more information:
- Step 1 - Marketing Ball - The Game of Marketing for Marketing Plan Workbook
- The Seven Principles for Attraction More Clients
Robert Middleton has been the owner of Action Plan Marketing since 1984. He specializes in helping Independent Professionals be better marketers and attract more clients. He has two main services - the Fast Track to More Clients Program and the Marketing Mastery Group. He lives and runs his business from Northern California in the redwoods near Santa Cruz. You can reach Robert through his website: http://actionplan.com, by email at apm @ actionplan.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=731554912, and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/robertmiddleton
Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.