The following diagram illustrates the critical components of the marketing foundation and how that foundation provides the base for all of the marketing programs you may want to execute.

Marketing Plan Framework - 8 Step Process

Lay the Foundation

Before you can determine what your marketing strategy is, you need to understand your vision and goals. All marketing activities will be chosen based on whether they will achieve one or more of your goals. When you have a clear understanding about what you are trying to accomplish with your business, you can then determine how you will get there.

Now you need to look at the market and analyze whether the market you wish to serve wants what you can provide. You should sit back and think about your business and determine your focus. By evaluating your business from the perspective of client need, you will be able to focus your efforts on initiatives that are key to the success of your business.

Understanding your competition from both a business and marketing perspective helps you determine how you are different from them. Your marketing plan should emphasize how you are different so that you stand out from the crowd. This differentiation will be the basis of your core marketing message.

Identify Your Brand

Your brand is the image you wish to portray to the world and is one of your company’s most valuable assets. It communicates your corporate personality and shapes the internal and external clients’ perceptions of who you are as well as the expectations and promises you extend to your customers in terms of quality, service, reliability and trustworthiness. A strong brand helps the audience differentiate you from your competitors and can positively influence their purchasing decisions, directly impacting your profitability

Also, identify your personal brand. If you are an independent professional or partner in a service business, you are your brand.

Identify Your Marketing Strategy and Budget

The marketing strategy outlines your plan of action to achieve your marketing goals. It is how you take advantage of the various marketing activities to build awareness and educate your prospects. If one of your marketing goals is to double traffic to your web site, what activities will you use to drive more traffic to your web site and in what timeframe and with what budget? Think through each of your marketing goals and identify the key activities that will help you achieve success.

Create Your Sales Tools

Your sales tools are the last activity you should undertake before you launch your marketing campaigns. Until you know what types of marketing you will do, you don’t know what materials you will need to support them. Using the brand identity and messages developed earlier, combine them to create the sales tools that help you communicate with your target audience. A good first impression makes selling that much easier, and a consistent set of materials – Web site, brochures, newsletters, advertisements, business cards and other materials – with a strong identity and a compelling, powerful and enduring message, gets you noticed and remembered.

If you can do only one thing well because of budget or resource constraints, be sure your Web site is the best you can provide. It is most likely the first impression your prospect gets of your company, and how useful, informative, and simple it is to use will impact their decision to do business with you. I cannot stress this point enough – a bad Web site can ruin your entire marketing effort by turning away prospects before you even know they are there.

Build Upon the Foundation

Now you are ready to execute the plan. You have a roadmap for your business, a budget for your activities, and an understanding about how you will reach your prospects. By building your foundation first, all of your programs will be consistent, targeted, and more likely to succeed. You can be assured that no matter what type of programs you choose, you will consistently communicate your value to your prospects, raising your awareness, attracting ideal prospects, and increasing profitability.

• Determine where you want to take your business
• Define the milestones required to get there
• Develop the tactics needed to achieve each step

As you work through each of these steps, take the time to reflect on your current marketing activities, decide what worked and what didn’t and make adjustments. By thinking through these three steps, you simplify the process and remove the stress usually associated with developing a marketing plan.

Business Goal

Most marketing professionals use goals and objectives interchangeably. However, your business goal is your vision of what you want your business to look like in three to five years. It is the guiding light that directs all aspects of your business and enables you to focus in one direction. Your business goal should remain consistent, but be flexible enough to respond to any major changes in the market environment.

Marketing Goals or Objectives – The End Game

Your marketing goals, sometimes called objectives, are measurable milestones that lead you to your business goal. Each goal should lead to sales otherwise you should define it differently. Goals should be S.M.A.R.T.:

• S – Specific about what you want to achieve;
• M – Measurable so you can track your progress;
• A- Achievable;
• R – Relevant to the target market you wish to influence;
• T – Time-based, usually a short period of time (no more than a year).

Some simple examples:

• To increase sales from our installed base by 30% by end of year.
• To achieve 20% of our revenue by offering new affordable services to markets needing assistance with employment law.
• To attract 5 new customers per month from xyz segment.

The intent of your marketing objective is to focus all efforts in one direction. Let’s look at a more detailed example:

The objective is specific (increase sales), measurable (by 30%), relates to a particular time period (next calendar year) and focuses on influencing the target market behavior (cross-selling new services). You likely would want to be a bit more specific on the target market behavior by defining what new services you want to offer.

A business can have multiple objectives for one target as long as the objectives are not conflicting. You should probably have no more than three to four major objectives in a given year. It’s important to be focused and these objectives should represent the keys for growing your business. They should be easily measurable on a monthly basis and you should have specific reports that continually measure each of these objectives.

Marketing Strategy – The Game Plan

Your marketing strategy outlines your plan of action to achieve your marketing objectives. The difference between a marketing objective and a marketing strategy is that the objective states what you will do and a strategy states how you will do it. Where your marketing objective is specific, quantifiable and measurable, your marketing strategy is descriptive. The marketing strategy discusses how you will affect your target market’s buying decisions through the infamous four P’s – product, price, promotion and place (distribution) – and how these get used to achieve your objectives.

• Product – Part of developing your strategy is to look at what you currently offer and rank them on their value to your company. If you are offering a product or service that is not producing the revenue you wish, part of your marketing strategy might be to replace those services with new ones.
• Price – Now is the time to look at your pricing strategy and cost recovery for your products and services. Determine what pricing changes you need to make in order to accomplish your objectives.
• Promotion – All of the tactics you will use you get the word out is part of your promotion strategy. Advertising, direct marketing, events, public relations, and viral marketing (word of mouth) are all types of marketing tactics that can be used.
• Place – many businesses fail to understand the value of distribution channels. Even for small businesses, having partners who help you market and sell your services is valuable. By augmenting your services with partners, you bring value to your customers by offering them more complete services. Look at your business, find the holes and fill them with partners that can help you develop new clients.

Using the marketing objective stated above (to increase repeat business within your client base by 30% this calendar year); you might develop marketing strategies such as:

• Develop a set of affordable services that help clients increase the productivity of their workforce.
• Create promotional materials such as an e-Newsletter and complimentary seminar series that includes knowledge and valuable offers to our current clients.

In this case, we have defined the type of product and its price (affordable services) we will use to go after increased sales within our client base. We will promote value through a client-only newsletter and complimentary seminar series that will contain educational information and action oriented offers for these new services.

Some marketing folks may feel these strategies are too specific. For small businesses, if you can define how you are going to achieve your strategy, you should. Use the marketing program plan to describe the specifics of each tactic, but there is nothing wrong with specificity here. Your mission is to choose the strategies that fit your company and your products.

Planning for Profit

Goals, objectives and strategies – different but interrelated and play an important role in the success of your business. To develop a successful marketing plan, focus on your marketing objectives and the accompanying strategies. Simply define what you are trying to achieve in measurable, specific terms and how you plan to achieve them in descriptive terms. Once you have your objectives and strategies, move on to your positioning, messages, and brand. As you continue to develop each layer of your marketing foundation, you will see your marketing effort become more focused, targeted, and consistent – the three ingredients for success.

I don’t know of many companies who have their plans done by the end of the year, ready to hit the ground running when they recover from their New Year’s celebrations. If your company is one of the exceptions, let me know – I’m interested in how you actually accomplish the planning process during the last quarter of the year.

For the rest of you spending many hours of your day in planning meetings, trying to lay out your roadmap for the coming year, here are a few reminders about why you are doing this exercise and how you can make yours more effective.

An effective marketing strategy helps companies focus their efforts on initiatives that are key to the success of their business. In times of rapid change, we need to have a strategic plan on which to base our tactical decisions. If we only use business tactics, our plan will lack direction. If your company does not develop a marketing plan because of its perceived high cost and complexity, you should rethink this decision and develop even a simple one that helps you determine what direction you should be heading before you start your engines and head out to nowhere.

Marketing Strategy Benefits the Company …

Your strategy should define an action plan for influencing customer choices and obtaining a bigger market share. The outcome of your plan should consistently entice customers to buy your product or service by raising the customer perception of its value to them. Whether you are selling direct or utilizing partnerships, you need to constantly reinforce your value to your target customer, because no matter how good your product or service is, if the customer doesn’t believe that they will benefit from purchasing it, they won’t. Remember, customer perception is reality.

… And The Marketing Plan Communicates That Strategy Throughout the Company

Having a coherent marketing strategy is not sufficient if the people in the company do not know about it. The marketing vision should be written in a marketing plan. A good marketing plan IS your business roadmap. It will tell you what to do, when to do it, how often, and how much to spend. It should be the basis of the company’s product development, manufacturing, and financial forecasting systems. It should be continually reviewed and tuned to reflect the reality of the market.

The plan should be bought into by the other groups, especially sales, engineering, and manufacturing who should contribute to the plan. Without a written marketing plan that is shared among the key company groups, people have no sense of the company vision and what is expected of them. That vision should be constantly restated so that everyone from receptionist to CEO knows and understands it.

Remove the Complexity and Get to the Point

Developing a strategic plan does not have to be complex, however it should be clear, concise, and should answer the following questions:

• Who are your customers, and what do they need? – If you cannot answer this question clearly, you need to stop whatever you are doing and find out. Understanding who has a problem that can be addressed with your product or service is fundamental to all company plans, not just your marketing and alliance plans.
• What is the solution that you offer? – Being able to articulate what problem your product or service solves is key to reaching your target audience. If you don’t understand how your product or service benefits your customers and partners, ask them! Let them tell you what they believe your value is to them.
• How is your solution different from your competition? – Make sure your customers understand the benefits of your solution and how it is different from others. Determine what is unique about your company, product or service and whether it is noticeably better than the competition. Then integrate these messages into all of your marketing.
• How are you communicating this solution and creating customer enthusiasm? – Communicating with a message that the audience perceives as valuable should be the cornerstone of your plan and every program has the ultimate objective of getting that message in front of your target audience. Picking the programs that have the highest return on your investment is not rocket science, but has to be thought through.
• What is the budget required to successfully execute this plan? – Determining the priority of where you spend your resources is critical to your plan. If you take the time to think through what you are trying to achieve and how each program helps you get there, you can lower your budget and achieve the results you want. Constant ask what is the value of the program and if it should be executed at all.

As the ever-present saying goes, marketing strategy is ultimately about bringing the right message to the right person at the right time. To ensure you execute effective programs to attract customers and partners, a solid plan will keep you on course. Unfortunately, many executives blame poor results on poor tactics when, in fact, the lack of a clearly defined strategy is the root cause. The first step toward creating an optimized plan is to ensure good strategy and tactical planning, for nothing will make up for a bad strategy, a limited value proposition, or a lack of customer understanding.

What is a Value Proposition?

A value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from using your products or services. Developing a clear value proposition is perhaps the single most important strategic process in which your company can engage. It establishes the core purchase value your company is delivering to the market and the strategic alliances and partnerships that will increase your firm’s market access. The more specific your value proposition, the better. A successfully tested and proven value proposition is essential to opening more doors and closing more sales. So what makes it so difficult to define a really good value proposition for our product or service?

Many companies have an inadequate value proposition – the result of folks trying to be everything to everyone, or not really understanding their target audience’s needs and challenges. Finding a value proposition in marketing materials is an even harder exercise. In many cases, companies hide their value from their customers, speaking technical jargon that does not help the prospect determine whether they want to do business with you.

No Value Proposition is Better Than an Ineffective One

Let’s take a look at a couple of ineffective value propositions.

• Our award-winning solution is affordable, quick to implement, easy to use, customizable and scalable.
• We help customers more effectively plan and execute strategic network projects.
• We provide the infrastructure and tools to dramatically increase system administrators’ leverage, allowing you to focus on higher-value activities.
• We provide the following value proposition to our current and potential clients: 1) Proximity to our clients is part of our strategy; 2) We are organized that our company has the local representation and required industry specialization; 3) At the same time, consideration has been taken to ensure that our consultants possess the most appropriate competencies, that are specific to our industry sector focus and client’s requirements.

At this point, I have to ask, “So what?” Why does this matter to me?

While doing the research to write this article, I also came across many value propositions that took more than a paragraph to define. At that point, you have probably lost your reader’s attention. If it takes that many words to describe your value to your customers and prospects, you probably should rethink your strategy. In fact, many Web sites have entire pages dedicated to their “Value Proposition”. What most of these describe is why that company is wonderful, not how they help you solve your business challenges.

Developing a Solid Value Proposition

A value proposition needs to resonate on your customer’s radio frequency WII-FM – “What’s In It For Me?” Answering that question with measurable results will increase your target’s interest in what you have to offer. And if you do, you have a much better chance of turning them into a customer.

It is important to develop a value proposition that is compelling, whether it is a product, service, the way the product is delivered, or even the way the customer is treated. Strong value propositions deliver results: increased revenue, faster time to market, decreased costs, improved productivity, increased market share, or improved customer retention levels. When prospects can realize value from your products and services, you increase sales, you generate quality leads, your customer becomes your business partner, and your people truly understand what your company does.

Here is an effective value proposition. This statement alone encourages the prospect to read further:

If I owned an insurance company, I would certainly find out more about this company’s offerings.

Unfortunately, there is no cookie-cutter process to developing a solid value proposition. However, with a little iterative brainstorming, you can develop a statement that resonates with your target. The statement can take on the following format if that helps you develop yours. I have again used an actual company’s value proposition that I felt was effective.

• Assertion – 360° CRM in 2 to 6 months: XYZ Company helps customer-focused companies leverage functionality and achieve productivity quickly.
• Meaning – Our CRM solutions are fully operational in no time. Exceptional usability and supplementary training courses also help to secure a rapid Return on Investment.
• Proof – One of the world’s leading suppliers of architectural lighting solutions implemented XYZ’s CRM solution for sales and marketing in 12 countries in 6 months.

Here are some tips to help you develop or test your existing statement to ensure you are enticing your target to want to do business with you. First, answer the following questions:

• What does my target audience want and why? What does my customer value the most?
• What are our core competencies and capabilities?
• What are the core competencies and capabilities of our competitors?

Once you have answered these questions, then you can begin building your value proposition statement and tailor a message that addresses target customer needs and differentiates you from your competition. As you develop your statements, keep asking the question “So what?” When your value proposition statement no longer causes you to ask, you have probably honed the message that captures your reader’s attention.

Assess Q1 Results

The best way to start your spring cleaning is to evaluate your first quarter’s results. Take the time to ask yourself the following questions:

• Did you land the clients you wanted?
• Did you receive inbound leads?
• How much have you spent on marketing?
• Do you know which programs have pulled the best for your business?

Before you can spring clean your marketing plan to increase results for 2005, you need to understand what is working and what is not. Evaluate everything, not just the programs you are paying for, because even if you aren’t spending money, you are probably spending time.

Start collecting information from every source your have. Remember to:

• Ask every inbound lead how they heard about you, including on your web site contact form. Make it a habit. List all of the marketing activities that could drive traffic to your web site in a drop down list. You only need to ask – most people are happy to tell you.
• Track how people find your web site and what keywords they are using. There are tools available that can help you get this information easily and cost-effectively. One that I use is StatCounter. It’s free but gives me visitor paths, keywords, new visitors and returning visitors – plenty of data for most small businesses. The free service limits the amount of data it keeps on your project. However, for $9.00 per month, you can get a lot more data on your visitors.

If you haven’t collected this information before, make sure you start. As you will probably guess, evaluating your marketing plan quarterly is not just a spring thing!

Refresh your Brand

When was the last time you updated your brand identity? If your business was fruitful in Q1, you might want to determine if you can afford to hire a firm to update your look. Updating your brand doesn’t necessarily mean changing it. A professional design firm can give your business a fresh new look and enable you to get attention from people who may be taking your brand for granted. Take an objective look at how your brand is projecting your image. Ask colleagues what they think it says to them.

The following images are the before and after of a brand refresh for one of our clients. Note that the brand was not drastically changed and still projects a new, fresh, professional image they desire. With a change of font and a bit of design, this new logo will get them noticed.

Before	After
Original Client Logo	New Logo for Client

Evaluate your Marketing Materials

When was the last time you updated your web site content, refreshed your brochures or determined if your messages are still reaching your audience? Content is king is not just a cliché. It is the most powerful and inexpensive marketing activity you can undertake, especially if your business is service-oriented. Fresh, relevant content on your web site will get people to take the time to get to know you.

If you are running Internet marketing programs and you don’t update your web site content, you may be wasting your money. If your results were not what you expected in Q1, you may be lacking the one critical component that your marketing needs for that boost of inbound leads. Plan a new marketing activity that includes generating content – an eNewsletter or writing articles to be placed in industry journals – and see the effects of content on your business.

Rethink your Marketing Mix

Was your marketing mix in Q1 made up of the type of activities that work for your business? Your choices include Internet marketing, public relations, advertising, events, direct marketing, word of mouth, and partnerships. Are you actively promoting your business through a combination of these types of activities? Are they getting results?

If your results were on-target and you are happy with where your business is right now, then keep doing what you are doing. If one program is getting you better results than another, would it make more sense to put more marketing dollars into that one and boost its impact on your business and possibly shut down the other? Juggling your marketing budget a bit can sometimes lead to far better results than simply spending more.

Should you consider adding a new program to the mix to boost your inbound leads? One thing to remember about getting inbound calls – they are ready to buy your products or services since they contacted you. Closing those sales should be much easier than prospects you find through other means. If there is a way to generate these through a marketing program, then you should consider adding it to the mix.

Energize and Get Marketing!

Spring helps pull people out of the winter blues. When people are feeling good, they are more likely to look for something new and exciting for themselves or their business. Splash cold water on your face now and enthusiastically market your business. You’ll be glad you did when the hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer are upon us.

As you put together your marketing plan for the coming year, you should be thinking about what marketing programs have or have not worked this past year. By evaluating what you have done, the results you have achieved, and your marketing budget, you will be able to develop a simple marketing plan that can increase your top line revenue.

Evaluate the Previous Year’s Results

To start the process of writing your plan, ask yourself if you are happy with the results of your marketing this year. Have the dollars you’ve spent on marketing delivered at least 100% ROI? Which marketing effort has or is working and which have not? If the program did not appear to work, did you give it enough time? If your results were negligible, was the program an issue, the messages ineffective, execution not the best, or was the program just not appropriate for your business?

You need to be realistic with this evaluation. Many people make decisions for their business because other businesses have done a particular program. Make sure what you do choose to do in marketing works for you. For example, I hear a lot of people want to advertise in the local papers. Unless you are a restaurant or hospitality based business, advertising in a newspaper probably won’t get you much. You might be better to use that money for advertising on the internet.

The Marketing Plan Foundation

You have assessed the outcome of your programs, your brand, your messages, and your ability to execute. What do you do now to ready you for the future? There are definitely marketing programs that work for small businesses that are relatively inexpensive and deliver big results.

Before you dive into new programs, you should reassess your marketing foundation – competition, target audience, positioning, messages, brand and sales tools. Do these components still work for your business? Running a new marketing campaign using an out of date set of messages and tools is a waste. Do you need to reposition your business? Develop new messages that really speak to your target audience? Are you standing out from your competition? Your business evolves and your target market may change. Be sure your messages evolve to accommodate the change.

If your brand is old, tired, or non-existent, now may be the perfect time to develop a new brand. First impressions are important and if your brand doesn’t project your business the way it should, it may be time to invest in an impressive and consistent brand. A simple but noticeable image is one of the best things you can do to stand out from the crowd. If you have a nicely created business card, brochure and web site, your image will project success. A self-made brand sends a message to prospects that you are low-budget, short-term, or unsuccessful – even if you are not.

Next, consider revamping your sales tools – brochures, business cards, web site, and letterhead. Again, if these need a facelift, it may be worthwhile to do so now. Depending on the marketing programs you plan to run, you might be able to spread out the cost over time. Running a new Internet marketing campaign to drive prospects to an old, out of date web site is the kiss of death. Invest in a new web site using WordPress software and a nice simple design from a reputable designer. You then have a powerful system that is easy to use for creating your content.

The Marketing Program Plan

Once the foundation is in place, the marketing campaigns can be developed. What did you do last year that worked? Did you run Executive Breakfasts that resulted in clients? Did you advertise in some journal that worked? Did you run a direct mail campaign that sent prospects to your web site? Whatever worked the best should be at the top of your list. Don’t stop a campaign just because you are tired of it. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, move on.

The following are recommendations of programs to look at:

• Public relations – always a good choice for any business. If done well, you can get a lot of free advertising. Having articles placed, stories done about your successes, and being quoted as an expert helps you build credibility in the market. Consider hiring a quality PR person to help you.
• Internet marketing – not just for big companies anymore. With the advent of search engine marketing, many small companies and cost-effectively reach a wider audience for their products and services. Unlike traditional advertising, pay-per-click can be regulated by you – ensuring you don’t overspend your marketing budget. In addition, buying a link from a well-known directory, like Business.com, can help people find your web site.
• Executive breakfasts and workshops – meeting people face-to-face is still the best way to get business. If you have a list of prospects you can invite, these are good venues to provide useful information in a setting that enables them to get to know you without having to sit through a sales pitch. Be sure your events are informational, not sales oriented.
• Speaking opportunities – more face-to-face opportunities. Find organizations that have members from your target audience. Speaking at their meetings is a great way to introduce you to them and begin building a relationship.
• Referral-based marketing (word of mouth) – expand your reach into your target audience.  Building strategic alliances with other non-competitive companies that serve your target audience is a great way to get valuable introductions by other business people your prospects trust.

Get Ready for a Successful Year

If you are having trouble putting a marketing plan together, we have a number of tools that will help. There is a high level marketing plan outline on our web site that can walk you through the process, helping you identify the information you need to write a brief, but effective plan for your business. If you need help writing your marketing goals, positioning and messages, and identify your brand, follow the links and check out these articles. Have these components available before you launch into developing sales tools and programs.

There are many good marketing programs that deliver results that you can consider, but depending on your budget, these are a good start for smaller businesses. But first, make sure you have a marketing plan that coordinates your efforts across all the different venues for getting the word out. If you bypass the planning effort, you will compromise your results.

Random Ingredients cause Indigestion

Let’s do a direct mail campaign! Ah the words of excitement thinking that assembling a postcard and sending it to your list of prospects within your database will land you a pipeline of opportunities to make your revenue goals. Sounds like a great idea, but what is your strategy for the direct marketing campaign? And, how does this activity build upon or augment other marketing activities that have been done?

Many companies select marketing activities as they would food off a Chinese menu. What I like about Chinese food is that you can order many different dishes, totally unrelated, but somehow they all seem to go together. Unfortunately, when it comes to marketing, the Chinese menu approach does not work and usually results in a bad case of heartburn. You spend time and money on activities that start from scratch in the minds of your prospects and wonder why they don’t work. You never get the chance to build the mindshare that is possible if all the activities relate to each other and send a consistent message.

How to Spell Relief

Before you spend money designing a postcard, an ad campaign, an event, a web site, or a brochure, you need to develop a simple, but useful integrated marketing plan. If you haven’t taken a look at the diagram on our Web site called Marketing Plan Framework, now is a good time to review it. This diagram represents all the pieces you need to develop an integrated marketing plan. By starting at the bottom and working your way up the diagram, you can easily develop a plan that gives you the solid foundation you need for all of your marketing activities. Then you don’t run the risk of sending different messages, different brands, or contradicting campaigns to your prospects.

Simple integrated marketing plan means just what it says.

• Simple, to the point strategy for reaching your prospects
• Integrated set of marketing activities that send the same messages to all of your prospects in a way that builds rapport with your prospects over time
• Plan that determines your target audience, positioning, messages and brand that becomes the foundation for all of your marketing activities.

Where to Start

Start with a review of your fundamental messages, positioning and brand image and identity. If you don’t have these components, then you need to work on them for your company because without them your marketing campaigns lack clarity and will not be remembered by your audience. If you need help developing your messages and positioning, read the article “Cultivate Market Perception”.  If you want a refresher on brand identity, read the article “Create Your Company’s Identity”.

Once you have those components developed, then take a look at your Web site and sales tools and make sure they reflect these messages, positioning and brand identity. If they are inconsistent, determine how you will get them aligned.

The final step is to determine what programs you want to execute, when and what is needed to put these activities into motion. Your plan should be a living document, reviewed quarterly. The review is to make adjustments if things aren’t going the way you wanted, add new programs if you have the budget and time, and to stop programs that just aren’t working.

An integrated marketing plan is guaranteed to eliminate the heartburn of marketing activities that are inconsistent, cost too much, and don’t return the desired results. Save the Chinese menu for Peking Ravioli and General Gau’s Chicken.

Throughout the year you should have been tracking how you acquired new clients. The easiest question to ask when someone does call you is to find out how they heard about you. If you have not been doing that, plan to add that question to your prospect interviews. If you have a contact form on your web site, add some way to capture that same information. Understanding where people find your contact information is an important way to get a feel for how your marketing efforts are working. Even if you didn’t ask for this information this year, you can still determine how your programs are working through a bit of intuition and gut feel.

• Make a list of all the marketing activities that you used this year. Include both those you pay for and those you don’t. Combine all like activities together to measure the area as a whole verses an individual activity. For example, if you pay for different links on the Internet, add them together to determine how much you spent on Internet marketing. Do the same for word of mouth (networking), advertising, public relations, direct marketing, events and strategic alliances. You will then have your total marketing spend for the year.
• Also determine how many leads you got through these areas. Remember, not all marketing is demand generation. Some marketing activities are meant to build awarenss of your business. If you have a list
• Now determine how you acquired your new clients or customers. Did they come through your Web site? Did you get them through a referral? Did you make contact at a speaking opportunity or an outside event you attended?
• Now compare how much you spent for each marketing area with how much revenue you can attribute to it and you will quickly know if there is a return on your investment.

Try to place each new client with some marketing activity unless you personally cold call and got the client from a direct sales activity. If the client came to you, assume it came through some marketing activity.

So how successful was your marketing? Did you spend more in marketing than you made in revenue? Did one marketing area produce better results than others? Can you trim your marketing budget without hurting your revenue? If you spent money on advertising and you can not attribute any inbound activity from it, stop. If you get quality leads coming through your web site, look for other ways to gain visibility on the Internet.

Take time now to understand where you should invest your marketing dollars next year. You can make intelligent decisions about how to market your business if you understand where your revenue comes from.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT analysis is a tool for assessing your business and its environment that helps you focus on key issues. It can help you focus limited resources and capabilities to the competitive environment. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors. The point of the SWOT analysis is to ensure you have a marketing plan that is consistent with the resources and capabilities of your company.

Strengths

Strengths are the positive, internal characteristics of your business with respect to your competition. What is it about your business that sets you apart? What advantages do you have over your competition? Don’t underestimate any quality when determining your strengths because what may seem insignificant to you just may be one of your more interesting qualities that will attract new clients. Think about your expertise, your people’s strengths, your contacts, your products and services, the location of your business, any processes that are unique, customer base, credit history, or any other aspect of your business that adds value to what you offer your clients.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are factors internal to your business that detract from your ability to maintain a competitive advantage. Although it is good to be brutally honest, it is not necessary to attack the business. However, understanding your weaknesses can help you correct them or market around them. By identifying your weaknesses, you have the potential of converting them into strengths. Think about areas that need improvement, such as a lack of experience in certain markets, limited resources and capital, poor location for your business, dependency on one person for the success of the business, and other factors that are under your control, but for some variety of reasons, are difficult to improve in the short term.

Opportunities

Opportunities are external factors that are attractive to the business and represent areas of potential growth. What factors exist in the environment or market that if approached properly can increase sales, market share, or net profit? These areas are key to your marketing activities because investing a little bit of effort into these areas can result in sizable areas of growth. For example, are there potential partnerships that can open new markets for your company? With an adjustment to your product or service, is there an untapped market waiting to be served? By focusing a bit more on one particular aspect of your business, are you able to reach more market share? By adjusting how you sell your product or service such as utilizing eCommerce, can you reduce expenses?

Threats

Threats are external factors beyond your control that could place your marketing strategy, or the business itself, at risk. Identifying threats allows you to take actions to have contingency plans in place to address these factors if they should occur, before they can affect your business negatively. These challenges are unfavorable economic trends that could lead to reduced revenues or profits. Competition, whether existing or potential, is always a threat. Your existing competitors can make moves that can undermine your business. New competition can arise from a market shift or a new way of providing the same product to the end customer (think On Demand from Comcast vs. Blockbuster Movie Rentals). Other threats could be government regulations, corporate leaks, changes in customer behavior that reduces sales, or new technology that reduces the demand for your current products or services. Make sure you address your worst fears during this part of the exercise. Better to be prepared than being blindsided later.

Action

Once you have your SWOT analysis information, you can then use this information to form a strategy to exploit the opportunities and deal with the threats. The strategy should align with your business’s objectives and goals, but you may want to determine if you need to shift the business to accommodate new, more profitable market opportunities or avoid a disastrous threat.

Look for ways to capitalize on your opportunities that play to your business’s strengths and pursue a strategy that will get you into that space, especially if it enables you can leave one which threatens to hurt your business in the long term. In addition, assess your weaknesses and determine which ones you can address now and which will take time to correct.

Summary

A SWOT analysis is a useful activity to undertake periodically to ensure you are always aware of the environment around you in order to have a better, more focused marketing plan. Your SWOT analysis for your business should:

• Be short and simple and avoid complexity and over analysis.
• Be realistic about the strengths and weaknesses of your organization in relation to your competition.
• Distinguish between where your business is today, and where it could be in the future.

Regardless of your business, a SWOT analysis can provide you with new insights about your business that will help you guide your company into new, profitable markets or avoid high risk situations.

Marketing Plan Summary & Budget

Objective for 2009: Increase inbound qualified opportunities through marketing efforts. Inbound opportunities include phone calls, emails, web site registrations and referrals.