This is part one of a three part series…

A marketing plan is a core component of any business plan.

It relates specifically to the marketing of a particular product or service and it describes:
. An overall marketing objective;
. A broad marketing strategy;
. The tactical detail related to specific marketing activities;
. The various costs associated with these activities;
. Those tasked with delivering these activities, by name.

The starting point for any marketing plan is an analysis of the strategic context, a typical objective for most plans is pro¬moting goods or services as effectively as possible.

An assessment of the company, its environment and its customers helps to ensure that the author of the plan obtains a holistic view of the wider context.

In turn, this helps them to focus their energies and resources accordingly.

This is particularly important given that most marketing managers will be subject to that all-too-familiar constraint – the limited resources (invariably financial) ill effect, a marketing plan is produced to ensure that limited resources are allocated to activities that are likely to bring the maximum return.

Tools to use in your marketing plan
An assessment of the context will include analysis of both internal and external factors.

There are a number of frameworks and tools designed to assist you with this;

* SWOT analysis forces you to consider internal Strengths and Weaknesses alongside external Opportunities and Threats.

* Porter’s Five Forces is a framework designed to assist you in considering the broader competitive and environmental context.

It is also vital that you have a thor¬ough understanding of your customers; look to whether segments exist within your broad customer group that can be profitably served utilizing specific and targeted marketing activities.

Click here to go to Part 2 or click here to go to part 3 of How to Write an Effectitve Marketing Plan
 

Picking up from my last post on time managment…

I got into some bad habits as to my own time management was concerned.

First, I started doing the small and or unimportant things early in the morning, rationalizing to myself that this would leave me some good blocks of time for my more difficult and also more strategic issues.

WRONG – the best time to work strategically (working on your business) is the first thing, this is when you are sharpest, when you are your most creative and when your concentration is highest.

Second, even though I do monthly, weekly and daily planning and schedules, I stopped reviewing them always at the end of the time frame. I was telling myself that there were good reasons for not reviewing them – heck, I am always productive, I always get things done.

WRONG – the lined out items became fewer and fewer which led to…

Third, I started pushing things to Saturday – “my free day” again rationalizing to myself that there were good reasons for this – I’m busy guy. And fourth I stopped using my accountability partner to check my progress.

WRONG on both counts… again! This caused a major upheaval in my household, my put her foot down about all work and no play.

My solution – go back to the basics:
1) I got back together with my accountability partner. It’s too easy to rationalize to yourself. It’s much harder to blow smoke at your accountability partner.
2) I started working on the strategic things first thing during the day – depending on coaching appointments.
3) At the end of each day I went back to reviewing my schedule to see what I got done and why.

The results are in, for the last month I have been more productive than I have been for at least six months. My sense of accomplishment and achievement were sky-high. My Saturdays became semi-free (I still have two major projects that I knew would take some Saturday time) and I am a much happier camper.

So, the moral of the story is – never, never, never get away from the sound fundamentals of any discipline. There is a reason they are sound fundamentals – THEY WORK!!!
 

As a business consultant, one of the first issues I address with clients is Time Management. Entrepreneurs typically don’t have good time management. Most of them are used to doing what they want, when they want, where they want, and how they want.

I’m not saying they lack discipline, after all they started a business and they built a business to some level or another. But and this is a big but, they generally don’t have a tight structure that they operate under. This structure is not necessarily a rigid and dogmatic structure, but structure nonetheless.

Somewhere along the way they lost an amount of the discipline that made them so effective in the start up and building stages of their business. So as a business consultant it is my job to help them rediscover that structure and discipline that will help them become effective time managers again.

Some of the pillars of good time management are
Be strategic first (working ON the business), tactical second (working IN the business)
Work on the most important things earlier, rather than later
Work on the same type of thing (strategies, tactics, sales, marketing – whatever) at a consistent time, on consistent days of the week
Measuring themselves as to their effectiveness

These pillars are there to put the entrepreneur in the right frame of mind, to give them a routine, to help them gain a sense of accomplishment and achievement and allow them to check themselves against their plan and course correct as necessary.

In my next post your humble correspondent will relate some personal observations on time managment.
 

I ran across this from my friends at Early to Rise and thought it was relevant to all of us…

By MaryEllen Tribby

I just returned from my family vacation. We rented a beautiful beach house on the ocean side of Fire Island, New York. It was wonderful. No cars are permitted on the island; everyone bikes to and from town. We played tennis daily and built sandcastles on the beach. And believe or not, for the first time in my career, I left my laptop at home. (I call it my unplugged vacation.)

Knowing I was going to be out of touch for a while, I prepared everything I needed ahead of time. That included setting up the following autoresponder message for all the e-mails I would be receiving while I was gone:

Hello and thank you for your e-mail.

I will be out of the office from June 12th - 24th. Due to the high volume of e-mails I receive, I will delete all e-mails sent during this time period. If your e-mail still requires attention after the 24th, please resend it.

If you need immediate attention, please contact another member of the ETR team.

Cheers,

ME

Well, while I was away I received 979 e-mails. Only 68 were re-sent after my return, and three had been forwarded to my assistant. That is barely over 7 percent of my e-mails that really needed attention.

Next time you go away on vacation, don’t waste your time upon your return sorting through e-mails that have either been taken care of or really did not require your attention to begin with. Set up an autoresponder like mine and delete ‘em all. Then you can jump back in by taking care of tasks that actually make you money - right when you are fresh and raring to go!  

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

This is part two of a two part blog…

When advising business owners one of the issues we insist they do is periodic reviews of their business. While year-end is a great time to take stock of the past year and lay plans for the New Year, you should also do mid-year and even quarterly reviews.

Here are the last four of the seven tips to get you started!

Create a Marketing Plan - Evaluate your marketing mix for the past year, and make changes for the better for the coming year. Freshen up your marketing message and strategy. Are you consistently getting the right message out to the public, or do you find your strategy and materials are sending out mixed messages? ¬

Update the Database - Review your database, updating information as needed. Renew contact with lapsed customers, and touch base with your existing customers. Ask for more referrals from some of your best customers; connecting their associates business with yours is a win-win situation. It is a quick and inexpensive way to increase business.

Review Staff- ldentify staff behaviors and accomplishments that should be acknowledged or even rewarded. Also, identify those whose behaviors or work need to be addressed and improved. Everyone wants feedback on: how they are doing. If you have difficulty remembering pertinent examples, schedule a few minutes each day or week to update notes (both positive and negative) for performance reviews for each of your direct reports.

Learn Something New - Resolve to update or improve your profession¬al skills. Take a class or plan to read a book or two in an area in which you feel you could use more training.

Eliminating products or services? Let affected customers know the reasons and provide alternatives (even a competitor) for their needs. Some of these customers may also purchase from your more profitable areas now or in the future, so do not alienate them or adversely affect your reputation.
 

This is part one of a two part blog…

When advising business owners one of the issues we insist they do is periodic reviews of their business. While year-end is a great time to take stock of the past year and lay plans for the New Year, you should also do mid-year and even quarterly reviews.

Here are three of the seven tips to get you started!

Run a Financial Check-Up - Are you where you had hoped to be finan¬cially for the year? Check your Profit and Loss, Income, and Expense Reports. Review your sales reports to determine the more profitable areas of business and areas where sales were sub par. Create a plan for increasing business in more profitable areas during the coming year. Either prepare to eliminate less profitable ventures, channels, or market segments or create plans to increase their profitability.

Prepare a Budget - Examine your projected budget and actual expenses for the year. Prepare a budget for the New Year, and resolve to stick to it! Factor in expenses for computer and software updates and purchas¬es of new equipment. Be sure to allow for changes in your marketing strategy for the upcoming year. Prepare a list of areas to cut if profits or cash flow start running below expectations and a list of contingent opportunities to add or increase if cash flow runs higher.

Plan to Succeed - Businesses that fail to plan, plan to fail. Create that fresh business plan you’ve been thinking about. Or, if your financial check-up shows variances, fine-tune your existing business plan for the coming year. Set aside some quality time in January to lay the ground¬work for future sales.
 

Three Survey Questions for Quick Feedback

If you want to improve your website and increase web sales, but can’t afford web analytics tools to measure customer response to your site, try a short website survey. In his blog, Occam_ Razor, Avinash Kaushik recommends including at least three questions in your survey.

Why are you here today? Ask the purpose of your customer’s visit to your Website, or what task they are looking to accomplish. This will provide you with information on why people are visiting your website and what they hope to achieve by doing so. That way, you can better tailor your website to meet the variety of needs your customers cite.

Were you unable to complete your task today? If customers are unable to complete their task, you’ll know immediately if your site is not working up to its full potential. This question will eliminate some of the guesswork involved in analyzing data to determine whether your visitors had their needs met or questions answered.

If you were unable to complete your task, why not? Ask your customers how you can improve your website to enable them to meet their needs. This question allows the customer to directly tell you how you can improve your site to help them accomplish their mission. Listen to your customers’ reasons for being stymied and their suggestions on how to adjust your site to make the visit quick and pleasurable.

Think of more questions you can add to get the information you want. You might also want to ask customers about their overall experience, if they had difficulty completing their task, or what they would like to see changed on the website. This will provide input on whether your site needs a few minor tweaks or a major overhaul. For those of you with more time or resources, longer surveys and/or web analysis may be optimal, but don’t discount the power of a few simple questions. It is certainly better than doing nothing at all.

For more information on Avinash Kaushik’s article and reader feedback, visit www.kaushik.netlavinash/2007 /O4/the-three-greatest-survey -questions-ever.html.

As a business advisor, when I work with decision makers on one of the more difficult issues confronting them – managing change, I give them a few key items that they must address early on in the process…

If you are trying top steer a new course, be sure your seasoned veterans and new recruits are on board.

It Takes Many Hands to Move a Ship - Maybe you have heard from, or commiserated with, other owners and managers who have been trying to "turn the ship" and feel that it is a solitary endeavor. Steering a new course is always challenging, but if you agree with the premise that it is easier to steer a ship when all hands set the rigging toward your intended heading, then it makes sense to bring your "crew" up to speed with your plans and not to consider them as adversaries. If you see yourself as solely responsible for bringing about change, your employees will probably wonder where, if at all, they fit into your plans. When they know "something" - but not "what" - is going on, they may fear that any action might hinder rather than assist your change, or they may take incorrect action. This can take the "wind out of their sails" and cause them to step back and avoid any actions that you may potentially welcome.

Keep an Open Mind - If you are coming into a new situation, keep an open mind about an individual employee’s performance. Most people perform differently under various circumstances. Evaluate any informa¬tion given to you by previous management in light of your own obser¬vations. Communicate and interact with employees to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses and how they interact and work with others. You may be able to inspire a disgruntled or underutilized employee to step up and meet new challenges. Going into a new endeavor with a "clean house" approach usually becomes a self-fulfill¬ing prophecy and can cripple your business, leaving it short on valu¬able experience. Better to go with a "clean slate" approach.

Address Employee Fears - Employee resistance to change is largely based on fear of change. If your employees appear to be resisting change, ask questions to find out why. They may fear that the company will not survive a change, or that they will lose their job. Change may bring specific challenges to them that they feel ill equipped to meet. Communicate your reasons for bringing change to the company and the negative consequences of not taking action. Listen to and acknowl¬edge your employees’ thoughts. Try to minimize the hardships of change for employees. If job responsibilities are changed, offer an opportunity for training. If an employee wants to take this opportunity to try something different, see if this can fit with, or even facilitate, your plans. If you need to cut staff in come areas, retained staff will judge how you handle it. You might shuffle staff in different groups; give ample notice; or provide outplacement assistance, severance, or re-training.

Plan to include more time to network with fellow professionals and potential clients this year.

Business may be "busier" than ever, but don’t allow yourself to be trapped indefinitely in your office. Get out from behind your desk and talk to managers, employees, fellow profession¬als, existing clients, and new clients. Resolve to expand your business and social circles in the upcoming year by including regular networking time in your schedule.

Join a group or two. Visit a few local networking and industry groups, mingle with the members, and choose a group that best suits you and best meets your needs. Some groups meet on a weekly or monthly basis while others may have fewer meetings in a year. Some are more lead-oriented and may place a limit on the amount of members that can represent one field. Groups such as this can offer the opportunity to be the only business provider in your industry, but you should also be prepared to spend time generating leads for others in your group. Some are regional and may include a variety of fields, but place no limits on the number of members. You may have some competition in the room, but there is likely to be a deeper pool of potential clients and there may be more scheduled time to net¬work. Joining an industry group can also help build business. You may get invaluable advice from networking with others in your industry or combine forces with another professional to land a larger joint project, branch out in a new direction, or put pressure on com¬mon suppliers for better service or lower costs.

Attend a conference. Conferences can be a great way to make new business contacts across the country and across the globe. Attend a conference to pick up some new skills or learn about current trends in your industry, but also plan to make a few new contacts with other attendees while you’re there, and then continue that contact via e-mail, telephone, or over a cup of coffee.

Network in social settings. Networking can be fun. Don’t limit yourself to networking groups and conferences. Network while you go to the gym, stand in line at the grocery; attend a holi¬day or cocktail party, or pursue a hobby or activity you enjoy. You never know where your next lead will come from, so expand your networking beyond people you know or plan to get to know and make an effort to get to know the person who happens to be in front of you.

Set aside a few minutes a day to strengthen and expand your net¬work. A few minutes a day is all it takes to stay in touch with the people in your database. Executives who spend a few min¬utes a day calling or e-mailing colleagues, vendors, and other business associates have an advantage. Networking can pro¬vide business leads, and keep informed about current trends. It’s also a great method to fill a vacancy in your company or help out your associates.