At the start of a kitchen renovation project, the importance of a plan cannot be over-emphasized. Starting work without one costs more in dollars and time in the long run. Many aspects of running a small business, including marketing, are no different. A plan, including the time and dollars associated with it, will increase the odds of a successful outcome.

  

As a small business owner, your marketing efforts can be broken down into identifying each of the following:

Customer base is an important marketing concept. It can include statistics about the market segment such as marital status, age, income category and geographic location. For a large corporation, resources are available in forms of market data and surveys to study the customer base and customize marketing appropriately. Small businesses typically cannot afford this type of data. Instead a more informal study is needed. Think about some past experiences you have had with customers. What went well? What didn’t? Think about those customers with whom you’d like to work again, or work with people like them. What type of profile do they have? How do they make buying decisions?

 

Now that you know who you want to reach, what do you want them to know about you? Consistency and repetition are important in brand recognition. You only have to think of a few major companies to see evidence of this basic marketing concept. A company logo and tag line is critical. Include it in all advertising and be consistent in layout of any print materials and design

Step 3: Indentify Your Goal

As with anything in business, your chances of being successful are improved if you know what you are trying to accomplish at the outset. For marketing, your goals could include specific tangible results like an increase in sales relative to the amount spent on advertising or more general goals like increased name recognition. Your goal should be measurable and time sensitive. Determine how you’ll know the marketing was successful so that you can measure it later.

 

Now that you have defined your customer, message and goal, the next step is to make your plan. To determine what the marketing campaign will look like consider:

You’ve already identified your ideal customer, but what is the best form of media to reach them? Will they react to cold-campaigns (they don’t have any personal relationship to your marketing efforts) or is a warm market (word of mouth or referrals) better? What type of media is best to reach your customer? Do they watch TV, surf the web, listen to radio, read newspapers? Are they tuned into facebook or LinkedIn? Is direct mail best? Will they read an e-mail from you? Often a combination of efforts will work best.

 

The duration and frequency of marketing to this audience is also important when establishing your campaign. How long can or should you wait for the marketing to work? What would happen to your business if the campaign is wildly successful? Do you have the staff to support it? How often should your customer base hear from you?

 

Ultimately your marketing budget will dictate the campaign. If you determine that you want to run TV ads for six months, that will only be possible if you have the money to support it. Does your budget support the other decisions you’ve made so far? Are there any free resources available that fit your customer base and goals?

 

This final step is often overlooked by small business, and is a cause for many of them to fail. Just as important as setting marketing goals, evaluating how well you reached those goals is key to continued success. The evaluation process should occur throughout the campaign. Ask your customers how they heard of you; ask professional contacts what they liked when they say they saw your ad Use this information to repeat what is working and change what isn’t. Did it bring in your desired customer base or others you’d rather not see?

 

There are limitless options when it comes to spending time and money on marketing. Taking time up front to make a plan and then execute it will increase the chance that it produces results.