Simple Marketing Plan

You want to sell your stuff? Assuming you have determined that people will buy your stuff, and you undertand who the potential customers are, you need to create a way to let them know about your stuff. It’s called a marketing plan. Marketing is the sum total of all the techniques you need to use to create awareness of your stuff. Now marketing does not have to cost a lot (see yesterday’s blog), and marketing does not mean advertising (although advertising can be a piece of marketing).

How to create a simple marketing plan?

The first thing to do is to set a goal for how much stuff you want to sell in the next 12 months. This can either be quantity of stuff, or dollar value of stuff. Next list all of the ways that you can think of to get make people aware of your stuff, and all the ways you can think of to sell your stuff. Prioritize each of these “tactics” into those that you believe will be most effective or efficient in selling your stuff. What you end up with should be your top ten tactics.

With your sales goal in mind, eastablish a time and cost budget for of the top ten tactics by day, week, and month.

For each tactic, make your own assumptions (which can be verified in using the tactic) about how much time and cost will be needed to use the tactic in achieving your sales goal. For example, if a viable tactic is cold calling, then you will need to determine how many dials you need to make to reach a decision maker, and what percentages of conversations with decision makers can be converted into sales. From this information you can determine how many hours a day or week you need to spend calling.

Do this excercise for each of your top ten tactics, and you have your simple basic marketing plan. The key is now to follow the plan, and to modify the plan as your assumptions are challenged or conditions change.

Will Limkemann
Limkemann Business Advisors
440-871-0976
www.neobizadvisor.com