It is that time of year again we are all gearing up to put another year behind us and start fresh with a new year. Many of us as we do every year gear up our marketing and start planning for the coming year with a whole new look on our marketing campaigns. Whether it be starting new ones, adjusting and tweaking current ones or keeping at what we are currently doing we all have marketing on our brains.
I recently took a short course on creating a road map, if you will for my marketing efforts in 2010 and learned some key aspects that I have forgotten along the way or have never really thought about. Many of us start our businesses because we love what we do. But that is it we are good at what we do, many of us don't have a marketing degree or a background in marketing. We just assume that if we are really good at what we do and we love it the people will flock to us as soon as we say we are open for business. Yes, in a perfect world this would be wonderful but since we live in "realty" this is not what happens. We all have to market to our clients to attracts buyers of our products and services to start that ever revolving door of business.
Some of the key aspects I wanted to share that I learned from my short marketing class are some that I feel would be beneficial to all of us. Sometimes it is about getting down to the basics and really creating a strong foundation in our marketing efforts. Without a strong foundation the rest of our marketing efforts will crumble costing us time and money.
When focusing on our marketing we need to set S.M.A.R.T goals for it to be successful:
Specific- When focusing on your marketing efforts you need to be specific in what you are trying to do. The easiest way to figure this out is to ask yourself the following questions:
Ø Who? Who is involved in my marketing efforts?
Ø What? What am I looking to accomplish with my marketing?
Ø Where? Where is my target market located?
Ø When? Establish a timeline for your goals.
Ø Which? Identify requirements of your efforts.
Ø Why? What are the specific reasons or the purpose for setting your goals?
Measurable- Set actions plans or steps for each phase of your goal. These should be easily measurable whether it is meeting a deadline for having a marketing piece done all the way to the results of your marketing efforts there are several steps in between that will help you stay on track and focused. Breaking your goals down into phases and phases into steps will help you in actually completing and reaching your goals. Always remember don’t over complicate the process you want simple phases and simple steps within the phases for your goals.
Attainable- When you set us goals that you feel will be beneficial to you, you begin to adapt to reach these goals. When you see what you want and see how to get there you adapt creating the ability, skills and attitude to get you there. With each phase of your marketing plan you will move closer and closer to your goal, what once seemed like a daunting task now seems attainable.
Realistic- When you set up your goals be realistic on the outcome it must represent a realistic object in which you are willing and able to reach.
Timely- You need to have a time frame on your goals and action plans. Without a set amount of time you will push it off and push it off and it will never get done. When we set up some ground rules for ourselves and hold ourselves accountable for our actions we stay focused. Keeping a time constraint will keep you focused and motivated to get the job done.
Another thing that I was taught was to really identify who your target market is for me it is more than just saying well my target market is Realtors, Brokers etc. I needed to sit down and create the “perfect client”. Who do I want to work with, what is their personality traits, are they successful, how old are they, how long have they been in business etc. Really digging down to identify who your target market is will allow you to identify who your business should be marketed to.Once you have figured out who you then need to figure out where, where do does my “ideal client” hang out and network. What do they do for fun and most importantly how can I get myself and my business in front of them.
So really getting down to the basics and starting with a strong foundation should help to lay the ground work for creating marketing goals and successful marketing plans for 2010.
Don’t just set resolutions this year get out there and take a look at the big picture, what do I want to do in my business this year? Set goals for yourself and break them down into action plans set up a monthly, annually and yearly marketing calendar for yourself.
Skye Hawk, REPA, REW
O: (480) 463-4971
At Your Service!
Virtual Assistant Specialists
www.AtYourService-VA.com
Skyeh@atyourservice-va.com
Please do not use this as an opportunity to put Twitter on autopilot to spam out your listings and beg people for business. It is important to understand that Twitter is a conversational tool and the fastest way to lose followers is to only talk about your business or constantly throw ads at them. Try to have a good balance of conversation and auto Tweets for business purposes. If you build relationships with people on Twitter they will help Re-Tweet your business information if they find that information valuable to their followers. 
As a blogger here on Active Rain it's obvious that we get excited over SEO, or 
;)
;)
