Who needs a marketing plan....You do!
Actually, every business owner needs to have a marketing plan. This is especially true for solo practitioners, real estate agents and/or small business owners. Marketing plans are important because they keep you focused on developing and deepening client/customer relationships.This is something that often goes overlooked during the day-to-day world of commerce.
Here are four reasons why a marketing plan is important:
1. Having a marketing plan forces you to think about attracting new customers/clients. In most companies, marketing is not a discipline that is given a great deal of thought. Many times, attendance at networking events are the only marketing-related activities that take place. Developing an actual marketing plan forces you to think about who you want as a customer/client and how you will attract them.
2. A marketing plan will keep you on track. If you want to know how to get somewhere you need to follow a road map. A good marketing plan will serve as a road map that will lead you toward achieving your business development goals. It will also bring you back on to the right path when you get off track.
3. Writing down your marketing plan will commit you to working on client acquisition. Everything we write down seems to magically happen. This is the power of a psychological commitment. Committing your marketing plan to paper will help cement this commitment in your mind. Since action follows commitment, your plan stands a better chance of becoming reality if it is in writing.
4. A marketing plan helps you keep a record of things that work...and things that don't. Most of us operate under the trial and error philosophy. We try something and if it doesn't work, we don't do it again. This only makes sense if you give something a 3 to 6 month commitment to implement so you can measure results, test different media and work toward your profit margin. Doing something half-hearted and claiming it didn't work is not really giving it a fair shot. Creating a marketing plan, executing it and comparing the results of your actions to the desired results (outlined in the plan) will be valuable in determining which marketing tactics you should implement in the future.
If you are someone who would like a free Marketing Strategy session to see how to get your business plan on paper, feel free to contact me at Eileen@MeetEileen.com and we will schedule a session for next week.
Have a Happy New Year!
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