7 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan

Here are my 7 steps on creating or updating a Marketing Plan. Since it’s summertime, this is the perfect time to take a look at your past marketing plan, and make tweaks for the upcoming year. Here are my 7 steps:

1. First we figure out what the specific and measurable objectives of our sales and marketing strategy.
2. Then we brainstorm ideas (30-50 ideas). i.e. create webinars, teleseminars, utilize Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, create more Press releases, partner with associations, update brochures,  host live events, Work with vendors and provide content & workshops at conferences, Work with a charities, Print advertising (magazines, newsletters), Tradeshow booths (get smaller vendors to split cost, or go with vendors)
3. Then we need to reduce the list down to 15 or so, by choosing the brainstorming ideas that also meet my objective.
4. Create a Value versus Cost Matrix (setup a matrix with the following: low cost, low value; high cost, high value; low cost, high value; high cost, low value).
5. Choose the Top 7 marketing ideas to implement.
6. Figure out a marketing budget. Herein lies the problem, what is a marketin ROI and how do I calculate it?  I know how much my marketing is going to cost me, and I can guess how much revenues I’m going to earn, but how do you calculate the actual ROI???   Time for Google, after going through a few pages, I find the jackpot of Marketing information including the duct tape marketing blog. I also got some great ideas to add to my marketing brainstorming I did earlier, like: webinars, webcasts.
7. Create the Action Plan!  (what, when, how, etc..). Right now I’m liking Central Desktop for handling our projects. This service allows you to create projects for small businesses for free!

Jeff Russell