Do you ever feel like you're constantly running around, trying to
get your marketing materials put together and out the door? Are
you frazzled by the marketing process, and driving your writer,
designer, or printer absolutely nuts? Is your "plan" to just pick
one new idea every now and then to implement? Or are you
constantly hopping on the latest marketing idea, and throwing
away your time and money with your efforts?
You're not alone; most small businesses have the same approach to
marketing. The result is marketing that's not cohesive; it's
marketing using the "push-and-pray" method - you just create
marketing pieces here and there, and then hope for new clients
and sales to come rushing in. When you're busy, you just forget
or put off your marketing entirely; then, when you finish all of
your client projects, you panic, push out some new marketing
materials, and hope for the best.
The answer to push-and-pray marketing is to plan your marketing
in advance: to sit down and create a Marketing Machine so that
your marketing runs smoothly and effortlessly all year long.
Creating a year-round plan for marketing can really improve the
number of sales that you'll be able to make, and keep a steady
stream of clients and income coming in. There are several things
to consider when creating your Marketing Machine:
Consistency and repetition are two of the most important things
to planning your marketing. Experts say that you have to make 6
to 12 "first" impressions on a potential client before you'll be
remembered. So make sure to set up your Marketing Machine to
include many marketing pieces per year, evenly distributed
throughout the year (see "Timing," below) and presented in many
different ways (see "Format," below).
You should also make sure to have consistent and repetitive copy
and design elements throughout your materials. Using some of the
same text selling points across all of your marketing materials
helps increase memorability. And making sure the look-and-feel of
your materials is also consistent, with a well-designed and well-
established Visual Vocabulary, will make the pieces of your
Marketing Machine look like a well-planned, professional, and
unified set, instead of a disjointed mess, just slapped together.
Format is the way that you're delivering your marketing
materials. Marketing can be presented in many formats:
1. Printed materials, like stationery, brochures, postcards,
and datasheets
2. Online materials, like your website
3. Digital materials, like Word templates, email signatures,
and PDF files
4. Written materials, like articles and press release
5. Meeting and presentation materials, like PowerPoint
presentations, presentation folders, proposal covers,
and leave-behind materials like brochures or other
marketing pieces.
6. Follow-up materials, like eZines or online newsletters,
offline newsletters, sales letters, and thank-you cards
It's important to match the media that you're marketing in to
your target audience to get great results from your Marketing
Machine. For example, if your audience is highly technical,
marketing online is probably a good idea. But if you're selling
to people who rarely use computers, printed media would be a
better direction to take.
Timing includes making sure that you market consistently
throughout the year. But there are some other factors to consider
when setting up your Marketing Machine.
Make sure that you set up your Marketing Machine so that you have
plenty of time to create your materials and promotions. Consider
working materials in "off times" for your business, such as the
holiday season, or on slow days. Working on marketing when you're
not busy with other projects will allow you to make the best
possible use of your time and to devote enough attention to each
of your marketing efforts.
If you partner with vendors, such as designers, printers,
copywriters, or others to create your marketing materials, make
sure that they have enough time to do a good-quality job as well.
Ask what their lead times are, and be sensitive to their busy
times as well.
Another technique to cut down on time spent working on your
Marketing Machine is to batch similar projects together; for
example, writing several articles at once and then setting up
those pages on your website so that they're ready to send when
it's time to release them. Some newsletter services, such as
Email Brain (http://www.emailbrain.com) even allow you to set
up your newsletters to send at a scheduled time in the future
- even months down the road, which automates your Marketing
Machine even further.
Budget approximately 10% of your gross profit for marketing use,
say the experts. Be sure that you include all aspects of creating
your marketing materials, including:
1. Design work
2. Copywriting and copyediting
3. Printing
4. Mailing
5. Placement fees for advertising
6. Public relations
7. HTML newsletter service fees
8. Website hosting and domain name fees
9. Website maintenance and updates
10. Search engine optimization
11. Trade show fees
12. Referral and affiliate fees
Some businesses also include networking fees, like meeting costs
and membership dues, in their marketing budgets.
Batching several projects together not only helps with timing but
also with staying within your marketing budget. For example, if
you plan to send several postcards in a year, you can often save
money by designing and printing them together. You can also save
printing set-up fees by printing all of your materials for a year
at once: that way, the printer only has to do the set-up work
once. You might be able to get a discount on your web hosting or
HTML newsletter fees by pre-paying an entire year at once.
And make sure to set a bit of your budget aside for unexpected
marketing efforts: for that press release you'll have to send
when you win an award, or for advertising in the perfect new
publication for your target market.
Evaluation of Success means asking your new leads how they found
you, and tracking the resulting sales and conversion rates. Make
sure that each of the components of your Marketing Machine is
working for you and producing results. But be sure that you give
those components a bit of time to begin working: it often takes a
bit of consistent repetition in marketing to see some results.
Flexibility is important as well. If you begin a new type of
marketing and you find that it isn't working after a few months,
you should be flexible in your plans for your Marketing Machine.
Reevaluate whether the marketing tactic just needs a bit more
time or if you should revise or replace it with some other type
of marketing piece.
Maintaining the Machine involves reevaluating your Marketing
Machine plans at least quarterly to make sure that they are in
alignment with your business's progress and goals for the year.
See if you need to add any marketing tactics or revise your plans
to fit with your business's path.
If you create a Marketing Machine that addresses all of the
topics above, you should be on your way to marketing your
business in a successful, well-thought-out, and manageable way.
And if you implement your Marketing Machine in a consistent and
repetitive way throughout the year, you should have less stress
and more sales in the coming year.
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