The Marketing Plan Handbook

Develop Big-Picture Marketing Plans for Pennies on the Dollar

Robert W. Bly

• Publisher: Entrepreneur Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781599185590
• eBook ISBN: 9781613083031
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

Deliver Big-Picture Marketing Plans for Pennies on the Dollar
Successful marketing expert and copywriter Robert W. Bly cuts through the clutter of short-lived marketing techniques and trendy gimmicks to reveal the critical steps you need to cross over from business owner to marketplace competitor.Dishing bite-sized lessons, supported by in-chapter exercises and end-of-chapter actions, Bly coaches you in creating an effective marketing plan that produces the results of an expensive marketing consultant without the hefty cost.Learn how to:
Develop a clear business vision
Position your business and services strategically
Research your market and target your ideal client
Integrate online and offline marketing
Put measurements in place to assess marketing tactics
Create an effective implementation schedule
Review and troubleshoot for future success and growthWhether embarking on a new venture or reviving your current business plan, this practical handbook provides the next steps toward business success and survival.

There is a key aspect to the planning of marketing campaigns that differs depending on whether you are a corporate marketing manager or a small business owner or solopreneur. The former has to please only his employer; the latter seeks to create a business that rewards him personally as well as financially, delivering both the income and the lifestyle he seeks.

For the marketing manager at a corporation or a small business of which she is not the owner, the objective of the marketing plan is pretty much the same for every company: Create and implement a campaign that maximizes return on marketing dollars (ROMD). In other words, generate the maximum sales and profits for every dollar spent on marketing.

But for the marketing planner who is also the business owner, there is an added dimension to the planning process: vision. By this, we mean creating a marketing plan that not only maximizes ROMD, but also delivers the lifestyle the solopreneur or owner wants to get from her business.

To create a marketing plan that enables you to live this lifestyle, you need a clear vision of what your ideal lifestyle would be. For instance, I am a workaholic who puts in 12-hour days and has a relatively large work output. But I have colleagues in the businesses I am in—freelance copywriting and information products—for whom working only a few hours each day is paramount. Naturally, our businesses look wildly different, with our marketing plans tailored to achieving our goals and vision.

When I was a corporate marketing manager, my marketing plans were written strictly to maximize my employer’s ROMD. But if you own outright or are a partner or shareholder in a small business, you are writing a marketing plan that not only achieves the company’s goal but your personal vision of how you want to live your life. There are also many bigger companies that integrate a vision or mission statement into a marketing plan designed to make the vision a reality.

What Is Your Vision?

Too many business owners and managers have no clue about which way to go next. Are you one of them?

If so, what you need is a clear picture of your destination. You need a vision. Your vision—or in the parlance of corporate America, your “mission statement”—declares where your business is headed and what it will look like when it has arrived.

A mission statement tells you what success (for you) looks like. How else will you know when you’ve achieved it? Your marketing plan refocuses everything you do in your business into a series of planned, coordinated actions to create your vision.

Why are goals important? You’ve heard the old saying: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.” This is true for travel, for life, and in business. People say, “I want a business in which I make a lot of money,” but they can’t tell you what “a lot of money” is and have no specific income goal. They say, “I want to be successful in business,” but when you ask them exactly what that means, they can’t say.

The conventional definition of business success is money and size: how much money you earn per year, the gross annual sales of the business, number of employees, number of customers served, number of locations, and the net worth of the owner. But is that really accurate? Does it work for you? Or are your values different?

There is no right or wrong answer. Choose what works for you, and then design a marketing plan that enables your business to deliver both the income and the lifestyle you seek from it.

Design Your Business to Deliver the Lifestyle You Seek

The ideal business is one that delivers the income and lifestyle you desire, while enabling you to attain it doing work you enjoy and find both meaningful and satisfying, with and for people you care about.

Many businesspeople spend their days doing work they either actively dislike or do not care about so that they can own a big home or drive a luxury car. But during the workweek, you spend more than half your waking hours working. True happiness comes from being happy both at work and in the life you enjoy from the fruits of your labors.

To write a marketing plan for your business that enables you to achieve optimum reward both at work and at home, you need to visualize what you want in both venues. At work, do you want to be part of a team of bright, creative, enthusiastic professionals? Or do you dream of spending the day alone at your PC, in quiet and solitude, writing programs or balancing numbers on spreadsheets? At home, is it important that you are the envy of your friends and neighbors for your obvious wealth, living in the biggest, fanciest home on the block, or driving the most expensive cars? Do you desire with all your being to dine in five-star restaurants and join the best clubs? Or is your idea of happiness grilling franks and hamburgers with neighbors in your backyard? Think about your ideal day. What d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Harness The Power of Vision
• Chapter 2: Decide What Business You’re in
• Chapter 3: Get to Know Everything About your Ideal Customer
• Chapter 4: Who is the Competition?
• Chapter 5: Strategize: Position your Business
• Chapter 6: Build Out Your Product Line
• Chapter 7: Assess Your Tactics
• Chapter 8: Integrate Online and Offline Marketing
• Chapter 9: Put Your Measurements in Place
• Chapter 10: Write Your Plan
• Chapter 11: Work It!—Implementation
• Chapter 12: Review and Troubleshoot Your Plan
• Chapter 13: Content Marketing
• Chapter 14: Mobile Marketing
• Chapter 15: Social Networking
• Appendix A: Forms and Worksheets
• Appendix B: Model Marketing Plan
• Appendix C: Marketing Consultants
• Appendix D: Sources and Resources
• Appendix E: Glossary
• About the Author
• Index