I’ve written about planning your marketing efforts several times here on BoDo, but now is the time of year when it bears another mention. Without a plan, your marketing … and your business in general … just “happens” to you. That’s a bad idea. With the new year looming, now is the perfect time to put together your goals for 2008 and your strategies to make those goals a reality.

Your plan doesn’t need to be a lengthy tome that rivals War & Peace. It simply needs to be a written set of goals along with the steps needed to reach them.

So, where do you start? A bit of soul searching is likely in order. What do you want to do? What’s your passion? Are you happy with the direction your business has been taking? Or, is a change in order? The thing is, unless you’re doing something you enjoy and can make a decent living doing it, there isn’t much point. As someone once said, “Find something you love doing and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

Goals are what you’re trying to accomplish. The kicker is that they should be realistic and have a timeline attached. If your goals are out there in the Stratosphere, odds are you’ll lose interest or spend way too much time trying to reach the unattainable. The same thing goes for a timeline. Without one, you’ll likely put things off and/or never know if you’re making any progress.

Once you have a goal - let’s say you want to increase billings by 25% - give yourself a reasonable amount of time to reach it. Maybe June 30, 2008 works. With goal in hand, or rather, on paper, break it down into the steps you need to take to reach it. This does a couple of things. First, it organizes your efforts. Things become clear. Each of these steps is something of a “mini-goal.” So, as you get things done, you’ll feel like you’re making progress and that typically encourages one to keep at it.

If you’re trying to increase your billings by 25%, what would you need to do? Maybe it means identifying and reaching a new niche market. Perhaps it means adding new services. Let’s use the former and break it down.

Goal:
Increase billings 25% by June 30, 2006

Action Plans:
Identify a niche that’s under served, yet offers enough prospects to be profitable
Conduct web searches
Check directories at library
Develop a list of 300 qualified prospects

Create initial mailing to generate name awareness
Design piece by January 15, 2008
Get printing and mailing costs
Print piece
Prepare labels
Label, stamp & mail in lots of 25 each week beginning February 1, 2008

Follow up phone calls
5 calls per day to 25 weekly recipients asking for an appointment
Target one appointment per week

Initial meetings
Research prospect, market and potential needs
Gather background info at meeting to further qualify prospect
Ask if I can prepare a proposal
Use tip-sheet as leave behind

Create proposals

Make presentations

Ask for the sale

You may find yourself doing additional tasks, but this should give you the general idea.

What you’ve done here is set up your marketing efforts for several months. And, it’s manageable. You’ll have some time invested in developing your list, but after that, things start to become automatic. You know each week, for 12 weeks, you’ve got to mail your intro piece. Then, the following week all you need to do is make five phone calls each day. Piece of cake.

Plus, each time you drop your stuff into the mailbox, you’ll get those nifty warm fuzzy feelings because you’re doing something to help reach your goals. The phone calls might be a bit tough at first, but hang in there. I guarantee after the first week or so, they’ll be old hat.

Add into the mix some networking events, writing some how-tos and tip sheets, news releases and other marketing and public relations activities and next thing you know, that 25% increase is getting pretty attainable.

Find some handy place to post your goals and action plans. Maybe the refrigerator door, or the bathroom mirror. Find some place where they’ll haunt you.

I use my contact manager/calendar to alert me with what needs to be done and when. Once you start getting busy, it’s easy to put this stuff off. After a bit, you get out of the habit and Mr. Feast or Famine can quickly come a callin.’

And there you have it. Taking a little time now to make your plans and then working those plans in a consistent manner will help ensure 2008 will be the year of you.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt