Monday 21 March 2016

Thou Shalt Have A Marketing Plan!

Thou shalt have a marketing plan, the first commandment of successful business management.

Social Media is not the be all or end all to online marketing programs.

It is merely a further enhancement to traditional systems. The thing is, we need to have a plan. If we have already been using multiple traditional marketing systems that are part of our marketing budget, then we need to keep it up. Stopping abruptly can have huge negative effects on a business. By adding online systems we will increase our reach to more potential customers, customers that perhaps we would not have without them. Eventually we could even cut back on some of the expensive traditional systems and replace them with these new, much less costly ones.

Because these online systems are offered for free, they are often taken for granted.

We tend to think that we can get clients or make sales for free. That is not the case. There is nothing for free.

Even if a platform is free, we must monetize it. In other words, make it pay. It takes time to build the "know, like and trust" with people online, especially when we are doing it the free way. So there really is a cost to marketing a business even using free platforms.

If we want to get clients a little sooner, we can purchase ads on Facebook, and LinkedIn for instance. 
These save us a tremendous amount of time, and pay for themselves with the time factor alone.

However, if you have never used paid ads on Facebook or LinkedIn, it is a good idea to educate yourself first.

Remember the nature channels you have watched on TV where you see schools of fish swimming together first one way and then quickly changing to a different direction. They do this continuously with two things in mind: 1. To find food. 2. To not be food.

Are you running your marketing program without a plan?  Are you constantly running to one shiny idea after another, discovering that none of them work? This is what your online marketing can be like if you do not have a plan.

You can find examples of marketing plans online, but if you do not know how to set up a marketing plan, my best suggestion is to get a coach who can help you get started in the right direction.

Personally, I have had many coaches and still use coaches and mentors. My business would never have reached where it is today without the help of these professionals.

You will get many great marketing ideas from our free webinar series, Sifting Through the Media Noise.

Sign up today!
Christine Till
The Marketing Mentress

     https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marketingmentress


www.2csuccess.com

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