Your most powerful marketing tool is your business plan (2)

If the idea of creating a business plan makes your eyes glaze over, don't worry. This chapter isn't about the kind of detailed business plan you'd need to get a loan from a
bank or money from a venture capitalist. In fact, the kind of business plan I'm going to show you just might be the most dynamic document you've ever created, and it is likely to be
the most profitable.
First things first. If you've already written a business plan, print it out or dust it off and take a look at it. If it's more than
two years old, its shelf life has expired. Why? The global economic changes in 2008 and 2009 require a whole new
way of looking at the business world. Assumptions made
based on market conditions prior to 2009 just aren't a clear picture of the real world anymore. So be prepared to make
some changes.
If you've never written a business plan, you're about to find
out how to make it your most powerful marketing tool. Pull out a pad of paper and a pen, and let's get started.
Define Success in Your Own Terms
Start off by defining what you mean by "success" for the
next 12 months. There is no one definition for success. Success can mean different things to different people. Your definition should be what will satisfy you, and it's likely to
evolve over time. But unless you know what your success
target is for the immediate future, you won't know when
you've hit it.
Here are some ways to define business success for any given year:
- Profit.
- Market share.
- New product penetration.
- Media coverage and endorsements.
National distribution channels.
Percent gain in product sales.
Industry credibility-speaking engagements, interviews, board or committee roles.
You may even think of a few more possibilities. The point is
that success is more than just money, although for most
companies and solo professionals, there is a target amount of money involved.
Ready, Aim...
Now write down your top three business goals for next year. Be sure to prioritize them from most important to least
important. Do they match your definition of success?
One of the reasons marketing often fails for small businesses and solo professionals is that the marketing is not aligned with the prioritized business plan goals. Overwhelmed business owners take whatever marketing
opportunities cross their paths, or buy into "deals" offered
to them by persuasive media salespeople. They don't know
how to say yes with confidence and no without guilt because they don't have any standard to judge the
opportunities.
Your business plan sets that standard. Next to each of your prioritized business goals, Iwant you to write down who the
target audience is for that goal. The more precisely you can
narrow down the target audience (for example, instead of
"everyone," it would be better to say "college-educated men between the ages of 18 and 30"), the more precisely
you'll be able to target your marketing. You may have more
than one target audience for each goal (for now), or you may have the same target audience for all of your goals. That's okay. We'll look at your audiences in more detail in
the next chapter.
...Fire! Or Aim Again
Once you've matched an audience with a prioritized goal, make a list of all your current marketing efforts. List everything: Website, direct mail, print or radio ads,
signage, social media, e-mail newsletters, speaking
appearances, press releases, etc. Now that you've made a
comprehensive list, match each marketing effort to the
target audience it reaches, and to the business goal it
supports. Do you see any disconnects?
Usually at this point, business owners notice that they have marketing efforts that reach a particular target audience but
that they aren't communicating a message that supports the
business goal that is now linked to that audience. For example, perhaps paid magazine ads are reaching the
right type of reader, but the call to action isn't aligned with
the top business goal, so if the goal is "increase the mailing
list with opt-ins," the ad should encourage readers to go to
the Website and sign up with their e-mail address to
receive something.
Or business owners discover "orphan" marketing efforts
that don't seem to connect with any prioritized business goal. Orphan marketing efforts might exist out of habit, or because they met an old need, or because there's an
emotional connection to the action or to the person who
sold it to you. But if it's not advancing a business goal, it's an orphan because there is no reason to keep doing it. They might also find marketing that is communicating the
right message for a goal, but to the wrong audience. Getting the message in sync with the best target audience
in support of the right prioritized goal is the first step to marketing success. And though this book focuses on social media marketing, that's just one of many tools to help your
company promote itself. Social media marketing will be most successful if it's linked to the right goal and audience, and you'll get a multiplier effect on all of your marketing
efforts if they are all in sync. As you'll see when we get into
the details of social media marketing, good social media
helps to send prospects to your Website, shares your press
releases, or distributes your podcasts or blog posts. If
those marketing actions aren't tied to the right goals and
audiences, you can have a brilliant social media strategy but your prospect will get a muddled, ineffective message
that will cost you sales.
Look for Gaps
Now that you've aligned your business plan goals according to your success priorities, matched the goals to
the right target audiences, and matched your current marketing efforts to the right audience and goal, it's time to
go "gap hunting"
Here's how to gap hunt:
Are there any goals/audiences without even one marketing
effort?
- Are all the marketing efforts bunched up around one goal?
Does most of your marketing effort support your top
prioritized goal?
- Is most of your effort being put into goals you've ranked as
second or third in importance?
Do you have target audiences who aren't the focus of any marketing?
Is one target audience getting all the marketing messages?
Are second- or third-goal audiences getting more marketing messages than your top-goal audience?
Make a list of these marketing gaps, because you'll need to
address them across your marketing, and you'll want to
look for ways social media can help you plug the holes.
Defining Your Transformative Value
Before any customer spends money, he or she has to overcome two obstacles: ego and money. Ego is what makes people try to fix a problem themselves with what
they have, rather than hire someone to do it. They don't agree to buy a service or product until they fail at fixing the
problem themselves. Money is what clients hope to save by doing the job themselves. Most people won't hire someone
for any job until 1) they have failed to do it themselves, and
2) there is enough at stake that continued failure will cost more than paying for the job.
Every person who buys your product or service does so
because he or she has a problem. For example, if you are
a business coach who specializes in work/life balance, your
clients set aside time and money to work with you because
they are currently out of balance. If you run a roofing firm,
clients hire you to replace missing shingles. "Balance" or
"missing shingles" is the problem.
Behind the problem is a pain. That's the chance that the
problem could get bigger. The work/life balance problem
could begin to impact a person's relationships or the ability
to complete projects. A few missing shingles could lead to water damage and more expensive repairs if not fixed
promptly.
Underneath the pain is a fear. The fear is the "what if" that
keeps a prospect up at night envisioning the worst
scenario. The work/life balance issue could lead to a
divorce, delinquent children, or bankruptcy. Water damage
could mean a whole new roof and expensive structural damage.
Your Transformative Value is the way you speak to the
problem/ pain/fear in your own unique way. When you make
a sale, it's because you have done two things: successfully answered the ego/ money challenge and satisfied the
problem/pain/fear issue. To satisfy the ego/money
challenge, you've convinced the prospect that you have
skills they don't, you will save them money, and they'll have
better results. You've resolved the problem/pain/fear issue
by assuring them that you can fix the initial problem so well
that the pain and fear disappear.
Successful marketing communicates your unique Transformative Value to your best prospects to satisfy both
the ego/money objection and to solve the
problem/pain/fear. Social media is one of the many marketing channels you can use to communicate that message effectively.

Why most marketing does not work (1)

Marketing horror stories. You've probably heard them. You may have one yourself. These are the stories about how
someone tried a marketing technique, sent out a press
release, or ran an ad and "it didn't work." I've heard plenty of these stories. And as with most urban
legends, there's usually more to the story than meets the
eye. If you're reading this book, you're a coach, consultant,
speaker, author, or owner of a small business, and you want more from your marketing than you're currently getting. Or you may not be marketing at all because your business
is new, or because you're afraid to fail. Or perhaps your marketing is chugging along with mediocre returns or muddled measurement.
Take heart. Marketing isn't mysterious, and once you
understand how the pieces fit together, you'll be in a better position to market your own company or to oversee
someone to handle marketing for you. Take the first step in
the RESULTS model and recommit to marketing. Let's
start by looking at the seven most common reasons that marketing plans fail:
- No planning. This is true in both large and small businesses. Many marketing efforts fail because there is no
link between the marketing actions and the bottom-line
business plan goals that drive revenue. This happens because decision-makers get caught up with a vivid,
creative idea that isn't accountable to the bottom line, or because they take a "great deal" offered by a salesperson
for a media buy. Marketing without a plan is a disaster waiting to happen.
- Inappropriate actions. If there is no plan, then whatever marketing actions that are taken may conflict with each
other. It's unlikely they'll reinforce each other or support a
business plan goal. Disappointing results come about because of a "ready, fire, aim" approach where actions aren't anchored to business objectives and target audiences. Attempts to copy a successful competitor's marketing without understanding why (or whether) the
action is working for them is also a dangerous approach.
Lack of clarity about the target market. Mass marketing is dead. Blasting out marketing without a clear target is wasteful and unsuccessful. You can't hit a target if you
haven't identified it. There is a sweet spot of potential
customers who could become your ideal clients. You'll need
to get to know them to win them.
- Lack of clear goals. If you don't have an up-front understanding of what success will look like, you won't
know when you achieve it. Not only do your marketing
actions need to be linked to specific business goals, but each marketing action should be measurable. Build in measurability up front so expectations are clear.
- Unreasonable expectations. A single press release isn't
likely to create a big spike in sales. One ad probably won't
save your company. Many people become disillusioned with marketing, because they don't understand the
benchmarks for successful programs. For example, most direct-mail professionals are thrilled to get a 1-percent
response rate. One percent! Yet many small businesses
send out a postcard mailing and quit in disgust, expecting a
response of 20 percent, 30 percent, or more. It's important
to have realistic expectations so you recognize success when you see it.
^Unclear on how marketing works. For many people, marketing is a lot like a DVD player: they don't know (and
don't care) how it works. Your odds of creating successful marketing are slim without some knowledge of how the
pieces function and the process required to pull the pieces
together. With the Internet, new tools are emerging almost daily. You'll need to know how to blend New Media and Web 2.0 tools with traditional marketing to succeed in
today's marketplace. Understanding what makes marketing
tick is essential whether you're doing it yourself or delegating it to someone else.
Insufficient patience. "We ran an ad once and nothing
happened." We've all heard that. But did you know that marketing research shows that it takes between seven to
30 "touches" to make a sale? Customers won't buy until
they have an urgent need. Until then, all you can do is
create name recognition and a good reputation. That's the
value of the Rule of 30. Marketing has a lot in common with
farming. You wouldn't plant seeds one day, then go out the
next and dig them up in disgust because full-grown plants hadn't sprouted overnight. Seeds take time, and you can't hurry that. Marketing seeds also take time to grow.
Putting the 30 DayGuide to Use
Remember the RESULTS approach? In the next 30 days,
you can see your social media marketing go from zero to
full speed by applying the RESULTS formula.
Recommit to set aside at least 30 minutes each day (yes, weekends, too) to devote to developing your social media marketing strategy for the next 30 days. (Thirty minutes is a minimum. Once you get started, you'll want to spend an
hour, so block out the time now.)
Expect success by throwing yourself whole-heartedly into this 30-day commitment. If the little voice in the back of your head keeps saying, "This is ridiculous. This isn't going to work," you are programming yourself for failure. Program
yourself for success by writing down 30 things you would
like to achieve from your social media strategy. Some
ideas include:
- Reconnect with old colleagues, friends, neighbors, and
associates to broaden your active circle of contacts.
- Attend the world's biggest 24/7 business networking event with a global audience (otherwise known as the Internet) and put your best foot forward.
Take advantage of all the free information, education, and
competitive intelligence at your fingertips.
Now that you've seen those three examples, come up with
your own list of 30 success expectations and keep them
handy to check back on.
Seek partners. Social media is "social." You can meet amazing people on sites such as Facebook, and get access to experts you might not be able to reach any other way. Sites such as Linkedln are particularly good for finding
out what friends and colleagues are currently doing and who they know. Make a list of 30 friends, colleagues, and
associates whom you've lost track of, and commit to finding
them and touching base via social media.
Understand your audience in more profitable detail than
ever before with the exercises in Chapter 3. Make a list of 30 things you wished you knew about your best customers, and create 30 questions you can use for quizzes, surveys, and social media discussions.
Look for win-win scenarios by posting valuable content on
the right social media sites to attract more of your best prospects. You offer solutions, and they become your best
clients. It's a win-win. Write down 30 ideas for useful tips, articles, videos, or other content you could post right away by reusing information you already have.
Take strategic action by putting what you learn in this blog.

Introduction to social media marketing (0)

Today's small businesses and solo professionals live in an
exciting time for marketers. Never before has it been
possible for small and mid-sized companies without lavish
budgets to utilize the same marketing tools as major
corporations. Social media is equally accessible to "mom
and pop" companies, one-person firms, and huge
organizations. Over the course of a year, I interact with thousands of business owners whose companies are at all levels of growth, from promising startups to established and mature
firms, but all are looking for effective promotional tools that are also cost-efficient. Though social media is one of the most exciting new communication tools to emerge in the
last twenty years and can provide effective and cost- efficient marketing, it's also one of the most misunderstood mediums.
As I travel around North America speaking to business and
professional organizations, and as I lead teleseminars and
online group coaching programs with participants from
around the world, I notice that one question seems to
dominate the conversation: "How can I use social media to
really make a difference for my company?" These very busy people want hands-on advice with practical results, and
they feel overwhelmed by the choices and the perception
that it would take a huge time commitment to make social media pay off for them. This blog is designed to help you create a strategic social media platform for your business, focused on reaching your best target audience in pursuit of your top business goal. Only you can determine your level of success, through
consistent application of the tips and strategies I'll share with you in this blog. Here's how I define success: being in
the right places to meet with the people who are interested
and able to purchase your products or services, engaging
in a dialogue that meets your prospects' needs, and
encouraging those prospects to become your customers. Now it's time for you to take the plunge into strategic social media. I hope it becomes a powerful tool to help you
achieve your dreams. Now it's time for you to take the plunge into strategic social media. I hope it becomes a powerful tool to help you
achieve your dreams.
This blog is dedicated to helping you rethink, reenergize, and restart your social media marketing in 30 days or less.
If you're a coach, consultant, author, speaker, solo
professional, or owner of a small or home-based business, and you can't afford to waste money or effort on social media marketing programs that don't produce results, this blog is for you. This blog is dedicated to helping you rethink, reenergize, and restart your social media marketing in 30 days or less.
If you're a coach, consultant, author, speaker, solo
professional, or owner of a small or home-based business, and you can't afford to waste money or effort on social media marketing programs that don't produce results, this blog is for you.
If you've never done social media marketing before, this is a great way to make sure you are starting off your marketing program on a sound footing. If you're using
social media marketing but it hasn't delivered the outcomes
that you want, this is a great way to retool your program. If
your social media marketing is chugging along but not breaking records, this approach can rekindle and
reenergize your efforts.
Let's get started!
First, the "guided tour." This blog is designed with the busy professional in mind. The information is provided in bite-
sized post that can be consumed like a daily vitamin
for your business. Each day's "bite" covers one key step to
reshaping your social media marketing in 30 days. Along with this important information, you'll also get:
- Results Reminder tips on how to do it better.
- The Rule of 30 approach to tap into a free source of marketing power.
- Exercises to help you apply what you're learning
immediately to your own situation.

The RESULTS Approach
The RESULTS approach stands for:
Recommit to marketing.
Expect success.
Seek partners.
Understand your audience.
Look for win-win scenarios.
Take strategic action.
Stay visible.
The first step is to recommit to marketing. I've found that many companies that are disappointed in the results their marketing generates never actually made a full commitment
to the activities needed to produce success. Half-hearted
efforts produce disappointing results. In order to make this guide work for you, you must fully commit to putting the
ideas into action.
The second step is to expect success. Your expectations
shape reality, and they influence others on a subconscious
level. Even if you put the ideas I'll share with you into action,
if you do so without believing that they will actually work, that doubt will undermine everything you do. You will be
preparing to fail. Having an expectation of success means
that even if your first attempt doesn't produce the results
you want, you will discover a better way to move forward
from the lessons learned.
The third step is to seek partners. No one succeeds alone. Partners can take many forms. A partner can be a
significant other who is invested in making your venture
succeed, a virtual assistant, or a helpful ally. The most powerful partnerships are those you make formally and
informally with other companies that are already serving
your ideal target audience in non-competing ways.
The fourth step is to understand your audience. Many marketing efforts fail because they are focused on what the
business wants to sell instead of what the target audience
needs to solve an urgent problem. Once you align your marketing with the problems that are keeping your prospects up at night, you will be on your way to producing
results.
Step five is to look for win-win scenarios. This means developing collaborative projects with your marketing
partners to grow your business and theirs. For example, a
certified public accountant (CPA) and a lawyer specializing
in small-business law might team up to present a series of educational seminars on hot-topic issues involving money and law for small companies. If each firm already has an
established opt-in e-mail list of clients and prospects, they
could write articles for each other's newsletters. The firms aren't competitors because they don't provide the same
services, but they do serve the same audience. Each firm
wins through the cross-promotion, and the clients and
prospects also win, assuming the information provided is
valuable.
Step six is to take strategic chances. This book can't guarantee results. It can only share a system that has worked for me and for my clients during the last 25 years. Your effort is the only thing that can move results from a
possibility to a reality. Results require risk. Your firm might grow larger, creating new management problems. Your book could become a best-seller-and then what? Demand
for your product might exceed your current capacity to
supply. More people are held back by a fear of success
than by a fear of failure. (Reread that and try it on for size
before moving on.) In order to really get results, you must be willing to take a chance. Your first attempt might not get off
the ground, but the second try could be spectacular. Or you may succeed your way into a whole new set of problems. Either way, you have to take a risk to get results.
Finally, stay visible. Too many companies take the "prairie
dog" approach to marketing, popping their heads up at
random intervals and then disappearing again. Customers buy when the need is urgent for them, not when it's
convenient for you. That's why you must stay visible through
a consistent, ongoing program of marketing and publicity, not a few sporadic outbursts.
Marketing isn't mysterious. It's not difficult to understand the
essentials, but it does take work to get results. You may have the good fortune to be able to delegate some of that work, or your checking account may dictate that, at least for now, you are a oneperson show. Either way, as the
company owner, practice principal, speaker, or author, you
are and always will be your own most valuable marketing
resource. This blog will show you how to harness that power so that you can be efficient and effective and get the
results you desire.