Super, Simple 3-Step Marketing Plan

Yesterday during my weekly BNI networking meeting, my very wise friend and fellow chapter member, Whitney Hahn (certified guerilla marketing coach and co-owner of Digital Bard Video. Web. Marketing.) presented us with a super easy, 3-step procedure, to get started on our 2012 marketing plan. And… here is is:

Step 1: Write down the marketing actions you want to take. Keep it very simple, just action-based, such as "Write Blog Post" or "Advertise in Local Newspaper". Whitney suggests writing each action down on a small piece of paper, like a Post-It note.

Step 2: Divide a large sheet of paper (or white board) up into 5 sections: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. Then, take the actions you created in step one, and assign them to one of these sections. For instance, for Kalico, I would take my "Write Blog Post" post-it, and stick it in the "weekly" section of my white board. Do this for all your actions (keep in mind, it should be easy to rearrange things as needed, we are working with post-it notes, here, people. they're sticky, that's what they do.)

Step 3: Once you're happy with your actions and timeline, be sure to add them to your regular appointment calendar, be it an online calendar, your blackberry, your planner, etc. Basically, wherever you keep track of your appointments, meetings, and events, you also need to include the actions indicated above. It's like you're making an appointment with yourself and your business, be sure you schedule the time here (I'll admit, this is where I fall short!).

And, there you have it. The start to a super, simple, low-tech, but ever-so-effective marketing plan. And remember, marketing plans may need to evolve and change over the course of time, and that's ok (in fact, it's typical!). But, at least you'll have a starting point to work from, with goals and a timeline you set yourself. I hope this helps! How do you come up with your marketing plan?