In my 25+ years of working in public relations, I’ve been involved in developing and implementing more marketing plans than I can count. Some have been simple one-pagers, while others involved Gant charts (seriously??) and complex spreadsheets.
While I appreciate the complexity of marketing plans with a budget of over $1-million, that’s not the reality for many small businesses.
When it comes to small businesses, it’s important you have a marketing plan that meets your budget AND can be easily implemented. To make sure it actually happens, keep it simple.
In your marketing plan, make sure to:
- Get clear on your priority audiences
- Set a budget
- Create a realistic marketing plan
- Keep it as simple as possible so it’s easy to implement and measure
- Before you add anything, see if something can be dropped
- Stay committed to implementing you plan
Streamline for simplicity
This year, I decided to focus on promoting my keynote speaking and corporate training workshops. Looking at my online presence, it wasn’t really clear that I offered these services. This led to the creation of fresh videos, photos and a new website.
Just like when you’re renovating your home, once I’d refreshed one website, I started looking at where else needed work – including my other digital assets. Where it once made sense to have three websites, speaking to the various streams of my work, it was now unnecessarily complicating my marketing.
The result – I shut down my digital product website. I moved the blogs to the new site, and offered up my top resources as FREE downloads. Not only did this save me a lot of money in hosting fees and backend subscriptions, but it’s also easier to maintain. Bonus – people can now get for free what was previously paid products.
Pick your channels
I also looked at my social media channels and decided to practice what I preach. I’m always telling my clients to pick one social media channel, do a good job providing value, then grow from there.
Looking at my posts, engagements and audience, I’ve shifted my social media focus to LinkedIn and Facebook. While I still have X and Instagram accounts, I rarely post there.
This wasn’t a quick decision, but rather one made after reflecting on who my clients are (organizations and professionals) and where they spend their time. With a goal of providing helpful content so people can communicate with confidence, I have more opportunities to engage my audiences on Facebook and LinkedIn than posting a photo or typing in a few words.
Be strategic
I was recently chatting with a client about radio and print advertising. They said while they buy ads, they’re not sure if it’s getting them any traction.
My first question – who is the audience you’re trying to capture? If it’s seniors, then yes, local newspaper ads are a great option. But if you’re wanting to connect with teens, it will be a miss.
This is why having a marketing plan is essential. There are so many ways to promote your business. And unless you have that elusive $1 million budget, you need to be strategic.
Instead of sprinkling advertising throughout the year, in small amounts that are likely lost in the noise, consider marketing blitzes. Even if you aren’t a retail store, look at how there’s natural times for blitzes based on your sector – example retailers target Black Friday or Christmas.
For your organization, what makes sense for a marketing burst? Is there a time of year that people are talking about the work you do (example spring for home renovations, fall for planning staff development for the new year). You know your cycle better than anyone. Now look at how and where to overlay marketing.
Don’t wing it
My final piece of advice for creating simple marketing plans is to stick to them. While you do need flexibility to seize new opportunities, take a moment to reflect before committing.
With each new opportunity, look at your audiences, goals and budget for the year. How does this opportunity align? If I say yes to this, do I need to say no to something else? If so, is this worth dropping a planned campaign?
At the end of the day, marketing doesn’t have to be complex to be effective. When you focus on a few clear goals, prioritize your audience and streamline your channels, you give your marketing plan a far better chance to work.
The more straightforward your strategy, the easier it will be to implement, track and, most importantly, stick with over time. Here’s to doing less but achieving more!