One of the most powerful strategic planning tools your business can possess is a marketing plan. Your marketing plan should be a simple (in some cases, one-page) document that specifically answers who you are, what you do, who needs what you do, and how you plan to attract their attention.
It's a combination of the planning process and the completed action plan. Follow these seven simple steps to build the perfect marketing plan:
Step 1: Narrow Your Market Focus
Try to describe your ideal customer in the narrowest and most detailed terms possible, as though you're describing him or her to a referral source. Utilizing targeted mailing lists, such as consumer mailing lists or business mailing lists, can help you reach these specific customer profiles more effectively.
Step 2: Position Your Business
Figure out what you do best and what your target market wants. Maybe it's how you serve a niche or package your products. If you don't know what it is, call up three or four of your clients and ask them why they buy from you. Craft a core marketing message that allows you to quickly differentiate your business. Consider leveraging lists like the licensed professionals mailing list or new homeowner mailing lists to understand and position your business effectively.
Step 3: Create Education-Based Marketing Materials
Recreate all your marketing materials, including your website, to focus on education. Make certain every word in your marketing materials speaks of your core messages and to your target market. Our property mortgage mailing lists or apartment complex renters lists can help you target the right audience with your educational content.
Step 4: Never Cold Call
Make sure all your advertising is geared toward creating prospects, not customers. You must find ways to educate before you sell. Your target market needs to learn how you provide value in a way that makes them want to pay a premium for your services or products. You simply can't do this in a 3-inch-by-4-inch ad. Your ad must get viewers to ask for more information. Then you can proceed to selling. Determine all the ways you can get your education-based messages in front of your narrowly defined target market using targeted mailing lists like the new mover mailing lists.
Step 5: Earn Media Attention
Create a list of journalists who cover your industry or community, and build relationships with each by becoming a reliable resource of information. Plan out an entire year of new items you can promote by season or event.
Step 6: Expect Referrals
Create a referral marketing engine that systematically turns each client and referral network into a kind of unpaid sales pro. You must instill a referral marketing mind-set into your business's culture. Do this by making every customer a marketing and referral contact. Map every contact and build processes that focus on referrals. Consider using our executive at home mailing lists to reach potential high-value clients and referral sources.
Step 7: Live by a Calendar
After you complete steps 1 through 6, determine what you need to do to put them into action. Then create an annual marketing calendar, noting the required monthly, weekly, and daily appointments necessary to move your plan forward.
Enhance Your Marketing Strategy with BB Direct
BB Direct offers a wide range of targeted mailing lists, including:
- Consumer Mailing Lists
- Business Mailing Lists
- New Mover Mailing Lists
- New Homeowner Mailing Lists
- Licensed Professionals Mailing List
- Property Mortgage Mailing Lists
- Apartment Complex Renters Lists
- Executive at Home Mailing Lists
By incorporating these lists into your marketing plan, you can reach the right audience with your educational content and achieve your marketing goals. Let us help you refine your strategy and drive your business forward with our high-quality, targeted mailing lists.
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award-winning blogger, and author of "Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide."