How to Draft Your Small Business Marketing Plan - Take The Time

Drafting a small business marketing plan will benefit your small business so you need to take the time. If your business employs one or a very few and you feel that there is no time to stop, do research, and write a plan, make time. That investment of time to write your marketing plan will save your small business time and money consistently down the road.

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Time to spend researching all aspects of business.
• Be able to follow your plan for business success.

1. Step 1

   Marketing Plan Is Your Roadmap
   
   When you do not have a marketing plan to use as your business road map you start making mistakes or are not consistent. By developing your own marketing plan, you ensure that the marketing part of your business will run smoothly and will not be subject to the "spur of the moment" type decision making. Marketing your business will then be organized.
   
   The return on your investment for making time to draft a marketing plan stays with you as long as you follow and update your plan. These are five reasons that will get you started.

2. Step 2

   1. You need to think about your small business.
   
   The biggest advantage of taking time to draft your small business marketing plan gives you time to think, in depth, about your business. What is your current situation in regards to customers, marketing activities, and ROI? Who is your current competition? Is there anything going on in the industry that can change how you do business? Do you know what your goals are for the next week, month, and year? Without a plan you will not have a road map showing you how to get from now to then.

3. Step 3

   2. A marketing plan organizes all of your marketing objectives.
   
   The second advantage is that a small business marketing plan organizes all your marketing activities you plan on using and eliminates any last minute decisions. You know what you are going to do to market your business over a set time frame.

4. Step 4

   3. You will know how and where to spend your marketing dollars.
   
   By developing a marketing plan for all of your marketing initiatives you will have to decide on how and where you are going to undertake marketing activities. You will know what marketing tactics will be and give you time to think about money, time, and any other resources you will need to carry them out. This ensures that you do not over spend your budget.

5. Step 5

   4. Outline all details for when and where to begin your marketing plan tactics.
   
   When you sit down to draft your marketing plan you will understand details about when to initiate your marketing objectives and tactics. Understand your industry and/or business' cycles. Know when there are busy cycles and slow down periods. While drafting your plan understand those cycles and make informed decisions if you want to increase your marketing activities to generate sales in quiet periods and if you would be able to handle the increased demand if you marketed aggressively during busy periods.

6. Step 6

   5. A small business marketing plan helps to know what ROI to expect and what you want to achieve.
   
   The marketing research you will do for your small business marketing plan ensures that you know the return on investment to expect your marketing activities to achieve. You will need to follow and analyze each campaign and put mechanisms in place to measure the results against expectations.

Tips & Warnings

• The time you spend on drafting your small business marketing plan will benefit your business for as long as you write it for and keep updated. This will continue to guide your business to successful implementation of your marketing campaigns. Take time, upfront, to draft your small business marketing plan and you will have more time to run your business and ensure that your business grows.

author: George Larson