How to do a quick marketing or business strategy

My favorite planning tool

A few months ago I was having a conversation with a business colleague.  I mentioned that I was working on my promotion schedule for a particular product in the works  (not released yet – you’ll be the first to know) for the end of the year.

She said something like, “I don’t plan anything that far ahead. I just do it.” Then she said, a little wistfully it seemed to me, “Is it really possible to do that? It feels too structured for me, and besides, how will I know what I’m going to be doing by then anyway?”

I wasn’t surprised by her admission, or her doubt. In my experience, most corporate fugitives jump through amazing hoops if it means they can avoid planning altogether, or do the least amount of planning possible! Perhaps it’s a carry-over from our corporate experience, or a resistance to anything corporate-sounding. Many of us tend to follow the “just in time” method of planning – what we need to do today, what we need to do to finish a specific project, or who we need to call.  But we don’t plan too far ahead.

Here’s the problem with this scenario. If we fail to set goals and plan how to get to that destination, how will we know we have “arrived”? And if we never really know what we want, should we really be surprised when we don’t get it?

To answer her question, YES, it is possible. And I would even say essential.

Over the years I’ve heard every possible reason why business owners and our corporate counterparts don’t do this. They say it’s too much work, or it interferes with their creativity. They say they prefer to be more flexible and spontaneous and don’t want to be boxed in to a plan. They even say they do their best work under pressure.

Here’s what I say. You can fight fires, or you can prevent them. You can make informed decisions and sleep well at night, or you can fly by the seat of your pants and live with an undercurrent of anxiety. You can take the time to set some measureable goals based on intelligent pondering, or waste your time tinkering with a zillion variables and still be no closer to finding out why something worked or didn’t. You can have a plan and work it, or you can have no plan and work harder without it.

And as far as doing your best work under pressure, how do you know that?

Whether you’re planning your overall business structure, or how to complete and launch a new service or product, there are elements that every solid plan has to contain. Here are six that you absolutely must include.

Objective – exactly what it is you want to achieve. For example, to increase marketing is not a specific objective. To increase your list by a certain amount, or to create a number of new joint ventures relationships are examples of very different objectives that will each take different actions to complete.

Target Market – exactly who your efforts to meet this objective are focused on. Business owners are not a market. Business owners who are female, in the early stages of their business, earning between $25,000 and $65,000 and working primarily from a home office is a market.

Approach -what you’ll do to reach that market. For example, there are several marketing strategies you can use. Examples are speaking, email marketing, public relations, joint ventures, social media, and so on.

Actions - the exact activities you will focus on to achieve your objective. These are often referred to as tactics. Tactics are the individual actions you’ll take in each of the strategies you listed in your approach. Many people jump right into the tactics without first thinking about objectives and strategies. This is dangerous because you can easily get swept away  in a tangent of creative ideas that don’t actually support your objectives and overall strategy.

Deadlines and Action Plan – exactly what you will complete and when. This includes dates and assignment of responsibilities.

Evaluation  - exactly how you’ll measure how well you’ve reached your goals. For example, measures like how many new prospects you have, or how many contacts you’ve made that resulted in joint ventures are ways to evaluate the objectives mentioned earlier.

How you write out your plan is up to you. Some of my best personal business plans have been done on flip chart paper with Post-it notes. I’ve also mapped out entire projects by talking through them, recording myself and having the audio transcribed. And sometimes I do it the old fashioned way, writing them out on paper and then typing it.

No matter how you arrive, it’s the journey that’s important. Spending time on strategic thinking will always pay you back multiple times over. So find your own favorite thinking spot and use the long days of summer to do some business experimenting of your own.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE? YOU CAN AS LONG AS YOU USE THIS COMPLETE BLURB WITH IT: Sherri Garrity is the Chief Corporate Fugitive and creator of the Five Keys Success System^TM for ex-corporate employees and aspiring entrepreneurs who want to break free from the confines of their corporate experience and  unlock their business potential for greater  personal freedom and prosperity. The Corporate Fugitive system demystifies the business of setting up, managing, marketing and growing a successful entrepreneurial adventure. Visit www.corporatefugitive.com for free tips on how to go from overwhelmed employee and business owner to extraordinary entrepreneur.