How (Exactly) to Grow Your Business in 2009

You have so many options when it comes to marketing your business that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Which tools should you use? How often? When is the best time to make phone calls? When’s best to email? Should you be blogging? How many networking events should you attend each month? And how the heck will you fit social networking in? These and many more are the questions you’ve probably been asking yourself.  Whether you are new to marketing, or a Veteran who already has some marketing in place, you probably realize by now that marketing is essential to the success of your business. After all, without marketing, how will it thrive? It’s simple: You need a marketing plan. A plan that is not just in your head, but on paper—a plan that will guide you through a year of marketing, one day at a time, breaking out all the steps to follow. You need a system in place, a process for contacting, mailing, following up with both new and existing clients. It’s all about preparation and, as Edna ‘E’ Mode in Disney’s The Incredibles, said, “Luck favors the prepared.” Without a plan, you’ll be haphazard in your efforts, and those efforts will yield spotty results, at best. Without a plan, the Feast or Famine Syndrome is always right around the bend. (Maybe you’ve already been there.) But what if you don’t know how to even begin to create a Marketing Plan? It’s really not all that complicated. Here it is in a nutshell: Set Your Goals for the Year Ahead List here 3-5 specific, quantifiable goals you’d like to reach this year. Make sure they’re quantifiable, or else you won’t be able to tell whether you’ve actually reached them. So instead of “get new clients,” write “get 5 new clients in the travel industry.” Make sense? Go ahead, write down your goals. I’ll wait. 1. 2. 3. How Much Marketing Should You Do? This is a good question. First, know that the majority of your marketing will take more time and effort than actual dollars. It’s most important to get the basic structure of marketing in place, to set aside time for it, and to follow your marketing plan .Ideally, you should be investing 5–10% of your pre-tax annual revenue back into your marketing and 10–20% of your time for business development. Start with a revenue goal for the year. We’ll use the round number $100,000 in gross revenues and if it works for you as a goal, go ahead and use it. If your average project fee is $10,000, it’s easy to figure out that you need 10 projects at $10,000 to achieve your goal; half of those projects could come from past or current clients and half could come from new clients.  If your average project fee is $1,000, then you need 100 of them, and so on. Keeping in mind that not all proposals convert to actual projects, how many proposals do you need to submit in order to yield those 10 (or 100) projects? Then, how many prospects do you need in order to yield X proposals? And how do you break down your marketing tools and tasks in order to get X prospects in your pipeline each month? How many prospects do you need to call and how many events do you need to attend in order to reach the prospects who ask you to submit X proposals? Veterans should be able to figure this out based on past history; those just starting out will take the year to figure this out but should start with an educated guess based on what is physically possible. Building Your Marketing Machine—the engine of your system Every successful business needs a strong Marketing Machine, a well-oiled system designed to get you the clients and the projects you want. Once you put it in place, all you have to do is keep it going and the prospects will start coming. A Marketing Machine is made up of 3 things: a singular focus on a market, 3–5 carefully chosen marketing tools that work well together and your attention to keep it running. Step One: Choose Your Market Your Marketing Machine needs a focus on one market. That doesn’t mean you will only work in one market or one industry. You are free to take any work you want. But for the purposes of proactive marketing and to streamline your efforts, you must be efficient with your time and money. That’s why it’s best to start with one market, get the ball rolling, then add additional markets later. Using a variety of marketing tools within a single market means that your prospects will see your message in more than one place—at a trade show, in a publication they read, in their inbox, in the mailbox, on an industry blog—and through repetition it will have a much stronger impact. When it comes to choosing a market, start with what you know. A Marketing Machine built on past experience will yield clients more quickly than one you build from scratch. Look first at the industries you’ve served in the past. For example, if you worked in pharmaceuticals, you can make a strong case for your experience within that industry or, if that’s a conflict, you can approach a peripheral industry, such as medical devices or hospitals. Because you’re already familiar with the needs of the markets you know, you’ll build your Marketing Machine on a foundation of self-confidence, built-in credibility and examples to show prospective clients. On the other hand, if you love housewares or travel and want to work in those industries but have no experience per se, it will take longer to build the machine: to make the connections, to create the work, to show that you can do it, to get the jobs. Which markets make the most sense for you? List a few possibilities if you’re not sure: 1. 2. 3. Step Two: Qualify Your Market Before you begin your outreach, make sure the market you’ve chosen is fertile ground for your services. To qualify the market, do some research on the Internet or attend events where you can get answers to these questions: <ol> <li>What is the current state of this market? If it isn’t in a growth mode, this may not be a good time to get in.</li> <li>What is the size and type of projects available from this market? Determine if you’re able to handle them profitably and if you would enjoy the work. </li> <li>Are other service providers like you already working in this market? If the answer is “no,” there’s usually a good reason. The market may be unwilling to pay for these services, or may not perceive a need for them. If they don’t perceive the need, don’t waste your time trying to convince them. Instead, choose a market that understands the value of your service and is willing to pay for it.</li> </ol> Step Three: Start Your Marketing Plan You’ve done your research, you’ve narrowed your options and you’ve finally chosen your market. Now what? It’s time to find the actual people—to put names, phone numbers, email addresses, and eventually faces, to your potential clients—to make them real and to reach out to them. It’s time to implement your marketing tools. The 5 Essential Marketing Tools... In the Marketing Mentor 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar (available in the Marketing Mentor Store), we recommend these 5 essential marketing tools, most of which cost more time than money, that will bring you into contact with your ideal clients and will fuel your marketing machine. They are: <ol> <li>Networking (in person and online) </li> <li>Research Calling </li> <li>Email Marketing </li> <li>Marketing-smart Web site </li> <li>Printed materials and samples</li> </ol> ...Plus 4 more. In the Veteran’s Edition of the Marketing Plan + Calendar, we add 4 more marketing tools, all designed to position you as an expert in your field. They are: <ol> <li>Blogging</li> <li>Article Marketing</li> <li>Speaking Engagements</li> <li>Publicity</li> </ol> Here's what I can guarantee (because I have clients who are doing it): by working with your marketing plan every week of the year, your business will grow, your pipeline will be full, you will gain new clients, you will make more money. Now more than ever, if you can develop this "marketing habit," you will learn (and perfect) tools and strategies that will benefit your success and profit for years to come. Next up: Let's take a closer look at each of these steps in <a href="how-exactly-to-grow-your-business-part-2">How Exactly to Grow Your Business, Part II</a>. 2009-01-04T15:43:43Z

2009-01-06T02:21:19Z

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how-exactly-to-grow-your-business-in-2009

2009-01-06T02:21:13Z

This article tells you exactly which marketing tools to use if you want to grow your business in a year that promises to be a doozy and is certain to make most of us stronger.

How (Exactly) to Grow Your Business in 2009

2009-02-24T09:48:15Z