About Objectives of Your Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan needs to be based on your objectives or goals. The tactics and strategies that you put in your plan are supposed to "do" something that in turn fulfills the objectives you've outlined.

It's impossible to make up a map of where you want to go if you don't know your destination! What objectives and goals you choose to focus on - both overall and for specific periods of time - will determine what you include in your marketing plan.

You can have different kinds of objectives - some that are very specific and some that are more general in nature. For example, you may decide that you want to increase sales of your main product by 20% (a very specific goal) and increase your level of exposure in your local market (more general).

A marketing tactic that could fulfill both objectives may be public speaking. You will get better known in the geographic area you choose your venues in, but you can also "sell" your product at each of these speaking engagements.

Another example could be in terms of your product offerings. Your specific goal is to increase the overall percentage that the sale of your information products contributes to overall revenue. A general goal is to be seen as "the" expert in your field.

A marketing strategy that could fulfill both the specific and general goals would be to conduct bi-monthly teleseminars. You will be demonstrating your knowledge and expertise and also be able to "sell" your ebooks by weaving in mention of them throughout the teleseminars.

Your objectives and goals for your marketing plan can depend on many things:

- What stage of the marketing process you're stuck in and want to zero in on.
- What line of your business you are focusing on, i.E. Specific products and/or services.
- Your financial goals and budget.
- Which target group or niche you want to appeal to.
- Introducing new products or services.
- Changes in the competitive environment.
- Going after a new audience or portion of your target group.
- Want to expand your reach into other geographic areas.
- Try out new marketing directions, i.E. Put on a workshop, start public speaking, build an online presence, and so on.
- Changes in your industry.
- Your strengths and weaknesses - personally and for your business.
- New opportunities that are offered or found.
- Change in your business direction and business model.

Take the time to get really clear on what objectives you want your marketing plan to address and fix. This will help you pinpoint more easily which marketing tactics and strategies would be the best to include in your plan.

by Jody Gabourie

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A Common Marketing Mistake

Some people like commercials for entertainment and some like them because they can act as a signal to spend a couple of quality minutes with their family. I use them to see how other companies invest their marketing dollars. Now I will openly admit I am partial to Direct Response style marketing and against Brand Awareness.

There are some very effective commercials and a whole lot of terrible commercials. Some of the most idiotic commercials that I've seen lately come from the automaker Kia. They are running a series of ads with the same theme. One commercial has a beginner martial artist being thrown through a plate glass window. He points out that Karate is not his forte but that is (he is now pointing to a small car parked at the curb. A Forte) They have two more that involve an inept beekeeper and nerdy fellow basically admitting whatever they were doing was not their forte and then pointing to their small car.

At no time during the commercial have they given even a hint as to why this little car was worth test driving let alone buying. How much did they spend to say nothing? Think about the message they were sending out - the only people who are attracted to our automobile are inept and lack common sense. They do not even give a reason as to why they were happy or proud to own the car. At no point in the commercials are they ever in the vehicle. It is always seen parked and empty. Can you imagine anybody in the market for a small car thinking, "I should buy one of those. I want to be just like those people."

Imagine what you could do if you had their advertising budget.

What do I consider a good commercial? Proactiv skin care products uses their advertising time very effectively. They demonstrate the value of the product, show proof that it works and have a strong call to action. It is clear from the commercial that the advertisers knew what they were doing. They used the tried and true marketing formula of Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer.

If you are going to use television to market your products or services know what you want the commercial to accomplish. If you want it to generate leads and sales then follow the marketing formula. If you want it to entertain, save your money and leave that function to Hollywood.

Advertising works when it is done intelligently. It'll drain your bank account when handled foolishly.

by Larry Arrance

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How to Overcome Bad Training

Most people don't look forward to attending training classes. Why? Because they are often facilitated by boring, disengaged trainers. What many trainers fail to realize is that facilitating an informative training session that is also memorable and lively takes lots of planning, practice, and preparation.

Whether you are training a large group or one person, you know your training session is lackluster when participants:

Uncontrollably yawn throughout your entire presentation. No matter how much they try, they have a hard time staying awake and energized during your presentation.

Keep looking at their watch. To them it seems like time is standing still, and no matter how much they try to keep track of time, your presentation feels to them like an eternity.

Start sidebar conversations during your presentation. Your topic is so uninteresting that they don't hesitate to start a mini-conversation with the person sitting next to them, maybe even adding a joke or two about you.

Speed read through the entire training manual before you are finished. You belabor one point to the extent that they go ahead and just read the rest of the manual. While you are still focused on page 3, they have read all the way to page 15 just to make the time go by quicker.

Go to the bathroom and never come back. Once they get out of the training room, they feel a sigh of relief and feel sick at the thought of having to go back in and continue listening to you talk.

Doodle on your training materials. They feel that drawing is a way of escaping from your annoying, monotone voice and endless series of confusing information.

Have a blank stare, especially when you ask them a question. They have been daydreaming of being in on some topical island throughout most of your presentation, and have no idea that you have called on them to answer a question.

The best advice for overcoming boring training presentations is to know your topic inside and out; create visual aids and handouts that are colorful, informative, and lively; animate your tone of voice so it is interesting and not monotone; don't just stand in one section of the room, but walk around; add humor; and most of all get the audience involved by asking open-ended questions. Following these few simple tips will not only help engage your learners, but also inspire them to look forward to attending future training sessions that are facilitated by you.

by Theo Gilbert

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7 Benefit Building Website

Many of us have built a website. Whether it was for personal reasons, for music, for family or to create an income, we have made a home on the world wide web. Here is a list of the top 7 reasons to build a website.

1. There are proven concepts. You can search the internet to find the right ones for you. SEO (search engine optimization) is important for you to grasp as this will control where you are found in search engines.

2. There are many free marketing and learning services that are offered to anyone. Master courses that help you understand why 98% of small online businesses fail.

3. Affiliate programs are one of the best avenues for gaining website revenue. Many people earn a living with this alone.

4. Webmasters have a leg up for most people! Anything you have done wrong, or less than adequate on previous websites will be learned right. Run with a logical concept that explains step by step how and why costumers will visit your site.

5. Google offers more tools and assistance than any web host. They are the number 1 site on the planet, there are reasons for this.

6. You can promote yourself.... your business, your music, art, etc. The only way to have full control of your visitor potential is to create your own site.

7. To Generate an income. Find your passion, whether it be wrestling or the many trips you took to Cancun. There is more potential in creating your own website than there is of the endless work at home circles. You can earn income making a service site. If you are selling a service, it is best to eliminate the middle (eBay). You can also be an Infopreneur, relaying good quality information can earn you a monthly income.

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Education Based Marketing

Part of being able to run a successful marketing system is finding ways to automate your marketing processes. One very powerful area for automation is educating your prospects.

Educating prospects is a vital step that many small businesses struggle with.

Struggle #1 - Your ideal prospects don't even know they need your product or service.
Struggle #2 - Your ideal prospects can't seem to connect the dots between their problem and your product or service as a solution
Struggle #3 - Your ideal prospects each have very different problems that can be solved by your products or services by using them in different ways.

Our answer to these issues many times is the "Product Dump".

The Print or Web Dump - "Here is our gazillion page BROCHURE"
The Verbal Shotgun Approach - "Our product or service does this, this, this, and did I mention this"
The Boring Presentation Approach - "And here on Slide 100 we show you how our product/service can do this?

Here is a more effective solution to not only overcome the product dump, but also stay top of mind with valuable prospective leads.

Automating Your Education

Have you ever heard of an autoresponder? Unlike email software, autoresponders are built very much like an email, but are sent to a lead at scheduled times after that lead has been added to a system?

Let me explain through the following example:

You meet Mary at an event and she is a perfect prospect for you business. But you can tell that she doesn't understand how your product or service can benefit her. You want to send her 6 emails over the next three months to demonstrate the power of your solution.

You would like an email to go out the same day you enter her email address into your system that is personalized by name and tells her how much you enjoyed meeting her. It may even explain to her that she is the ideal type of person you like to work with and that you feel that your products and services may be beneficial to her at some point in the future. Therefore, you would like to send her some information from time to time to demonstrate your solutions, if that is okay with her.

Assuming it is okay, then perhaps 1 day later you send an email that explains WHY a solution is even necessary for Mary's problem and examples of where doing nothing could be detrimental.

1 week later, you might send a third email that introduces a particular solution and invites Mary to demo it, trial it, etc.

1 month later, you want to send another with a case study on the solution and point out another valuable solution.

1 month after that, you point out another feature and perhaps a testimonial

And finally another month later, you make another offer, or perhaps invite Mary to an event. You check in on her interest level and and find out if the information you are sending is valuable. If yes, then from here on in, maybe she moves over to your enewsletter or hard copy publication for regular updates from the company.

Autoresponders like those offered by aWeber or iContact allow you to set up the content for these emails just once and then set up a schedule, so that your identified prospects receive them automatically. This mini education campaign can now work in the background while you work on other aspects of your business.

by Cidnee Stephen Platinum

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