How to make a manageable marketing plan

Most marketing plans/strategies are complicated and expect you to spend lots of money on Ads and software. If you’re large business or team then you will need a detailed plan, and will have some budget to spend on Ads and tools, but as a small business owner, it’s often overkill. We’ve been doing marketing for over 18 years and we know you don’t need a complex plan and a huge budget to get marketing working. Often all a small business needs to do is get the basics sorted. So what are the marketing basics?

What is a Marketing Plan?

Simply put a marketing plan or strategy is what you’re going to do to nurture strangers into customers. It’s a series of steps you encourage people to take in order get to know, like and trust you enough so you can then make them an offer. This plan is different from a content plan, which is where you plan out what content to create and share. You need to make a marketing plan before you do a content plan so you know what you’re trying to do, what content you need to make and where it’s best to share it.

Ads are not a marketing plan

Boosting a few posts and running a few Ads is not a plan, and it probably isn’t working very well. You shouldn’t set up a few Facebook Ads and then expect the sales to come flooding in. Marketing doesn’t work like that, especially if what you sell isn’t an impulse purchase. People don’t want to be sold to, and increasingly they’re becoming a lot less receptive to Ads. You need a way to turn strangers into customers without spending a fortune on Ads.

This is where most people try and sell you a Clickfunnel or a video course that will 10 x your sales. Don’t worry there is no hard sale coming, what we’re going to work through you can get working for free.

This is not a click funnel

This is the tried and tested marketing funnel that’s been around for decades, it’s the 5 stages someone goes through before they become a customer. The 5 stages are know, like, trust, offer and finally customer. To get your marketing working you need to be engaging your ideal customer at each stage.

Make a manageable marketing plan

To get this working for your business you need to start at the bottom, this seems a bit odd but trust me this is the easiest way. Ask yourself the following questions, note down your answers and ideas and then once your done you’ll have a list of things to work on that will make a real impact on your business.

• Is your offer (what your selling) easy to understand and simple to buy? If I come to your website ready to buy is it clear in a few seconds that I am in the right place and how I can buy what you’re offering?
• If I am not ready to buy then how can I ‘test the water’? Why should I trust you to deliver? What value are you offering me to show me you can deliver? eg. Can I give you my email in return for a guide or join your email list
• If I follow you on social media will I get to know you? Or will it just be boring “news” and sales? Will I learn about how you can help me and what you have to offer in order to solve my problems? Can I really get to know, like and trust you from your social channels?
• Will you be able to grab your ideal customers attention? Are you making content that is adding value and giving me something like a tip or how-to? Are you telling me something I don’t already know, showing them something that makes me think or laugh?
• Do your customers like what you do for them? Do you tell anyone else about it? If I am thinking of buying from you how can I see what other people thought about your offer? Do you share these on social, in emails and on your website?

Asking these questions should get you looking at your offer and marketing from a different angle. If you answered no or were not really sure about any of these answers then that’s what you should focus on first. These small simple changes will help you to convert more customers because you’ll be helping them move through that marketing funnel without them even realising it.

Small steps make a big difference

If you work through these steps and make one improvement at each stage you will begin to convert more customers because you are helping the right people work their way through the process. The ones who are not right will drop off and that’s ok. Focus on the ones who want to know more and want to buy what you’re selling. Your ideal customer is out there they just don’t know that you can help them, yet.

Can’t I just run some Ads?

Yes you can, and it might work, but it’s a cold sell and that’s hard! So expect to spend a lot for minimal return. I’ve seen the Ads where someone boasts that they spent $50 and made $300,000 and I don’t buy it. If you have an amazing offer and a large audience already then an Ad might get you those results, but for 9/10 businesses those results will never materialise from just running a few Ads and crossing your fingers.

If you nurture your customers it takes longer, and needs work, but, once it’s working it will keep working over and over without the need to keep pumping more money in.

Work your way through the process and make a change at each stage, then repeat this process and you will convert more and more strangers into your ideal customers.

Can you help me with this?

Yes I can, I have 3 ways I can help:

1) I’ve made an introduction video on our website you can watch for free that has lots more detail about each stage.

2) I’ve also created a free course you can use to get this working faster. You can access it in Marketing Sucess Club, which is free to join and watch the course.

3) You join our next live workshop where we work through this process and create a 5 point action plan to get you results fast.