I’ve worked in marketing for many years and there is one truism that has held throughout my career which is, “Murphy’s Law reigns supreme.”  Yes, if it can go wrong it will go wrong and the only way to protect yourself against an unsuccessful outcome is with contingency plans.  Please notice I used the plural here.  It’s not good enough to just have one back-up plan. I encourage all the entrepreneurs I work with to have contingency plans to improve their chance of success.  When something goes askew of your business predictions you may not have time to work though an alternative plan. Being ready to change direction or make a course correction can save a business from losing market share.

Once the strategic plan and annual business goals have been documented the marketing plan can be developed. By following this process entrepreneurs and their staff can focus activities on what’s important to the success and growth of the company. I often find working with entrepreneurs that they rush into the marketing plan without the previous planning stages running the risk of wasting time and money. If the wrong marketing tactics are used failure is a likely outcome. If you’ve ever heard yourself saying, “oh we tried that and it didn’t work,” check to be sure the marketing plan was written after the strategic plan and business goals.

Annually entrepreneurs need to set business goals.  Generally these are related to business growth but they can cover any of the normal business functions from sales and marketing to employee management and operations. Well written goals help business owners focus on what’s important so take your time when crafting them.

Writing good goals is as much science as art as they should be measurable and have an estimated time frame for accomplishment. Marketing plans should only be written once the business goals are established. Too often entrepreneurs rush into marketing activities without taking this very important step of writing clear measurable goals and then are disappointed when the marketing doesn’t work. 

In working with start-up companies I always advise them to follow a 7 step methodology that includes:

1. Strategic Planning
2. Business Goal Setting
3. Market Planning
4. Contingency Planning
5. Plan Implementation
6. Program Analysis
7. Retesting

I’m devoting the next series of blogs to short discussions about each step.

While writing a marketing plan for a small business I asked the owner what his business goals were for the year knowing successful marketing strategies are developed from well written business goals. He responded with a laugh “to make money.”  When I suggested he needed a goal that was measurable to help focus activities he replied with a straight face,”to make lots of money.”