Just when you thought you were done, you realize that the campaign measurements aren’t necessarily conclusive.  Or you’re left with a lingering doubt as to whether the response was an aberration perhaps affected by a one time event. Smart marketers always retest results even positive ones to ensure before the budget is spent on a costly roll-out that they are fairly secure in a predictable outcome.

Once you have launched your marketing campaigns you will measure your outcome.  To have analytics that are meaningful and useful guess what, you have to plan for them before you launch your campaigns?  As your marketing plan will reflect goal accomplshment through the tactics you choose so the analytics will tell you how successful you were in accomplishing the goals. 

If you’ve been reading the previous posts in this series then you know that I am a strong recommender of planning, planning, planning before you spend precious resources on marketing programs.  But if you’ve been through the planning phases then it’s time to develop the marketing plan and pull the trigger.  The marketing plan itself must take into consideration not only resources and time but most importantly you need to consider how your likely prospects get and absorb information.

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.

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.

Like Jim Gilbert, I get asked by clients what they can expect from putting the time into developing a social media strategy.  The answer of course is it depends.  Jim, a fellow social media strategist and blogger came up with 9 immutable laws of Social Media Marketing to help clients set expectations.  With Jim’s permission here they are:

I recently volunteered to become a member of our local chapter of SCORE, a national non-profit organization that mentors and trains small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs just starting a business. SCORE volunteers have a diversified collection of business knowledge and skills. Volunteers come from all walks of life including retired business owners, corporate executives and professionals who donate more than 1 million hours of service annually.

SCORE is helping build America’s economic future one small business at a time.  It is evident how important that service is today when job creation is a priority for our nation. Today, SCORE has 12,400 volunteers in 364 chapters around the United States.

BtoB the magazine for marketing strategists just posted their recent survey on 2010 marketing budget expectations on their web site. The news is positive but more interestingly are the quotes mid-article:

“As marketers learned from marketing in a recession, nothing beats understanding the customer and marketing to prospects with a laser focus.”

“It is all about understanding the audience and understanding how they want to receive their information, then developing marketing programs that are targeted exclusively to their needs,” said Bob Meldrum, VP-marketing at TW Telecom.

We all know the adage that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location. In marketing, especially for small business and small budgets it’s all about focus, focus, focus.  And the first rule is know your customer.

If you haven’t written out a description of your customer yet, do it.  It’s never too late and it’s a tactic to help you focus marketing efforts.  Start with demographics that include age, sex, geographic location, etc and add in psychographics such as  likes, dislikes, and other personality traits.  Never lose sight of this description and from time-to-time as your business expands make sure it’s still an accurate picture.