I know it’s a terrible picture (I could probably get a better one at night without the back-lighting of the windows), but it’ll do the job for now…

It’s a NeuYear.net whole year calendar that displays the entire year (1 side is lengthwise, the flip-side is set up width-wise, as you can see on the photos on their website here). For the last couple of years I’ve used a simple large desk calendar from Staples to do my annual planning – and it’s helped tremendously.

When it comes to the marketing planning process, the one big issue I’ve had, is I don’t know what’s coming down the pike. I can’t see ahead to the marketing planning and work that is scheduled for bigger and longer-term projects. So, in the last week of Jan, as I need to be thinking about what’s coming up in the first few weeks of February, it’s hard to tell on a regular flip-a-month-per-page calendar. (As you can see, the calendar is over my desk, so not that easy to reach to flip.)

This solves that problem!

As I’d already laid out the year on one of those regular calendars, switching to this one was quick and easy – I just cut or trimmed my post-its (the boxes are a bit smaller than the calendar I was using) and put them on the same date spots. There are categories for time off, business events and travel, program launches, planning dates for big projects, marketing start and end dates etc.

Being able to see the whole year will make everything flow MUCH SMOOTHER for me this year – and I know it will help me stick with the calendar even more.

Thank you NeuYear.net!

And, if you’re still figuring out your marketing planning process and you don’t have your year planned out yet (and you’d like to work on those things), then don’t miss my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar. We’ll be talking about getting your marketing in order, which is the start to getting your calendar and plan sorted out… and that leads to more clients, more time for you and more fun than you’ve ever had in your business before. Trust me… it’s working for me! Register here to find out more.

In the past few weeks I’ve had a ton of conversations about the marketing concepts around features and the outcomes and results people get from my client’s products and services.

It seems this is a tough area for a lot of people… something they get stuck on frequently, so I thought I’d dig into this marketing concept a little more and see if I can shed some light on it for you too.

What most people do…

When most people start to share about their product or service – whether that’s in a networking conversation, in some form of writing or even in interviews and media – very often they are talking about the features of what they have or what they do.

The features are the factual bits and bobs about what you’ve got… like how many hours of private time come in a coaching package, or how many bells and whistles this doodad has and what color it comes in.

If you are talking about what you’ve got in that way, I would bet money that you aren’t seeing great results from your marketing efforts. There’s a reason…

What you want to do…

People buy because they want a particular result. There are lots of them that people want… Here are a few of the biggest…

People want to make money, they want to have more time, they want to feel good about their body/appearance and they want fulfilling and intimate relationships. These are the outcomes, the results people are looking for… and in most cases, pretty much any product or service can be tied to them, or something like them, in some way. Sometimes you will need to be a little creative, but that’s one of the fun things about marketing!

You may not want to talk about your product or service in these terms, but the bottom line is that if you aren’t talking about how what you’ve got will create a transformation and give someone results and outcomes that they desire, you’ll find your marketing is more ‘miss’ on the hit-and-miss scale than right on the bull’s-eye.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing concepts that you can apply to your business to help you get the clients and cash flow you’re looking for, don’t miss my upcoming Marketing in the Morning webinar… you can register here.

It’s probably something you’ve heard 1000 times before in some version or another… but it’s so true I wanted to write a bit about it today…

Taking small steps toward your goals is the best way to build the success you want… in fact, it’s pretty much the only reliable way.

Think about what you would like to look back on 1, 2 or even 5 years from now. What would you love to be able to say you accomplished? What would you like to be able to claim as your own, as something you did? Who do you want to become? What do you want to be doing?

We grossly overestimate the quantity of things we can get done in a day, even a week or a month, but we underestimate what is possible in a year, in 2 or in 5.

The ages-old question, “How do you eat an elephant?”

The answer? ONE bite at a time.

It’s the same thing for goals. No matter how big they are, you can break them down into bite-sized, manageable pieces.

If it’s not your forte, then you can get some help – a coach, mentor, peer – lots of people can help you think about your goals, and because it’s not their’s it will be WAY less confusing and challenging for them

Oh – and if one of your goals is to build to a new level of success in your business – like reaching 6 figures or doubling your revenues, you might want to check out my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar. We’ll be covering a couple of the most essential mind-shifts you can make, and how to implement a process that can make reaching your business goals like eating a yummy, rich, moist piece of cake. Mmmm! :- ) You can register here.

It is a marketing strategy that keeps your customers squarely in the middle of everything you do… from the beginning stages right through the end… and it’s the only kind of strategy you will want to use for your business.

Here’s a bit about what goes into a customer driven marketing strategy:

Focused On Your Target Market

This means you know as much as you possibly can about who they are, what they want, what they need, what their preferences are and more. You understand all of the demographics and psychographics of your target market (you can read more about those here) that is possible, and you take every opportunity to learn more. Then, you make sure all of your marketing is planned and oriented toward them and what they want… sometimes that means forgetting completely about you and what you want if your market is different than you or varies from you and your wants, needs, and preferences.

Satisfying BIG Wants and Meeting BIG Needs

This means that all of your marketing is focused on helping your current and potential clients understand how what you have or what you do satisfies their most important wants and needs. Oftentimes people are more motivated to take care of their wants than their needs (Example? Most of us would rather buy a new dress, new shoes, or an awesome new smart phone than tires for our car…). Customer driven marketing strategy is all about educating your prospects and clients on how what you’ve got meets what THEY want and what THEY need.

Finding Out What THEY Think

With customer driven marketing strategy you are always interested in your people… so you ask them for feedback ALL THE TIME. You conduct surveys, you talk with them and ask questions, you find out how they are using your product or service, how it’s working for them and how you can make it better. This sounds challenging, but it’s really pretty easy – it’s about having conversations and focusing on collecting information all about THEM. People love to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions, so you focus on giving them room to do it and you let that information guide your future product and service development and ALL of your marketing.

The Big Bang For Your Effort

Many things can come from customer driven marketing strategy… just a couple include building tremendous customer loyalty and raving fans. When people feel truly taken care of and understood they share their joy and delight with others, and they keep coming back for more.

How can you look at your marketing efforts and begin to shift them to customer driven marketing strategy?

And, if you want more information on creating and building marketing strategy that works to bring in clients and create raving fans, check out my upcoming webinar. You can register here.

So, when crap starts to hit the fan what’s an entrepreneur to do?

It can happen at any moment, it can come in the disguise of something completely benign or different then suddenly shift, it can be a few little spatters or it can be a great BIG SPLAT.

How do you keep you head and wits about you, figure out the best course of action and then move on? How do you exit that nasty private torture cell in you keep just for you in your head… where you go over and over things, flipping back and forth between beating yourself up, being indignant and pissed off, and praying that it was all different?

The process is different for each of us… but for many women at least, having someone to vent to can really help. Someone you trust, who won’t dive headlong into the deep end of your muck filled pool and sit there commiserating with you. Someone who will listen, hold the space for you to let it out and process, and then either let you go, or help you sort out the best course of action.

Those types of friends are few and far between, so when you find one, take your time to nurture that relationship. Be the place they can come and vent safely, without judgement or fear, and with complete confidence that nothing you say will ever be repeated.

Another way? Change your state of mind and your scenery. Get out and go for a run or a power walk listening to your favorite music. Dance around your living room singing at the top of your lungs. Get some of that energy out and clear your head, then when you get back, most likely things will be clearer for you and you’ll be able to move forward in a way that makes sense for you.

How do you handle things when it all goes funky and the stinky stuff starts flying?

Most of us are addicted to perfection… and there’s a reason for it…

We are surrounded by media and stories that show us and tell us only the best and most glorious moments. That leads to the impression that the beauty, the glamour, the success are all that matter, and that it should always just ‘arrive’ coming so easily that barely a hair goes out of place.

Frankly, it’s hog wash.

Sometimes we hear the real story behind the success… the 2 years of 22 hour work days where someone slept under their desk and ate nothing but ramen noodles to make something work. How someone lived out of their car for a year or more while they were trying to make ends meet and build relationships. We don’t hear about that for long long though – it’s like we’re allergic to the reality, and all we want is the glitzy happy ending.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s all impossibly hard work and levels of sacrifice that don’t make sense for the average person. That’s not it at all.

What I want to highlight here is that the journey IS the experience, and therefore, as the saying goes, the reward.

If you allow yourself to muck things up a bit, to make a mess, to (AH! The Horror!) fail or make mistakes, you may just find that the gems, the real diamonds are hidden within what is experienced and learned in those moments.

So, how about we hang up that ‘perfection’ suit, shut the door to that closet and quadruple lock it up, so we’re not even tempted to put that sucker on?

What if, just for a little while, you gave yourself the freedom to just be you, to be like a child trying things out, learning as you go, falling down and getting back up to continue?

What might your world look like in 6 months? In a year?

You’ve got nothing to loose but the stress, the fear and the anxiety that come along with trying to present a perfect facade that doesn’t exist. We all want the REAL YOU. Let’s do it together.

And, if you’re interested in getting ‘into reality’ with your marketing – you want to find out what works and what doesn’t and build easy systems and strategies that work for you, don’t miss my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar – you can register here.

In past blog posts, I’ve covered a few details of ‘what is a marketing plan and why is it important‘ and what should be in a marketing plan… today we’ll dig in just a little bit more.

Today I want to talk about the marketing funnel that goes into your marketing plan.

Your marketing funnel is generally a visual representation of the steps and stages a potential client (and then client) can travel through your business. It’s often pictured as a funnel (as in this picture below), or turned around the other way, making a pyramid shape.

At the top of the funnel is where you would have any free offers you are putting out to the world. You want to remember, as you put out those offers, they need to be very enticing and they need to connect deeply with one of the bigger wants and needs (if you can do both, all the better) of your target market. You also want to make sure that you are truly serving people – giving them some of your very best stuff. This is your chance to make a stellar impression, so don’t cheap out on this.

The next step in the funnel is something that is also easily accessible, so it may be a well-priced offer that gives a lot of great support and information as well. It lets people try you out in another way and begin to wade into the waters, without having to commit to something huge, or dive right in – which most people are just not ready or willing to do.

On occasion, someone will be ready, though, so you want to make sure that this funnel isn’t a requirement – it’s not set up like pre-requisite courses in college. You don’t HAVE to go through the 101 level to decide you want to dive into the deep end and go big. If you have someone who loves your work and they’re ready for the whole kit-and-caboodle, then let them go for it, and give them an awesome experience.

In the next level, you step things up a notch – both from the standpoint of the level of investment and the level of time and service involved. People that reach this stage have often invested before, they’ve tried you out and they’re ready to go into the waste deep water now. They’re making a commitment.

Then, as you continue to flow downward, you add premium offerings. As the funnel suggests, a smaller number of people will trickle down to that level, but it’s ok. The people that do are your best customers. These are the ones who are generally raving fans (there can be some at every level, but these folks are deeply invested in your products and services).

The idea behind this piece of your marketing plan is that once you get someone who is interested in you and what you offer, you want to make sure you continue to serve them in multiple ways. You want to find out as much as you can about what they want and what they need solved, and you want to create and offer products and services that give them what they want.

When you do, your business has depth, and you can build long-term relationships with your clients, giving them more of what they want, and in turn, building a business that grows and thrives.

If you want more information on marketing your business, you’ll want to tune in for my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar. You can find out more about what we’ll cover and register here.

Here’s a question I get all the time…

People ask, “What is a marketing plan and why is it important… is it like a business plan? Do I have to create one? What goes in it?”

I don’t even get to answer before there are about 5 more questions added on the end… it’s something people understand is important, but they don’t know enough about it to even decide if they want to learn more.

What Is A Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is basically a way to lay out (to plan) the marketing for your business, your products, and/or your services. It covers everything from information about your target market to specific step-by-step processes you will use to build certain marketing systems and strategies.

It is a document that helps to guide you while you build your marketing, it helps you stay on track to building a more successful business, and it helps you focus your attention on your marketing – which can be a pretty hard for many people.

A marketing plan, the way I help my clients build them, is for internal use within your business, and serves as a map to help you and your team get to the destination you’ve chosen for your business.

Why Is A Marketing Plan Important

Frankly, marketing is one of the single most important places you can focus your attention in your business. Particularly if you hope to create a successful business. Marketing equals money,when it is done right, and most businesses don’t put nearly enough attention on their marketing planning process, or on their marketing.

That means that creating a solid marketing plan that can help guide you throughout the year, and help you stay focused on building the systems you determined, would support your business growth the way you want it to go. It is one of the best ways to assure your success.

Marketing is challenging for most people, until they learn more about it and have some successful experiences… then they often become ‘converts’ and start singing the praises of marketing. Until then (which can take a little while) having a plan or a guide can make all the difference between focusing on the things that will create income and bring in customers, and the things that are perhaps easier to do, but that won’t have the same level of impact.

So, what is a marketing plan and why is it important? The bottom line is it is a guide to building a successful business, and it’s important because without one, you can get hopelessly lost and never reach your destination which in this case, is a level of success with your business that makes you happy.

And, speaking of marketing plans… we’re going to be talking about them and several other key tips to having marketing that really works to bring in the clients and increase your bottom line on my next webinar. If you’re interested, you can register for it here.

Just wanted to bring this up as I feel it is an important thing to note.

When you are on the fence about a decision and you end up not making one, you’ve actually made one. It may have been by default, but it’s still a decision. And, having decisions made by default is not taking charge of your life.

Making decisions is one of the most important skills we can develop in life and in business. If it’s not a strong point for you, start to practice on small things. For example, when you go out to eat, pick something and close your menu. Decide that what you’ve chosen is right for you, regardless of what anyone else orders or what else you see. We are all faced with 100′s of little decisions each day, use them to practice making choices quickly and firmly.

Being in a space of indecision is a form of self-sabotage. You end up spending way more mental energy thinking about things than is necessary. Most likely you had an immediate, gut response and it was the right one. Learn to notice that and making decisions will be much easier for you.

Another important thing to note about decisions… be sure to stick with them once you’ve made them.

What I mean is, don’t hem and haw and worry about whether it was the right decision. It’s done. The time to consider all the options and get all the facts is BEFORE you decide (and you want to take your time for big things, still moving decisively and swiftly). Once you decide, turn it over to the Universe and get on with things.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Abraham-Hicks helps me a lot when I’m feeling challenged by a decision, “You can’t get it wrong and you can’t get it done.” There is no such thing as ‘wrong’… life is a meant to be a joyful journey, the only time you run into problems is if you aren’t living it. When you don’t make decisions, you aren’t making choices. When you don’t choose, you limit yourself and what the Universe can send your way.

Recently, I had a conversation with a couple of entrepreneurs who were expressing how much they disliked certain aspects of their daily work. They were saying how stressed and unhappy it made them feel…

My answer?

Stop.

Stop doing it?

If there is something in your business that you really dislike, that makes you feel so icky and so down that you drag and wilt every time you think about it, you need to cut it out. No, not the dragging and wilting, the thing itself.

It may be an unusual, or even unpopular stand to take, but I believe you should be enjoying most of your work. Maybe not every single second, but definitely MOST of it.

In this kind of a situation you have 3 choices…

1 – You can find a way to align with those things that are distasteful more, so that you energy shifts and they don’t feel so yucky. This is a really great choice, but not always so easy to do.

2 – Second option – you can hand it off. No, not all of your marketing, or all of your sales (there are a few things that if you aren’t willing to be involved with you may not have a business at all), but certain tasks. If you hate social media (AHHH! WHAT???? :- ) Yes, it happens…), then you don’t HAVE to be doing social media. You can find someone to do the lion’s share for you, and then maybe you will enjoy some of the parts that can be fun, like posting pictures or updates about your life.

3 – Third? Simply stop. Let’s keep going with the social media example… if you hate social media, and you don’t want to find and pay someone else to support the pieces you don’t enjoy, then you don’t have to do it. Businesses grew long before social media arrived, and they will continue to grow long after it fades away or is replaced by something new.

Figure out what would be fun for you, discover some other marketing processes, systems and strategies you would LIKE and start doing them instead.

You have options. The choice – to suffer and torture yourself or to give yourself the freedom and joy to find something you really WANT to do. Oh, and when you choose the latter… things shift in a BIG way! Not only do you have more fun and love your work more, but that energy attracts more clients and brings in way more money too.

And, if you’re looking to learn about some different options, and you’re ready to have some more joy and fun in your business, you may want to check out my upcoming webinar (it’s not for a little bit yet, but the page is up, so why not share it, right?)… the Marketing in the Morning™ webinar.  You can check it out here.

If you are someone who is constantly giving yourself a hard time, this post is for you.

I’m writing about this coming from a place of experience – one that I haven’t mastered yet, but where I have definitely (and thankfully) made some progress.

If you refuse to acknowledge the things you accomplish (even as simple as making a phone call, answering an email or writing a blog), you’ll be creating a much harder and much more challenging entrepreneurial journey for yourself. And, you’re probably sabotaging your success.

If you never cut yourself any slack, you will ALWAYS (I repeat ALWAYS) find something to be upset with yourself about.

When will you know you’ve achieved something? When will you know things are going well?

You never will, because you will always be focused on what didn’t happen, what didn’t go right, what you didn’t do, what you did wrong and how nothing worked out how you ‘wanted’ it to work out.

If you want to succeed, you need to give yourself a fighting chance and start to shift your attention.

Appreciate yourself and the things that you do, no matter what the outcome is.

Start to speak kindly, gently, compassionately to yourself. Chances are you would NEVER speak to someone else the way you speak to yourself. You deserve better than that.

You can start small – after all, you’ve most likely been practicing this process for years. It may take a little while to begin to shift things, so don’t use your lack of ‘quick change’ as another opportunity to beat yourself up.

Take a deep breath and focus your attention on something you like about yourself. Then focus on something you’ve accomplished today – big or small – maybe it was just getting out of bed. Create a daily routine to continue that focus – in the morning and again at the end of your work day or in the evening before bed.

You get to build the habit and the muscle of encouraging yourself and loving yourself.

Start to observe your self-talk throughout the day and when you realize you aren’t being kind and supportive, then change the thoughts – start to say nice and supportive things to yourself in that moment.

I know many people consciously or unconsciously believe if they cut themselves any slack, if they’re not hard on themselves they’ll never amount to anything… how’s that going for you? Are you getting what you want? Do you have the daily life experience you want?

If you can make this shift, you’ll find things beginning to flow much more quickly and smoothly in your business and in your life. You’ll start to enjoy everything in your life a lot more… and isn’t that one of the big reasons we all set out on this journey to create a business? So we could enjoy our lives in deeper, more enjoyable and more meaningful ways?

Take good care of you – you deserve it. (If you’re wondering if it’s true, you can take this 3rd grader’s word for it… Loisfoeribari, including you.)

Here’s a scenario…

You’re getting super excited about a new launch you have coming up. You just KNOW people will love what you are going to share and you’re going to make some good money.

It will probably be hard work, but you’re up for that. You set your goals so that they aren’t in the stratosphere, but you’ll still be reaching, because, heck, you want to grow too, right?

As the days march toward the deadline – your big reveal or the start date, there’s momentum building and things are going well. You’re pleased with yourself because you are taking some risks, doing some new things, challenging yourself – and you’re seeing some results – YIPPEEE!

Then, as you start to come up on that ever-important date, the one that you’ve set as an indicator of whether this was a ‘success’ or not, you see that you probably aren’t going to reach the goal.

A sick feeling starts to grow in your stomach and despite trying to reassure yourself, you begin to feel absolutely crushed.

You start to disengage… you become less interested and things become harder as you become more and more disheartened.

You’re looking at that goal and you know you aren’t going to make it… the whole thing seems like a failure, and your attitude and mood start to match that thought…

What’s going wrong here?

While I know this doesn’t happen to everyone, I know A WHOLE SLEW of people it does happen to (including yours truly, thank you very much)…

So, what’s the problem?

Focusing on the wrong ‘celebration’ – looking for the ‘win’ in the wrong place.

What if you re-focused your attention on all the action you did take, not the result that came out of it?

What if you got excited about everything you learned and tried?

What if you knew that 100′s more people saw and heard about you for the first time, and some of them will engage with you and even buy from you the next time around.

What if you knew that the success was in the effort, in the work?

What if you kept track of everything that you did, and you looked at that, saw the movement, the momentum, and celebrated that? Even while you assessed what to shift in the next round to make things even more successful…

What if you saw this for what it was… part of a continuum in your business… another learning experience, a SUCCESSFUL one (regardless of the exact outcome)… Then you took a few moments to pat yourself on the back, enjoy and celebrate and then dove right back in to continue making it better and better for the next round?

That would shift things a bit, wouldn’t it?

Give it a shot… you’ve got nothing to lose, except that crappy disheartened feeling that can stop you in your tracks. (That’s really just a way of self-sabotage anyway, and who needs that?)

Life is about the experience, the journey, not the destination. You will have many MANY more experiences in your entrepreneurial journey, celebrate this one for the wins it offers, and then start on the next one with your eyes up, your heart light, knowing you will grow, learn and succeed.

If you’ve been practicing this scenario the way I described it at the top, it may take some effort and work to re-orient yourself and start to have a different experience. If you do though, the payoff will be HUGE… and once you practice the new responses for a while, they’ll become automatic, and you’ll be unstoppable.

It’s a combination of tools pulled together from different places, and then augmented with sticky-notes (really awesome and fun ones), stickers, pictures from magazines, mementos from events, excursions and trips, and a wonderful book/journal as the basis.

Here are a few images of some of my planning pages and my ‘fun’ pages:

Here are some of the things coming into play:

The Daily Action Plan

This was put together by Angela Jia Kim from www.SavorTheSuccess.com (it’s available to premium members of the network). She built it by compiling a few concepts from different books and sources she found helpful. Things like Chellie Campbell’s book The Wealthy Spirit and Brian Tracey’s Eat That Frog.

I’ve added a few things and dropped a couple to make it suit my daily needs.

What I’ve Added

Daily ‘Poms’ – which you’ll see in the last picture. This is me tracking the number of segments I follow from the Pomodoro Technique (this is a simple and BRILLIANT time management process that has helped me be WAAAAYYY more productive in the last few months. Definitely suggest you check it out (the ebook that explains it is free – how about that!).

Daily Celebrations – this is something I’ve added recently. I noticed that I wasn’t really acknowledging my ‘wins’ on a daily basis. I was getting glum and bummed when things didn’t turn out EXACTLY as I wanted, and I wasn’t celebrating and appreciating what I had accomplished.

This is my place to write down the little wins I have during the day – like when I really didn’t want to write some copy and got myself into a good feeling place and then actually enjoyed doing it. That’s a BIG win, actually, and something I would have previously glossed over.

The Sticky-Notes (!!!)

This is a huge part of what makes this fun for me. I have a (ahem)… shall we say ‘sizeable’ collection of interesting, fun and playful post-its, some of which you see in the pictures. Where in the world, you ask, did I find such WONDERFUL things? Here are my sources (and please, don’t keep these a secret – I want them to make more and more and more varieties so I can have more and more and more FUN WITH THEM!):

Cavalini & Co

I’m linking to Cavallini’s store on Amazon because a) I LOVE Amazon and b) You can buy from there, and you can’t buy directly off their website (unless you can and want to buy wholesale).

Galison

This company has wonderful stuff! A few different ‘brands’ underneath them and some really playful post-its and things. I love the variety and the fun designs. One thing though… the post-it glue isn’t the best, so they don’t stick too well. I glue most of my post-its down in my book anyway (the loose ends at least), so it doesn’t bother me. And, I happen to have a handy-dandy glue stick because…

The BOOK!

The book is brilliant. All by itself it’s a fabulous piece of art. Each page is fun, whimsical, and new. It’s hard to put something on some of them (and, in a few cases, I haven’t). I use colored markers to fill things in sometimes (yes, I have a coloring book… ;- )), I doodle on the pages, I paste magazine pics, I create themes of images and colors, I add stickers – I make it FUN.

“What is this amazing and wonderful book,” you ask?

Well, I will not wait a second longer to tell you…

It’s a K & Company SMASH BOOK!

They have a wonderful video on their site here (you have to click ‘watch the video’).

All the books, rather ingeniously, come with a pen that is also a glue-stick that is attached to the book, so it’s always handy.

Smash books are FABULOUS! You can get them in a variety of places now including Target and Michaels – as well as online through places like Amazon.

I also like some of the accessories Smash Book has – my favorite is the Blank Smash Pad.

It’s awesome! (And, because I have that fab glue stick, I can use the pages right there in my book, just like the stickies. YAY!)

The FUN!

Ok, now that you know what an incredible geek I am, tell me how you are going to start making your planning process fun… so that you’ll actually do it. The FUN is up to you…

I’ll go cross off ‘blog post’ from my short list of today’s activities. :- )

And, as I work on my next marketing planning process, I’ll be making it more like arts & crafts – just for the FUN of it! There is absolutely no reason why the marketing planning process can’t include most (or ALL!) of these great tools.

Happy Planning!

P.S. Yes. I write small. Very very small.

I get the question, “What should be in a marketing plan?”, all the time…

Entrepreneurs understand that they will grow more reliably and effectively if they have a marketing plan (and a marketing calendar, along with a few other key pieces), but they really don’t know what belongs in one.

So, let’s talk about what should be in a marketing plan.

1. The Basics

The first pieces you want to include in your marketing plan are the basics. You want to get super clear on your target market, your ideal customer or client, and the message you are conveying to them. This information serves as a reminder to always focus your marketing efforts toward the people you want to reach and to always keep your primary message in mind as you draft different types of marketing.

This section also needs to include your goals. It can be helpful to have not just your overarching business goals here, but also short and long term business and marketing goals. These can include anything from very strategic pieces to very tactical pieces.

These are the pieces that will help you stay motivated and keep you on track.

2. Differentiators, Core Strategy & Brand Strategy

This is where you will get clear on what is known as your USP – your Unique Selling Proposition. This is the thing that makes you different, that helps you stand out from competitors, and will make you memorable to potential clients.

Here you will also include the core strategy behind the work that you and your business does as well as your brand strategy and how it will help to set you apart. It will also include elements like your story and how you relate to your ideal clients.

3. The Guts

This is where we start to get into the nitty-gritty of what should be in a marketing plan.

This section can vary depending on you and your business, but generally will include some or all of the following:

• Features & Benefits
• Marketing Materials
• Web/Online Strategy
• Lead Generation Strategy & Plan
• Lead Conversion Plan
• Referral Plan
• Customer Service Plan
• JV Plan
• Marketing Funnel
• Continuity Program
• Frequent Buyer/Rewards Program
• PR Strategy
• Marketing Calendar
• and more…

4. The Final Pieces

The final pieces that belong in your marketing plan include your testing and tracking systems for key metrics you will watch, your budget information, and any forecasts for your business that are related to your marketing (like your sales forecasts).

As you dig into what should be in your marketing plan, it’s important to understand that as you start out you may not need or want to include all of these pieces in your plan. This can be overwhelming, and therefore, end up counter-productive to your overall process. Your marketing plan should support you, help you to stay on track, and help to keep you accountable to yourself and anyone else who may be involved in your business.

If taking on all of these pieces is too much at the beginning, pick a few sections that will support you now and begin to work with them, setting an appointment in your calendar to re-visit the pieces and work on incorporating more on a monthly or quarterly basis until you have all the bases covered.

And, if you are curious about how to figure out what should go into YOUR marketing plan, check out my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar here. It’s free and I’m going to be sharing some of my BEST TIPS on making your marketing work – for you and for your bottom line. Don’t miss it – sign up here.

I am frequently asked questions about how to develop marketing strategies for small businesses, entrepreneurs and solo-preneurs.

So, in today’s post, I’ll share a few tips with you.

How to Develop Marketing Strategies – Step 1

The first thing you need to do is determine the basics – the 3 M’s of marketing – your market, your message and your media. You can read more about these items in my ‘Marketing Concepts‘ posts and articles.

Once you are clear on who your target market is, what the message is that you want to share and some of the media through which you can reach your target audience, you can start to build your strategy.

How to Develop Marketing Strategies – Step 2

The next step is to take a closer look at the media options you have selected. Now you want to determine, step-by-step, what you will do to get your message out through the different types of media.

As an example, lets say you’ve chosen direct mail as your media. Now you have almost unlimited options about what you can send and when you will send it.

Since most strategies will work best with multiple steps, the process of developing the marketing strategy will really be about figuring out the steps and touch-points you want in your direct mail campaign.

What you include will, in part, depend on the product or service you are marketing. You could include 1 or more post cards, letters, gifts (which could really include anything)…and basically anything from a rock with a message and postage on it to a prescription bottle with a message in it. The more creative you are the more likely it is that your mail will be opened and your message will be seen.

As you plan out the steps, you also should determine the timing for each piece, creating a calendar to follow as you implement.

How to Develop Marketing Strategies – Step 3

Now all you need to do is work on creating the marketing pieces themselves, with or without the support of others – including copy writers, graphic designers, direct mail specialists, etc., and begin to implement your marketing strategy.

If developing marketing strategy for your business is something that challenges you, you can work with a marketing consultant or coach to help you not just create them, but learn how to do it moving forward. Then, you can take what you learn and implement those strategies on your own or with your team.

When it comes to knowing how to develop a marketing strategy, it’s really pretty straight-forward. It’s a step-by-step process, like most other things in business and in life. You have choices and decisions to make, and once you put things out there, you will want to track the results and make incremental changes to continue to make your strategies more and more effective.

If you are curious about building strong marketing strategies for your business, then you’ll want to check out my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar – it’s live and free – you can register here.

I find I’m using this expression more and more…

Really, it’s what things sometimes come down to in business… you just have to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

What does this mean in terms of marketing?

Well… you can learn a lot of things about marketing… you can figure out your target market, you can get your message clear, you can choose your media wisely, you can build strategies that kick some series butt… but what it all comes down to in the end, is putting your sh*t out there and seeing WHAT WORKS, and just as importantly WHAT DOESN’T.

To me, that’s throwing the spaghetti against the wall… you won’t know if you’ve picked the right target market, or narrowed enough if you never get out there and try your stuff out on them.

You’ll never know if your message hits the mark or misses by a mile, if you don’t put it in front of your people and see if they respond.

Do you get the idea?

Marketing only works when you ACTUALLY DO IT. Pretty much like everything else in life… you might want to me Mr. or Ms. Right, but if you sit on your couch night after night pining away and wondering where this amazing human being is and why you haven’t found them yet, you’re problem could very well be that YOU NEVER GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.

I’m not trying to be harsh here, just want to share a little dose of reality. Even the best in the world miss on a regular basis – that goes for everything from baseball to marketing – it isn’t always a home-run. And, when it isn’t, you’ve got a great opportunity to look at what went well, what needs to improve, and how you can make it better the next time around.

So, if you’re ready to get your marketing act together and start putting some of your brilliance out into the world in a new, inspired and authentic way join me for my upcoming (& free) webinar – we’ll be talking about some of the best ways to share what you’ve got in a way that feels good to you, and might even be… *gasp*… FUN! Register here.

It’s bound to happen.

As you travel along your entrepreneurial path, occasionally (or not so occasionally) you’re going to hit bumps in the road, massive trees fallen across the only way through, scary animals and strange sounds during the night, and section which seem almost un-passable.

In short, there are going to be things that make you want to quit, run home to the cozy comfort of your living room sofa, a blanket and your favorite funny sitcom (anyone have some ice cream? I’ll settle for chocolate chip cookies?).

Trust me, I speak from experience.

If you decide not to retreat, you’ll find that you are far stronger than you may have expected. You’ll find that you have resources, ideas, support and energy you had no clue were in your reserves.

And, if you decide you WILL find a way, then you will. Period.

The funny thing is, often times, it’s not even that hard. What looks like a brick wall, a huge monstrosity, once you decide you’ll scale it, go around it, learn to jump high enough or, if required, use a stick to scrape at it until you make a hole and then make it big enough to squeeze through, even if it takes you 10 years (basically, you’ll do whatever it takes) turns out to be just a really photo-realistic image on paper, so all you have to do is rip through and you’ll be on your way.

Perhaps it’s just me… it’s an odd paradox, but something I’ve found to be true over and over. You make a decision and the way seems to yield.

Where are you seeing an obstacle that feels just too big, too hard to traverse? Reach out and ask a friend or a coach for some support – chances are it looks like a boulder, but if you shift the lighting just right, you’ll see it’s actually a staircase carved into the rock…

And, if you are ready to blast the barriers to creating marketing that kicks some serious butt, then you won’t want to miss the live (& FREE) webinar I have coming up. You can register here to learn some of my best tips, including my #1 marketing shift – which the most successful entrepreneur I know used to change her entire business. Don’t miss out, click here to register.

As they say, “best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

The bottom line is that you can lay out the most amazing marketing plan, using the most supportive, easiest and best marketing planning process known to man, and it can all go south.

Here are a few of the pitfalls you need to look for to help make sure your marketing planning process and your marketing plans are towing the line.

1 – Planning Is Fun, But Then Comes The Implementation

For most people, the planning process, once they know how to do it and get started, is actually fun. It’s easy to imagine all the things you will do and start to assign dates to them.

Something that happens with a lot of people is that they get the planning in place, but when it comes time to sit down and actually create the marketing materials and put them out into the world (aka: follow the plan…), they find about a million and one other things that need to be done NOW, instead of the step in front of them.

2 – It’s Not Working The Way You Want

It’s a fact. Some marketing won’t work. It doesn’t mean it can’t or never will, it just means something’s not connecting somewhere in the mix. It can take patience and perseverance to figure out what is off so you can make the appropriate changes. The big gaping trap that you can fall in here is becoming discouraged because it didn’t happen easily the first time.

Sometimes you get lucky and hit the home run on the first swing…it’s pretty rare. More often than not, you’ll need to take A LOT of swings before you’ll hit it out of the park. Practice makes perfect, so start to re-frame your marketing experiences as part of the process to figuring out exactly what will work. Think of it as perfecting your swing, so you can get to that .300 batting average (which is considered GREAT – and is still only hitting 3 times out of every 10 you get up and swing).

3 – You Stop Short

You’ve managed to get past the first 2 hurdles and things are humming along…and then, suddenly, you are so wrapped up in everything that’s going on (when marketing starts to work, you can get pretty busy, pretty quick) that you stop following the plan.

This may not seem like that big of a deal, but it can create a rollercoaster ride experience: big “ups” keeping busy with lots of clients then, as you complete work, you have big “downs” and need to kick the marketing back into gear because nothing was bringing new people in your direction while you were working with the last group.

Making your marketing efforts consistent is one of the key goals of the marketing planning process. Following a marketing plan and using a marketing calendar is necessary to avoid those big ups and downs and have a steady, growing flow of clients coming your way.

If your marketing can use some sprucing up, you’ll want to check out my upcoming Marketing in the Morning™ webinar. It’s free and you can register here.

There are some days when you need to push yourself, have some discipline and get things done, and then, there are some days when you just have to go with the flow.

Yesterday was one of those days for me… I was on vacation at the end of last week, so took a few days off, and had a lot to get done, so figured I’d put in a few hours on Sunday.

When Sunday rolled around, I was tired (vacation was great, but there was more play and not as much rest :- ) ), and just needed to rest and unplug for the day. So, because it was Sunday, and I knew I could push a bit harder today and still accomplish what I need to, I gave myself the time.

I went with the flow – and it was a spectacular day. A long walk in the park, a few football games on TV where I watched and read (or watched and napped – so yummy!), and this morning, I was up early and ready to go.

The big question then becomes, how do you determine when to have the discipline and get things done, even if you don’t completely feel like it, and when to give yourself the break and just go with the flow?

Only you can really answer that for yourself…

But, for me, it has to do with deadlines, how much time I really have, how strong my need is for a little down time – after all, if I’m really tired my work won’t be great anyway, so sometimes the very best thing you can do is take a break, give yourself some R & R, and come back fresh.

What about you? How do you know when it’s time for discipline and when it’s time to go with the flow?

P.S. – If you are ready to have some ‘discipline’ around your marketing and you want it to get easier for you and really start having an impact (e.g. bringing in more clients and income), then you’ll want to check out my free webinar coming up this week – you can find out more about it and register here.

Last week I dove into the marketing planning process (here’s part 1 of the marketing planning process, and here’s part 2).

Today I want to talk about some more general marketing concepts.

The first thing most people come across when they start to learn some things about marketing are what are known as the ’3 M’s’, which are:

1 – Market

2 – Message

3 – Media

As marketing concepts, these are KEY to your success. Here’s a basic description of each:

1 – Market: Your marketing refers to your TARGET market. These are the people you want to reach with your marketing. This is a specific group, which is identified by demographics (information about age, gender, income – hard and fast information that is pretty straight-forward to gather) and psychographics (these are more ambiguous, and center around preferences, opinions, likes and dislikes of your target folks).

It’s extremely important that you get really clear on who you want to reach. When you’re not, your marketing will be MUCH less effective, may not work at all, and if you are investing money in it, you’ll probably find that most of it is wasted.

2 – Message: This is what you are saying about what you’ve got. Generally, it needs to be oriented to specific things your target market wants and/or needs. Generally it’s better to have something (or figure out something about what you’ve got) that your target marketing WANTS. We’ll go after and invest in our wants faster than we will our needs, in most instances. We want what we want, we don’t necessarily want what we need, so we sometimes put it off until the last possible moment.

3 – Media: This is the big (HUGE!) list of all the different ways you can put your message out to your target market. Some people think certain media are better than others… I’m more of the opinion that media is neutral – it becomes a better choice for you and your business when it a) will hit your target market right on the nose b) is easy for you to properly relay your message and c) is accessible to both your business and your target market.

An example of media that is ‘all the rage’ is social media. Yes, it can work wonderfully, but it can also be a big, huge time-such and not have a lot of results. In order to determine if it makes sense for your business, you need to analyze it and determine if your target market is on the particular platform you are considering and if it makes sense for your business to be engaged there.

If you are curious about these and other marketing concepts as they relate to your business, then tune in for my {FREE} webinar, where you’ll learn the single shift you need to make to dramatically change your biz success, a super simple 3-step process to have clients lining up to work with you, freedom from the stress of not knowing what will work and what won’t and much more. You can register here.

Today’s marketing concept (you can find more marketing concepts posted here) is the 3 basic types of customers any business can have.

Most small business owners and entrepreneurs only focus on 1 type of customer – the NEW CUSTOMER. It’s a BIG mistake… so let’s talk about the other 2.

The 2nd type?

The LOST CUSTOMER. This is someone who was a client, perhaps for a while, but hasn’t come back and engaged in your products or services for a while (how long needs to be determined by you and your biz).

Lost customers are a great opportunity for any business. They are people who bought what you had – may have even been really happy with it (if they weren’t then there is a different discussion that needs to be had about quality of products, services and experiences within your biz), but for some reason, they’ve either not wanted or needed what you have since the last time they bought, or they’ve gone somewhere else.

Coming up with a lost customer campaign, designed to re-engage you past customers who are no longer with you can boost your relationships and bring in a big chunk of business. Best of all? You already have their contact information in your database, so reaching out is easy. It can also be creative and fun.

The 3rd type of customer?

Your CURRENT CUSTOMERS.

Most people don’t think about current customers as one of the best places to get ‘new clients’. Finding out what else your current customers want and need to solve problems related to your business gives you the opportunity to create new products and services that provide tremendous value to your clients, as well as making them more valuable to your business.

Most businesses don’t realize that their current customer database is a gold mine of information just waiting to be tapped. Find out what else your clients want and need – do some surveys online, call a few of them each week. Then, build what they want, or find someone who does and make the connection as part of a joint venture arrangement. It can be a win-win-win.

If you want more marketing concepts to help build your business, don’t miss my upcoming {& FREE} webinar. We’ll be covering my #1 tip the most successful entrepreneur I know told me changed her entire business, and a whole bunch more. You can get the details and register here.

Last week I shared several posts about my marketing planning process.

Today, I want to talk a bit about what needs to happen before you even start.

There are 2 really key things… the first is getting your mindset straight, and the second, is figuring out what your outcome or goal is for the thing you are doing the marketing planning process for.

First: Your Mindset

Marketing can be pretty challenging for a lot of people. It’s absolutely essential though.

And, once you learn marketing, you can actually go out and marketing pretty much anything under the sun and create success (as long as it fits a few basic criteria – which you understand, when you understand marketing).

So, how do you get over the hump and get past the junk that is in your way of becoming a kick-a$$ marketer?

You make a decision.

I know. It’s very simple. Too simple.

But, it’s true. You might need to get some help with whatever stuff is coming up – whether you are afraid of visibility, of failure, of success or a million other possibilities… make sure you have a support system around those things. You could join a mastermind group and ask (and then allow) them to hold you accountable.

If you’ve got some bigger, more deep seated stuff going on, it might make sense to get some help from a coach, or, even, if it’s really emotional stuff, from a counselor of some kind.

Yes, marketing can be THAT challenging for some people.

Second: Know Your Goal

The second thing you need to think about before you settle down and dig into the marketing planning process, is your end goal.

What do you want to achieve with this particular situation?

What are you marketing?

Is this a long-term strategy (something that once in place and working, will stay in place for as long as it continues working)?

Is this a short-term strategy (are you in a launch phase for a new product or service, or are you marketing something that will only be offered once or for a short time)?

How big of a reach do you want this to make?

How will you know your efforts were successful?

Getting clear on these questions, along with any other things related to your ultimate goal, will help you make sure that your marketing planning process AND the outcome of the marketing itself lines up with what you really want.

If you want to dig deeper into some of these concepts, find out my #1 tip for making your business a success and learn a bunch more about marketing, then you won’t want to miss my upcoming {and FREE} webinar. You can find out more, and register here.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” ~Albert Einstein

Today’s marketing concept is simplicity.

When it comes to marketing, simple is often Queen… and, for some reason, most of us are inclined to complicate the heck out of pretty much everything we do.

Not sure why, but for me, it seems I think if it’s simple it’s not good enough or it won’t work or something along those lines.

Perhaps you have something similar running through your mind as you look at simple options and marketing concepts in your business?

So, what’s an entrepreneur to do?

Just follow the K.I.S.S. method… Keep It Simple Sweetheart! ;- )

As your business grows, there is no question that you will add complex marketing structures, things that if you tried to do them know might have your head spinning.

For now, let’s approach our marketing concepts, our marketing systems and our marketing strategies with an eye toward simplicity.

What that does is give us the space to think things through, without needing complex tracking procedures or 5 other people’s brains.

It allows us to create marketing that is easy to implement, and probably even fun (whoa? Really? FUN marketing? YUP!)

So, as you approach your marketing planning for the next month and as you begin to look at the new year, think about keeping things simple. You can implement 10 different marketing strategies, if they are straight forward and pretty easy, right?

If you make the first strategy super complex, you’ll never get a second one going, and you’ll probably find that first one doesn’t really work.

How can you simplify your marketing efforts today?

And, if you aren’t even sure what your marketing efforts are (or marketing concepts, for that matter), or you know you’ve got a few, but you thought, “Holy cow! 10 marketing strategies??” then you’ll want to sign up for my {free} Marketing in the Morning™ webinar. We’ll be talking about the single most important shift you can make in your business to make it successful, along with several other things – including some stuff about marketing strategies and systems. You can register here.

In yesterday’s post I wrote about some of the essential and basic marketing concepts that every business owner needs to grow to understand.

Today, I’ll continue sharing some of the essential tenets that make up the foundation of the marketing concepts you need to be successful.

One of the marketing concepts I get a lot of questions about (and that I didn’t ‘get’ AT ALL in my early years in business) is what it is and how it differs from PR (Public Relations) and Sales.

Honestly, when I first started out, I thought PR and putting your logo on t-shirts pretty much was all there was to marketing. I had A LOT to learn!

I’m going to keep things really straight-forward today and talk about the difference between each of these categories, or at least the way I’ve come to classify and understand them.

Essentially, I see marketing as a big umbrella, under which we find sub-categories of things like PR and Sales.

What that means is that PR and Sales are actually, at least in my mind, a part of your marketing. Some people would argue that sales sits outside of marketing, but I think there is so much cross-over, it actually fits within the umbrella.

Here’s what I think each of these is:

Marketing – this is the process of letting people know about what you’ve got and what it can do for them. For a lot of people it really helps to re-frame marketing and think about it as education. You are educating your potential customers about what you have, how it provides something they want and/or how it meets one of their needs/solves a problem.

PR – public relations is the process of getting visibility in different editorial style outlets – including magazines, blogs, video, TV etc. It really is a specialty in and of itself. When people reach out to me and ask if I can help them with PR, I generally refer them to someone who has learned the specific ins-and-outs of this type of marketing. It’s not completely different, but building a back ground and relationships in this arena can take years, so it makes sense to work with someone who really ‘gets’ it.

Sales – this really goes hand-in-hand with marketing, and I see it as the process of helping someone understand if what you have is going to suit their specific wants and needs. A ‘re-frame’ for sales would be seeing it as ‘service’. If you are doing it from the right perspective, you really are supporting and helping someone get what they want.

I have several more of these posts on marketing concepts planned out for the coming weeks, so come back often to find out what else I’ve added to the collection of posts.

And, if you want to leap ahead and really grasp the essential marketing concepts you need to create success in your business, then you’ll want to register for my upcoming (& free) webinar. We’ll be covering a whole slew of things, including a super simple 3-step process to have clients lining up to work with you, how you can have freedom from the stress of not knowing what will work & what won’t & much more. You can register here.

Here’s an image of my marketing calendar and the post-its of my marketing planning process. It’s not neat, but it’s colorful!

This past week I wrote about the basic steps I follow in my marketing planning process. Today, I want to share some of the results that can come from creating a process like this and following it…

The first, and probably most important piece is that you will feel on purpose, and as you follow each step, you will feel more and more confident as you approach your work each day, you will know what needs to be accomplished, and as you begin to get it done, you will feel better and better.

Why is that the most important outcome from a marketing planning process?

From a law of attraction standpoint, the better we feel, the better the things are that we can attract. It makes sense too, when you explore it a bit…

On days when you are feeling really good, things are flowing, you are accomplishing stuff, you don’t feel overwhelmed it just seems to get better and better. And, if you explore it a bit, you’ll often find, that if something doesn’t knock you out of that good feeling place, cool things and ‘coincidences’ happen too.

You’ll also notice the opposite, when things are ‘off’ or kind of crappy they just seem to stack up too. The old adage, “when it rains it pours,” is around because of the way this works.

The next piece you’ll notice is that when you have given yourself a set of steps to follow, and you’ve broken them down properly, even the more challenging and scary things are much easier to tackle. Something that might otherwise be really challenging for you because a little bit easier, and as you simply ‘take the next step’ you can end up doing things that seemed really hard or impossible before.

Finally, as you continue to follow through on your marketing planning process, you’ll find that things start to work. Maybe not everything, but my the sheer process of implementing multiple marketing steps and strategies, things will begin to POP.

There are, of course, pieces that will make that last part faster like being super clear on your target market and having irresistible messaging, but even if you haven’t got it perfect, it will start to have an impact. Then, you can continue to refine those other pieces as you learn more in the process.

If you are ready to kick your marketing planning process and your results into high gear, then check out my upcoming (& free) webinar here. I’ll be sharing the single most important tip the most successful entrepreneur I know said changed her it a and her business, knowing how to charge what your worth and having clients who are happy to pay it and much more.

You can register here.