July/August 2010
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Dear Robyn,

Remember all those grand plans you had on January 1st? Yeah, exactly. Life happens. Business happens (or not). Bottom line is this: plans change, for better and for worse.

That's okay. In fact, it's normal. What's not okay? Ignoring your plan until December. Here's a strategy for adjusting your marketing plan and getting it in the best shape possible as you head into fall.


1. Review the last seven months. Review all the marketing activities that took place: online, offline, print, newsletters, advertising. You get the idea. If you have a formal, written plan, simply refer to it and go through each item. If you don't have a formal plan, don't panic. Call up a Word doc and create a month-by-month list. Refer to your calendar and business credit card/checking statements to help jog your memory as to what you spent your marketing dollars on. (Trust me--it's worth the effort...and it will be a huge help when you sit down to create next year's plan. Because you WILL be creating one, right?) As you review each marketing activity, indicate the results. The more specific and scientific, the better. For example, if you did a direct mail campaign to 1000 people and got 20 sales, you know you had a two percent conversion rate. If you don't have these details, make an educated guess.

2. What are the top business-producing marketing activities? Which marketing activities produced the most leads? Which marketing activities produced the best lead conversions? Are the lists the same, different, or is there overlap? Note: I define leads as anyone who takes action: the person fills out a form, mails in a reply card, calls you about an offer, etc. I define conversions as leads that turn into paying customers.

3. What marketing activities did you and your employees enjoy doing the most? Do any of those activities match the ones on the top marketing activities list? If yes, note those.

4. What marketing activities did you and your employees hate doing? This is not the place to be coy or to think, "Well, we don't like doing X, but we'll get better at it." Be honest. Do any of those activities match those on the top marketing activities list? If yes, make note.


Now, I'm not suggesting you should get rid of all activities you don't like doing. But let's say your company has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You and your employees are active on Facebook and you're starting to build a community. You also use LinkedIn consistently. But then there's Twitter. You haven't tweeted in months. You hardly have any followers. You and your employees don't particularly like it. I'm a big fan of the "do one thing well" philosophy, and the truth is that adding Twitter to the mix might be overwhelming you and your employees, at least right now. So perhaps it makes sense to refocus the time you had earmarked for Twitter and put it towards Facebook and LinkedIn instead. You can always add in Twitter later, and you should keep it on your marketing radar. But the enthusiasm and effort you and your employees are showing towards Facebook and LinkedIn will make up for the fact you're not on Twitter (at least in the short term).


Sometimes you'll be in a situation where you hate a particular activity, but you recognize its value. Should you sacrifice your sanity for leads? No. Instead, this would be the time to outsource. For example, I have a client who has a blog, but she has no time--or interest--in writing posts. At the same time, she knows the blog is a "must-have" from an industry perspective and SEO perspective. So she outsources the activity to me. Every month, she knows I'll be writing 8 to 10 blog posts. (This would be something you'd note on your marketing plan.)

5. What marketing activities do you wish you did (or did more of)? Make sure you can explain why. It's perfectly fine to say, "We should be on Twitter" or "We should create a Facebook group," if you have good reasons behind your proclamations.

6. Now look at the next five months. Take a hard look. What you want to do is make adjustments based on what you noted above. You want to weed out the activities that you know aren't working and re-focus on the activities that are yielding good results.

For the activities that are yielding good results and that you and your employees like doing, would it make sense to devote more time and dollars to these activities? Would the investment yield more leads and increase conversions? While you can't know for sure, you can make educated guesses. For example, if you ran a contest on Facebook during, say, April and it resulted in increased leads and more conversions that month, it might make sense to run a contest in September and December and see if the results are the same, better, or worse. This sort of experimenting will help you build an even stronger marketing plan for next year.

Remember: avoid making rash judgments. If you're thinking of eliminating an activity for the second half of the year, ask yourself this question first and then drill down: What's the problem with this particular marketing activity: 
  • Is it the execution?
  • Is it the copy?
  • Are your metrics faulty (or non-existent)?
  • Is it some other reason?
  • Is it something you can fix?
If you go through this checklist and feel you've done everything right and that it's not fixable, then it might make sense to eliminate it from the plan, at least for now. You can always add it back in at some point, should conditions change.

If you think the problem isn't the marketing activity itself, but rather something else, such as the execution, then adjust your marketing plan to address the issue. For example, let's say you're thinking about eliminating email marketing because your open rate is low and you're not seeing any direct business coming from the newsletter. As you consider the checklist above, you wonder if the problem isn't email marketing itself but rather if you're delivering the right message and including the best offers. And you're wondering about the health of your list and the overall design of your newsletter.

You decide you might not be ready to lose email marketing just yet, but you know you need to do something different. This is where your marketing plan comes in. As you adjust your plan for the next five months, you add in these activities:
  • Research email marketing best practices
  • Research email marketing consultants
  • Have email consultants review email campaigns, make recommendations, and provide a proposal for implementing recommendations
  • Review proposals and make a decision
From there, the email marketing consultant will likely have a plan for re-launching the e-newsletter. His or her plan will flow into your plan. And six months from now when you're evaluating your marketing plan again, you might be thinking very differently about your email newsletter.

But let's pretend for a moment that it is six months later and your email marketing results are the same or even a little worse. It might be time to reallocate those marketing dollars elsewhere.

This is why it's essential to review your plan regularly. I recommend once a quarter. But I'm also a realist and realize most small business owners aren't going to do that. So reviewing at a halfway point is the next best thing.

By the way, there is one item that all companies should definitely build into the next five months: creating your 2011 marketing plan. Late October or early November is a good time to do this. And if you need assistance from a competent third party well versed in marketing? This would be a perfect activity for Rent My Noggin.
Good luck with your marketing plan review and enjoy the remaining days of summer. See you in September.

Best,
RB
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This email was sent to robyn@etrobbins.com by robyn@etrobbins.com.
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