Creating a Marketing Plan

At least once a year, it is important that you and the key team members on your staff go through a strategic planning session. The strategic planning session will always be the most productive when it is led by an outside individual, such as a business coach, who can help you gain fresh perspective, focus on the major goals you hope to achieve, set your priorities, and help you keep accountable to your goals.

In this annual marketing meeting, it is important to determine your marketing budget for the year (5-15% of your annual revenue target) and to set your priorities for the year. If you have a small marketing budget, then it would benefit you to make one of your marketing priorities to raise a certain amount of capital.

Whichever of these methods you use, you will want to be strategic about how you plan to get results and achieve your marketing goals. That means you should set up your marketing plan based on a predetermined number of leads, prospects, or opportunities you intend to acquire throughout the year.

Your business coach or outside consultant should help to lay out a plan for your company, including helping you to choose the best channels to pursue your goals, as well as help you to determine the parameters of implementation of that plan so you know how much capital you will need to raise.

Strategy Questions:

• Do you have an outside consultant or business coach who can help you with your business strategy?

• What are the major goals / priorities you hope to achieve this year?

• How much of your annual revenue target needs to be set apart for a marketing budget?

• Do you need to raise more capital this year?