Designing Your Marketing Plan
Why is this important?
According to the Small Business Administration (SBA) more than half of small businesses fail in the first year. And by the end of the first five years, that number rises to 95%. One big reason is often a poor marketing plan.
What we've seen over and over are businesses that have great ideas and a decent business plan, but have skipped over the marketing. After the first flush of buying by (mostly) friends and relatives, business slows to a crawl, the rent and the payroll come due, and marketing suddenly becomes a priority. Often, businesses discover, too late, that the advertising needed to increase sales is too expensive or worse, that advertising dollars have largely been wasted on the wrong audience.
photo by Pulitzer Prize winner Joe Marquette
The truth is advertising is expensive. But used properly, it works. You can have the best idea, product or service in the world, but if nobody knows about it, you won't be in business very long. Don't put yourself in this position. Plan ahead.
The trick is to find and use the advertising tools that will work for you. That's why you make a marketing plan.