Is your strategic marketing planning really practical?

What type of long range strategic marketing planning have you applied to your resource strapped small, and or service?

A lot of  otherwise extremely savvy entrepreneurs, are essentially doers, but not planners.

And as an extremely famous small business marketing consultant coach of mine is fond of saying, ” Doing the wrong marketing activities right or doing the right marketing activities wrong.”

Is a poor substitute for not having a practical marketing plan.

How To Do Practical Strategic Marketing Planning That Actually Fits Your Current Situation!

One of the best ways (long term) to ensure that your business, product or service is viable, is to based it’s creation on filling a current unmet need.

In other words, don’t mistake your passion for it, as demand in the marketplace. Basically a profitable market consists of enthusiastic buyers, that will readily part with their hard earned money, in exchange for your solutions.

Make Sure Your Strategic Marketing Planning….

(Answers These Five Basic Questions)

Otherwise your ship will quickly get off course. Superstar marketing consultant “David Frey” (pronounced Fry),one of my many marketing coaches, defines a profitable niche like this.

It’s like a lake with thousands of starving fish. All you need to do is throw in the right bait (marketing message) and you’ll soon have a feeding frenzy!

So it’s imperative that you at least have a basic understanding of (both) the size and current competition within your chosen niche.

1.) How much market share do you need to capture (initially) in order to break even? (And what time frame are you projecting for this important milestone to be accomplished/)

2.) Is their too much competition (both) short and long term, for you to really be competitive?

3.) Which if any of the market segments (niches) or sub niches, are currently being undeserved ? And how quickly can your business, product or service fill the void?

4.) Are there any practical weakness in your major competitors current marketing approaches, that you can readily capitalize on?

5.) Is the market segment your currently pursuing, (or preparing) to pursue, viable enough for you to run and grow a business?

Because if it’s not, you may want to consider this undertaking, more of a hobby, and not a business venture.

If you after this initial analysis, you still feel this particular target market is still viable.

Then it’s crucial that you spend some quality time developing an extremely practical strategic marketing plan.

Don’t you agree?

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this. Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will help you increase your profits by at least 25% in the next 90 days or less.

And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.)
It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!

Who else looking to implement some proven low cost, high powered adverting methods?

  (To Help You Quickly Get The Word Out!)

Honestly, what specific criterion do you use, to try and quickly decide which advertising methods to use, to help grow your business?

Is it simply a matter of you throwing the proverbial dart at the board and wherever it lands, that’s where you start? Hopefully, your process is a little more scientific than that.

So How Do You  Actually Decide Which Advertising Methods Work Best?

(For Your Resource Strapped Small Business)

Do you let your pocket book decide? Or do you simply flip a  coin or what?

With so many viable options, how do you decide to invest your money, in the sea of advertising and marketing opportunities?

One particular strategy that usually works extremely well, is to work from the end result forward. Huh?

For ex: suppose your trying to attract more women between the ages of 20-50 to your place of business.

Because your long term “lifetime total customer value” calculation, tells you that these particular prospects, will stay with your particular business for at least seven years.

And on average, they’ll spend about $1,500  dollars per year (gross.) Which means, over their entire seven years, they’ll basically spend $11,900 dollars with you.

And you’ll net after deducting your various costs,about roughly 67% of that entire amount. (Or you’ll gross $7,973 dollars. $11,900 x .67% = $7,973.)

And that averages out to about $1,139 dollars per year. ($7,973 / 7 years = $1,139 gross profit per new customer per year.)

So under no circumstances, should you be spending more than $1,139 dollars per year to acquire that new first time customer.

Otherwise, you’ll probably be losing money on the all important front end of your long term (repeat customer) sales funnel.

(FYI: By the way, the specific numbers are totally irrelevant, it’s the overall basic concept, about “total lifetime customer value”, that you have to get, in order for this particular illustration to make sense.

Why Using The Best Advertising Methods Will Explode Your Long Term profits! (For Literally Pennies On The Dollar!)

Case in point: let’s do a simple side by side comparison of two types advertising methods. The first one will be the (all too typical) conventional type of  outrageously expensive local newspaper or local radio advertising stuff.

you know where a cash strapped local small business owner and or service provider tries (desperately) in vain, to simply blast their message to any and every one, only quickly to discover.

They don’t nearly have enough money to effectively advertise to the masses, before they have to fold the tent. because their pockets simply aren’t deep enough to see it through.

On the other hand; here is the other (marketing) based advertising approach. Clearly, this approach takes a little more preliminary work up front, before you can fully implement it, but let’s see which approach, you think you the best chances for long term success.

 Your Cash Strapped Small Business Can Either Take The Advertising Approach Or the Marketing Advertising Approach To Successfully Growing Your Business!

(Which Approach Makes More Sense to You?)

Let’s say company A spends about $4,000 dollars per month on a combination of outrageously expensive local newspaper and local radio ads.

And at the end of the month, when they total up what all this conventional advertising activity actually cost them vs the amount of business they really gained from it.

Well you already know how this movie ends,right?

On the other hand company B, (your company) actually did their “total lifetime customer value” calculation, and they realize (upfront), that their typical customer (which is women ages 20-50), will spend about $1,139 per year with you!

(Just remember to substitute your actual numbers in place of the ones used for this particular example.) (And don’t you dare get caught in the exact number rocket science of this extremely powerful marketing concept, for now just generalize in order to move forward!)

Anyway… Here’s what you might inexpensively test first. Just to see “how” much, this particular marketing tactic, gets the word out.

take your traditionally slowest day or test this concept during your traditionally slowest season, if your business or service tends to trend, depending on which particular season it is.

Say you’re a local small women’s clothing store retailer. You might give the first twenty women (or X) number of women through the door that day, a special coupon that they redeem at your local florist, that happens to be a valued joint venture partner.

And they get a dozen roses  free (they just need to pick them up in person) or personally pay for delivery! you of course just pay your florist’s actual real cost, because you both realize that a certain percentage of those women that come in to redeem their certificate, will in fact become valued long term repeat customers!

Hopefully You Prefer The Think Outside The Box Advertising Methods!

So let’s say you buy the first twenty women through your doors on your traditionally slowest day a dozen roses, that actually cost you $27 dollars each.

You spent a grand total of $540 dollars to advertise your business to your local market! but the reality is, you just spent $27 of your $1,139 dollar annual total!

If you throw in free deliver (which) you now know you can easily afford.

Think about the long term (positive word of moth) affects of what happens when that beautiful dozen roses arrives at their job or place of business!

And of course, your deliver person (also) hands them twenty (special VIP) 25% off new customer only discount cards to pass around as well!

And of course let’s not forget that at least one day per week, you will also include a free five foot teddy bear to be delivered with one of the deliveries too!

Entrepreneur? Of the two advertising methods, which one do you think will have the best long term effect on your valued customer base? Yep!

You get more tweets and thumbs on FB as well!

Hopefully, this type of long term strategic thinking, is starting to spark some new marketing possibilities in your mind!

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this. Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will help you increase your profits by at least 25% in the next 90 days or less.

And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.)
It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!

What are your five favorite famous motivational quotes.

  (And Help You Stay On Track!)

Okay, can you name the five most famous motivational quotes,  that you’ve heard in  the last year, that really made a truly lasting impact on you?

If not, there is very good chance, your not coming in contact with part of your long term mental development side enough.

Case in point: if your immediate gut kneed reaction to that last paragraph was, “I don’t need any of that so called motivational stuff!’ Then entrepreneur, please answer (honestly) the two following simple questions.

A.) Is your business, growing as fast as you’d like it to?

B.) Do you currently have all the success that you want? Well, perhaps part of the reason is because of the way you and I habitually think about and process the situations that occur in our daily lives.

Of Course It’s Not Just About Famous Motivational Quotes!

For sure you chant all you want or read one (so called) positive affirmation after another.

But at the end of the day, it’s truly about what specific actions you take (towards) your realistic goals. And how consistent you are or aren’t!

meaning- if you decide to kinda of sort of test one main power headline against one another, here and there.

That’s the kinda of sort of results, you’ll ultimately get.

Or if you decide to share your valued unique insights and perspectives via your blog, every now and then.

Google and the other major search engines, will pay that much attention to your blog.

Because everyday, (roughly) six point six billion web surfers go online (in search) of proven “how to” problem solving solutions. And either, your going to be one of the sites they find, or your not.

It doesn’t matter to them or Google! So just like bathing regularly.

Your mind has to be positively fertilized with (consistently) with the right types of mind food (aka) famous motivational quotes.

Otherwise, like bathing here and there, your not going to get and benefit from the full impact of the activity.

Five Famous Motivational Quotes You May Want To incorporate Into Your Daily Routine!

1.) Famous Motivational Quote # one: “As a man thinketh in his heart , so is he.” You know the source of that one, right?

2.) Famous Motivational Quote # two: “What lies before and what lies behind us, is insignificant, to what lies within us!”

3.) Famous Motivational Quote # three: “Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

4.) Famous Motivational Quote # four: “To live happy is an inward power of the soul.” Marcus Aurelius

5.) Famous Motivational Quote # five: “Keep your face to the sunshine and you won’t see the shadows.” Helen Keller.

The point is entrepreneur, lots of times, it’s not what happens (per se), it’s how you (and I) respond to it. Not fully appreciating the many (mind set) opportunities, that short term adversity and or set backs, can provide us with.

Which means, it ultimately gets down to how you (we) process things. That’s how and why these five famous motivational quotes, may be of value to you.

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this. Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will help you increase your profits by at least 25% in the next 90 days or less.

And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.)
It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!

How do you define inspiration?[/caption]

  (And Does It Motivate You To Do Your Very Best?)

Have you noticed how whenever things start to tank just a little emotionally, it becomes critically important how and what you do to define inspiration?

Because whatever it is (emotionally) that’s temporarily dragging you down, one thing is for sure,

if you don’t have some sort of way to effectively manage these times, when they come.

As they surely will. You’ll constantly let the all too powerful doubt gremlins rule the day.

Why You Need To Define Inspiration Or Else!

My friend, in both business and your personal life, it’s not if you’re going to get hit really hard. It’s when.

And if you haven’t figured it out yet, once you enter the highly competitive arena of business, it’s winner take all.

Not that your competitors are (necessarily) out to chop your proverbial head off, although at times, it may seem that way. It’s just they mean to dominate their market place, by any and all ethical means necessary.

And more times than not, that means total market domination. So they’ll utilize every available resource at their immediate disposal.

And the really competitive ones will stop at nothing. And it’s this side of highly competitive men and women that often (temporarily) gets the best of all of us.

Case in point: remember how you felt when you first started your (on or) offline venture. How high your long term expectations where for long term success.

Hey, nobody was banking on you becoming the next “Mrs. Fields Cookies” or Microsoft etc. But for sure you expected to be successful,right? And why not? There’s only one you,right?

After all, both you, and all of your friends and family said, “your smart, enthusiastic, dedicated and hard working right?”

If You Don’t Define Inspiration….. Failure Will Start To Institute It’s Own Agenda….

So what happens when things don’t immediately gel? You start to question the fact that maybe you did need a little more seed capitol than you originally thought.

Or maybe you did need a little more real world experience regarding business, before you started. And may be there was more competition than you originally anticipated.

Like the stock market, business cycles go up and down. Cash, along with profit margins, (at times) can run razor thin, maybe you hit a really rough spot.Because….

Trusted employee/associates mysteriously quit, steal or get fired etc. Ads and other marketing campaigns fizzle at best. Valued accounts suddenly decide (for no) apparent reason to cancel or transfer their account over to a major competitor.

May be your banker decides not to (either) raise your existing credit limit or call (demand you pay) any short term outstanding loan balances, before they authorize any more credit. Ouch.

Hey, it happens. That’s just a very small sample of what lies ahead for you entrepreneur. (Isn’t being your own boss the bomb?)

Or maybe your social media account (specifically) in this case, hubpages, decides to shut down your account. Like they did yours truly two years back.

Basically rendering all one hundred and twenty three hubs virtually worthless. On the surface anyway. And probably effected 40% of my overall traffic, at the time.

And guess what? To this day, they’ve never reversed their decision. Did it suck? For sure.

Does life go on? For sure. So what’s the point? You either define inspiration or failure will have it’s way with you.

That’s the way and the life of a daring entrepreneur. Is it worth it? for sure.

Just don’t expect your journey to be all peaches and cream.

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this. Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will help you increase your profits by at least 25% in the next 90 days or less.

And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.)
It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!

Is your critical decision making skills leading you to poverty or wealth?

  (And There Is No In Between!)

Have you ever really noticed how absolutely crucial your critical decision making skills are, and how they will  ultimately effect your chances for long term success? And or sabotage your chances.

One of my mega successful online marketing teachers/mentors “Larry Beacham”(the other Larry “The cable guy!”) , you  know, the guy that teaches you how to make quick money from home. Using the Internet with virtually little or no  previous experience.

(Provided of course, that you are really coachable!) Anyway, Larry recently shared a very powerful and somewhat  inspirational (personal) story about how getting f……(See the video below for all the particulars.)

This incident ultimately led to him grossing a mere 17 K in one day!

And how as a direct of his critical decision making skills, that he’s developed over time, he was able to (ultimately) make the right decision, that led to his financial prosperity today.

Yea, because this annual six figure plus earner, used to be a paid hourly cable guy too! 😎 Before he discovered how to harness the enormous power of the Internet and left corporate America, without leaving skid marks!

(Which just goes to show (once again) , it’s not where you start, it’s where you whined up that counts!)

Why Developing Your Critical Decision Making Skills Is So Darn Important!

As Larry put it (see the video), at one point in his life, he needed to accept a temp job paying just $9 dollars per hour. It helped keep the lights on and put food on the table.

And one day as fate would have it, he needed to schedule some (much needed) consulting phone time with his online marketing mentor, and of course, this just happened to be during company hours.

You can probably guess what ultimately happened next?

Anyway, Larry shares this very keen insight in the video, by pointing out (that far too often) both temporary adversity and potential long term opportunity, often knock on your door at the exact same time!  😎 

And it’s right then and there, that your critical decision making skills, will either lead you to poverty or wealth. In fact, have you ever heard about this incredibly famous ad that once appeared in the Wall St. Journal?

It was run by some venture capitalist. The ad showed an upside picture of a group of young unknown (at that time) aspiring wannabe entrepreneurs.

And the caption under the picture, asked a very provocative question. It asked “Would you have given these kids $10,000 dollars in venture capital?”

And low and behold, as soon as you turned the picture (or in this case) the newspaper right side up, and looked in the bottom left hand corner.

You would have noticed a skinny geeky looking twenty two year old “Bill Gates“, yep, that Bill Gates!

The point being, those savvy initial venture capitalist, didn’t just see  a bunch of “Danny the dreamer” kids, hoping and praying for success and riches.

Instead they focused on what the long term possibilities could be! That’s why it’s so darn important, how you go about developing your (lifetime) critical decision making skills.

Because (ultimately) my friend, they will either lead you to poverty or wealth!

The choice is yours! Here’s a little heads up right here.

If all you glean from this post,is simply, it’s just another one of those Tony Robbins, Les Brown (wannabe motivational) type posts.

You had better (seriously) check your critical decision making road map! Because you may be headed to a lifetime of poverty and lack!

As always, if you got any value out of this post, please Digg or tweet this. Thanks!

And be sure you grab your explosive free 22 step small business marketing idea kit series, because it will help you increase your profits by at least 25% in the next 90 days or less.

And help you master your effective communication in marketing skills.(No matter what your particular niche market is.)
It’s a $97 dollar value and it’s free!