When you are developing a small business marketing plan all the pieces like branding, website, content, social media, networking and sales process fall into place. In part 3 of a 3 part guide we discuss the last elements you need to put in place to have an effective small business marketing plan – one that gets you more leads, clients and sales. Make sure you read the first two parts on our Blog section.
#8 Offline Marketing
All the marketing that attracts people to your website and converts enquiries into leads sales will all fail unless you have some Offline Marketing sales support material (brochures, presentations) to support your sales process when you meet prospects.
Also you can use offline channels like Mail, Networking, Events, Tradeshows and Referrals and even consider some outbound appointment-setting to get new leads.
#9 Marketing Tools
There are a wide range of marketing tools or software you can use to make your marketing easier. Here are a few you must consider.
- Are you going to use a WordPress website, Joomla or some other website platform? To start with you may just use a low cost platform like Weebly or Wix.
- What CRM system are you going to use to manage your sales leads? It’s very important that you use a CRM to track what you’re doing and remind you who to call, when to follow-up with them, what to follow-up with and to keep notes and track your emails to each contact. It will make a massive difference in terms of your conversion rate. Check out popular CRM tools like Hubspot Sales CRM and PipeDrive CRM.
- What marketing automation software should you consider? You can use software like Hubspot or Infusionsoft or Active Campaign to create and track follow-up sequences that allow you to focus energy on the best prospects and follow-through promptly.
- If you are not using marketing automation, what are you going to use to send out emails to your prospects and existing customers? There are a lot of email options that all have their respective pros and cons, but check out MailChimp and Constant Contact.
- If you are doing video content where are you going to host the video – such as YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia?
#10 Implementation
To make sure your marketing generates leads, clients and revenue you need:
- An activity schedule list that outlines monthly and annual activities
- A budget in place to cover staff, design, production and media cost
- A team in place, with clear descriptions on who is going to do what? And decide whether you will outsource any tasks or keep them all in-house?
Finally, you need to report an activity regularly for success;
- What leads have you got?
- What appointments have you got secured?
- What sales have you made?
- What is the return on investment for all your marketing and sales costs?
- What activity are you doing? (posts, articles, blogs, emails) and their response.
Get your Free Marketing Roadmap
You can use our free Marketing Roadmap as your checklist when you are creating your own Marketing Plan. To get a free copy of this Marketing Map, call us on 1300 676 448 or go to www.themarketingstrategy.co/freemarketingmap
Want to increase your Leads, sales and Clients?
The Marketing Strategy Co develops effective Marketing Plans that integrate Web, Digital, Social and Traditional Marketing content with proven sales processes for Businesses.
We then work ”in the Business” together with your marketing team or as your outsourced marketing team to implement the Plan at a fixed price.
If you would like more information visit us at www.themarketingstrategy.co or call us on 1300 676 448 for an obligation-free discussion.
Kym Heffernan