Reality Test Your Marketing Plan. This Week.

Sometimes the words “marketing plan” have the connotation of an onerous and boring task and that invites us to procrastinate. Marketing plan? you can get some help from a local newspaper advertising company,  Market analysis? Where do we even start?

It doesn’t have to hurt.  Do it at a brown-bag lunch. Get a flip chart or plug somebody’s computer into a monitor everyone can see.  Start simply by asking the few questions listed below and record some answers — tentative though they may be.  Then summarize, jot down some action steps and make assignments for follow up and reporting back by the next meeting.  Use the form from this article published on our blog.  Make it a 30 minute exercise.  The idea is to make it a concentrated effort.  This will set the process in motion and will encourage you to do it again, building on what you’ve learned the first time.

Don’t think you have to have all the answers going-in.  Your team will generate ideas of their own and the process will build momentum.  Heck, you might even start to look forward to it!  Here’s a starter list of questions:

1.  What is our target market?  How much do we know about them?  How can we learn more?

2.  What industry trends and regulatory issues are affecting us and our existing and potential customers right now?  What challenges are we — and they — facing?

3.  Who’s buying what, why and from whom?

4.  What new opportunities exist for us today?  If we were a start-up, how would we look at the market for our products and services?

5.  What are we doing right now to take advantage of the opportunities that exist? Is it enough?  What could we do more of, less of or stop completely?

6.  What is our web presence doing for us right now?  Do we need to do more?

Like anything else, this takes practice.  Start now. Repeat. Get better.