Cleaning Up Your Marketing

Has your once well-organized marketing plan come to resemble the jumble of stuff in your closet not to mention the garage and the attic If you are like most people, each time you come across a new marketing idea you try to adopt it and add it to your existing approach.

Strategies and tactics tend to accumulate and linger even when they may not be working as well as youd like. Like the ill-fitting clothes that accumulate in your closet or the broken tools still in the garage, they are hard to get rid of, whether because of habit, emotional attachment or just plain not getting around to cleaning them out.

To improve your marketing, youll need to clean out some old ways of working. While I dont want to get anywhere near your closet, and in fact I could use some help with mine, I can show you how to clean up your marketing plan so youre ready to take advantage of the New Year to grow your business.

Cleaning Up Your Marketing Plan

Every morning my friend Michael Angier of SuccessNet.org sits down at his desk and asks himself the following three questions about his business.

1. Whats working

2. Whats not working

3. What can I improve

You may not want to review your marketing plan five times a week, but it is a good idea to do it at least once a year. So take out your pencil or fire up your computer and assess your marketing plan:

Your Marketing Plan

1. Is your plan working

2. Do you have a well defined marketing strategy that helps you achieve the three phases of marketing: Getting Attention, Positioning, and Selling

3. Do you need to write or rewrite your marketing plan

4. Do you need additional information or coaching to complete your marketing plan

5. What are you going to do to improve your marketing plan

Getting Attention

6. Does your marketing message prompt prospects to contact you

7. Do your ads, letters, and web site motivate prospects to contact you

8. What are your conversion rates

9. What steps can you take to improve them

Positioning

10. What are you doing to establish your credibility with prospects, to help them know and trust you

11. Is it working as well as youd like

12. What could you improve

13. Is the value of your products and services clear to your prospects or do they question you about merits and price

14. Want to learn how to ensure that your prospects understand the value of your products and services

Selling

15. How successful are you in selling, that is, in getting commitments for everything from appointments to orders

16. Whats your conversion rate of prospects contacted to clients and customers

17. Do initial s/ales generate repeat s/ales and referrals for years to come

18. Want to learn how to generate more s/ales from each client

Evaluating Your Marketing Plan

Use Michaels three questions to summarize your comments

about your marketing plan and your success in getting

attention, positioning and selling.

1. Whats working

2. Whats not

3. What do you want to improve

The hardest part about cleaning out your closet, attic, garage or your marketing is getting started. It may be time to straighten up or throw out some of your old marketing strategies and tactics and replace them with new more effective ones. Start 2005 with a well organized marketing plan, one that helps you Get Attention, Position your products and services and Sell and youll find your business growing in leaps and bounds in the coming year.