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Steps to Writing a Winning Small Business Marketing Plan

Stan Smith

December 13, 2006

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Your Small Business doesn't stand a chance of succeeding without a smart marketing plan. Without a marketing plan, you can't identify your best customers, offer the right product or service, or grow you business.

For all these reasons, it's critical that you invest the time now to create a profitable foundation for your business. To help you, I've assembled the 7 Steps that successful entrepreneurs use to create profitable marketing plans.

Step 1: Understand That You Are the Most Important Person in Your Business

Let me explain. You are the spark, the creative fire, and the main reason why your prospects will select your business. Your future customers will only buy from someone who understands their needs and can find innovative ways to fulfill their desires.

So, take a moment (in fact write it down) to understand what unique expertise you bring to the business. Your marketing plan is simply a document that explains how you plan to promote your unique talent to the right customers, at the right time, at the right price.

Step 2: Profile Your Customer

Likewise, you need to understand your customer better than they understand themselves. Why?

Because you must feel confident that you can consistently identify your customer’s needs and desires. With this knowledge, you can create a product that essentially markets itself.

In my eReport, "The Billionaire Marketing Secret", I show you how to gain an intimate knowledge of your customer to save you time, energy, and most of all money.

Step 3: Focus on Your Product or Service

Ever heard the phrase - "He's so good he can sell ice cream to an Eskimo." I'm sure you have. Successful entrepreneurs are obsessive about understanding the "Soul" of their product or service. To follow in their footsteps, you need to be able to turn your product's features into hot-button benefits that satisfy your customers needs and wants.

Step 4: Know the Difference Between Marketing and Advertising

Now listen to this carefully, the only thing that matters in growing a business is its marketing plan. A marketing plan is focused on aligning businesses goals with the desires of its customers.

On the other hand, advertising is just one way to communicate your businesses' unique expertise to its target audience. To put it simply, marketing is your voice, advertising is your megaphone.

In fact, I've discovered that America's wealthiest entrepreneurs often disregard their advertising and spend 80% of their time refining their marketing plan. You would do good to copy them.

Step 5: Plan for "Repeat Business"

The first sale will earn you a living. Repeat sales to the same customer will earn you a fortune. I've seen many businesses fail, because their owners only focused on getting the sale.

The problem is that after the first sale you need to spend the same amount of money to bring in a new customer. Frankly, this is a recipe for going broke. On the other hand, if you have a smart plan for repeat business, you will benefit from spending less to sell more.

Step 6: Understand the value and cost of each customer

It's simple, if you know the cost of bringing in one customer; you will never overspend on your advertising. Furthermore, if you understand how much your customer is worth, you will spend your advertising dollars more effectively.

This is much easier than you would think. In fact it's critical to the success of your small business. Do not spend another dime on advertising until you understand the value of each customer that comes through the door.

Step 7: Make Your Mental Plan a Written Plan

Here's the deal. A plan that is not written down simply does not exist. Every successful billionaire entrepreneur that I've studied still refer to their marketing plan when making a decision. An unwritten plan is just a random thought that will cost you more money than you save. It's that easy.

These 7 Steps will help you create a marketing plan that will ignite your businesses growth and profitability. It's the best investment you can make to guarantee the success of your business.

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