Your 2013 Business Marketing Plan – Make 2013 The Best Year Ever!

WEBv5.com – Saratoga, NY – Marketing Plans – Plan for Success in 2013

I was intrigued when I spoke to a business owner who said 2012 was his best year in the past 10 years. Interesting I thought with so many business complaining.  He said, loosely borrowing a line from Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, “Excuses are for the incompetent.”  He told me that he knew 2012 was going to be a down year for many businesses so he decided to do something he hadn’t done since he started his business. He decided to create a marketing plan.

Does your business have a marketing plan for 2013? Do you want to leave your success up to luck?

As 2012 winds to a close, many business owners in the Albany, NY – Saratoga, NY region or New York’s Greater Capital District are evaluating their 2012 business and thinking about 2013.  Was 2012 a good year for your business, a bad year or a great year?  WHY?

Many businesses have reported that 2012 was an average year as the economy started off weak but confidence grew as the year went on and business started to pick up.

Those business owners I have spoken to recently who have said they had a very good year all attributed their success to planning.  Specifically to creating a marketing plan.  “Those who fail usually do so because they don’t have a plan.  Those that succeed do so because they planned to succeed.”

Why you go on a trip you don’t simply go to the airport and ask for a ticket somewhere.  You plan your vacation carefully.  You check the location.  You check the weather.  You check the area.  You plan accordingly. If you failed to plan your vacation and just took the family wherever the first flight was going, you would probably have a bad vacation.  You wouldn’t go on a vacation without planning, why would you go into the new year without a marketing plan?

Many business owners are intimidated at the thought of creating a marketing plan.  One business owner even said to me, “Well, if I create a plan and fail it will be doubly bad.” Perhaps, I thought, but without a plan you are sure to fail.  At least with a carefully created plan you put yourself in the best position to succeed.

Marketing plans do not need to be intimidating.

Start with your goals.  How much will you sell? How much money will you make? What are your goals.  Dream a bit, don’t be too conservative, but don’t go crazy or you may not do what it takes to realize your goals.  Set goals that exceed 2012 by at least 25%.

Once you have your sales goals clearly identified, it is time to work backwards.  Everyone knows that it is easier to do a maze backwards rather than forwards.  It is always easier to work your way back than it is to plot the course forward so use psychology to your advantage.

If you know what your goals are for the year then you can break the year down into seasons or months.  Once you know that, you will know how much you need to sell every week to make your goals.

If you know how much you need to sell to make your weekly goals, then you can figure out how many leads you will need to generate, how many appointments you will need to set, what your average sale needs to be, etc.  With this “math” on hand you can constantly be checking where you are during the course of the year in comparison to where you need to be to realize your business goals.

If you break huge goals down into monthly, weekly and daily steps they become much easier to achieve.  Sure there will be bumps along the way.  Some things will happen that you couldn’t predict.  But as long as you have a marketing plan and you have broken your plan down into smaller steps you will know where you are and what you need to do.

If creating a marketing plan for 2013 seems like a great idea but is intimidating to you, give us a call at 518-542-7959 or contact us and we will be happy to sit down with you for an hour and give you a FREE 2013 marketing plan consultation.  We can talk goals.  We can talk marketing strategies.  We will answer your questions and we will have some questions to ask you.

At the end of this meeting you will have a good idea if the business marketing plan is something you have the resources to tackle in house or if you need some help from a company like ours.  We may be able to help.  We won’t know if we are a good fit until we sit down and talk, but maybe a free marketing plan consultation is just what your business needs to make 2013 the best year ever!

Give us a call at 518-542-7959 – you have nothing to lose – unless you don’t call.