First of all, you need to get a sense of how big your market is. Regardless of whether you sell to consumers or to businesses, you need to know how many potential customers you have.

That number may be limited by geography or other characteristics, but you will need to determine the size of your market so that you can calculate your Market Share. Your share of the market is an objective way to determine what your piece of the pie is, compared to your competitors.

Your share of the market can be used in your marketing campaigns to promote your company as a leader in your industry, and/or it can be used internally as a concrete measurement of your sales goal completion. You can strive to gain a larger share of the market each year.

To gain a more in depth understanding of your marketplace, you need to evaluate each of your competitors. First, perform some research so you can evaluate how your business compares to your competitors. You want to evaluate things such as product/service offerings, location, service, environment, etc.

This information will help you develop advertising campaigns that compel your target market to buy from you. Knowing as much as possible about your competition will enable you to distinguish yourself from your competition and become a leader in your field.

Let's face it, if your goals aren't written down and you don't evaluate your progress regularly, you won't even know if you are accomplishing enough to move your business forward. By writing down your goals they become more real, more tangible. It also helps you to make them realistic and measurable, leading to achieving more and also leading to a greater sense of accomplishment.

Your sales goals are critical to your business' success. By setting goals for individual products/services and overall sales goals, you can see where you need to focus your energies and your marketing dollars. Your sales goals should be presented from an annual perspective and broken down by month. That way each month you can evaluate your progress. If you're not quite reaching your goals in one particular month, you will be able to adjust your marketing so that you do by year's end. Frequent evaluation will ensure that you reach your annual sales goals.

KNOW YOUR BOTTOM LINE NUMBERS

In addition to defining your overall sales goals, you should evaluate each product or service you offer by its Gross Profit Margin. You can do this for any product or service you offer. Once you know the profit margin on each of the products and services you offer, you can more effectively select what to promote, what to cross-sell, and what to define as your core products/services.

Outlining your sales goals and knowing your profit margins are critical to building a thriving business. These goals will impact your marketing, advertising and your profits.

Well, that's what Step #3 is all about. It builds upon the data you collected in Step #1. You need to distinguish yourself from the competition. You need to promote yourself in such a manner that your prospects would feel foolish to use any other company but yours.

There are many things that can set you apart from your competition. It may be as simple as focusing on a specific target market. It may be price, although that can be a slippery slope of dwindling profits, or it may be product selection, just to name a few.

Your distinguishing characteristics are known as your Unique Selling Position (USP). Your USP is how your customers will think about you. It's how your customer base will know you.

A strong and distinguishing USP will be used in your ads and in conversations you have at networking and social events when someone asks you, 'What do you do?' It will pique curiosity and incite action from your prospects.

Your USP should be strong enough to make your prospects choose you over your competition.

You want to pinpoint your marketing and advertising only to those who are most likely to buy. If you can effectively accomplish that, you will be able to increase the return on your marketing investment and net a profit from your advertising expenditures.

You may find you have a target market that needs or wants one or more of your products or services, and you may find one product or service has multiple target markets.

What you'll need to do is identify and locate your target market(s) by answering a series of questions about each one. For example, what do they read, where do they frequent, what groups do they belong to, etc.

Once you've identified where they are, you can speak to them using your USP to hit what I call a target market's Buying Buttons. Your target markets will buy from you for as few as one reason, or it may be several reasons. You need to match those Buying Buttons with each target market.

Identification and the impending marketing to that specific market will not only result in more sales, but it will result in an increase to your bottom line. You will save money by not advertising to the masses and you will be able to realize a positive return on your marketing expenditures by narrowing your marketing to specific target markets.

Decide Where To Advertise Your Business

Well, you aren't alone. Most every businessperson I know wants to know the same thing. They all feel that if they could pick the right medium, miracles would happen.

The truth of the matter is that if you have developed your marketing plan by following steps 1-4, picking your mediums is really pretty easy.

They will stand out because you will know if they reach your target market, if you can afford them, and if you can effectively convey your USP with that medium.

You will also want to consider your sales process and how the use of the mediums will impact it. You want to take into consideration several things about your process including:

*Do prospects seek your product/service? *Can they receive your product/service immediately? *Can your customers purchase without assistance from a sales rep?

There are several other questions, which must be answered prior to selecting your mediums. (There is a Sales Process Evaluator in the Quick Start Kit that calculates your score and gives you examples of the types and combinations of mediums you should use for your business.)

You'll also need to evaluate each medium based on its value. The best way to accomplish that is to perform a CPM (Cost Per Thousand) Analysis. This will enable you to see exactly how much it costs to reach 1000 people per medium. That way you can be sure your dollars are going as far as they possibly can.

Selecting mediums is really easy once you've analyzed your marketplace, set your goals, created your USP, and defined your target market.

Create Your Calendar and Budget

Here's what I recommend to my clients. You first must take into consideration your position in the marketplace, then you need to consider the aggressiveness of your goals, and thirdly you must be realistic with what you can afford.

I tell small business owners to work backwards. I recommend that you develop your calendar along with the costs of advertising as you would ideally like to, first. From there you can add up the total costs and evaluate whether that plan is possible. You can always scale back your campaigns if it exceeds what you can afford to spend.

Depending upon your situation, you may find that you need to spend more in the first year or two to accomplish your goals and to get your business to maintenance mode. Conversely, your goals may dictate that you reserve funds until a particular product or service is ready for the marketplace. In either case, you have the ability to customize the plan and budget for your specific situation.

Your budget and implementation calendar will be unique to your business. There is no one correct answer. You can use industry standards as a guideline, but remember that those guidelines can be skewed towards larger companies that have significantly bigger budgets. In most instances, small businesses will spend a higher percentage of their sales on marketing and advertising than their larger/national competitors.

Your goal is to pick the mediums and campaigns you can afford to use with impact. By completing a solid marketing plan you ensure a positive return on your marketing investment.

*Analyze The Market And Your Competition
*Set Your Goals
*Distinguish Yourself From The Competition
*Define Your Target Market
*Decide Where To Advertise Your Business
*Create Your Calendar and Budget

Completing your plan may seem like a formality, but having your plan in a three-ring binder will prove to be very useful.

First, you will have a resource to turn to every time you are presented with an advertising opportunity. You can evaluate each opportunity based on your Target Market Analysis, your CPM Analysis and your overall budget.

Second, you will have it readily available to regularly evaluate your progress. Regular review of your plan will allow you to correct course before you risk not accomplishing your goals.

There is an old saying...If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. While creating a marketing plan may seem overwhelming, it is critical to your business' success.

Businesses that operate with a marketing plan are not only more likely to survive, but they are more likely to realize their true potential, thus allowing their owners to realize their dreams.