We all created plans when we started our ventures, but I bet your plan is filed away safely in a filing cabinet gathering dust. “Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a well known quote, but what has planning got to do with successful marketing? EVERYTHING!

Let me explain…

Like most people running small organisations or businesses, we have a million and one things to do. We all start the week with a list of tasks that you SHOULD be doing which will of course includes your marketing activities, but then reality kicks in with tasks and challenges that consume all of your time until you look at your list of good intentions on Friday and marketing once again has failed to move up the list.

If this strikes a chord with you, I’ll let you into a secret…you are no different from most other business owners. Unfortunately this means that you will only generate the volume and quality of business that finds you rather than the good quality, well paying business that you could be bringing in if you were proactively searching.

Here are 3 core reasons why you must plan your marketing activity each month…

Firstly, all organisations need to know the revenue/sales targets that they require to survive. Setting a revenue/sales target and working towards it using accountable and measurable marketing ensures that you to control the growth of your organisation. Too much business can be as damaging as too little.

Most organisations have a capacity for the amount of business they can handle, so you need to know what levels of marketing activity will bring the optimum amount of business in for your organisation and build your business gradually.

Poor service in this day and age, where customers have so much choice, is not tolerated. Often rather than complain, customers just vote with their feet. Once you have lost a customer is it is up to 6 times harder to get them back, let alone the number of people they have told about their bad experience. So bringing in the volume of business you can cope with is important.

Does your organisation work in a “small business yo-yo cycle” where you only search for business when you’re running low which signals the launch of a knee-jerk marketing campaign to generate business. Once you have brought in the business you need to cope with the growth until you run low on customers and the cycle starts again.

Breaking this yo-yo cycle is simple through consistent and continuous marketing. Of course many businesses also have a seasonal impact to cope with, so you need to plan your marketing around the natural surge well in advance and build to your peak gradually and in control.

Secondly, I hear people tell me that they do not have the time to do the marketing. OK, so why not delegate the marketing activity to a member of the team? Often the underlying reason is that only they can do it, usually because no one else knows how to. In other words it is not written down and of course you cannot delegate a “marketing strategy”.

However, if you break your marketing down into a plan of monthly activities such as sending 50 letters, phoning 100 people from the database, placing the weekly advert, then these bite sized tasks can be delegated to any team member. Or, if you have no one to delegate to, then outsource it. This suggestion is usually followed by a sharp gasp because this means investing money. But think about it. If you are paying for this activity, you will be able to actively measure and understand more easily if it’s earning you a return.

Finally, there is the small matter of risk.  It is a fact that many marketing activities that you will try will not be as successful as you’d hoped, which is why you MUST test and measure ALL marketing activities. You can easily spend a significant amount of money on a campaign that does not generate any response. Through a policy of consistent marketing, testing and measuring all your activity, you are reducing the risk that your marketing efforts are a waste of money.

Nicola Bury from Haybury Marketing is a specialist in helping small and medium sized businesses and organisations to market themselves. For further information call 028 9048 8948, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.hayburymarketing.com.