Are you mad? Don't spend before you have a marketing plan!

[Wayne Liew]

A lot of entrepreneurs market their products and services according to what their competitors are doing but not many of them realize that a marketing campaign that suits their competitors might not suite them.

With that, they end up spending hundreds or thousands in marketing campaigns without getting back a sizeable ROI. Are you one of them?

Setting up a proper marketing plan is not hard and the outline is basically given in the blog post below:

7 Tips to Launch Successful Marketing Campaigns

Leave your comments or questions here. Also, feel free to share some of your most successful marketing campaigns.

[benthomas]

Hi Wayne,

I could not agree with you more. I have used exact same words while advising my friends.
Whatever the thing maybe. Planning gets you more that an unplanned venture.

Thanks for sharing

Regards
Ben Thomas

[Wayne Liew]

Whatever the thing maybe. Planning gets you more that an unplanned venture.

That's very true. Yes, some entrepreneurs may claim that planning may bring them to a state called analysis paralysis but the planning that we're talking about here is having a mindmap, action plan, or maybe a schedule and the goals to be achieved in order to know whether an action is successful or not.

What we're not talking about is keeping things on the whiteboard without taking any actions.

[inle]

Great sharing...
It seem that we are doing something similar....

[w3bmaster]

Spending without a plan is like giving fire of money ...
I allways try to use a plan and try not to spend much untill money is also earned ...

[EcomBasics]

I couldn't agree more with that statement! Business owners would certainly do best if they work with what they have going, rather than what worked for a competitor.

Perhaps taking a look at their target market and business goals would give some inspiration as to which strategies would work best for them as an individual company.

[ron komorowski]

IMPORTANT: Wait a minute here...hold on.

Check my credibility so you see I know what I am talking about. I am the inventor of Handi-Straps with users worldwide now.

Yes a marketing plan makes all the sense because you need time and research to find good deals on advertising/marketing....BUT...with each and every marketing step, maybe you print a bunch of stuff or go on a pay per click campaign...or take out a full page ad in a trade magazine or hire a publicist to get you free publicity for $5000...you MUST evaluate after EACH shot with a marketing/advertising ploy or else you can go belly up in a hurry!!!

Some advertising/marketing ideas work and some fail miserably and it takes TIME to evaluate if it works.

If I had a marketing plan it would have changed weekly. Maybe the basics would still be in place but the funding or budget allowance would SURELY change constantly!!! You take out an ad or something and it fails miserably...an EXPENSIVE BET that failed.

Suppose you pulled in an investor and used the money for marketing, and it failed. I almost did that. Your ads, campaign or whatever failed because you chose the wrong way to market as you sometimes never know what will work...all a surprise in this economy.

Make your plan, that is good.....but keep pencil in hand AT ALL TIMES ready to erase and re-write...AND be PATIENT in this economy. ALL magazines and newspapers are on the brink because marketing and advertising are so unpredictable in this economy...BE CAREFUL with your marketing plan. Go search Handi-Straps to see if I know about marketing plans or not.

Ron Komorowski
Inventor of Handi-Straps
Handi Straps Lifting System Home

[thomashoi]

This is so true, many entrepreneurs simply spends thousands on advertisements without thinking about copywriting or testing.

If they have made use of google adwords to test the market for
demand and feedback, they will have saved tons of money.

[Michy]

I agree with your point - but would also say that (and I have been guilty of this in the past), you can over plan and not get on with 'doing'. Not planning is obviously terrible, but so is procrastination

[draz]

Altough a plan is vital, the money is made through the execution of the plan. For e.g. I could plan to distribute 1000 flyers, if 1000 are just put in mail boxes my response rate may be 0 - 5. If I personally give the flyer to each household I'd probably have a higher response rate.

Anyhow point i'm trying to get accross is, sure having a plan is great but being able to execute it properly is what makes the plan solid.