It never fails. Pick up any small business magazine or trade journal and you’ll read a rags-to-riches story about a small business with no marketing plan that hit its stride accidentally based solely on the owner’s vision and really took off. Its wild success over such a short period of time has never been seen before now.
And the reality is that this doesn’t happen for most businesses, regardless of their size, capitalization, or industry.
Grow your business with a marketing plan
While it’s true that some businesses launch themselves seemingly out of nowhere and into the stratosphere, but most businesses start and operate in a much more controlled and strategic fashion. One key element of long-term success is planning, and part of planning for a small business is developing a marketing plan.
A marketing plan is a strategic document that describes the way in which a business will present itself to customers, potential customers and competitors over a defined period of time. A marketing plan can help a business stay true to its vision, spot strategic niches in the marketplace and tailor its operating model to address customer needs and wants.
Contrary to popular belief, marketing isn’t all about image, but the image of a business has a lot to do with how successful the business is. Most customers form their truest impressions of a business by working with it to get the products and services they need. Customers form their impressions by their interactions with the people who run and work for the business, and by the value they perceive from the business’ products and services.
All of these elements can be part of a marketing plan. A marketing plan is partly visionary and partly strategic. Your marketing plan will describe your business as you want it to be in the future, but also helps you construct a roadmap of exactly how you intend to get your business there in the shortest, most direct way possible.
If your business hasn’t developed a marketing plan, or the notion of branding and positioning is something you haven’t given much thought to, a good resolution for 2014 is to develop and implement a marketing plan for your business. Use the marketing plan over the course of the year to help grow your business, present it to potential new customers and build stronger relationships with the customers you already have.
If you don’t have a marketing plan for your business and would like more information about marketing plans, branding and strategic marketing, please contact our Creative Director, Dave Ramsell or give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation. Grantstreet Creative supports businesses of all sizes with their marketing and branding needs.
Photo Credit: ljleavell, via StockXchng>/i>
