A R-E-C-I-P-E FOR THE HOLIDAYS

It’s that time of year. Yes, holidays, winding down – one hopes – and looking forward to the start of a new year. It’s never too early to begin laying down the foundations of a business, marketing or personal plan for 2010. Here’s a simple R-E-C-I-P-E.

Take a RETROSPECTIVE look at 2009. Look at the good, the not-so-good. You’ve lived (almost) another 12 months and you’ve experienced (almost) another 12 months. That’s a year’s worth of wisdom. You’ve probably learned much more than you realize and you can put that all to good use in your plan for 2010.

EVALUATE the successes. What were your goals at the beginning of the year? Did you have any? If not, resolve to change that immediately! How does your year end appear to be shaping up relative to those goals? What were the successes in 2009. Were they planned or unplanned? Write them down and figure out what you achieved. Plan to do it again if possible.

CELEBRATE your successes. Give yourself a pat on the back! Even the smallest achievement is step in the right direction. It’s something to build on. Experience is a success in itself, so at minimum, you’ve got that to celebrate.

INVESTIGATE the failures. I hate to use that word, but I couldn’t think of a better one. What didn’t work as planned in 2009? If you had a plan and something didn’t work out, try to understand why. Accidents happen. The unforeseen happens. The saying "the best laid plans of mice and men…" exists for a reason, as does "if at first you don’t succeed…". You now have the benefit of hindsight.

Begin your PLAN for 2010. Yes, I know 2009 isn’t over, but it’s almost December and the year end will be here before you know it. Your plan should include measurable goals (see A SIMPLE GAME PLAN). Looking back over this year, include possible pitfalls you need to watch out for. Try and add a goal that you didn’t have this year. On your calendar, put a short-term objective for each month and a method by which you can measure success. Don’t wait until the end of next year to get yourself back on track. If 2009 didn’t go as expected, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and plan to try, try again.

ENJOY yourself. It’s the holidays. Season of goodwill and time to be grateful for all the big and little things in our lives. Next year will be a challenge, but you’re going into the New Year with a plan and a whole 12 months of additional experience and wisdom. Let bygones be bygones and resolve to begin 2010 with a clean slate and a whole year of potential.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving (and Holiday Season)!

HANDS-FREE MARKETING : A SIMPLE G-A-M-E PLAN

Whether you’re considering a new mail, email, social media, advertising, networking or other marketing campaign, it pays to have a plan. Too often I’ve seen individuals and companies throw resources in an attempt to “market” their business with, at best, questionable results.

Like it or not, there is no quick-and-easy way to market yourself or your product, but it doesn’t have to involve a huge expense, think tanks or a myriad or marketing and advertising professionals.

So, here is the Dave Segrove (JDE) simplified marketing G-A-M-E plan. There are four components, each requiring their own research and producing results. Pulled together, it’s a good start…

GAME – Goal / Audience / Method / Evaluation

Goal – What are you trying to achieve? Much of the time I hear things like “more customers”. While we’d all like that, you might want to consider something a little less generic such as a growing a client base in a specific marketplace. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve will let you set a goal.

Audience – Who are you targeting. Everyone? Think again. The “how” (the next step) will determine what you can afford to spend (in resources). Is a very broad base of potential clients better than a focused group? Do you, or does your business, relate to a particular demographic? Is there a market that no one else has discovered yet (I wish)? A little bit of research here could yield dividends.

Method – How are you going to market yourself? What medium (Internet, in-person, mail, print advertisements, free samples) are you going to use? What’s your budget? By that I include time, money and resources. Money isn’t the only thing to consider when you’re budgeting a campaign. Who will do the work? Are you already putting in 50 hours a week? Can you do more? Time management is also something to think about.

Evaluation – How will you measure success? What is an acceptable return on investment? Knowing up-front what measurements you’re going to use can help you keep yourself on track. It will also (potentially) allow you to adjust your Methods in order to obtain your Goals.

So, before you set out on your next marketing adventure, consider a G-A-M-E plan…while some of this may sound obvious, I really believe a little planning goes a long way.

Any one of these criteria can be explored in depth and at length. I’m always available to help you figure out what will work best for you.

Good luck!

Dave

You can download a copy of the G-A-M-E plan process from my Small Business GENetics website, www.SBGENetics.com

Mind Mapping in Marketing Part II (Seeing the Wood Through the Trees)

In part I you started gathering thoughts about marketing. What you hopefully ended up with were a lot sticky notes, each with a thought, some connected and others that just "popped" into your head.

Great work!

Now we begin sorting out the chaos. The final goal will be to get all your thoughts somewhat categorized. This will give you an idea of what each "category" involves. The next phase will then further filter each of these categories, set goals, determine what resources we’re going to need…

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Start grouping your sticky notes together in fairly broad categories. You can tentatively label these as they become apparent. Also, you’ll probably find that a sticky may fit into more than one category. For this exercise, simply write another sticky with the same thing on it so you can put on in each stack.

Since I’m using marketing as my central theme, some of my thoughts included web site, blog, flyers, advertising, emails, friends, business cards, announcements, hockey, business directories, free stuff, networking group, coffee, free gifts as well as others. I’m using a small list for obvious reasons.

When I organize my collection, I end up with 4 stacks:

Stack 1 : Internet : web site / blog / emails / friends / business directories/ announcements
advertising

Stack 2 : Print : business cards / flyers / announcements / free stuff / free gifts / advertising

Stack 3 : Social : coffee / friends / announcements / networking group

Stack 4 : Everything else (or what was I thinking) : hockey

You may very well have 5,6,7 or more stacks. If you do, consider the question: am I being too "granular"? Is there perhaps a broader category that would cover more than one?

Anything that doesn’t fit into the other categories goes into the "everything else" pile. While this stack may not appear completely relevant at first, the idea came up for a reason. In my case, I’m involved in amateur and professional hockey with a company called Athletes Resource. We hold tournaments and camps each year. When "hockey" popped into my mind, it was probably for a couple of reasons including potential advertising and I have friends who like hockey. So I’ll keep the sticky note and let it "ferment" for a while.

Trust me, your mind is working and as you gather your categories, you will think of things to add.

The final part of this section will be to flesh out some of your thoughts. On the back (or front if there’s space) of each stick, put down additional thought and questions for that subject.

For example, let’s take blog. I could write on this one: set up (how?), advertise, subject, how often? You get the idea. You could, if you wanted, start a separate stack of sticky notes for each of these. I’m advising against that, not just for your sanity and the environment, but because we don’t want to get bogged down in minutiae.

See you in part III.