Create a Winning Marketing Game Plan

Creating a winning game plan must be the first task you concentrate on before you enter the marketing game. At the heart of your game plan is your strategic approach. It is the ‘how’ of your marketing. Without it you become guilty of what I call “Coin Toss” marketing.

A quick glance through your local newspaper or yellow pages will show you lots of companies who are guilty of “coin toss” marketing. This is the type of marketing that is executed on a whim without any serious planning and strategizing. It’s more or less determined by chance; like flipping a coin. You’ve probably watched the beginning of a big football game on television when they toss the coin to see who gets the ball first. There’s a 50/50 chance who guesses correctly and wins a small victory.

Many small businesses do the same thing. They randomly select a few marketing tactics and guess which one will work best. Take a look around you. Most of the advertising that you receive is sent arbitrarily by businesses that have no game plan. Businesses that have no game plan will select anything they think will work.

Usually they are selecting their marketing in one of two ways:

First, they fall into the “coin toss” trap by jump at any kind of marketing that is pitched to them by a friendly advertising salesperson who calls on them. Yellow pages, newspaper, card deck, or even the local church bulletin; they throw money at it to “get their name out there.”
The friendly salesperson seldom has the business owner’s best interest in mind. They are only concerned with selling ad space and meeting quota. They don’t have a clue about the marketing needs of the business or the desires of the target market. After a few failed ads are run it doesn’t take long for the business owner to become critical of the value of marketing their business. As a result they turn their backs on marketing completely.

The second reason why people fall into the “coin toss” trap is because they are desperate for sales. This happens when sales are low and need a kick start to generate cash flow for the business. So the business owner decides that he’ll send out a post card with some discount coupons. He’s convinced that people are just waiting for his mailer to arrive and will drop everything to redeem it once they pull it out the mail box. A few customers do trickle in but he is disappointed with the results and considers marketing a waste of money.

Take the time to create a marketing plan and use it to drive all of your marketing activities. For more useful ideas and information, go to the Small Business Marketing Hub.

To your marketing victories,

Coach Ron