5 Things to Think About Before Creating a Marketing Plan

 

Setting a marketing budget before defining a marketing plan is like putting the cart before the horse. Although there are plenty of online resources that can help you get a general idea of how much your marketing budget should be (depending on the number of years your startup exists, the industry in which it operates, etc.), preparing a marketing roadmap should come first.

Your marketing budget may change during the budget year, but to make it feasible, it should be built together with a plan that fits the goals of the company and one you could work with on a daily / weekly / monthly basis.

Before creating a detailed marketing plan including budget allocation to the various channels, deadlines, owner and more, there are 5 things to consider:

1. Audience

Startups are agile, and the answer to the question “who is your target audience” may change over the lifetime of the start-up. However, when you initiate your marketing efforts and build a plan and budget, there must be a clear answer to this question. For example, is your product an innovative a/b testing widget aimed at marketing executives in Fortune 500 companies? Is it an app targeted at teenagers ages 12-17 who live in English-speaking countries? Generic marketing targeting e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e (or “anyone who would want to buy the product”) is bad marketing. Even if you want to target multiple audiences, you must define them and often will need to narrow the list of audiences down, depending on your available capital and human resources.

Some would choose to build a persona (or persons) of the potential audience, to better understand who the potential client is and which pain they have that your product can solve. There are several excellent guides online to help build a persona and a free Persona builder by Xtensio.

2. Objectives

Once you defined who your target audience is, set your goals for the period of the marketing plan. One goal, for example, can be positioning yourself as an expert in the industry (thought leadership). This can be done by guest columns written by the founder/CEO in relevant blogs (for example, Bessemer Partners mapped Israeli cyber security startups for TechCrunch to position themselves as experienced investors in this industry). Another goal can be increasing sales. This may lead to focusing your budget on paid advertising.

A goal can also be recruiting new employees, and for that you may want to reach out to tech blogs who cover cool office spaces like this article in Fortune. There are additional goals you can have, and the answer to the question what are your goals could be “all of the above.” But, in order to prepare an effective and executable marketing plan, I recommend prioritizing these goals.

3. Marketing Channels

After you set your audience and goals, the next question is where can you find the audience. Going back to the example of targeting marketing execs in Fortune 500 companies, the chance of them reading an article mentioning your company at AdAge or AdWeek is higher than them reading such an article on Mashable. If you target the 12-17 age group, are they on Facebook, or like all of us, moved to Snapchat? Try to understand where your target audience spends most of its time online. Often, the chances of finding good and targeted leads will be higher in niche industry blogs. I worked with a company that targeted c-level executives in the hospitality business. The best leads we got was from an article on a small blog, but one that all c-levels in this industry are subscribed to. Sometimes, being featured in a large publication is a matter of ego more than ROI.

4. Team

While building the marketing plan, ask yourself if there is currently someone on the team that will be able to carry the plan out. If not, is there a need (and budget) to hire a full-time marketing person? If you have an existing team, do you need to hire more people or would outsourcing services like Fiverr and UpWork make do? There are opinions supporting and opposing hiring freelancers, but from my experience, it depends on the person. You can hire an employee with zero dedication and a contractor who gives 120 percent into the project.

5. Budget

This point is derived from the four points above. Only when you set your target audience, objectives, optimal marketing channels and structure of the team will you be able to better understand what budget is needed. The marketing budget should be consistent with the growth to which you aspire. If you decide on a fixed monthly marketing budget throughout the year, it will be difficult to expect that it will support a growth. Start with a realistic budget – both in terms of available resources and also you in terms of your goals (it’s difficult to demand a 10 percent MoM growth with a fixed monthly marketing budget of $1,000). Consider long-term and short-term factors. For example, investing in content and SEO is a long term investment (Google will kill any tricks you try ;-)). In contrast, a PR campaign can and should be limited in time, so you can allocate only a few months out of the budget to it. If you decide to work with a PR agency, you can limit the work to 3-4 months. In addition, as the company’s general budget may vary due to external factors (drop in revenues, declining recruitment, etc.), the marketing budget will vary too, and that should be taken into account as well.

  Source : http://bit.ly/2bYpD2m

5 Ways Small Business Brands Can Use Instagram Video

So it happened. Facebook owned Instagram released video functionality on their app to go head to head against Twitter’s Vine app. The battle lines are drawn and people and brands are already choosing sides. But what does this mean for your small business?

With Instagram already boasting more than 130 million users, there was already a case to be made that your company may want a presence on the photo sharing platform. That said, there are some stories that a still image just can’t capture. The addition of a video feature (even at a max of 15 sec.) provides even more flexibility to the message that your brand can share with your audience.

Still need more convincing? Instagram’s videos can be directly shared on your Facebook page. When posted to Facebook, they appear in a large, timeline filling thumbnail, there is no doubt that your fans will take notice.

If you are considering adding Instagram videos to your social media marketing mix, here are a few creative ideas you should try:

1. Before & Afters

Although not applicable to every business, before and after videos are a wonderful testament to the effectiveness of a product, or service. Showing a potential customer the end result of working with you may prove to be the final push that causes them to reach out. Unlike a before and after photo, video will allow you to show multiple angles, or focus points of the true difference you offer.

2. Previews

Are you about to launch a new product or service? A 15 second sneak peek behind the curtain may be the perfect way to build excitement and anticipation about its release. If you can show your existing and potential customers the value of your new release, you may be able to get a few pre-orders, or at least create a list of interested parties to eagerly anticipate your launch.

3. Comparisons

Is your product, or service really better than the competition? If so, it’s time to prove it! Show your solution toe to toe with the competition. If you can outperform them on video, it will be pretty hard for viewers to choose your rivals over you.

4. Mini Commercials

It’s time to get creative. Just because you are a small business doesn’t mean you can’t have commercials. Instagram’s video capabilities give you everything you need to produce short, free, and meaningful communications with your audience. Don’t be afraid to try something. If you don’t like what you’ve produced, simply delete it and start over. You never know, maybe you’re a regular Ron Howard.

5. Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials may be the most powerful use of Instagram. Who has the budget to send a film crew out to every satisfied customer? Now you do. Anytime a customer brings up how your product, or service benefits them (saved time, saved money, increase production, improved sales, increase ROI, peace of mind, etc.), simply take out your phone and ask them for a 15 second testimonial on the spot. Not everyone will say yes, but the ones that do will be giving you pure video gold.

No matter if you decide to use Instagram and its video feature, or not, the addition to the app will make an impact on the way brands tell their stories. You have the chance to take advantage of this new feature and use it to tell your brand’s story. Will you accept the challenge?

How will your use Instagram videos to spread your message?

 Source : http://bit.ly/1RHWB6u

7 ways marketers can use Reddit

There is no social media site more misunderstood and undervalued by PR pros and marketers than Reddit.

Reddit is nicknamed the “front page of the Internet” for a reason. It attracts millions—if not billions—of eyeballs every day.

It’s also a quirky place with its own etiquette and rules of conduct, and people who don’t follow those rules are quick to be called out. There are two groups of people you don’t want to anger online:mommy bloggers and Redditors. Both can wreck havoc on you and your brand.

That said, many PR pros and marketers are quick to dismiss Reddit as a viable outlet because of their own preconceived notions or due to horror stories they have heard.

That’s not always a wise move.

Here are seven steps to use this platform—a Reddit marketing guide—that won’t anger the mob:

1. Identify subreddits.

Before you can even start to think about putting your plans into action, you need to test the waters and see what’s already being said about your topic on Reddit.

There’s basically a subreddit for anything and everything. Don’t believe me? There’s a subreddit for jerky, dog shower thoughts, many not-safe-for-work examples and my personal favorite: “find a reddit,” which is a subreddit to find other subreddits.

You can find subreddits related to your topic by running a few searches on one of these websites:

http://www.reddit.com/subreddits/search?q=yourtopichere

http://www.pearltrees.com/subreddit_suggester

http://subreddits.org/

Keep a list of all subreddits on your topic in an Excel or Google Spreadsheets document for easy access.

2. Crowdsource blog and long-form content ideas.

Another great use for Reddit is to cure writer’s block (or blogger’s block) once and for all.

Spend 10-15 minutes browsing one of the subreddits you discovered in the first step. You should be able to come up with at least three blog post ideas just from conversations already happening in that subreddit.

Here are some things to look for:

“How do I do x” types of questions.

Lengthy debates.

AMAs—short for “Ask Me Anything” Q&A sessions.

3. Use Reddit for keyword research.

I’m just going to come out and say it: Reddit may be better for keyword research than Google Adwords Keyword Planner.

This is because you can see which keywords come up over and over again, and determine the context and tone in which they are used. Keywords are good, but the context for how they are used is better.

You can use this newfound knowledge to help write SEO-friendly headlines for blog posts and news releases, craft meta descriptions, write landing page copy or gain a better sense of how your target audience searches for information on this topic online.

My two favorite ways to do keyword research for your Reddit marketing are through “MetaReddit” and “SearchReddit.”

4. Gather market research.

Just like you can use Reddit to generate post ideas, it can also be used as a great sounding board to see if your ideas will stick, but careful you don’t abuse this.

Your Reddit marketing should also consist of gathering feedback, which you can get just by asking. Make sure you have thick skin; Redditors are known, to be honest, and a tough crowd to impress.

5. Find sources.

If your marketing strategy includes working with experts in your industry, you can find them on Reddit—along with influencers on a variety of topics.

Journalists are already using Reddit, and it can be a goldmine for finding possible sources to amp up your pitch.

6. Participate in “Ask Me Anything” sessions.

This is the most common use people think of when it comes to using Reddit, with good reason. AMAs are so popular even President Obama has done one .

Here are a few good starting points to consider before going all-in with an AMA:

Have a solid angle that will appeal to a broad audience.

Get a well-known person (who already has an audience) in your industry to be the spotlight feature.

Seed some initial questions in advance. This helps get the conversation going at the start, and can help ensure the AMA doesn’t go off track too much.

Be prepared to handle tough questions and negative feedback.

7. Promote content through Reddit ads

Another great, inexpensive way to promote your content is through Reddit ads Largely overshadowed by Facebook, Twitter and Google, Reddit ads can be an excellent way to promote your content to a highly targeted audience for pennies a pop.

You can drill down by country, demographics and even by subreddit. Reddit has a great resource for how to get started with ads on their Wiki.

Are you using Reddit to supplement your marketing and PR efforts? If so, what would you add to this list? 

  Source ; http://bit.ly/1q7sWYq

9 ways marketers can stick to their strategies

Editor’s note: In “The Marketing Plan Handbook,” author Robert W. Bly explains how you can develop big-picture marketing plans for pennies on the dollar with his 12-step marketing plan. In this edited excerpt, Bly explains the nine steps you can take to make sure you're getting the most out of your marketing plan.

Consistency is important when you’re trying to implement a long-term marketing plan, so resist the temptation to abandon a strategy if it doesn't work immediately.

Give it time to work. These nine steps can help you make the most of your well-crafted plan:

1. Every day, be renewed by your vision. Your mind can be your greatest asset or your most tiring obstacle.

Begin your day by renewing your mind with the clarifying power of your vision. When W. Clement Stone and Earl Nightingale both said, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” they knew these were far more than simple words on a page. There simply is no substitute for the power of belief.

When you believe, obstacles that would throw your entire day into chaos suddenly become bleeps that you just intuitively know how to solve without expending valuable time or energy. Don’t laugh this off as touchy-feely. This is one of the most inexpensive and profitable investments you’ll ever make in yourself. Just do it.

2. Focus on your niche. Become the expert in all things involving your niche. Don’t limit your knowledge to the services you offer.

The more you know about your niche’s priorities and challenges, the more valuable a resource you can become to them. Become familiar with other professionals who can assist your niche with challenges outside your expertise.

When you’re tempted to work with clients outside your niche, make sure the time and payoff will be worth it and won’t draw you away from your commitment.

3. Stay close to your ideal client. Networking, surveys, online community forums, trade magazines and associations are all great ways to keep sharp about the things that matter to your ideal client.

Stay on top of the news and ask yourself how your client’s needs will be affected by changes in the business and world environment.

4. Keep your eyes on your competition. If your clients stop think­ing that you offer a competitive advantage in addressing their needs, you lose and the competition wins. Enough said. Don’t be the last to know what your competition is doing.

5. Make sure you’re positioned to win. If you’re doing the first four steps, you’ll know when it’s time to change your tune, tweak your message and speak a new language that’s more in tune with what your ideal client needs.

Ask yourself, “Is my unique selling proposition still unique? Does anyone do it better? What one thing can I do to serve my clients better?” That’s how you stay unique.

6. Take action every day. Stick close to your plan. Follow your schedule. Complete the actions you say you'll complete in your daily sched­ule.

At the end of the week, give yourself a grade for effort. Then give yourself another one for accomplishment. If you’re getting A’s for effort and C’s for accomplishment, trouble­shoot.

7. Focus on one marketing project at a time. One of the greatest mistakes people make in setting goals is trying to work on too many things at one time. There's tremendous power in giving focused attention to just one idea, one project, or one objective at a time.

8. Ask yourself good questions. As you think about your goals, instead of wishing for them to come true, ask yourself how and what you can do to make them come true.

The subconscious mind will respond to your questions far more effectively than just making statements or wishes.

9. Congratulate yourself. You’re halfway home. You’ve done something that less than 3 percent of the population has done—set goals and create a plan for achieving them.

Every study on the subject tells us you’re far more likely than most to succeed with your plans if you'll only do one thing: Take action.

Be that external force. Plan your work—then work your plan—and you’ll have an unstoppable moneymaking system that can grow your business beyond even your most amazing vision.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PTjFLG

4 Ways Startups Leverage Social Media to Generate Buzz

Building a company from scratch takes guts and perseverance. Understanding the difference between generating buzz / excitement versus just making noise is key to your company’s short-term growth. Anyone can post on social media, but is the information you’re posting exciting your target demographic? Are you gaining a foothold in your market, or are you simply gaining followers that are unlikely to convert through your sales channel?

Let’s look at 4 ways you can jumpstart your social media efforts from day one to create valuable buzz/excitement in your target demo.

1. Show an Initial Burst in Followers and Subscribers

To get people to “like”, “subscribe” and “share” your brand, you need to be popular, or at least appear to be popular. This is just like high school. Everyone gravitated towards the popular kids and did what they did. If your company has five likes on Facebook and only 20 Twitter followers, the likelihood that someone else will take your brand seriously is pretty low.

Initially, to generate brand trust, you’ll want to investigate purchasing followers and likes. If you’re considering how to launch your Twitter with maximum impact, check out this article that gives insights on how to use Twitter to propel your company forward.

To get people to feel confident about clicking “like” or “subscribe”, build an image of online confidence with purchased subscribers and followers. This gets you past the initial lurch of trying to generate a popular brand without any followers.

2. Look at Past Post Performance to Decide Future Posting

Now that you have your first thousand followers and likes, it’s time to get serious about what you’re posting on your social media channels. Look at what the competition is posting. Review your past posts. What’s getting the most likes and comments? If you’ve found a topic or product that your followers are passionate about, keep up the great work and post more information that they’ll engage with.

3. Social Media Contests and Prizes

If you really want to generate real buzz and excitement, start a social media contest. If your company sells a really hot product, offer to give one lucky social media user a free product or service via a Facebook or Twitter raffle. One “like” and “share” equals one entry into your contest. At the end of the contest period, draw a name using a random number generator and award the prize (posting about it of course!).

There are different variations on this method, but giving away free products on social media in return for like and shares is a great way to motivate your target audience to get the word out about your brand on social media.

4. “Leak” Product and Service Information

Official press releases are a great way to tell the world about your brand or service. However, if you want to leverage your social media muscle, let secret or behind-the-scenes information out via posts on social media. This way, you’ll reward your most passionate followers with information before the general public. Everyone likes being in on a good secret!

Source : http://bit.ly/241r2Iq

Quote of the day.

9 Crazy Tips to Become a Successful Entrepreneur in Half the Time

Being a successful entrepreneur means constantly learning new skills along the way. These tips are what makes the most successful entrepreneurs and can be lessons for any new entrepreneur to follow to ensure their own success.

1. EFFECTIVE PLANNING

Effective planning is an essential skill in all-successful entrepreneurs. Setting strategic goals will allow you to progress and develop any business. Planning means to plan your day effectively as well as being able to set goals that you want to achieve.

2. EXPAND BUSINESS

A one-man business can only do so much. Expand your business beyond your comfortably level; the problem with most businesses is they play it to safe. How can you scale your business?

3. WAKE UP EARLY

Successful entrepreneurs are people who are able to start their day early in order to plan their time effectively to get things done. The most important trait with any successful entrepreneur is showing up and when working for yourself this is a skill that is even more important to learn.

4. EXERCISE

Being your own boss can be stressful in itself. Look to exercise not only to keep yourself fit but also as a way to relief stress. Balance between fitness and business is an essential skill for success.

5. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Positive thinking always brings you one step closer to success. If you believe you will fail, then your mind begins to think of ways to make you fail. Don’t be afraid to think big but above all else it starts with believing in yourself first and then others will also gain confidence in you as well.

6. LEARN…LEARN…LEARN

Being successful means that you need to always find new ways of achieving goals. As you progress in your own business you will find that you gain a new set of skills and its extremely important that you not only sharpen your skills but continue to learn new things on a daily basis…success means that you are always learning.

7. LOOK FOR SOLUTIONS NOT OBSTACLES

Obstacles are a natural phenomenon when starting your own business. The most successful entrepreneurs look at obstacles as challenges that need to be overcome. When you face an obstacle, punch through it and don’t allow it to slow you down.

8. LEARN FROM FEEDBACK

Feedback is essential. This will teach you where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Even the most critical feedback will show you how you can improve and become better.

9. LEARN TO SAY NO

One of the most difficult things is to learn to say no. The most successful entrepreneurs are the people who are able to say no to those tasks that take up too much time or projects that don’t align with their purpose.

How many of these tips are you following on a consistent basis? The key is to create habits that produce success, it doesn’t happen over night but through practicing what other successful entrepreneurs are doing you will reach your own success.

If I can be of any help, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Source : http://bit.ly/1VuVMvf

FIVE RULES FOR CONTENT MARKETERS IN 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: 2016 planning. With the New Year around the corner, we know content marketers are looking for insights and trends that will shape the year ahead and help their content stand out.

This morning, we released findings from one of the industry’s largest and broadest global surveys of consumer views on digital content. We surveyed more than 12,000 consumers across six countries to get a deeper understanding of evolving consumer expectations and how they are fueling marketers’ challenge. The report, titled “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016” sheds light on five rules for content marketers to follow in optimizing engagement with their target audiences.

Design for the Multiscreen Reality

Consumers report using five different devices and, on average, 83 percent use 2.23 devices at the same time. While the majority of consumers report feeling good about it (81 percent entertained, 80 percent connected, 76 percent productive), nearly half (47 percent) say they are distracted. As attention spans shrink, good design and optimization are paramount. Consumers ranked display (65 percent) as the most important aspect when it comes to content experience in their personal life, and 54 percent listed overall good design, such as appealing layout and photography as important. Content marketers can’t attempt to “get away with” a one-size-fits all approach to content distribution: content must be well-designed and optimized for each viewing device.

Don’t Fall Victim to #TLDR  

Consumers report lower patience for sub-par content experiences – with length a key factor. Nearly 9 out of 10 digital device users would switch devices or stop viewing content altogether if it fails to meet their quality, length and formatting expectations. Sixty seven percent of consumers would stop engaging if content is too long, and 79 percent would do the same if the content doesn’t display well on their device. Marketers need to deliver content in the right format, get to the point and optimize or consumers might say #unsubscribe.

Humor Makes Brands More Relatable

Seventy percent of global consumers agree that humor makes companies more relatable, but just 14 percent rate company-created content as entertaining. Globally, “making people laugh” was identified as the top personal motivator for sharing content. Content marketers should work to create authentic activations that entertain to help drive brand engagement.

In Our Relationships We Trust

In an era of high skepticism, authenticity and trust are critical. Consumers are more likely to engage with content they trust, but many are highly skeptical of most content they view online: 50 percent of consumers question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed, 49 percent wonder if an author was paid or incented to write a positive review, and 48 percent question whether a news article is biased. However, consumer trust in content increases as their relationship with the source grows stronger. Only 23 percent of consumers trust content from companies whose products they don’t buy, but if the source is a company from whom they do purchase products and have a relationship, that number nearly doubles to 43 percent. Brands need to work on building trusted relationships with their audience, which includes disclosing any endorsements, sponsorships and affiliations.

Don’t Show Up Uninvited

The majority of consumers understand the value of predictive recommendations, with 73 percent noting they are willing to share at least one piece of information about themselves and 71 percent reporting they are open to predictive recommendations from brands based on past behavior. Among consumers not willing to share their information, 40 percent believe companies could do something to ease their concern and 25 percent suggested “asking permission to access data” would make them more comfortable. This maps back to trust; consumers are most comfortable sharing information with brands they trust.

In addition to these insights shaping content marketing in 2016, the study also unveiled interesting findings about online engagement and behavior. For instance, there’s a rising fear of digital footprints. Twenty-six percent of U.S. consumers have cleared their browser history to hide content they viewed from a friend or loved one, and 17 percent have hid or embellished the truth about the content they regularly consume.

Source : http://adobe.ly/1m9EXdz