Every business deserves a marketing plan. Think of it as a road map that’s going to get you from point A, through the winding trail of obstacles and objections to the destination, point Z.
If you’re looking for venture capital, the business you’re hitting up will most certainly want to know what you’re going to be doing with their money, and how you’re going to generate ROI, or return on their investment.
Depending on the forum, the plan might be a one-pager or a 100 page White Paper, with tabs and charts. Even if you’re working with “friends and family” money, you should have a marketing plan as your cheat sheet so you can “plan your work and work your plan.”
Plan with Post Its
I can’t tell you the hours I’ve puzzled over these things, in some cases wondering “Well, isn’t it obvious?” or “How do they expect me to prove this, I’ve never done it before.”
In some cases, you may have a marketing plan you wrote some time ago, but now seems outdated, or it doesn’t take into account a bunch of changes that occurred since the last time you summoned up the courage to look at it.
So here’s an idea: start out with a Post It Plan. Don’t be wed to the current plan, just start writing down what you know about the business on Post Its. Don’t distinguish between grand plans and minor details, just write each idea or complaint on a separate Post It and let them hang on a bulletin board or someplace where you can look at them all at once.
Don’t Censor Yourself
Go away for a day and then come back to it. You can even write down your feelings about this or that aspect of the plan. “Hate cold calling and it never works!” Don’t censor yourself. (That’s why we’re not retyping the old plan, which tends to censor new thinking.)
When you can’t think of anything else, you should have a messy bulletin board with dozens of haphazardly arranged Sticky Notes. Now step back and take a look at it. See any themes? Start grouping the Post Its that appear to have some relationship with each other. At the very least, separate your strategies—the vision of what you’re doing to reach your goal–from tactics, the steps you’ll be taking to achieve your strategy.
The idea is to get new thinking and feedback. It may turn out that you say “Wow, if I just did A, B and C, I’d be on my way.” Or, it may be that you discover a really basic stumbling block that’s going to require more thinking.
The idea is to get in touch with what’s actually happening, not what was happening six months ago, or some marketing jargon that no longer seems relevant.
Now you’re ready to put down what you’ve learned into prose that will impress the boss or venture capitalists who fund your business.
