It’s time to plan for 2017 and put together a marketing plan and budget to help you establish your business goals for 2017. Remember when we suggested you create a marketing calendar? Hopefully you’ve done that!
That calendar will lay the groundwork for your marketing plan for 2017. Also important is an overall business plan establishing your goals and how you will meet them.
Plan Your Budget
Experts state that 5 to 7 percent of your revenue should be spent on marketing. It is important to figure out ahead of time where that money will go and where it will come from. Do you underwrite a radio program? Do you focus your efforts on boosting posts on Facebook? How much money does that represent?
Do you need to make investments in infrastructure? Perhaps you need a new computer or a new phone. Try to be as specific as possible, including your monthly expenses for things like printer ink. If you’re making changes to your budget, list what is decreasing and what is increasing. Make sure that your team is aware of the changes and what your new focus is.
Create Your Business Plan
Begin by asking yourself where you want to be at the end of the year. Do you have a sales goal? Work backward and figure out your monthly goal to get there, followed by your weekly and even daily goal to get there. If you know you need to make X number of sales calls to get a new customer, plan to make enough calls each day to meet that goal. The key to this is identifying what you need to do to accomplish your goals and putting the structure in place to help you meet them. With a plan you will wake up each day knowing what you need to take care of that day to meet your near and far goals.
For the non-specific things like, for instance, improving customer service, figure out how you will achieve that. Does that mean holding trainings for your staff or hiring a consultant? Perhaps you will work with your staff to improve email etiquette. It’s fine to have abstract ideas like “meet sales goals” or “get more customers,” but follow those up with a concrete plan.