If I were to ask you right now, what marketing tactics have you used, umm, say in the last month, could you tell me?

Chances are you probably could rattle them off quickly enough.

Now, say if I asked you if you knew the results those tactics brought. Meaning do you know specifically what each tactic brought in as far as sales, new leads and/or new subscribers, could you tell me that?

If you can, then fantastic!!!

If you can't, then know that you aren't alone, many business owners fall into the trap of not planning and tracking. When you think about it though, the word "plan" seems so, daunting, doesn't it? I mean really, all you want to do is "get at it," right

What if I gave you a little tool that would take about ten minutes to set up and it would give you a clear picture of where you are, what is working and what isn't?

Doesn't seem so daunting now, huh

Ok... hang with me for a bit and I will give you a tool that I use and many other successful marketers are using as well ;o)

First of all, why do you need to set a plan of action in the first place?

I think we all know "why" we should be doing it. In order to know what is working and what isn't. If you are paying for advertising and you aren't tracking the results, then how do you know if that investment is paying off? If you knew the answer to that, then you could decide a few things:

1. If it is working then of course you continue on with it.

2. If it isn't then you let it go and spend that money elsewhere.

You should track EVERYTHING...yes even the free classified ads you place. People will dispute this with me and say "what for, it's free, if I get a hit, cool, it didn't cost me a thing!"

Valid point...but consider this...what is YOUR time worth? Sure, it's free, but the time you take in submitting to the "free" stuff, takes you away from the other tasks that could be making you money. We call that "opportunity cost." Your time then is not FREE. If you have a "submitter" and it takes a few minutes, you just click and it runs then fine, you should try and always automate as much as possible. However, if you are posting on an individual basis...and it takes you an hour or more and you aren't getting anything out of it...is it really worth it ?

Put a price on everything, even your time ;o)

Ok, let's get to the Plan.

This Plan can be used for each and every tactic that you put into place or you can use it as a General Plan as an overall game plan, the idea is to at least use it.

--------Sidebar------
Note that this mini-plan is NOT the same as a Marketing Plan you would need to provide to your Banker for securing a loan. They require much more information that what is here. This is a tool to be used "in-house" only
--------------------------

-------Start-----

Mini Plan For: _____________________________

Dated: _________________

1. Purpose (what is the purpose of your marketing, ie to add subscribers to my list)

2. Target Audience (the specific group that you are trying to capture, ie start up eBusiness owners, pet owners..etc).

3. What Tactic Are You Using (if it is a classifed in a newsletter, then be specific, provide a sample of the ad and what newsletters you have put this ad in).

4. What Is Your Budget

I have this much time per week ___________

I have this much money to spend: $________

5. What Is Your Schedule (break it down into steps of the things you need to have in place for this particular tactic)

6. Results (log to day your ad run or the day tactic was implemented from there track your results. Day 1 ad placed no hits, Day 2 received 2 hits).

7. Final Evaluation/Notes (once the particular campaign is over, then you look at the purpose, if it was to add subscribers, how many did you receive in the then and based on that was it worthwhile to spend the money you did. Also are there things you had to do during the process to adjust for and any other notes that you want to keep track of if you decide to use this down the road again)

8. Samples - I personally keep a folder that has all the advertising samples that I have used along with a results log (like the one in step 6). I keep a running log for each piece of marketing I use so that later on if I want to use the same piece again - then I can quickly look and see how succesful it was in other similar newsletters that I ran it in...saves me having to look through past plans to find the ad, keeps things all in one place.

You can make this as easy or as elaborate as you wish, this is your plan and its purpose is to serve you. The important thing to understand is that you use it to track the successes of tactics so you know if it is worth it to you to use again.

A mini-marketing plan like this keeps you organized and on track. You can tell very quickly which of your campaigns worked and from there determine if you want to re-use it again.

Good luck!