How To Create A Winning Marketing Plan That Is Perfect For Your Business

Every small business owner knows they NEED a marketing plan. However, when it comes to actually putting a marketing plan together it’s like staring at a blank screen. If that sounds like you, you’re going to LOVE this podcast where “Small Business Stacey” interviews Kim Knight of Marketing Mate on How To Create A Winning Marketing Plan That Is Perfect For Your Business.

Episode Transcript

Stacey: Hey everybody, welcome to another edition of small business interviews success stories. I’m your host Small Business Stacey and today I have with me Kim Knight who comes all the way from the land Down Under. Kim has an extensive background in marketing and communications. For the past 13 years, she has helped organizations of all shapes and sizes from the individual small business owner to non-profit and for-profit organizations, even the Australian government. Welcome to the show Kim.

Kim K.: Thanks very much Stacey it’s good to be here.

Stacey: Absolutely. Today we’re going to be talking about how to create a winning marketing plan that’s perfect for your business and I am so excited to have you on the show for two reasons; One is out of all the people I’ve interviewed you have the coolest accent, so you win that award.

Kim K.: I feel the same way about you.

Stacey: Really Washington DC accent. Two, you really get a marketing plan. From everything that you’ve done in your past experience and now putting it together. You have a tool called Marketing Mate that makes it really easy for businesses of any size and shape to put together a marketing plan. I’m really excited about that because that’s one of the biggest complaints I hear from small business owners is, “I know I need a marketing plan but how do I do it?” Before we get started into the nuts and bolts, from the brief background I gave is there anything else you want to add that I missed?

Kim K.: No, that’s a fabulous introduction and I’ll probably share a little bit more about my passion for marketing and for helping people who have great offerings to get the best for themselves and yeah, just happy to get right into it.

Stacey: Great, well before we do, I always like to ask my guests a few fun questions. You’re ready?

Kim K.: Okay, yeah.

Stacey: Cake or pie.

Kim K.: Cake.

Stacey: Yeah, I agree. Crossword puzzles or Sudoku.

Kim K.: Crosswords.

Stacey: Okay you’re smart. And cautious or adventurous?

Kim K.: Adventurous most definitely.

Stacey: Love it, alright then this is definitely going to be a great interview.

Kim K.: Looking forward to it. Let’s go.

Stacey: When we say marketing plan, that seems to be … it means a lot of things to different people. It can mean doing this complicated SWOT analysis, strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats. It could mean, “Here’s the tactics of what I’m going to do.” It could mean, it means so many things to different people. So let’s start with the basics, what is a marketing plan?

Kim K.: Sure and from my experience working as you said with all sorts of different people from individuals, small businesses, not-for profits, large government organizations, what I’ve come to find is that simple is best. Not simple in terms of the things that you choose because that definitely always relates to your own offering and what’s best for you. But just simple in terms of not needing to go into pages and pages and pages of information and background and where it becomes overwhelming and people often decide it’s just too hard and they move on.

I like to think of a marketing plan as something that helps you gain clarity and focus. It sets a pathway for you to follow it asks you all the right questions so you can come up with all the right answers, so that you’re communicating the right things to your audiences and you are being strategic and tailored and there’s definitely no one size fits all. Everybody’s unique and just having quite a simple structure but definitely one that is structured for you to follow and as I said answering all the right questions and putting them into the right spots and being strategic as you go. You just can’t lose if you do it that way.

Stacey: Yeah and I love what you said about keeping it simple because it doesn’t have to be this complex document that completely overwhelms you so you never do anything with it anyways.

Kim K.: That’s right. I think that’s the … that’s just going to send you to be popping it into the pile of I’ll do that later or I’ll get halfway through it and I won’t finish it and that’s no use to anybody. So, something that’s interesting and fun and actually gets you thinking and excited about what you’re doing, and then you finish up with this to do list pretty much of actions that are going to get you on your way. That’s far more inspiring and I think it’s going to help people in the long run.

Stacey: Great, if somebody is going to invest the time and effort in putting a marketing plan together, what’s the end result? What could the … is it going to keep them more organized, is it going to save them money, what benefits have you seen from businesses that do put together a marketing plan?

Kim K.: Look they’re just … they’re really endless the benefits. For starters, obviously it saves you money and it earns you more because obviously you’re making some really good decisions about what you’re going to do and how you’re going to spend your marketing money, and you’re not just guessing. You’re keeping it tight and tailored and keeping an eye on it so that you can tweak and review as you go and make changes if you see that something’s not working, so there’s definitely that saving money factor there.

I think that it’s … a big thing is that it keeps you marketing and certainly in the world of small business, people who run small businesses and I know myself we’re busy. We have so much to do that relates to the actual business and the offering in the first place that it’s quite easy to put things like marketing on the shelf on the side and say, “I’ll get to that later or maybe never at all.” And obviously, that’s not going to help you.

Having a marketing plan really keeps your marketing because you’ve got this plan in place, you’ve got some control over what’s happening with it, you’re interested to keep checking in and seeing how it’s going and yeah and you sort of got that as I said before, that to do list of actions and activities that you can keep working through. It just ensures that you’re going to keep going with your marketing and I think the other thing is you’ve got something clear to show whoever you might need to show it to. It could just be new employees, it could be somebody new coming into the business, it might be somebody that you’re outsourcing some of your marketing tools, or somebody who’s creating a logo for you, or a website and they’re really needing to get a good understanding of what you’re doing, what your objectives are, who your audience is, what your messages are. I mean it’s just this beautiful template for them to look at and say, “Okay, I understand and I can now create what I need to to help you to market your business.” That’s a real benefit as well.

I think it’s just empowering. You feel more in control of your marketing and it’s not this kind of frightening thing that sort of pops into your mind every now and then and makes you feel like, “Oh I would be guilty you know, having really got onto that and I don’t really know what I’m doing, if only I could get my marketing sorted.” Well, if you’ve got your marketing plan in place, you know what you’re up to and as I said you’ve got that empowerment and you can feel quite confident and in control from there.

Stacey: Absolutely, what about like being able then to measure results or KPIs? Would a marketing plan help you be able to do that?

Kim K.: Absolutely and the key thing there would be to make sure that when you are setting your goals, that they are measurable so you do have some metrics in there that you are going to be able to at some point down the line check back and say, “Yes we reached that figure of new customers or visits to the websites or whatever it might be.” It certainly is a really valuable tool for you to set that benchmark and get on with your marketing and then come back to and check whether you’re actually reaching those targets.

Stacey: I would guess that it probably could save an organization money too because instead of doing spaghetti marketing like throwing everything on the wall, or spending all your time doing social media and then wondering why you’re not getting any results, or doing something because Suzy’s hair salon did it so I’m going to do it too. By having a marketing plan, you’re mapping out what you’re going to do, who’s going to do it, how much is it going to cost you? I would imagine that it gives you a sense of control, right?

Kim K.: Most definitely and more than just a sense of control. You get that control, you’ve got something that’s in front of you and you’ve really thought through it. It’s strategic and tailored and you’re keeping an eye on it as well. I always suggest that people don’t just set up their marketing plan say for 12 months and pop it down and go, “Well there’s that, the job is done and I’ll just move on to the other things now.” It’s this living document that’s there and you keep referring to on a regular basis and you review quite regularly. And you make decisions about whether you might need to tweak or change it and potentially have a number of marketing plans in place throughout the year for different promotional purposes or particular sales periods or events or launches, or rebrands or whatever is going on in your business. Yeah, they’re just a fantastic thing to guide what you’re doing at that time and help you come back to it regularly and just keep making sure that you’re on the right track.

Stacey: Love it. Alright, now that everybody’s probably on board, yeah I need a marketing plan. So, here’s what happens. They get in front of their computer, marketing plan, oops blank screen. What do I do? Where do I start, what do I put into the marketing plan? Where would a small business owner start if they want to put together a marketing plan?

Kim K.: There is so much information out there and so many templates and so many examples of ready-made marketing plans, but I found myself and I found with businesses that I’ve worked with, that that just doesn’t cut it. That might be interesting but it’s you know, they’re still not quite sure that it’s the right thing for them. And this is where after years of working with people I came up with … and doing the same thing over and over again and realizing that they didn’t recognize themselves that they needed to have their own tailored marketing plan, they needed some guidance as to how to build it.

Then I decided to work with a developer to put something together that guides you through the process. That’s where Marketing Mate was born and it’s a 10 step process that allows people to come to the web application that’s online, with all their information, the subject matter experts for their business, they know all about that. Hopefully they know quite a bit about their customers and what they’re trying to achieve and then step by step, with examples and tips and bits and pieces along the way, they’re able to just input that information into the marketing plan wizard, and it slowly builds the marketing plan in the background and almost forces you to be strategic. At certain points, you’ll be deciding on what you might … what tools you might use, but you’ll be forced to say okay, which particular audience is that going to communicate with and which goal is that going to help you achieve.

So, you start thinking, oh, of course, it has to make sense, it has to have a means to an end and it just draws you to make sure you come up with this fantastic strategic marketing plan that’s tailored for you and makes sense. At the end of the day, you’ve got this document ready to go with all of your steps, sorry actions that you need to start getting on with.

Stacey: I love it. For so many reasons you have simplified what a marketing plan is and to 10 easy steps and what you alluded to when you first started talking about it was that, “Oh let me just go online and Google a marketing plan template.” Well it doesn’t mean it’s going to work for your business, right? That’s like doing what Suzy’s salon is doing. I love how you have created Marketing Mate and into 10 easy steps that you walk through and it asks you questions. I can speak to its benefits because I’m a user of it. I use Marketing Mate for my own business and for my clients’ businesses when I’m creating marketing plans. Could you maybe go through what some of those 10 steps are like what are the types of things that people need to think about and what they’re going to be putting into this marketing plan.

Kim K.: Sure, people who have done any marketing planning before it’s not going to be too unfamiliar. At the end of the day like I said I wanted to bring it back and keep it simple which is great because it’s manageable, it’s doable. Of course, you’re going to start with your overall objective. What is it that you’re trying to achieve with this particular marketing plan? It might not be what you’re trying to achieve for your entire business but you’re focusing on what you’re trying to achieve for this plan and you’ll have something in mind. And then set out some goals. I like to suggest between three and six goals and like I said before having them measurable, of the particular things that you’re wanting to see changed by the time you implement your marketing plan you’re seeing some results, what targets you’re trying to achieve.

That just really sets the scene and you keep them in mind the whole way through obviously when you’re choosing what you’re going to do to implement your marketing. I’m actually going to start my little 10 step. The next step is to look at your considerations. Thinking about anything that’s happening in the world around you, within your business, in your life, anything that could have an impact on the marketing that you’re planning. It’s really important to think about things that might be taking up a lot of the space that your audience might be listening to. Just obviously things that you’ll need to consider. You’ve got something that … a launch that’s upcoming on a particular date or you’re needing to take some personal leave for any particular reason. All these factors they’ve got to be thought about when you’re putting your marketing plan together because they’re going to impact on how things go when you’re implementing.

Next is obviously, step number three is obviously your audiences and it’s a really fun process actually to sit down and think about who your audience is. I like to suggest that people give a fictitious name or it might be a customer you’ve got in mind, to actually fully describe who that person is, how they like to receive their information, where they look for their, you know, where they browse for things, where they look for things, how they like to interact and even their age, their language, all sorts … anything you can sort of put together to get this really fantastic profile of the key audience segments that you are trying to communicate with and connect with. It’s just a fabulous way to really get a clear picture in your mind as you’re developing your marketing plan of who you’re talking to because that’s just going to make that connection for you.

Stacey: I want to … let me stop there for a second because I love that. Because you’ve made that in a way almost the first step after you’ve gone through the basics of what you want to accomplish, because it is so important to focus on your Who, before you start getting into, “Oh I’m going to do social media.” You need to focus on who is your perfect customer so I love how you make that at the beginning of the marketing plan.

Kim K.: I think you can get stuck with just looking at your computer screen or looking at your papers in front of you, or the advertisement you’re putting together or whatever it might be. You’ve always got to be thinking about the people at the other end and it will just ensure that you get a much closer connection and that they’re going to respond in a much better way as well because they’re going to feel that connection too.

So yeah it’s great and then after the audience step four, moving into your messages, and just getting some really clear messages and you don’t have to be using these word for word and everything that you communicate everywhere on your website in your advertisements whatever it might be. But it’s just setting the … I guess the overarching themes and the overarching communications that you’re wanting to get through and you can adapt those as you create your content elsewhere.

It’s just a really great way for you to I guess you think about a friend or somebody asking you, “What is it that you do or what are you offering?” And when you break it down and you bring it back to those really basic messages that anybody can understand I mean that’s where you want to land, that’s where you want to be so it’s a really important step to get those messages awesome and clear and have them ready to use and adapt.

Five is … step five is looking at your content and I really like to do a content stock take. Some people don’t even realize how much they’ve got at their fingertips that’s really useful. It could be words you’ve put into your business plan, it could be the way that you’ve described some of your products and a certain web page that you’ve written out really well. There’s all this sort of content that you already have. I’m talking photos, I’m talking videos, logo, any imagery, anything else that you’ve got that can all be pulled together and used in your marketing ongoing. It might just kind of just be a bit piece here and there you and you haven’t actually brought it together yet but it’s all really valuable. So the content stock takes are really important.

Then step six is where you start to get into some of the really good stuff. Thinking about what tools and channels you’re going to use and you start by looking at the tools and channels you’ve already got. And then reflecting back on the audiences that you’re communicating with and the messages that you’re trying to get through, the goals that you’re trying to achieve and that’s going to help you to start to decide on some of the tools and channels. When I talk about tools and channels I’m talking about, you know could be a website, it could be regular emails, it could be an advertisement, all those sorts of things tools and channels. It’s obviously great to have something to reference within marketing maintenance, full list of every possible tool and channel I think that we’ve-

Stacey: I know I love that part of it.

Kim K.: Which really helps and a little bit of a descriptor about how that’s useful, how you might think that using that. That can really help you at that step to decide which ones you might want to bring in, keeping in mind that you don’t want to do too much about keeping it simple.

Moving on to step seven which is you start to look at the people who you’ve got involved. So, doing a stock take on what skills and results that you’ve got within your business already and those you might need to actually buy in or favor in. You’ve got your cousin who’s a great web developer or your friend who’s learning how to do fantastic copywriting or, you know these are services you’re obviously happy to pay for and that you need to pay for. It’s just a spot to really map that out and think about … stop thinking about your budget as well. But then obviously that moves into the budget so looking at the cost so all of the things that you’ve suggested or decided that you might like to do, you’re starting to need to think about what the cost is that’s involved in getting the is in place.

Fantastic if any of them can be favors or about a situation where you might provide some services to them and they might be able to reciprocate back to you with no money changing hands. But certainly, the budget is very important. That’s going to help you work hard as well when you might get to be able to get started to implementing your marketing plan as well. You might need to get those funds in place and it doesn’t need to cost the earth, that’s true.

Nine is obviously getting into the actions then. We’ve mapped all of this out, we’ve worked all of these fantastic things that now we’re getting down to business. We’re setting up anything that we need to do to prepare for the marketing that might be writing some more content, organizing for some photos to be taken, updating the web page, whatever it might be. All those things that you’ve identified you’ve needed to do and then getting into actually implementing the marketing tools and tactics that you’ve come up with as well.

Finally, step 10 which is very important is working out when you’re going to evaluate and review and you actually look at all of your goals, and decide at what point you’re going to come in and check back in on them, see how they’re going, see if you’re reaching your targets, or whether you need to actually make some changes. I hope that just gives a really good overview, good brief overview. It’s much better when you’re in there and filling in the steps one at a time and seeing how it all comes together and sort of educates you and supports you as you go along. So yeah, I hope that’s a good overview.

Stacey: That was a great overview. I love it because it simplifies it into 10 easy steps. I mean this marketing plan doesn’t have to be this completely overwhelming thing. You completely simplified it and but yet it’s broken down and you created an online template that asks you questions and walks you through and makes you think about … you maybe didn’t realize that when you stockpile all of your content, you probably have lots of great things and it’s all about putting it together you may realize, “Oh my God, there is so much inconsistency so we need to focus on this.” I love how when you get into the tactical part of the plan you thought of not just online marketing because everybody seems to want to do that, but you have offline marketing and it makes you think about how you’re going to integrate everything so that it can realistically get done.

Kim K.: That’s right, it’s covering all bases and you like you say digital marketing most definitely these days is very popular and a very high percentage of what people do is in the digital space. But there is definitely room in particularly small businesses for all the different below the line, offline different types of marketing all the traditional types to you know, there’s definitely a place still for those as well so make sure that we can look at all of those too.

Stacey: Yeah, you thought of things that people might not have even thought of like sponsorship and events, all different kinds of online marketing, JV partnerships, affiliates. It’s very well done.

Kim K.: Fantastic. Thanks for that Stacey.

Stacey: So, you take these 10 steps, you’ve got this plan and we don’t want it to get shoved away. What do you do, how do you keep it active? How do you use it to grow your business?

Kim K.: Yes sure. Hopefully, because you’ve been a part of it from the outset you’re excited, you’re invested, you want to get going on it. You’ve got a good understanding of all of the thinking behind it and so none of it scary. It’s just a matter of going through those actions and knocking them off and starting to see the results. However, if you don’t have the time or if you don’t feel as able to do that implementing yourself, you can call on other services to assist you with that. There are all sorts of other businesses and organizations who are able to assist you and how fantastic that you’ve done all of this thinking in this … in particular this strategy, to then be able to put in front of somebody and say, I know what I need I know what I want I actually just need somebody to help me get it in place or to do it and that might be a staff member coming on board or as I said it might be outsourcing it to somebody else or you might be very excited and you’re ready to get into it yourself.

Stacey: Absolutely and that’s what we do. We create and implement marketing plans for small businesses so they can do what they do best. My motto is “do what you do best, outsource the rest”.

Kim K.: Yes, I like that.

Stacey: Whether you’re managing an internal team or you have people all over the country or even the world who may be helping you with your marketing, this plan keeps everybody on track. I love that.

Kim K.: Keeps everybody on track and it came from you which is absolutely where it should. People do work with others to develop their marketing plan and that’s absolutely fine as well, as long as you’re involved in the process and it’s you that’s giving the answers and coming up with what you know to be important to your business and at the heart of it and all of those sorts of things and somebody who’s working with you who’s good at drawing that out will be able to develop a fantastic marketing plan with you as well.

Stacey: Now Kim, you’re somebody who has a wealth of expertise in marketing, you’ve helped so many businesses develop and implement their marketing plans. Are there any words of advice or things that a small business owner needs to be wary of when it comes to either implementing or creating and or implementing their marketing plan?

Kim K.: Yes, sure. I’ll keep it simple again we keep coming up with that, don’t we? I think the first tip that I would want to share is about keeping it real so keep it real. People love connection. They like to be able to get a sense of you, a sense of the reason behind the business, a sense of the passion so if you can in all that you do, in all that you communicate and how you connect with people, just keeping it very real and keeping that connection and I think that just through going through the process of developing your marketing plan and really having those audiences in mind. Making sure that you are truly communicating with them you’re going to get that … you’re going to achieve that. Otherwise, if you can do it as well just tell your story. Include some background on your website or regularly on your Facebook update posts about where you’re coming from and why you’re doing this and your passion behind it.

I think that that just has such an impact and especially coming from small businesses as well. People really love to still feel connected even though we’re in this world where you can get whatever you want online or wherever and you don’t really need to have that personal exchange, but I think people still really like to get a sense of that. I think the next one is … again I just keep coming back to keep it simple. I think the clearer your messages are and the clearer your offering is, the better.

People don’t need to cut through a lot of information and too many reasons for why they should buy from you or work with you or whatever it might be. Just being really honest and keeping it simple and keeping it really clear I think at the end of the day means that somebody is going to stick around they’re not going to get lost or confused and decide to go. They’re actually going to go, “Okay I get this I’m connecting with this yes that makes sense to me let’s go.” Everybody doesn’t have much time on their hands, so make it easier for them to actually make a decision about what you’re offering.

Then thirdly, I think I touched on this before, but around keeping it manageable. So, even though there are all these fantastic ideas and ways and like you said Suzy down the roads is doing this, keep your marketing manageable for you. Don’t overwhelm yourself because what you’ll find is that you will end up dropping the ball because you just won’t be able to keep up with it. It will become too confusing, there will be too many things to monitor and see if they’re working and you won’t quite know if it was this or that or the other taht works. So, just really tightening it up and keeping it manageable is just going to help you now and in the long run. Three tips anywhere that I can think of this will be … hopefully, it’s helpful to your business.

Stacey: Yeah, it’s so true because people think oh bigger is better and I’ve got to do 80 million things and that’s why they get completely overwhelmed and they wonder why they’re not getting results. With Marketing Mate, you can start with one, two or three simple things and the plan can grow over time just because you have a plan today doesn’t mean it can’t change in a month, three months, six months. Is that correct?

Kim K.: That’s right or you could have your overarching plan generally for your brand and your business and then create another plan that’s more specific to a particular thing that you’re wanting to promote or launch or focus on and again just keep it really tight and manageable for that particular thing that you wanting to achieve. It doesn’t have to be like you said, bigger and better? Bigger is just more overwhelming and it just means that it’s going to be harder to manage and to actually see some good results.

Stacey: Great, Kim your Marketing Mate program is amazing. I’m always preaching the three M’s. Market, message, media and Marketing Mate really pulls it all together into one cohesive plan. I know that the listeners and the viewers out there are just clamoring, I need to know more about this and as I understand you have a special offer just for my audience so you want to talk a little bit about that?

Kim K.: Sure. When I knew that I’d be speaking with you I thought what a fantastic thing to make an offer to whoever is listening and if they’ve become inspired and they’ve decided they’re ready to get going and get improving their marketing today, I’ve got a special offer which is just you can take a very simple to remember these codes that if you write them down take20, T-A-K-E 20, which will give you 20% off a month to month. Your first month of the month to month subscription, or take50, so T-A-K-E 50 and that’s a 50% off offer for an annual subscription to our professional subscription. So www.marketingmate.info is where you need to go and you can have a look at some information and more features there and just when you go through the sign up you’ll just … there’ll be a spot for you to enter those promo codes. That was take20 or take50.

Stacey: Wow thank you Kim. That is a very generous offer and I know that the people in my small business community are going to be clamoring to get their marketing plans done and you provided a great deal for them to be able to do that. Is there anywhere else where people can connect with you or learn more about you?

Kim K.: Oh well certainly we have a Facebook site, we’re on LinkedIn and there’s a … obviously, just you can send us an email anytime. The team is always happy to hear from people, any questions or queries. Anything that we can help you with if you’re just wanting to know a little bit more about the web application before jumping in. Also, there is a free trial, so people can go in and have a really good look around if they want to before they actually commit. All the month to month subscriptions and the annual subscriptions are really affordable as well if you consider what it costs to go to a marketing consultant to spend all of those hours trying to work it out yourself. Yeah, more than happy to hear any questions thrown on the way.

Stacey: Kim thanks for being on the show. You have shared so much information by breaking down a marketing plan into 10 simple steps but also providing and sharing how your online tool, Marketing Mate, helps small business owners do that. Thank you for being on the show and sharing your information with everybody today.

Kim K.: That’s fantastic, I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s so lovely again to connect with somebody on the other side of the world and we love dealing with people from all over the world. We have users from the United States and from Canada, from New Zealand, from the United Kingdom and Australia and it’s just, it feels wonderful to be part of this global community and to be helping small businesses and not for profit organizations and individuals to achieve what they’re wanting to. It’s frustrating to think that people have such a passion behind something and such a wonderful thing to offer but they can’t seem to get it across the line just because of the marketing. Hopefully, through Marketing Mate, we’re able to help people everywhere to take that step forward and start to get some really great results.

Stacey: Absolutely and it just shows you that marketing is the same whether it’s on main street or internationally around the world.

Kim K.: Because it all comes down to you and providing an app that just allows for anybody anywhere to input their thoughts and their information and for it to work and be worthwhile, it’s just been so exciting to be involved in something like this.

Stacey: Great. Kim thank you again so much for being on the show. To everyone out there, I hope that you got some valuable information from today’s episode. If you like this then I would really appreciate if he would leave a comment below, a rating, a review or even share it with your fellow small business owners. Let’s all help each other make small business big. Kim, any closing words?

Kim K.: Just a fond farewell to all and happy marketing.

Stacey: Happy marketing. Alright. Well, thanks for tuning in everybody, this is Small Business Stacey, your small biz marketing specialist here to help you get your marketing done by helping you become a small biz marketing wiz. Bye bye.