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Hi
Folks -I have just
published a new marketing plan site,
http://www.MarketingPlanArticles.com.
The site includes articles that approach marketing
planning from different directions. One - Alexandria
K. Brown's "You Don't NEED a Marketing Plan" - even
tells why she thinks a plan is not necessary.
Surprisingly, I agree with most of
her points, especially her advice to continually
focus on doing something to move your business
forward. An individual entrepreneur or small
business person must be action oriented, be willing
to take risks, and ready to venture boldly forth in
the face of incomplete or imperfect information.
I think Alexandria holds some
underlying assumptions about marketing plans that do
not always hold true:
(1) Having a marketing
plan means your actions are set in stone.
I would argue the main purpose of a marketing plan
is to help you decide what overall strategies are
best for your business, not to limit your actions.
In fact, I love flexibility. It helps you best take
advantage of changing situations.
(2) Writing a marketing
plan involves suspension of actions until you reach
100% certainty.
I would ABSOLUTELY disagree. Business, by its very
nature, is continually in flux. Reaching 100%
certainty is impossible. That is one of the beauties
of having a marketing plan - it can help you
overcome the problems created by not knowing
everything about a particular activity.
(3) A marketing plan has
to be meticulously documented.
Not so. The strategy and logic behind your marketing
activities are the critical parts of a marketing
plan. My personal marketing plan is a single summary
page.
In fact, Alexandria says
it best herself, "I just knew who I wanted to reach
and what I wanted to say." That, to me, is evidence
of strategy and planning. She knows her target
audience and she knows her positioning.
I highly suspect she
also knows what strategies - general approaches -
she should take with her business and uses them to
help her decide which actions to take.
And THAT, folks, is what
a marketing plan is all about.
Enjoy,
Bobette Kyle
P.S. You
can now preview full text of all chapters in my
marketing plan book here:
http://www.HowMuchForSpider.com
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