Your 5 Day Marketing Plan

In my many discussions with small business owners and entrepreneurs, I often hear "time management" being mentioned as a pressure point. Most entrepreneurs wear many hats and take on multiple roles in their businesses, making it hard to juggle all the daily activities.

Unfortunately, since many small business owners don't consider marketing as a core business activity (what a shame), it's often the task that gets set aside when time is crunched. But by taking just a few minutes to plan ahead, your future marketing activities can go much smoother; you'll be able to complete your marketing activities quickly and easily.

All you need are a few marketing tools to add to your arsenal. Set aside just one hour each morning, and by the end of the week your marketing toolbox will be well stocked:

Monday

Craft a very engaging bio of yourself and/or your business. Make it as lively and personal as possible. Prepare several different versions of various lengths, and be sure to keep the bios someplace handy. Next time you post to a message board, contribute a letter to the editor, submit a press release, create a special report, etc. your bio or author's box will already be written and ready to go.

Tuesday

Write three or four high value, high content articles. Whenever you need a bonus give-away, a joint venture contribution, or an online article, you'll be prepared. The articles can also be compiled into special reports or broken apart into an autoresponder series or online e-course. Several excellent, evergreen articles are a great addition to your marketing toolbox.

Wednesday

Perform a features and benefits analysis. Small business owners usually know the features of their product or service backwards and forwards. But they don't always relate these to benefits because, to someone who knows the product so well, the features are the benefits. By having an outline of your benefits prepared in advance, you'll be one step ahead when it's time to write your sales letters, craft your marketing message, update your website, etc.

Thursday

Develop and memorize your key marketing message. If a hot prospect, possible investor or media contact asks "What exactly do you do?" you definitely don't want to stumble over your words. Or worse yet, you don't want to ramble on and on leaving the prospect sorry he ever asked. You must be able to state clearly, in fifteen seconds or less, who you are, what problems you solve and who you solve them for. And you must be able to do it in your sleep!

Friday

Prepare a press release template. There are tons of free publicity opportunities out there for small business owners, but most entrepreneurs don't take advantage of them because they think it's too time consuming. By having your press release template prepared in advance, you'll be able to jump on those free publicity opportunities as soon s they present themselves. And don't forget to add your short bio to the end of press release.

Action Item

Pull out your calendar or day planner right now and block off one hour every day next week. Be prepared to devote this time to developing your marketing arsenal.

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." Vincent van Gogh