Remember the childhood game, Pin The Tail on the Donkey? You would be blindfolded, spun around three times, and a paper donkey tail would be put in your hand. Your job was to “find the donkey” and attach the tail to it, without raising the blindfold. Lots of fun!
(When you were 6 years old. Not so much today.)
In business and marketing, working blindfolded is a curse. And you’ve no one to blame but yourself. If you don’t have a business plan or a marketing plan, you haven’t answered the foundational questions, especially the ones that go like this:
- Who is my ideal client?
- Who is my target audience?
- How can my audience be divided into segments?
- Where can I find them?
If you feel like you’re running around in circles with your marketing, it’s because you ARE! Your prospects aren’t moving…but you can’t find them because you can’t see them. Pin the tail on the prospect.
Please don’t tell me that you have these marketing plans “all in your head.” Have you ever actually seen a business plan or marketing plan? These are sophisticated documents that takes several hours (sometimes several days) to really think through. It’s not something you keep in your head. Write it down.
And update it at least once a year. Times change, your customers’ needs and challenges change, technology changes. You’d better keep up or you’ll be left out.
If you do not have an up-to-date business plan and marketing plan, STOP marketing and get thee to thy writing desk! Learn how to write a business plan, and what belongs in a marketing plan. These are strategic documents that you can’t afford to be without.
You are capable of taking off your own blindfold. Make a commitment today to doing the homework necessary to building your business by building your foundation. It’s not as hard as you fear, but it takes a bit of thinking and pondering, and a little research. You’ll have a happier (and more prosperous) business once you get these documents under your belt.
Read the complete Why Marketing Fails blog series here:
- Why Marketing Fails: Introduction
- Why Marketing Fails #1: Market Research
- Why Marketing Fails #2: Follow-the-Herd Marketing
- Why Marketing Fails #3: No Follow-Up
- Why Marketing Fails #4: Blindfold Marketing
- Why Marketing Fails #5: Niche Exhaustion
- Why Marketing Fails #6: Lack of Repetition
- Why Marketing Fails #7: Not Tracking Success and Failure
Why Marketing Fails #2: Follow-the-Herd Marketing
Great advice for any business! A well-written marketing plan should consist of online as well as offline strategies.
Social media is a great place to find your target market! Whether it’s monitoring twitter, google blog searches or whatever your weapon of choice, find out where your clients hang out online and be social with them!
Thought provoking post, Karen!
It wouldn’t be very wise to start preparing a brand new dish and not have the recipe in front of you, right? How would you know what ingredients you need, what temperature to set the oven, or even where to begin?
The same holds true of a business and marketing plan. Without a plan … you’re toast!
Your expert advice will help everyone to “pin the tail on the prospect”.
It’s time to SHINE in 2009,
~Melanie