The hard truths about marketing your business WITHOUT having a marketing plan

Are you responsible for marketing your business? Are you marketing your business without a business plan? If so, this blog post is for you!

All too often I talk to business owners who don’t want to spend the time planning their marketing in advance. Instead they want to jump straight in and just ‘get on’ with marketing their business. And whilst a few business owners manage to get away with that approach, the majority pay the price.  I don’t want you to pay the price. I want you to successfully market your business and reap all of the rewards. So keep on reading to find out the hard truths about marketing your business WITHOUT having a marketing plan.

 

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THE HARD TRUTHS ABOUT MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS WITHOUT HAVING A MARKETING PLAN

 

You waste time 

As a business owner your time is your most precious resource. In fact, the number one reason business owners say they can’t make a marketing plan is because they don’t have time. But if you are marketing your business without a marketing plan then I can guarantee that you are wasting time.

 

Firstly, when you have a marketing plan you have a clear idea of what you need to do to market your business and when. This means you know exactly what to focus on. There is wasting time because you are sitting at your desk thinking ‘I need to market my business. What should I do today?’. Instead, you’ll know exactly what you need to be doing so you can just get on with it.

 

Secondly, if your marketing involves creating a lot of content (for example, if you use email marketing, social media marketing or content marketing) then knowing in advance what you need to be doing over the next week, fortnight or even month will enable you to save even more time by batch creating your content.

 

Find out more about how to save time by batching your marketing content.

 

 

You can waste money 

Running adverts without a marketing plan =  wasting money!

Paying a VA (to help with your marketing when you don’t have a marketing plan = wasting money!

 

I know this might seem harsh, but it is the truth. If you are spending money to market your business then you need to be keeping a close eye on your return-on-investment (ROI). You need to understand how much money your investment is making and without a marketing plan that is going to be hard to do. Yes you might be able to see your cost per acquisition on your ads, but a marketing plan would tell you what you are aiming for so you can understand if that number is good or bad. And if you are paying a VA to help you with marketing then you need a plan so you can identify what aspects they are responsible for and ensure they are being as productive as possible.

 

 

Maybe you aren’t currently spending any money on your marketing. You’re just investing your time so you don’t think you can be wasting money. Well you might not be wasting money, but you are limiting the money you can make in your business. Every hour you are spending marketing your business is an hour taken away from being able to work and get paid. So the more time you spend ineffectively marketing your business the more money you are wasting.

 

WANT TO GET A MARKETING PLAN CREATED FOR YOUR BUSINESS? I help solo coaches, consultants and online service providers to create marketing strategies and plans that are easy to follow, can be managed by one person and that get results.  As a Chartered Marketer with over a decade of professional marketing experience I eat, sleep and breathe marketing plans. That means you don’t have to wait ages. In fact, if you book a Strategy Day you could have a personalised marketing plan in place by next week!    To check if a Strategy Day would be right for your business, book a free, non-obligation, introduction call here.

You’ll attract the wrong type of client

Without a marketing plan it is easy, especially with social media, to create off-brand content and off-brand content attracts the wrong type of client. One of the major benefits of marketing is attracting clients. Someone sees your marketing, they want to work with you and they get in touch. As a business owner it’s exciting when you get a new enquiry from a potential client, but you don’t just want anyone enquiring you want the right type of person enquiry. Without a marketing plan you’re more likely to attract the wrong type of client and then you have to make the difficult decision to turn then away or, even worse, work with them.

 

Find out more about the dangers of working with non-ideal clients here.

 

Your marketing will be inconsistent

If you are marketing your business in different ways then it is important that you are consistent. Potential clients expect a consistent experience whether they are on your website, reading your newsletter, watching a video or hearing you speak on stage. They expect a seamless brand experience. As you add in more ways to market your business it becomes increasingly important that you are considering how your marketing is working together and without a marketing plan that can be difficult, especially if you start to outsource any parts of your marketing.

 

You won’t make enough sales

If you are relying on marketing to attract clients and you don’t have a marketing plan then you are putting yourself in a very dangerous position. To successfully attract clients via marketing you need to ensure that your messaging, channels and content all work seamlessly together. That doesn’t not happen by accident and without a marketing plan you are basically winging it. Now I’m not saying you won’t make any sales, but they’ll be inconsistent at best.

 

You’ll struggle to properly measure the performance of your marketing

A good marketing plan will include clear goals and outline the KPIs (or metrics) you need to mentor to measure how your marketing is performing in relation to the goal.

 

Without having a marketing plan it is easy to have no idea what you should be measuring and if you aren’t measuring your marketing then it can easily be underperforming.

 

Now you might say that you are just monitoring sales and that will prove how good your marketing is working, but it doesn’t really. For example, if you sell services via discovery calls then it could be that your marketing is great and getting people onto calls with you, but you are bad on calls and people aren’t converting. That means you have a sales problem, not a marketing problem and by monitoring stats such as number of people who visit the book a call page, number of people who book a call, number of people who attend a call and number of people who convert you’d know that.

 

You’ll get distracted by shiny objects

 

One of the beautiful things about having a marketing plan to follow is that you know what marketing channels and platforms you are going to use to market your business. These channels will have all been chosen based on your strategy and careful consideration of what makes sense for you, your business and your ideal client (Read more about choosing the right marketing channels for your business here ). This helps stop you getting distracted by shiny objects. Whether it be a new social media platform popping up or a marketing expert raving about a certain marketing strategy or tactic the fact is there will always be another way to market your business. Without a plan in place it is easy to firstly, spend too much time considering whether you should try X or Y out, and secondly, you can end up trying the new shiny object out and wasting your time, energy and money.

 

When you have a marketing plan to follow you can rest assured that you’ve made informed decisions and for the foreseeable that is where you are going to focus your attention.

 

That’s it! You know now the hard truths about marketing your business WITHOUT a marketing plan.

 

To create a marketing plan does require you to take some time out of the busy day-to-day running of your company but hopefully after seeing what can happen when you market your business without a marketing plan you can see why it is worth taking the time and making the effort to have a marketing plan for your business.

 

Let me know in the comments whether after reading this blog post you want to create a marketing plan for your business.

 

WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR MARKETING AND BUILD A BUSINESS YOU LOVE? I know for most business owners marketing is just a necessary evil. It is something that has to be done in order to build the business they dream of. The fact is without good marketing your business growth will suffer, which is why I offer a range of 1:1 services for solo coaches, consultants and online service providers.  Whether you want to upskill in specific marketing area, have a bespoke strategy created for you or have ongoing support I can help you.. You can check out all of my current services here.  You can book a free, no-obligation, introduction call to discuss your precise needs here.