By Caterina Rando, MA, MCC

Marketing: how you attract clients and promote your business is an important part of your recipe for success and profitability. Developing a strategic marketing plan will ensure your success and allow you to not spend time and money in the wrong places.

Don't hit the pavement or the floors until you have taken the time to do some thinking and planning for the next 12 months. The clarity and focus that results from creating a strong strategic marketing plan will bring you what you are looking for with more ease and more certainty.

Use these marketing principles when creating a plan to ensure you will be in an even stronger place this time next year. These marketing principals will allow you to make your mark.

Do an Assessment

Before you jump into this new business climate access your marketing efforts from last year. Review all your expenses from last year. Evaluate if you have more or less to spend this year and review the success or failure of each of your expenses and efforts individually. Once you have done that identify where you can improve on last years efforts and then incorporate those changes into your strategic marketing plan for the coming year.

In the subsequent months throughout the year take time at the end of each month and quarter to assess your efforts and make midcourse corrections where necessary to incorporate what you have learned along the way.

Establish Objectives

Create business objectives for the coming year. Your strategic marketing efforts will serve you best if they do more for your business than simply turn a profit. Consider including these important objectives

• Establishing yourself or your company an expert or leader in the industry you serve.
• Retain your current client base while gaining additional business from them.
• Increase new prospect referrals from current clients and your sphere of influence.

Market Only to Your Niche

Unless everyone on the planet is a potential client you must limit your marketing efforts to be effective. Decide who your ideal client is and focus your marketing efforts on that potential client population. Ask yourself; Who are they? Where are they? What are they interested or involved in? For example if your ideal client is a homeowner in northern California figure out how you can make contact with them, not with everyone in town.

Use a Multifaceted Approach

Your strategic marketing plan must be multifaceted, making only phone calls, only sending out direct mail or only getting out there and meeting people will not make it easy for you to achieve your goals. Use several different kinds of marketing efforts to fill your objectives. A multifaceted strategic marketing approach may include: advertising, networking, phone contact, internet marketing, electronic marketing, direct mail, hosting events, sponsorships, cross promotional marketing, strategic alliances, mass media coverage, placing articles, delivering presentations, special offers, a referral program and possibly a whole lot more.

Be Consistent

One of the biggest reasons marketing efforts do not work is that they are not consistent and do not attempt to produce results over time. In many cases a decision-maker will need up to 11 interactions with a product or service company before making a purchase. Do not give up on the first, second or third try, use a variety of methods over time to cultivate a relationship, build trust and educate your potential customer.

Once your marketing plan is complete, create a marketing calendar for the year.

Sit down and decide when every small and large action needs to take place. Your marketing efforts will go smoother and will be more effective.

Remember that your efforts have to be frequent. Until a prospect is warm contact them a minimum of once a month. Once they are warm contact them once a week. If they are a hot prospect, meaning they have expressed interest in making a purchase in the near future every other day might be advisable. At the same time remember even though a prospect has expressed interest in purchasing they may not be ready to buy when it is convenient for you.

In these cases be consistent and frequent and remember do not take it personally when prospects do not return your phone calls or respond immediately to your emails. You and your product or service are probably not their top priority it does not mean they are not interested.

Use Adaptation Marketing

Take one marketing effort and adapt it into several to save time and resources.

For example a mailing, is adapted into an article, which is adapted into an electronic newsletter, which is adapted into a speech, which is adapted into a booklet for your customers and prospects.

Each effort can equal several. Every time you do something ask yourself what else this can be used for.

These marketing principals will make a huge difference in the success of your business if you use them consistently throughout the year. Apply these ideas and watch your business grow stronger and more profitable each month. There is one more principal key to your success, perhaps the most important: Begin Today! Caterina Rando, MA, MCC is a professional business success coach, speaker and writer. She works with individuals and companies to create clarity, find focus and achieve the results they want.

Her customized presentation topics include: Make Your Connections Count, Creating Clients and Contacts- Relationships First Results Second, Communicating Powerfully and Effectively to Get What You Want, Speed Up Your Success Through Authentic Public Speaking, Success Stamina - Staying Motivated to Stay Successful.

Caterina Rando, MA, MCC, is author of "Learn to Power Think," a keynote speaker, success coach and trainer. She helps people invigorate their professional and personal lives and create the results they want. To find out about her book and other resources, visit www.caterinar.com. Caterina can be reached at 415-668-4535 or by email at cpr@caterinar.com

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Find out about the Make Your Mark Special Report

Find out about the Make Your Mark Special Report