This is the last part of a three part series on creating a marketing campaign. Part one covered Defining your Marketing Goals, Objectives and Tactics. In the second part of the series, we covered Creating Your Marketing Calendar. Today we are going to talk about tracking, monitoring and measuring your marketing activities.

Tracking, Monitoring and Measuring your Marketing Activities

I am going to discuss how I will handle tracking, monitoring and measuring my marketing campaign. If you read the first post, you will recall that my goal is to begin selling informational marketing products. My plan is to increase blog readers and subscribers targeting people who need marketing help and are willing to handle the marketing themselves with guidance.

Here is a recap of the tactics I plan to use:

• Create a calendar of blog articles and post to my blog a minimum of three times a week.
• Write guest blog posts that my target audience reads
• Answer questions on LinkedIn and yahoo, and other sites where my audience is asking marketing questions
• Create a free product offer for people who sign up for my newsletter
• Create a press release publicizing my free product offer
• Submit articles to trade magazines that my target audience reads
• Use social networking sites to market my articles

My plan is to spend three months working to increase my readership base while I work on creating my informational products.

Where Do I Begin?

I will begin with looking at my starting point. At this point, I have 40 RSS subscribers, 75 email subscribers and roughly 2000 visitors a month to my blog. My goal is to increase each by 10% each month for a year.

What I will Track:

• I will use Google analytics to track my daily traffic to determine which types of posts draw the most readers.
• How many tweets each post receives and which are the most popular
• Guest post placed on other blogs. I will track comments and the increase in web traffic to my blog from each article. I will also track what type of articles received the most readers.
• Track submissions to trade magazines. The type of articles rejected and accepted and my increase in readers from the magazines articles produced.
• Track the open rates of my newsletter and what articles receive the most clicked.

What I will Monitor:

• Monitor blogs that my target audience reads to provide comments, answer questions and offer guest articles
• Monitor networking sites to offer advice to members posting marketing questions
• Use Google analytics to monitor where my website traffic is coming from
• Monitor my traffic patterns to find out what keywords readers who are using search engines use to find my site
• Monitor the increase in web traffic after issuing my press release for my free product offer
• My progress on creating my informational products

What I will Measure:

• The increase in my RSS subscribers, Email subscribers and overall increase in blog readership.
• I will compare each month to determine if I am meeting my 10% increase.

If I am looking for an 10% increase across the board, then at the end of month one I should have at lease: 44 RSS subscribers, 83 email subscribers and 2200 blog visitors. Month two: 49 RSS subscribers, 91 email subscribers and 2420 blog visitors.  Month three: 54 RSS subscibers, 100 email subscribers and 2662 blog visitors.

After monitoring for three months, I will look at which activities are helping me meet my goals of increases readership. I will focus heavenly on the activities and decrease or eliminate the activities that are not working.

Once my first set of informational products is releases I will begin tracking, monitoring and measuring my monthly sells. I will begin looking into offering the most popular products in a variety of forms for purchase. I will also begin looking into ways of marketing my products offline.

This process should not take any more than a couple of hours a week. By focusing on one marketing goal at a time, it allows for the creating of a simple and easy to implement marketing campaign. You can use your marketing calendar to help you or create a simple spreadsheet in excel to help track, monitor and measure your campaign success.

Have you created a marketing campaign?

How do you track, monitor and measure the effectiveness of your campaign?

Image provided by: Flickr Freely Licensed

In the first article we determined are marketing goals, objectives and tactics. In this article, we are going to create our marketing calendar.

If you read the first article, you know that my marketing goal is to sell informational marketing products. My strategy is to increase my blog readership and I listed ways I will go about increasing my blog readership. Ideally, the increase in my blog readership causes an increase in my newsletter subscribers.

In my past posts, I talked about determining who your ideal clients are and creating an ideal client profiles. If you have not done this already, please take the time to do so, it will help you understand and target your ideal prospects.

Creating Your Marketing Calendar

I am going to create my marketing calendar using the tactics that I decided I would use to increase my blog readership.

Here is a recap of the tactics I plan to use:

• Create a calendar of blog articles and post to my blog a minimum of three times a week.
• Write guest blog posts that my target audience reads
• Answer questions on LinkedIn and yahoo, and other sites where my audience is asking marketing questions
• Create a free product offer for people who sign up for my newsletter
• Create a press release publicizing my free product offer
• Submit articles to trade magazines that my target audience reads
• Use social networking sites to market my articles

I will break my one-year marketing calendar down into months and then weeks. I will begin my creating an editorial calendar for my blog. I use a blogging schedule provided by Charlie at Productive Flourishing. He did a great job of creating a document that is free and easy to use, so why reinvent the wheel.

I will research and read blogs that I believe my ideal prospects are reading and add comments when relevant. I will also send an email to the blog owner requesting to write a guest post for their blog. If the owner agrees to allow me to write a guest post, I will follow my post and respond to comments from readers.

I will spend one hour each morning answering questions on sites such as, LinkedIn and Yahoo.

I will create free informational products to offer to my readers when they sign up for my newsletter. I will create a new product quarterly, depending on how well a product is pulling prospects. If the product is, enticing readers to sign up I will continue to use the product as long as it is effective.

Every month I will query trade magazines on articles I believe will be of interest to their readers.

I will submit each blog post to social networking sites to increase my exposure.

Let’s begin creating our marketing calendars:

Let’s say I plan to begin implementing my marketing campaign in August.

I continue doing these activities every month and add others if the need arises.

This is a very simple way to create a marketing calendar. The calendar allows you to know what activities you should be partaking in each day, week and month.

Have you created a marketing calendar?

Do you have any suggestions?

Image provided by: Flickr Freely Licensed

Next post: Tracking, monitoring and measuring your marketing activities.

You know you need to market your business but you just don’t know where in the hell to begin. You have read dozens of books and articles on creating a marketing plan and all they did was overwhelm you and make you tired. You know there has to be an easier way to do this, but how?

I feel your pain. I have experienced this myself and have heard it from countless others. Do I really need to create a SWOT analysis? If I don’t create a 30 page-marketing document, does it mean my marketing will not be successful?

Of course not. Your marketing plan can be a simple as one page or as detailed as 30 pages. What’s important is that you create a plan that works for you and that you are willing to implement and enjoy the process of marketing your business.

Yes, I said it. Marketing can be enjoyable as long as you stick to doing the things that you enjoy.

So where in the hell do you begin?

Before you begin marketing your business, you need to understand what you are trying to achieve, whom you are trying to reach and how you will reach them.

We are going to look at three areas of your marketing plan to begin with.

Marketing Goals, Strategy and Tactics.

Step One:

Determine what your ultimate marketing goal is at this time.

Let’s use me as an example.

My goal is to create informational products for readers to buy.

Step Two:

Determine the strategy you will use to obtain your marketing goal.

My strategy is to increase readership to my blog. I am looking for readers who are looking for marketing help and are willing to do the marketing for themselves with guidance.

Step Three:

Determine the tactics you will use to meet your objective.

The tactics I will use are:

Create a calendar of blog articles and post to my blog a minimum of three times a week.

Write guest blog posts that my target audience reads

Answer questions on LinkedIn and yahoo, and other sites where my audience is asking marketing questions

Create a free product offer for people who sign up for my newsletter

Create a press release publicizing my free product offer

Submit articles to trade magazines that my target audience reads

Use social networking sites to market my articles

Here are some more examples:

Author:

Goal: To sell their newly released book

Strategy: Gain awareness so that readers will know that my book is available.

Tactics: Create a press release offering a free chapter

Obtain interviews on televisions, radio and blogs

Create a facebook fan page

Create a blog

Write articles on writing blogs

Get book reviews in newspapers and blogs

Financial Planner:

Goal: Add 15 new clients over the next year who are saving for retirement and college for their children

Strategy: Gain awareness for my business among my targeted audience

Tactics: Get quoted in financial newspapers, magazines and blogs that my target audience reads

Create information reports on investing (Stocks, Bonds, etc.)

Create tips sheets on How to choose a financial advisor, Understanding the financial advisor/client relationship, Understanding 529 college savings plans

Send press releases offering free tip sheets and reports

Getting interviewed on television, radio and blogs

Join forums and answer financial questions

Can It really be that easy?

It’s really that damn easy. You now have the beginnings of a marketing plan.

The best thing to do is keep your marketing plan simple and focused. You may want to achieve many things at this time. The best thing to do is to focus on what’s more important and begin there.

Next Post: Creating a Marketing Calendar

Have you created a marketing plan for your business?

If so, are you on target with your marketing goals?

If not, What are you waiting for?

Image provide by:  Mark Smiciklas via Flickr

The television show “The Biggest Loser” is one of the most watched television shows every season and viewership continues to grow. It is exciting to watch people overcome the obstacle of losing weight, especially in a country with a growing obesity problem. It is great fun watching the contestants lose weight and the amazing possibilities available if you have the time and dedication. Not only does the “The Biggest Loser” offers very valuable weight loss lessons but it also offers valuable marketing lessons for the small business owner.

Goals – The contestants have a goal when they begin the program. Many know exactly how much they want to lose or what results they, whether to wear a certain size or have a certain look.

The same should hold true for your marketing program. You should know what you want as the result of your marketing program. Whether to gain a certain amount of clients, increase in sales volume, company awareness, etc. You should have a good idea of what the end game should look like.

Understanding – The contestants gain an understanding of what successful lose weight takes. They learn good nutrition and exercise habits and what works for their bodies.

Small business owners need to understand what marketing communications is all about. What goes into a marketing communications plan, reasonable expectations, time and monetary commitments, what they can do on their own and when they need to hire outside help.

Reduction – The contestants learn to reduce their eating to increase their chances of weight loss success.

Small business owners need to look at their current marketing program and cut what is not working or not enjoyable from their marketing activities.

Focus – The contestants learn to focus the goal of losing weight, exercising and maintaining a healthy lifestyle once they leave the ranch. Contestants track their success weekly when they go for the weekly weigh in and elimination round.

Small business owners need to focus on the marketing activities that are bringing them results. Successful marketing means setting aside time each day to market their business and tracking their marketing success.

Determination – The contestants do not let one week’s set back derail their weight loss determination. If they have not achieved their target goal at the weekly weigh in, they become even more determined to meet their goal the next week. They never give up.

Small business owners must have the same determination to obtain success from their marketing program. They must keep the larger goal in mind and work harder when falling below their expectations. Marketing successfully means not putting off your marketing activities, having clear goals, determination to succeed and the ability hang in there when things look slow or non-existent.

Elimination – The contestants have a fear of being below the yellow line on the weekly weigh in and elimination. Their goal each week is stay above the yellow line, which in turn causes them to work hard and remain focused.

Small business owners should have a similar fear, one that makes them work hard to succeed yet not paralyze them into non-action. Fears that keep you motivated to be successfully self-employed.

Support – The Contestants support one another even though they are competitors, they are also teammates. They motivate one another, collaborate and form friendships.

Small business owners especially soloprenuers need to develop support systems to help them manage through the rough stages and lonely times of running a business. A good support system of family, friends, and business colleagues is invaluable.

Change – The contestants learn that successful weigh loss is a life style change. Once they leave the ranch, they cannot go back to their old lifestyle and maintain their weight loss.

Small business owners must understand that marketing is also a lifestyle change. A change in the way they run their business. Marketing must be something done every day, not just when business is slow. A continuous marketing program will help keep the slow times few and far between.

Do you have any additional tips that can be learned from “The Biggest Loser” and marketing?

The climate for marketing a business has changed.

In the past businesses shouted at customers and bombarded them with the message to convince prospects to do business with them. Prospects begin to tune out marketing messages and marketers became louder and sometimes ruder. Things have changed. Prospects have greater control over the marketing messages that they receive and expect more from marketing then shouting at them “We are the best, buy our products or services.” We are in the age of the customer saying, “Yeah, well prove it to me.” If the marketer cannot prove their claims, prospects quickly click to the next website until they find what they are looking for.

What does this mean for marketers and business providers?

The future of marketing for businesses means that building a strong brand and creating brand awareness if more important than ever. You are in a global market place whether you run a corner store or an internet store. You are competing with competitors from around the world, not just down the street or around the corner.

Where businesses need to focus their marketing efforts is on building brands and awareness before they can concentrate on making sales. Marketing has become about building relationships of trust with prospects and building strong loyal relationship with current clients. Building a relationship with prospects and clients is about getting to know them just as if you would get to know a friend. It is truly understanding that it is about them and their needs and understanding that they know it is all about them. Whether you realize it, prospects know it all about them and they want you know that they know it. They want you prove that you know it and show how you are willing to cater to their needs. They are no longer willing to purchase cookie cutter services, they want solutions tailor made to satisfy their needs. They know that if you cannot provide what they need, the next vendor is just a click away.

How do you reach potential prospects and keep in touch with current clients?

Prospects expect you to be where they are. Why should I have to search you out, be there when I show up is what prospects are saying. They don’t want you trying to sell to them when they don’t even know who you are. They are asking, why should I buy from you? Why are you the better choice for me then the next business?

So, how do marketers and businesses go about reaching prospects?

• Get involved in social media. Social media is about interacting with prospects and sharing information. According to SocialTwist’s Social Media Sharing Trends 2009 Report the top the top channels of sharing include, email, instant messenger, social networking sites. How are prospects sharing information about things that are important to them and telling people, they know about your business.
  • Analysis shows that the most popular channel for sharing content is email. Nearly 60 per cent use email to share content. However, fewer people like to manually type in email addresses. Just about 10 per cent of email shares had people typing email addresses. Instant Messaging with 25% of total sharing was the next preferred medium followed by Social Networks with 14 percent.
  • Of all the email services used, Yahoo Mail with 44 percent is the most used for sharing followed by MSN Mail with 25 percent. Gmail enjoys only third place with 19 percent.
  • Yahoo Messenger is the most popular IM service among all others when it comes to sharing – it enjoys 49 percent of the total number of shares. MSN Messenger follows with 34 percent of shares. Here too Google comes at the third position with 15 percent of shares.
  • When it comes to social networking sites Facebook is the clear winner with a whopping 79 percent people using it to share with their family, friends and acquaintances. MySpace follows with 15 percent of shares. Twitter enjoys a meager 5 percent of shares.
  • Bookmarking sites seem to be losing out as a preferred channel for sharing when compared with other social media channels. In this space, Digg stands out as the most popular bookmarking site followed by Google Bookmarks and Delicious with 11 percent and 12 percent respectively.
  • When it comes to blogging services, WordPress with 45 percent and Blogger with 42 percent are the most popular platforms for social media content sharing. The surprise element in this space is Typepad, which is never used.

Marketers and businesses are using these social media areas to build brands, create buzz and increase awareness of their businesses. Are you showing up in these places?

Social media cannot be ignored, whether you run an internet business, brick and mortar business or a combination of both. Marketers and businesses will have to invest in building their brand awareness, educating prospects and proving that they are the obvious choice for prospects to do business.

Businesses have to understand whom their ideal client is and where their ideal clients like to hang out. They need to know what their ideal client’s current problems are and how they like to be reached and educated. Businesses and marketers have to be prepared to provide relevant, informative information to prospects in a variety of forms. This is truly multi-channel marketing. Marketing messages need to be provided in a variety of formats, such as; website, blogs, audio, video, articles, reports, white papers just to name a few. Marketing is not something that cannot be implemented haphazardly; marketing must be planned and consistently implemented over a long-term period.

Creating a short-term, one hit marketing plan will no longer suffice. Prospects are taking their time making their buying decisions and businesses need to be there every step of the way if they want to be the vendor of choice.

Darin who wants to promote the exhibit opening of a local up and coming artists. He is beginning planning for months before the exhibit is to open.

He had a limited marketing budget and decided to hire a consultant and to create a plan for to Darren and his small staff to implement.

The art gallery had a home address list of over 350 names and an e-mail address list of over 600 names.

We began by sending a letter and e-mail to his full list removed invalid home and email addresses. The letters mailed to all the homes asked the recipients to sign up for the gallery’s e-Newsletter and offered a specially designed computer background designed by the local artists. Email recipients will also offer to sign up for the newsletter, the e-mail contains a link to send the offer to friends.

The second month the marketing newsletter mailed to subscribers highlighted the green works theme, giving history stories, auction data and hinting at the upcoming event and artists.

The gala theme created centered going green. Gift bag items were selected, ordered, packaged for 150 gift bags.

The third month the newsletter featured the artists exhibited and partial details of the event, and distribution of press releases of the event to the local media.

The forth month the newsletter featured the upcoming events with details. The first 150 guests received a gift bag. Everyone wearing something green could enter into a drawing for a gift created by the featured artists.

68% of the home recipients signed up for the e-newsletter. 82% of the e-mail recipients signed up for the e-newsletter. The newsletter grew 17% from subscribers sending links too friends.

The goal for the event was 150 to 200 people attending the opening night gala. 383 people attended the event with 80% wearing a something green.

29% of attendees purchased artwork at the event, selling over $44,000 in art on the event’s opening night.