- A Note from Tracey:  Flowers & forgotten marketing strategies!

- Feature Article:  4 Simple Steps for Creating Your Strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP)

- Tracey Recommends: Planning & Strategizing Private Virtual Retreats

- What's Tracey Up To?

Hello!

I had a lovely surpise on Wednesday - these flowers were delivered. They were a gift from one of my wonderful clients; they're beautiful!

Sometimes we're so busy in our businesses that we forget to take stock of all the technologies that are available to us to help us get our messages out there.

This week I've been busy utilizing two marketing strategies that I've not used in a long time ... and I can't believe I'd forgotten them!

They're the Tell-A-Friend software and using audio notes in place of sending out a written broadcast.

Next time you're planning a promotion of some kind, whether it's free or paid, small or large, stop and ask yourself if there's something different you could do to shake things up a bit.

Do you know what route to take in your business?

Your Marketing Action Plan, or MAP as I like to call it, is at the heart of your business. It lays out exactly what you're going to be doing, when you're going to be doing it, and how you're going to be doing it.

It should be a document that you constantly refer to and update as necessary, and having a MAP in place takes out a lot of the guesswork when it comes to running your business.

In today's article I share with you some basic steps for getting your MAP in place.

To your office organization success!

Tracey Lawton

P.S. Welcome new subscribers!  You've joined our fast-growing community of solopreneurs who want to create office organization success.  You've taken the first step in systemizing, streamlining, and automating your business, and you're going to love the simple how-to articles I share with you twice a month.

Tracey's Planning & Strategizing Private Virtual Retreat ... registration open

How would you like customized one-on-one support to get going with your particular stuck point, whether that's creating your first info product, publishing your ezine, or implementing a list building plan?

If so, I invite you to a Planning & Strategizing Private Virtual Retreat with me where together we will work to turn your specific project into a reality.

Private Virtual Retreats are available in half-day or one-day formats, and whichever option we decide upon rest-assured we'll be rolling up our sleeves, getting stuck in, and getting your project done!

Click Here for all the details!

30 Days to List Building Success gave me the close attention and practical information I had been looking for to significantly grow my lists in a short time.

Before joining the 30 Days to List Building Success program, I had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t doing all I could to let more people know about my products and services.

Tracey showed me easy to follow systems and great resources that have made that nagging feeling a thing of the past.

She is a very caring and responsive teacher and I especially appreciated how much time she gave her students, to ensure all their concerns were addressed right away.

That is something that hasn’t happened on other programs I’ve tried in the past.

Not only have my lists grown steadily over the course of this program (some have even tripled), I now have a clear list building system organized into my calendar, so at any given moment I know exactly what I need to do to keep the momentum going.

I highly recommend this course to anyone looking to do all they can to grow their lists.

Barbara Wayman, APR
President, BlueTree Media, LLC
Dublin, Ohio
www.bluetreemedia.com

Prefer to listen to this week's article?
Click Here...

4 Simple Steps for Creating Your Strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP)
by Tracey Lawton, Online Business Development Strategist

Your strategic Marketing Action Plan (MAP) is a document that is used to plan your day-to-day marketing activities/strategies for running your online business; in other words it’s your MAP to online business management success. And just like a real map, your MAP tells you exactly how to get from point A to point B and the route you need to take in order to get there.

When you have your MAP in place it eliminates the guess work - you always know what you’re doing, when you’re doing it, and how you’re going to implement the strategies. 

Creating a Marketing Action Plan can seem very daunting if you’ve not done this kind of detailed planning before; it can be difficult to know where to start.  My favorite tool for creating my strategic MAP is a spreadsheet because of the row/column formatting that spreadsheets use.

Today I’d like to make that process easy for you and share with you my insider secrets so that you can create your own MAP.

1.  Heart of your business – your MAP is not a document that you create, look at once, and then set aside to review in a year’s time.  Like a real map you continually refer to (typically on a weekly basis) so that you know you're going in the right direction. And if you do sway off course a little, maybe for a pit stop along the way, you can easily update it as necessary. 

Your MAP will provide you with your 'Big Picture' route for the year.  You’ll want to keep it handy so that you can refer to it often, whether you print it out and keep it on your desk, or have easy access to it on your PC.

2.  Chunk it down – the easiest and simplest way for you to manage your MAP is to break it down into doable action steps, so that you don't feel overwhelmed by feeling you have to plan out your entire route in one go. You're going on a journey and as such there might be detours along the way. I highly advise you to chunk down your MAP, first into quarters, then into months, and then into weeks.

3.  See any overlaps/conflicts – as you’ve been planning out your marketing activities for the upcoming year, having it all together in one place will allow you to see any overlaps or conflicts in your plan.  Similarly it will also allow you to see any gaps too.

4.  Automatically creates your weekly/monthly To Do list – this is one of my favorite aspects of creating my MAP because when I chunk everything down into quarters/months/weeks I find that I create my weekly action list.  And it’s so much easier to be able to just focus on that week’s action steps and so implement them.

Some points to remember as you’re putting together your marketing plan:

• Seeding in ezine/networks – as soon as you’re clear on what programs/products/services you’re going to be offering and when, start mentioning them in your newsletter and to your social networks.  You don’t need to give a whole lot of detail - simply say that you’re working on something new, or an exciting project etc.  and this will start to create interest in your offerings.
• Marketing – plan out when you’re going to be opening registrations and when you’re going to be running promotions.  This is important so that you don’t have any overlaps in your promotions/activities.
• Delivering – also plan out when you’re going to be delivering your programs too, again to avoid any overlaps/conflicts in your promotions and activities.
• Team Members – know which team members you’re going to need support from to help you implement your goals, i.e. virtual assistant, graphic designer, web designer etc.  You may need to contact them several weeks in advance so plan this in too.
• Dates – and finally it’s important to include all dates in your Marketing Action Plan so that nothing gets missed out.

As my financial adviser reminded me just last week, you're running a marathon not a sprint, and the same is true for your business also. Follow these simple steps for creating your strategic Marketing Action Plan and you’ll soon find yourself on track for achieving your business goals.

Before you can create your MAP though you need to have your foundational business management systems in place. The Easy Office Organization Home-Study Program will show you, step-by-step, exactly how to create those core systems.  The program includes everything you need to know to get your core office organization and online marketing systems in place; no matter if you’re just starting out or have been in business for a while.  I've included everything for you:  7 worksheets to get you going; 18 templates so that you can set everything up quickly and easily; plus there are tons of scripts, examples, mind maps, checklists, and resources that are handed to you, week after week for a full 26 weeks.  And it’s laid out in a very simple way: do lesson one of the program, and when you’re done with that, move on to lesson two etc.  It’s so simple, and yet makes a huge impact on the long-term success of your solo service business.  You can read the success stories and become a member at www.EasyOfficeOrganization.com.  (Why struggle with running your online business when you can create easy office organization?)

WANT TO READ MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?

Visit Tracey's Article Library

© 2009 Tracey Lawton

WANT TO REPRINT THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE? You may, as long as it remains intact and you include this complete blurb with it:

Online Business Development Strategist, Tracey Lawton, teaches professional speakers, coaches, and authors how to create the essential online marketing and office organization systems needed to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable online business. Learn how YOU can create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com

>> March-April 2010