Walt Disney’s 8 Secrets To Success

Walt Disney has always been a hero of mine.  I keep a small statue of Mickey Mouse on my desktop to remind me of his tenacity – and his ability to develop brands that are relevant to us all.   I admire Disney not just because of his creative genius, or his eventual success in amassing a great fortune, but simply because of his understanding of how to maintain a brand that deeply connects with his market.  His life story is rich with business lessons that are more true today, than in his own time.  When I ran across this article on BusinessBrief.com, I thought it worth sharing with you as a whole:

Walt Disney was an innovator and a visionary. But he was also one of the most successful business leaders of his time. Here are eight principles that made Walt Disney one of the greatest icons of the 20th century:

1. Provide a promise, not a product: The legend goes that Walt Disney was sitting on a bench watching his daughters ride a carousel when he came up with the concept for Disney World. He noticed amusement parks and state fairs were always littered and poorly organized, and the employees were generally rude and resentful.
   His wife once asked, “Why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.” To which Walt replied, “That’s the point. Mine won’t be.” From day one, Disney has focused on “the experience” as a key component to increasing the value of its parks.
2. Always exceed customers’ expectations: One of the reasons the Disney tradition stands the test of time is that Walt Disney was more critical of his creations than anyone else could ever possibly be. He was a relentless perfectionist with a keen eye for detail, often forcing projects to go over budget and past deadline because he wasn’t satisfied with the finished product.
3. Pursue your passion, and the money will follow: Walt Disney went bankrupt more than once, leveraging everything he had in terms of assets in order to build his studio, his films and his dreams. The more profit one project yielded, the bigger the next would be. His vision was constantly growing, and he used whatever capital he had to allow that vision to evolve. His films and theme parks were labors of love, built to revolutionize an industry, rather than maximize profits.
4. Stay true to your company’s mission and values: Walt Disney was famous for saying, “I hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”
   Decades later, Mickey Mouse is still the crown jewel of the Disney franchise, representing all the good will and imagination Disney represents. He’s also a constant reminder that the company has strong roots and it embraces American values.
5. Differentiate your offer: Every facet of Disney’s operation is unique. Employees are called “associates,” visitors are called “guests,” creative designers are called “Imagineers.” And that’s just the beginning. The experience of being at a Disney theme park or staying at a Disney resort is all about creating a dream vacation – one where the attention to detail and personal service is just as memorable as the attractions themselves.
6. Lead by example and delegate: Walt Disney was the artist who originally sketched Mickey Mouse, as well as several of the other iconic Disney characters. He even voiced several characters and provided the inspiration for a lot Disney’s animated classics. But as he built a studio and then an empire, he hired reliable men and women who understood his vision and trusted them to translate that vision to others. By the time Walt broke ground on Disney World, he hadn’t drawn a character for decades, nor was he a daily fixture at creative meetings. He built a strong foundation and developed self-reliant managers who embraced his vision. That allowed him to turn his attention to even bigger dreams, while the company and its employees continued to prosper.
7. Defy convention: So much about Walt Disney’s rise was about bucking the odds and ignoring the critics, whether it was show biz insiders telling him no one would ever sit still for a feature-length animated film, or others saying Walt was crazy for buying acres and acres of murky swampland in central Florida, Disney always trusted his instincts first. Einstein once said, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Walt Disney was a perfect example.
8. Leave behind something to grow: According to one historian, “The true measure of a man’s greatness is what he’s left behind to grow.” Disney World didn’t even open its gates until nearly a year after Walt Disney’s death. And yet, the tradition continues to evolve, almost 45 years later. While Disney has diversified in a number of ways, it’s still the company that started with a mouse. Perhaps Walt himself put it best: “Disney Land is something that will never be finished, something I can keep ‘plussing’ and adding to. I just finished a live-action picture. It’s gone. I can’t touch it. I want something live, something that will grow. The park is that.”

Do these business principles still resonate for you today?

Nevada Interactive Media Summit

A friendly reminder to our readers that proposal submissions to the March 6th Nevada Interactive Media Summit 2010 come to a close soon – February 8th!

“Founded over beers at the Imperial Bar & Lounge in Reno, Nevada sometime during September of 2008, Nevada Interactive Media seeks to foster a community of innovation in the realm of new media and technology that supports professional and intellectual exchange.

Nevada Interact will bring together business owners, non-profit advocates, publishers, newsmakers, bloggers, podcasters, filmmakers, media, PR and advertising professionals and anyone else interested in interactive media from every corner of Nevada together for hands-on learning, rich discussions, opportunities to meet with local companies working in interactive media and plentiful networking opportunities. Presenters will receive a special registration code so that they can attend the event for free. Those who have submitted a proposal should not register for the event until they here on the status of their proposal.

When: Saturday, March 6th, 9:00am to 5:00pm @ Joe Crowley Student Union on UNR’s Campus.”

For just $25, you’ll be able to attend and connect with our region’s best and brightest – PLUS catch the Keynote by Erin Kotecki Vest is Political Director and Producer of Special Projects for BlogHer, Inc. In that capacity, Erin spearheads BlogHer’s initiative to connect community members directly to legislators and policy-makers. Recent successes have included landing an in-person briefing on women online with Senior Advisor to President Obama, Valerie Jarrett, an exclusive on-camera interview with then-candidate Obama, a series of live, interactive conference calls about health care between Congresspeople from both sides of the aisle and BlogHer’s omni-partisan community members, and an exclusive webcast with Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about health care reform. Prior to joining BlogHer, Erin spent ten years as a broadcast journalist in Los Angeles, Orlando and Detroit winning six Golden Mic Awards with LA news institution KFWB. She Continues to blog on her personal site Queen of Spain Blog, and can be found tweeting both for @BlogHer and as @queenofspain

If you’re in northern Nevada…and you’re part of interactive marketing, this is an event you shouldn’t miss.

SmartBrand Launches theEXCHANGE February 17th

It all began in 2009 with a series of unstructured conference calls for our eco-networking group, Project ecoBrand.

We’d host monthly chats with members of that community as a means to have them connect with one another, while learning more about their companies and developments. The telephone conference events were well received, and many made business connections that carried them far beyond the simple phone networking we conducted.

As our firm became increasingly busier, the opportunities to develop additional meetings became less frequent – and the telephonic networking events came to a slow halt over the course of the summer.  The idea, however, was still in our minds.

At the end of 2009, we went into our annual planning session for the new year, and the idea of hosting online networking sessions came again from our team at SmartBrand.  As we often do, the plans were germinated online in our collaborative management system Basecamp.  Each member stepped up to take on a portion of the task – Michael Clawson developing the logo designs to choose from, with Patty Clawson working with the strategy team to position the product and develop the name.

Each of us had a role in how we might best launch a new series – what the topics might be throughout the year, and working toward a common goal of providing our network with a new opportunity to help develop their businesses.

And so we launch theExchange on February 17th…a networking opportunity created by the diverse and talented team of working professionals at SmartBrand, who were interested in presenting a small group platform to share ideas and discuss the strategies that matter most.

This month, we’ll feature our Affiliate and Sales Coach Alice Heiman as she’ll present a short overview on “Networking Your Way To New Business”.  Alice normally charges a substantial fee for similar webinars, and so we are very lucky to have her presenting with our team to a new audience for free.

And so, in future months, you can expect theEXCHANGE to bring you:

• Featured monthly Guest Speakers

• Live Q & A

• Interesting Commentary

• Advise and Antidotes

• Valuable information on marketing, advertising, sales, social media and design strategies

• And of course, Networking

We hope you’ll join us, and provide us with some feedback so we can make these events truly beneficial for everyone who attends.  If you’d like more information, simply download the PDF from our website here.

Handling Objections: It’s Really Not All About the Price

How often do your salespeople come back to you and say they lost the deal because of price? How often do your salespeople lower the price of your product or service to close a deal? It is important to determine the percentage of time that price is the issue, and if it is more than 20 percent of the time your salespeople may need more training. Price is only one type of objection. Prospects will have objections about timing, features, service, shipping and a myriad of other things.

Sales Success

Objections are a natural part of the sales process. When the salesperson and the customer are taking the step to move forward in the sales process it is natural that objections will arise.

Sometimes people are just not interested but don’t know how to say no or they really can’t afford it and don’t want you to know that. Learning to handle objections is important so that salespeople don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy.

What are objections? They are a signal that the customer is interested but not ready to buy. Objections usually arise because either you or the prospect doesn’t have a full understanding of something important. People want to feel good about their purchases, business or personal. They want to be sure they made the right decision. So sometimes an objection is really the prospect saying,“Tell me why your product is so great so I can feel good about my purchase.”

Most objections are legitimate and should be treated that way. Many salespeople talk about having to overcome objections. I always use the term “handle” instead. If I have an

objection I don’t want to be “overcome.” I want to know how you will handle that objection and make sure the purchase is a good fit for me or my company. As a prospect, this will tell me a lot about how you will respond in the future if I become a customer.

Objections usually fall into one of four categories: price, timing, product or something the prospect will not disclose to you. The fourth is something like, “My brother sells the

same product and I need three quotes but I am going to buy from him.” Or “I don’t like you, but I am not going to tell you that so I will throw out some other objections.”

Your salespeople know all of the common objections so I suggest doing the following exercise with them.

1. Have them make a list of the objections they commonly hear.

2. Have them write several solutions that are appropriate for those objections. These must be things that the company approves.

3. Have your salespeople craft questions that will help them understand the objections.

Here’s an example of how this works:

Objection: The price is too high.

Possible solutions: Provide financing, develop a payment plan, explain the return on investment, help them work it into the next budget, discuss the value.

Possible questions: What have you discovered in comparing our product to the competition? How much were you planning on spending? What is your budget for this purchase? Would financing make the purchase possible? What features and benefits would make the price work for you?

Handling objections is something you need to review with your salespeople frequently. New objections come up, but typically your salespeople hear the same objections and can help each other with good solutions to handle those. It is good to do the above workshop several times a year and then remind them of the process for handling objections above, right.

Handling objections is something that should be easy for salespeople to do. Objections are a natural part of the sales process. In fact, if I don’t get any objections when I am selling I get a bit worried. I would rather handle objections before I close a sale than after because I never want a buyer to have “buyer’s remorse.”

Smarter Marketing In Today’s Economy

Without doubt, your business has been somehow affected by today’s economic slump.  One of the very first things that companies often cut back is their marketing expense – which is a little like cutting out the muscle, and not the fat.  Given that the reduced ability to make a sale is a common theme for nearly everyone, smarter marketing strategies and tactics can be a lesson in survival, and not simply growth.

So what should you consider in your marketing budget that might help you sustain your business in today’s economic challenge?  Consider a few of these suggestions to help you become more efficient, while still remaining effective:

• Carefully review your cost per thousand for alternative media vehicles and be even more selective about choosing your target audience.
• Perhaps you can commit to a longer advertising campaign cycle to lock-in lower rates, while incorporating additional value-added tacktics for editorial, features or promotions that support your investment as a long-term advertiser.
• Develop creative ways to incentivize your sales team to get them to concentrate on landing new business.
• Search out cost-effective public relations tactics that will keep your company or product’s name in front of your target audience.
• Team up with other businesses that may offer complementary products, then create some kind of  offer to be sent to each others customer base.
• Frequently check-in with your advertising publishers for ‘remnant’ space, and be sure to get your name on their list for last-minute cancellations.  Be sure to consider having some standard sized ads ready for use at a moment’s notice.
• Consider a consistent email marketing campaign to stay in touch with current customers. This can be a fairly inexpensive and low-cost way to support your brand presence with them, while offering them unique email based offers.
• Consider approaching potential partners that we’re previously unreachable.  They may be more willing to partner with you now than ever before.
• Don’t be afraid to target customers of your competition. It never hurts to keep them informed of your progress, and ask again for their business.

Keeping up your brand presence in these slower economic times will help position you to take advantage of the inevitable time that the market returns to a stronger climate.  Don’t waste this opportunity to place your company or product, and take advantage by getting a true head start in the strengthening economy.

What steps have you taken that you feel will be to your advantage in the months ahead?

Is Community Access Television Still Important?

Yesterday’s business model for mass media is shrinking by the day.   It’s frightening how a small group of companies and individuals have taken over control of media, making the collapse of expanding media companies one of the major news stories of our time.  While we sit and watch this occur, it becomes all too easy to forget what it may mean to democracy and consumerism.

When AT&T Broadband acquired Comcast in 2002, it took control of well over a third (more than 21 million) cable homes.  Over twice the size of it’s rival Time Warner Cable, Comcast Corporation has grown from a single system to one of the world’s biggest communication companies.  Today it’s focused on it’s broadband cable services, commerce and of course, content.  So what does this shift in power mean for the small community access station like our local community access facility SNCAT?  Will our independent community voice be quieted in the face of competition and today’s recessionary economy?

What is this “public access” model?  It starts back in the 70’s when a national movement caught fire to be certain that cable operators would provide adequate capacity, services and facilities as a partial compensation to the community for their use of public right-of-ways.  This compensation was designed to provide access to media for the entire population, not just those who owned the cable companies.

Today’s pubic access provides a wide variety of programming – civic dialogue, cultural information, as well as civic meetings for those who cannot attend in person – or are just interested in their government’s daily discussions.  Who does it serve?  Public schools, local Chambers of Commerce, religious institutions, colleges and universities, community theaters, labor unions, veterans groups, second language communities, the disabled, politicians, and political organizations.

To find the community access station in your community, check out  The Global Village CAT, which links to 600 public and community access television Web sites worldwide.  And for more information on community media, the Alliance for Community Media, a group with the goal of educating and advocating on behalf of community media, provides news on the latest legislation affecting cable and public access.

The real question, and the purpose of this post is gaining your view.  -What do you think the future of public access television is today?  What type of programming, content development, and operations do you think it should be?  Is community access television relevant in today’s economy?  If so… how?

Eco-Industrial Park Being Eyed for 4th Street – With Plasma Gasification

by SmartBrand Partner, Mike Van Houten author of Downtownmakeover.com

First, before I start, I’ll define what an eco-industrial park is. An eco-industrial park (EIP) is an industrial park in which businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution, efficiently share resources (such as information, materials, water, energy, infrastructure, and natural resources), and help achieve sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality. An EIP may also be planned, designed, and built in such a way that it makes it easier for businesses to co-operate, and that results in a more financially sound, environmentally friendly project for the developer.

So that brings us to east 4th Street. There is a Waste Management Transfer Station on Commercial Row just off East 4th Street. You have probably smelled it while biking on the bike path just east of the RGJ offices. The City of Reno, and Waste Management are exploring turning this area into what I described above. See the map below. Waste Management wants a 20-year contract with the city so they can make a capital investment in the project.

The process would involve building a reclamation facility, a possible plasma gasification plant, and a ‘forward processing’ of recycled materials.

I am most excited about the Plasma Gasification Facility. The first one opened in Ottawa in 2008. It’s an amazing technology that is practically non-existent in America right now. Basically the diagrams below explain it. You stick in waste, even toxic waste, and a high-temperature plasma chamber thing converts the garbage to electricity, ethanol, different metals, even distilled water. The electricity generated from this system would be fed into NV Energy’s grid. Because the temperature of the plasma arc is so hot, there no toxic materials produced in the combustion process. While there are more efficient means of producing energy from garbage, such as incinerators, it’s the fact that waste is completely neutralized without polluting the air that has so many eyebrows raised with this technology. Keep in mind, I am not a scientist-type and am explaining all this in the best terms I know, so I urge you to do more exploring on this technology.

And as a side benefit to all this, there’s a class of tourists called Eco-Tourists who would flock to Reno to see a waste reclamation system like this in action.

I don’t know all the details yet, like how much waste it could process or what percentage of Reno’s waste overall it could process, but according to mumbling in the RAAB meeting, it could result in a single stream recycling system, meaning we have one single bin for all our recyclables instead of the yellow and green ones. Waste Management is looking for a 20 year contract from the city so they can make a capital investment in the project.

There would be no kind of discharge into the river of any kind.

So the action plan is to amend the East 4th Street Transit Oriented Development Corridor to allow for this type of thing to be built. Then to transfer the ReTRAC properties involved to the RDA who could then sell the parcels to potential Ecoindustrial Park users (Materials Reclamation Facility and Plasma Gasification etc). Then work out a contract with Waste Management or Castaways who also seems to be a player in the project.

Thoughts?

Smart Sales Tips

by Michael Dalton Johnson  (reprinted from SmartBrand Affiliate Alice Heiman’s Smart Sales Tips Blog)

I read perhaps fifty sales advice articles every month. While some of what I read is theoretical, technical or simply a disguised sales pitch, most of it is pure gold. I believe this little grab bag of power tips is on target and can make a big difference in your sales. Ranging from commonsense advice to counterintuitive ideas these gems can be put to work for you right away.

Investigate your buyer

Before calling that important prospect, go online and do some investigation. Check the person’s profile on LinkedIn, Xing or Spoke. Learn a little about the buyer’s background, interests and education. Then go to their company web site and read their latest press release. Take a few notes. Armed with this information, you’ll have a much better chance of establishing that all important first contact rapport. This only takes a few minutes and will be time well spent. You’ll build your relationship with the buyer quicker and have a much better chance of ultimately closing the deal.

Make your follow-up email sing

Given the high volume of email flowing into most in-boxes, your follow-up note might not get read. To avoid this, always use your prospect’s first name in the subject line. Example: “Bob, here’s the summary you requested.” Keep your email short! Most buyers, who are already dealing with information overload, are not inclined to wade through volumes of product data along with your company’s history and mission statement. Summarize and provide links in case they do want more information.

Remember to carefully proofread before you hit send. In fact, you might invest in proofreading software. Many are free or relatively inexpensive. Spelling and grammatical errors in follow-up letters can be a real buyer turnoff.

Think outside the in-box

Because in-boxes are increasingly crowded and noisy, marketers are rediscovering the power of regular mail. Consider following up your initial email with information delivered via regular mail. Include your business card along with your brochure, report or product spec sheets. It doesn’t matter if they have already received this information electronically. The main purpose in doing this is to beat the email “fatigue factor” and stay in touch with your prospect.

Power Tip: Write a very brief personalized note on the front of the envelope. Example: “Mary, I enjoyed our conversation. Enclosed is a hard copy of the information you requested.” Call a few days later to confirm receipt and renew your conversation.

It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it!

Persuasive speakers communicate by using positive language. Example: Instead of saying, “We can’t ship your order until next Tuesday,” say, “We can ship your order as early as next Tuesday.” What a difference! Put yourself in your listener’s shoes; which version is more appealing? The habit of using positive speech has helped me to achieve more results than I ever thought possible. You can practice this skill all the time, too. Try it with coworkers, family, and friends. You’ll begin to see things in a whole new light!

Learn to listen

Develop your listening skills. Good listeners close far more sales. Period.

I recently received a call from a salesperson with an annoying rapid fire staccato delivery. This poor soul didn’t even allow me to answer his questions before plunging forward and talking over me. Within a few minutes I was developing a headache and had completely tuned this guy out. When he had finally finished his pitch, I jokingly asked, “Could you repeat that?” He didn’t respond. I then offered to send him a link to information that would help him improve his phone skills. He declined my offer and rushed off to his next victim.

Obviously Mister Rapid Fire never heard of the 80-20 rule where the prospect does 80 percent of the talking and the salesperson 20 percent. Frankly, I think the rule, while a good guideline, is a bit difficult to observe especially on a first call. However, if you will slow down and ask intelligent questions that get the prospect talking you’ll close a lot more sales. Shoot for a 70-30 split and you’ll be in excellent shape.

State your business

Some telephone cold-call gurus will tell you to offer a pleasantry or two after introducing yourself. They are wrong. Avoid the opening, “How are you?” When spoken over the phone to a stranger, the phrase reeks of insincerity. You might as well scream, “I am going to try to sell you something!” Instead, employ a more businesslike opening, such as, “The reason I’m calling you this morning is to learn about your company’s personnel needs, and to see if we can be of help.” In other words, after introducing yourself, state the reason for your call. Prospects will appreciate your directness and respect for their time and intelligence. Only ask, “How are you?” after you’ve progressed beyond the initial contact and a relationship has been established.

The more you learn, the more you earn!

This is the most important advice I can give you. Make a commitment to your success. Every day invest a little time sharpening your sales skills. The number one mistake salespeople make is neglecting their ongoing sales education. No excuses. This doesn’t have to be a huge investment of time or money. There are plenty of free or low-cost sales skills improvement resources on the Internet. Get started today!

Michael Dalton Johnson is an award-winning publisher and successful entrepreneur and business leader. He is Editor and Publisher of Top Dog Sales Secrets, the bestselling book featuring advice from 50 renowned sales experts. Michael is the founder of SalesDog.com, an educational website for sales professionals. He has appeared on NBC’s Today Show and been featured in U.S. News and World Report, Time, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and New York Times. He has been a featured guest on over 200 television and radio shows.

Plan For Success In 2010

courtesy of Financial Marketing Wire

It’s amazing how quickly a year passes.  In the blink of an eye, it’s suddenly that time of year when many businesses and corporations start the scramble to create a marketing plan for the New Year.  The SmartBrand team is always amazed at the fact that many companies, both large and small, simply don’t have a marketing plan in place, and often no means to measure their efforts and investment throughout the year ahead.

First and foremost, you must define your brand and its unique values and positioning in the market place.  This can take many forms, but we often use the “tried and true” SWOT analysis that reviews the company or product’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Once you have a solid understanding of your current positioning and values, it’s time to lay out some strategic and tactical plans to carry you through the year.

Step 1: Choose Your Strategic Weapons

Good marketing plans often include a wide variety of strategic approaches….not just one.  Diverse campaigns offer a wider variety of opportunities and points of measurement – which in turn can lead to a faster response in determining just what’s working, and what isn’t.  Be sure to write these strategic plans down so that you can establish solid tactical plans to achieve the results you need.  Here are a few ideas you can think about, and perhaps include.

Referrals
Referrals can be a sustainable source of new clients – especially in this challenging economy.  If you choose this strategy, you may want to incorporate some of these types of activities:

• Attending networking events or joining related business associations
• Reach out existing and new prospects via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites
• Create marketing collateral targeted specifically at existing clients that can refer you to new prospects
• Develop a program to nurture and broaden referral relationships (Lunch/dinner meetings; small events; workshops, etc.)
• Establish new opportunities to reach out to referrers (e.g. speaking engagements; newsletters; collaborative events, etc.)

Offline Marketing
Referrals may be the the most cost-effective way to generate new leads, while advisors new to the business or firms looking to grow rapidly need to reach outside of their current relationships.  If this one of your strategic choices, consider some of these types of planning activities:

• Produce marketing collateral including a capability brochure, advisor bios and product/service sheets
• Conduct public workshops or educational courses
• Advertise through traditional media outlets including local newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations
• Consider a multi-tiered direct mail campaign to highly qualified/targeted leads
• Host a paid television or radio show
• Write articles and submit them to local publications
• Write and distribute press releases with news about your firm
• Create a Drip Marketing program to stay top of mind with prospects

Online Marketing
With the rise in popularity of social media strategies in the past economic climate, many are turning toward these newer channels as part of a lower cost option to generating new prospects and leads. If you do decide that social media is a part of your strategic approach, you might consider:

• Producing a website that concisely displays your capabilities and provides educational resources to prospective and current clients
• Providing educational content through blogs, podcasts, webinars, and videos.
• Actively participating in key social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
• Investing in a Google Ad Words campaign (or some similar pay-per-click campaign)
• Actively join online directories and referral sites

There are, of course, many other strategies you should consider as part of your marketing planning for the New year.  The key is choosing those that have the highest degree for return potential for your specific brand’s position, then tracking each and every effort to be certain you have the data at your fingertips to make necessary adjustments to maximize your investment and time.

Step 2: Plan The Year

So you have decided on the strategies you’re going to commit to using, now it’s time to lay them out across a year’s worth of efforts and planning.  To start, simply write out the specific activity (tactical) you want to include under the appropriate category.  For example, if you want to email a quarterly newsletter to your clients and prospects, include “Client Newsletter” under the Client Referral strategic heading.  Then put an “X” or colored block in the week/month you wish to send it out. Continue this process with each activity you identified in Step 1 until you have a marketing calendar for the year.

Step 3: Establish Your Budget

Now that you have a marketing calendar for the year…it’s time to set a budget to execute the plans you’ve made.  You’ll need to do a bit of research if you don’t know exactly how much each tactic may cost – or hire someone to help you that has that kind of experience.  Once you’ve projected the budget for each activity, simply place the dollar amount in place of the X or colored block on your spreadsheet.    In the example of the quarterly email newsletter, you would have designated the communications to be sent quarterly (January, April, July and October), which would now be replaced by the cost of writing, graphics and sending the campaign – for the sake of example, say $500.  This will give you an annual client newsletter budget of $2,000.  Once you’ve completed this process for each marketing activity, you can adjust your plan so that it fits within your budget.  When you have finished adjusting your calendar and budget, you’ll have successfully documented your marketing plan for the year.

Step 4: Implement Your Plan

So you’ve created a plan…the most important step is yet to come – following it.  We’d recommend you print your calendar out for the year, then mark down specific dates you plan on executing each activity.  If you’re unsure about when the activity should take place…make a guess as best you’re able.  It’s far better to have a calendar plan that needs adjustment than to have no plan at all.

And of course, in a shameless pitch of self-promotion, if you need help getting these kinds of plans done…contact us at SmartBrand.  Yes…you can establish and execute your own marketing strategic plan …but you can also cut your own hair (perhaps without the best results). We’d recommend you engage a professional to maximize your options and return on investment for your marketing efforts throughout the year.

Happy New Year from all of us at SmartBrand!

Happy Holidays from SmartBrand