Do you have the right tools?
Marketing action plans can be a magic wand that produces wondrous results if you know how to use them. Once you have created the foundation for your plan, your next step is to develop the actual action steps.
Exact steps get predictable results. A plan is always changing depending on tracking what is working or not, tweaks or improvements on the action formulas. Follow the plan to the letter and get better results than your competition.
The lesson here is that even if you are given a plan, you have to test and tweak it yourself. It’s all about the details.
Let’s say we were to work on a marketing plan for Speaking Engagements. Here are some action steps:
Step One – Target Market: Identify and contact ideal organizations that could host your talk. Make a list. A LONG list and be persistent in contacting them all.
Step Two – The Outreach: Ideally, call these organizations by phone and tell them that you have a talk on “Systemizing Your Business to increase your Productivity and Profits.” Make it results oriented. If they are interested, they will ask for more information.
Step Three – Written Materials: Send a speaker’s kit by mail or email that outlines the results that can be expected. Make sure they look professional. Lots of benefits and no typographical errors!
Step Four – Follow-Up: Call or email a few days later to see if they got the materials and if they have any questions. If your topic is current, interesting, and valuable you are likely to book some talks from this approach. Again, contact many organizations.
Step Five – Prepare the Talk: There have been books written on this but the main thing here is write out the whole talk, create an outline for participants, and practice it out loud several times.
Step Six – Promote the Talk: This is the job of the organization, but you can help them by writing the copy for their announcement. Make sure it includes all the benefits that people will receive from the talk.
Step Seven – Give the Talk: Make it exciting, dynamic and fun. Engage the audience. Do an exercise or two. Make three or four “thought provoking points” instead of giving a long laundry list of ideas. Make time for questions at the end.
Step Eight – Call-to-Action: This may be the most important part of the talk. Find a way to collect cards for follow-up after the talk.
A good way is to say: “Here’s an article I’ve written that covers the key points from today’s talk. Who would like a copy? Great, please give me your business card and I’ll send it to you.”
Step Nine – Follow-Up: After the talk, send a copy (pdf) of the article to everyone who gave you their card. From there you can make offers for your service, invite them to speak to you, etc. Don’t leave out this vital step or you’ll get very few new clients for all your efforts.
There you have it a detailed step-by-step marketing plan with a call to action.
You can produce similar plans for networking, social media, joint ventures, direct mail, etc.
The difference between a marketing plan with a call to action and most marketing activities is that it is systematic. One thing leads to another. From initial contact to final follow up, you have a direction and a purpose. You are proactive, not passive.
But remember, no formula will do it all for you. You design the steps the best you can and then test and tweak until you can produce a consistent result every single time.
The Bottom Line: Just like a magic formula, marketing plans need to follow a definite sequence. That is the key. If these steps are followed randomly with no clear intention to produce a result, you can be certain that they won’t.
