Have you got a MAP for your Business?

Alright, what is it that I’m referring to when I say a MAP for your business? Well in this instance MAP is short for a Marketing Activity Plan.

Okay, time for honesty, hands up, do you have a MAP for your business this year? If not why not!

Why should I have a MAP, I hear you ask? Well it’s really simple and no different to a road map. Do you go on a driving holiday to a specific destination that you have not been to before without some sort of MAP or plan of how you are going to get there? For most of us the answer is “of course not” as I am sure you have heard “Fail to Plan – Plan to Fail”

That said, here are 5 good reasons to develop your Business MAP

1. Better lead generation / customer acquisition – Whether it is because you want to grow your business or you want to maintain the current size of your business (after all we don’t all want to take over the world), we all need to find new customers from time to time because whether we like it or not some of our clients leave to a new supplier, some unfortunately cease to exist and some no longer feel the need or want for our services.
2. Customer nurturing and retention – now a good marketing plan is not just about generating more sales and new clients. You need to consider the value of your marketing and ensure that you are implementing activities that help to great create customer loyalty.
3. Happy Stakeholders – a good map is one component that will help you to create a great business environment that all of your stakeholders should benefit from including your customers, your team (employees), your suppliers, your bank manager etc etc. Then ultimately it will certainly go along way to helping you with a long and happy life for not only your business but also yourself.
4. Better profits – a good MAP should not only help you with better overall profits in the beginning i.e. it will help ensure that you are not wasting money on marketing activities that are not working or returning the best results that can be achieved. It should ultimately reduce your costs of acquisition, as we all know it is generally cheaper to retain an existing client than it is to acquire a new one, and then if you also factor in the life time value of your customer, you original cost of acquisition reduces every year your client stays and spends with you.
5. Overall ensuring positive and sustainable business growth – a well thought out and implemented MAP in most cases will help you to attract and then also retain the right client base, creating a win-win, mutually beneficial business relationship, where your customer receives the value they are after for their hard earned dollars and in return you get a good return on your investment. 

So, what does a MAP look like?

I’m actually going to cover that one off in my next post, but to make a start, it can be as simple as 12 boxes (i.e. a 12 month wall planner / calendar). In each month’s square fill in with what you are going to do in the way of marketing activity for that month.

However, preferably you will invest a little more time and effort and develop a more detailed plan that includes some quality detail on the who, what, where, when and how much areas. Equally it does not need to be a 200 page document, unless you are that way inclined and/ or have the time on your hands, in which case a detailed MAP could be a very good investment in your business and your future.

It may seem there is a lot to cover when you start developing your MAP, but don’t be frightened to just make a start. Work on the Ready – Fire – Aim principal and it will evolve and improve as you continually work on it.

Remember, even when time is short, don’t miss out on an opportunity to promote your business.

Wishing you all the best for creating and actioning effective and efficient marketing in your business this week.

Cheers

Tom Dickson