Branding

As Many As It Takes

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How many marketing plans does your business need? The answer is: as many as it takes.

A simple, single plan

If you’ve got a hotdog cart on the corner of 1st and Main, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll get by with just one marketing plan. You’ve got one business (the cart), with one division (the attendant – you), selling a single product (hot dogs on buns), to a single target audience (hungry people from the immediate vicinity who want a quick meal).

Your marketing media may consist of print (words on the cart & umbrella, a sign stuck to the window of a shuttered business) and audio (shouting, “Get your dogs here!”).

More variables, more plans

But once you start opening new locations, or adding new products or services, or even servicing different target markets, you might find marketing easier if you have plans that address those specific differences.

Imagine there are several buildings down the street on the corners of 5th and Main, packed full of law offices. Another cart down there (same business, new division) selling an upmarket product (new product) to a different target audience (lawyers with more cash, or using digital payments). This would require a different marketing plan. Instead of hawking cheap dogs, your marketing pitch might be for quality served quickly, in a wrapper that will keep food from falling on their expensive clothes.

That new target market will probably respond better to different marketing techniques. Hand drawn signs and shouts are less likely to draw them in.

Specific plans for specific differences

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a brick-n-mortar store, or a virtual business. As you begin to grow and diversify your lines, it’s inevitable that the things you’re selling will appeal to different audiences. Having a plan on how to best reach them – to introduce them to your products or services, and convince them to buy from you – is important.

I have a friend who has a business making earrings. One line is made from recycled paper, and the other line is made of metal and gemstones. Yes, they’re both earrings, and there is some crossover from one target market to the other, but not much. The women buying the brightly colored paper earrings like to buy several pair at a time, giving them a selection to wear throughout the week. The women who buy pairs from the gem line usually only buy one pair at a time, although both audiences buy from my friend an average of four times per year. But her message to each audience is not the same!

The paper earrings are at a lower price point, but her profit margin is higher. In her emails to that audience, she emphasizes the bright colors and wide variety. They’re inexpensive enough that the audience can afford to buy several different sets to go with different outfits.

The gem earrings are marketed as unique – no pairs the same. They’re made of more expensive materials, and are promoted as going with higher-end clothing. Something worn for special occasions. While the prices are higher, the profit margin is slightly less than with the earrings made from paper.

Two different lines, two different audiences, two different marketing messages – two different marketing plans.

But the basics are the same

Building those plans may seem difficult, but you can create almost all marketing plans using a basic template. I’ve created a checklist for those that want a framework. This free version will allow you to make sure all your bases are covered. I’m currently building a low-cost online course covering the checklist items in much more depth.

Download your PDF of the free marketing plan checklist right here.

Free PDF: Starting from SCRATCH

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No matter the size or age of your business, sometimes it’s good to step back and look at things as if you were a rank beginner. Imagine you were someone just starting your business. What are some great questions to ask yourself before you jump head-first into the deep end of the pool?

Aside from building (or refining) your marketing plan, the answers to these questions can help you build the culture of your company. What do you want new employees to know? How should old hands think about, and act towards, customers and prospects?

It doesn’t matter if you own a small business, or manage a division of a large corporation, these questions apply to you and your marketing efforts.

I encourage you to grab a copy of this PDF, and actually take the time to answer the questions. You may discover something about yourself, and about your business.

Got questions or comments? Please feel free to put them below!

Why Engage in an Appreciation Program?

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For years, I’ve told my clients that the first additional marketing program they should implement is a Certificate of Appreciation program.

  • It’s inexpensive
  • It brings your business to the attention of others
  • It makes others look good
  • It works

The Point

Presenting Certificates of Appreciation needs to be an ongoing program, and not just a one-time event. Why? Because the number one reason for doing this is to get your business mentioned by the media over and over again, across an amount of time. I’m not talking about days or weeks, I’m talking about months and years.

The second most important reason for running an appreciation program is to demonstrate to others that you’re “good folks.” That as people, you (and your staff) truly appreciate the good that others do, and want to call it to the attention of their customers and prospects. You should be seen as appreciating others.

Why Promote Others?

“If I award others,” goes the usual argument, “I’m promoting their business and not mine.”

And this is exactly why you shouldn’t pull 20 people into a room, and give them all certs at the same time. Each individual time you submit a media release, you’re promoting the recipient but mentioning yourself as the giver. Over time – say, each month over the space of a year – you’ve promoted the recipients once each, but you’ve promoted yourself twelve times!

Worth A Thousand Words

When you choose folks to whom you’ll award certs, make sure they know ahead of time you’ll be taking pictures and/or video clips and submitting them to the media. Each picture will mean a ton to the individual recipient. After all, very few people get their picture in the media unless they donate a wing to the local children’s hospital. So here’s something special for them to hang on to: a photo of them getting an award. If they’re lucky, they can get a print-out of the photo and the release when it appears in the media.

The Results

What are the results – the benefits to you – of running an appreciation campaign?

You’ve done something positive for many individuals, who will then be inclined to do something good for you.

You’ve promoted yourself and your business in a positive manner, over and over again in searchable media.

You’re building an image – that is, building a part of your brand – that says a large part of your personality is gratitude and appreciation. Those are positive qualities prospects look for.

The Cost

The most expensive part of these programs is the time invested. That’s maybe two hours per recipient; you travel to them, take a pic, write and email the release, print the pic and the release, and hand deliver those back to the recipient. You can buy the frames and the certificate paper in bulk, along with the ink or toner to print them. The desktop printer is a one-time expense. You’ll sink maybe $5 into each recipient. Over a year, you’ll spend maybe $60.

And for thousands of dollars worth of positive publicity, isn’t that worth it?

Have you tried an appreciation program? If so, what were the results? If not – why haven’t you? I’d love to read your comments below!

Revisiting WP-Members Plugin

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A few years back, I wrote a short book on how to put together a membership website using WordPress and different membership site plugins.

Recently, a client asked me about protecting a discussion website. I thought I’d look at WP-Members by RocketGeek again. It was the “cheapie” membership option I explored in the book.

The Good News

WP-Members is still being developed and supported. It’s extremely easy to install and set up. And, it’s still one of the least expensive options out there doing a good job.

As a matter of fact, the free version of the plugin allows you to set up multiple membership levels. It even lets you set up a particular level as a default, into which it puts all new registrants. Admins have the option of manually moving members into a different membership level (or “product” as the docs call it) behind the scenes.

The options for setup are minimal, but powerful. The main option is to protect either posts or pages. I’ve only had one client opt into protecting posts from non-members. Most membership sites I’ve built for clients have one or more whole pages of content they wish to protect. If your blog/posts page is something you want hidden, I find it easier to protect the whole thing. If you have info you want to hide from non-members, put it on a protected page. You can even link to that protected page from a post, and people following the link will be prompted to register for the protected content.

Another good thing – your paid plugin (and any paid extras) are good on up to three different sites! So your per-site cost for all the goodies drops to around $42.

There is also an extensive set of documentation on setting up and configuring the plugin. But hold that thought for a couple minutes. . .

The Not-As-Good News

If you want to sell access to your content, the free version of WP-Members isn’t going to do it. Neither is the plain paid plugin. You’ll need to get one of two options – both at an additional charge. The good news is that both of these add-ons come with the WP-Members Pro package, which goes for a very reasonable $125. As I said above, even this Pro package costs less than other paid membership site plugins out there.

But, another downer – the two options for collecting payment are either for PayPal (for which you will need an account – preferably a business account), or an option that allows you to sell your membership levels through Woo Commerce, which is another plugin for WordPress. Which is to say, if you want another option to take credit cards through some other gateway, you’ll need Woo Commerce and another attachment.

Remember when I talked about documentation a minute ago? There’s also a support forum, which is good. However, it’s only available to people who have paid for the plugin. That’s what the $59 annual fee is for – support via the forum.

Final Thoughts

If you need to set up a simple membership site based on WordPress, and then get on with the business of running your site, then I’d highly recommend the free version WP-Members. If you can figure out how to run the back end of a WordPress site, you can probably get this running with very little problem. If you want to take money for membership content, and you have a PayPal business account, then getting the WP-Members Pro package would be a good idea (although it’ll have more than you need).

However, if you want multiple membership levels, and you want to have the membership plugin handle taking payments through your choice of gateways, you’re going to need a more complex – and more expensive – solution.