The Single Biggest Marketing Mistake Small Businesses Are Making Today…
What do you think is the single biggest marketing mistake that small businesses make today?
- Is it setting the marketing budget too low?
- Choosing the wrong advertising channel?
- Failing to capitalize on current trends?
No, no, and no.
According to Jay Conrad Levinson (author of the multi-million best-seller “Guerilla Marketing”) the biggest marketing mistake can be summed up simply and directly…
“The Number 1 marketing mistake small businesses make is NOT creating a simple marketing plan… and failing to COMMIT to their plan.”
It’s true, I’ve seen it happen over and over again.
Someone will get a great idea for a small business and do all the work to get it up and going…. only to find that people aren’t necessarily going to line up around the block to buy what they have.
So they throw a bunch of money at a variety of different marketing techniques (usually suggested by a media rep who has their own agenda), all of which are 99% certain to fail miserably.
And sooner or later, the doors shut for good–while the entrepreneur is left scratching their head as to why their great idea didn’t work.
I’m reminded of the old saying, “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan”. That’s why Jay Conrad Levinson has developed a quick and easy way to simplify your marketing plan (without letting it intimidate you), in a way that doesn’t have to be complicated–unless YOU make it complicated!
I spoke with Jay recently to go over some details regarding this week’s webcast for the League Of Extraordinary Minds. Jay’s going to be on the panel, along with a KILLER lineup of experts (more on that later).
During the call, Jay revealed his “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan” to me. This thing is absolutely brilliant. And the best part is, it takes no more than 5 minutes to create.
Just ask yourself these 7 simple, direct questions. Then write down the answers to create your 7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan:
Ready? Here goes….
1) What is the purpose of your marketing? (What action do you want them to take?
2) What is the main competitive advantage you stress to achieve that action/purpose? (What main benefit do you offer that your competitors do not?)
3) Who is your target audience?
4) Which marketing “weapons” will you use to achieve that action/purpose? (Expressed as a list.)
5) For your market niche, what do you stand for?
6) What is your identity, your personality?
7) What is your marketing budget? (as a percentage of your projected gross sales)
That’s it. See how easy that was?
No long, drawn out document. No confusing spreadsheet. Just 7 simple question to answer and voila! You’ve got the basics of a winning marketing plan.
But I know what you’re thinking…”Rich, are you SURE this is going to work for me?”
Without a doubt–YES! And here’s why…
In my years of experience as a entrepreneur and small business owner, I’ve seen more marketing tactics, strategies, and techniques than I can remember…
And I can say this with absolutely certainty: Even the most mediocre marketing WITH commitment will always outperform brilliant marketing WITHOUT commitment.
So sit down right now and create your “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan.”
Then I want to hear what you think about it, specifically:
- How did this exercise bring clarity to the marketing tasks you must perform?
- How do you think your new “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan” will affect your business in the next 30 days?
- And how much more confidence do you have this very moment, that you will EASILY be able to commit to your “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan?”
So please leave a comment below once you’re finished. I’ll check the site and read your comments as they come in. Then we’ll continue this conversation on another blog post.
And as my way of saying thanks for participating, I’ll send you a special gift by email to help you commit to following through on your new, simple, POWERFUL marketing plan.
How does that sound?
So please go do that right now, and we’ll talk again soon.
To Higher Profits,
Rich
P.S. Like I mentioned before, Jay Conrad Levinson will be our special guest on this week’s League Of Extraordinary Minds panel…
Jay will go into more detail regarding his 7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan, along with discussing Pre-Emptive Marketing: Innovative Tactics That Outperform What Everyone Else Is Doing.
Jay will be joined by renowned experts Paul Cherry, Vicki Kunkel, Al Ries, Gary Vanyerchuk, and Sergio Zyman. It all happens Thursday, November 12th at 8:00 PM your local time.
So if you haven’t registered yet, do it now right HERE.
Posted in League of Extraordinary Minds Webcasts
Excellent post and i agree with you 100%
Hi there
I joined your league early in November to learn about marketing and how to get my brick and mortar businesses off life support. Me living in South Africa, all of your webinars were in the very early hours of the morning (03:00) and I was actually on another webinar at the exact same time with someone whose name I don’t see anywhere on your site, but who has been extremely informative. I knew I would get the recordings so it did not phase me. At some point I actually received a video message from you, crapping me out for not attending your webinars. In true Afrikaner form, I first got hot under the collar of my pajamas but then decided to let it go and promptly deleted the mail.
I have learnt an enormous amount from these pannels all the while with my existing businesses in mind and then disaster struck. I have had the financial carpet plucked from under my feet and landed seriously hard on the small vertebrae. As a result I am revisiting each one during the holiday break and will need to hit the ground running with entirely new strategies and mindset on January 4th when we reopen. The issue with the percentage of income spend for marketing is that it assumes that the business is profitable as most marketing locally has to be pre-paid or at least within 30 days.
I’ve chosen a market where I get to satisfy my passion for helping the underpriviledged ladies in our community but which has consistently eroded my own private funds (and some of my husband’s too sometimes). My marketing spend has on average been 200% of the monthly income with some months actually spiking and providing me with some money for jam. I realised that the traditional marketing avenues are NOT working and will employ a completely radical approach in future. Unfortunately I am still locked in with some (very expensive printed media) advertising contracts but they will not be renewed when they expire.
I have a whole bunch of new ideas lined up for different product offerings with different clients, but which would still ultimately benefit the domestic workers and completely unskilled jobseekers.
I no longer only have to get my businesses to breakeven and pay my own way, I am now responsible for all household expenses as well and that is not a small amount! For the first time in 3 decades, I am standing with my back to the wall and am working on my mindset to change what I always considered to be “greed” to “getting paid for a job well done”! If I cannot achieve this, I will soon lose the rental properties which is my only pension policy.
Thanks for broadening my horizons! I have also ventured into internet marketing recently and I don’t think this old brain has worked this hard in all my life as an accountant in corporate playground. When I have my first disposable cash available, I will be back for some coaching which is unfortunately way out of reach at this stage.
Be blessed
Jady
Attention Rich,
The name Jay Conrad Levinson is new to me. On the other hand I live in Sweden… far away.
A friend of me once said: When a winner meets a winner you know him right away. Jay Conrad Lavison is a winner, because he speaks like they do.
SIMPLICITY…
To make things simple is a flower, it is an art, it is the key to real success.
Simplicity is the Lotus flower.
It is difficult to find the real, the simple things in our world of today. When you find real simplicity, keep it close to your heart because it is the seed which can change your life into a life of a Super Star.
Jay Conrad’s 7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan is such a seed.
This is what I need and I am so grateful I discovered them.
I have been a Management Consultant for a life time in my part of the world. I have even been living 7 year in a Buddhist Temple deep inside the jungle, far up in the mountains of Asia.
I am new to the computer world. I want to go into Internet Marketing. I have searched the Internet for months for some advices about Internet Marketing.
It is like standing in the middle of the jungle don’t knowing where to go…
Everyone wants your money. They keep on talking page after page. They don’t give you anything of value – just a lot of mambo-jambo…
Today the search ended. I found the Lotus flower… I found Jay Conrad Levinson’s 7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan.
If you do not see the beauty – STOP – take another look.
THANK YOU RICH.
I like you.
Sincerely
Michael McToerosen
I have a business plan but had not gotten to the point of a marketing plan. Thanks so much for the outline and a way to focus on the points to follow. My website is not up yet and am in the middle of copywriting and setting up the pages. P.s. Am also one of the few who Rich Shefren took to task for not having taken advantage of the panels to date. And yes I am up at 2am working on what I did’nt get done during the day. I appreciate the kick in the behind. Thanks.
This is fantastic.
People are so obsessed with “knowing,” when they should be more obsessed with “doing”. A plan like this cuts straight to the chase, get’s you focused on what you need to be doing, and doesn’t get you bogged down in a ton of details that don’t product results.
Thanks,
Josh
http://www.StrategicReform.com
True, True!
It is true for internet companies, true for software companies, true for consumer goods. I see this every day with beverage and other consumer good companies. They want to develop a product before doing any market research, business plan or marketing plan. Who’s your customer, where do they buy? How will you get the product to that location?
I like it!
Thanks for outlining it in 7 clear points. It will be easier to implement.
The purpose, competitive edge, and target audience were easy. When I got to marketing weapons, I was stymied. First, as a Law of Attraction Trainer, the word weapons has a negative vibration. I could go with strategies. Also, if I knew the proper strategies to take, I wouldn’t be reading this article.
I also do not know what you mean by “what do you stand for.” The first thing that came to my mind is the phrase from the old Superman show, “Peace, Justice, and the American Way,” tongue in cheek, of course. Seriously though, peace did occur to me since I help people dissolve negative emotions and find a way to peace – through relief first, then hope, then joy.
My identity? Not sure what you’re expecting there either. I am source energy here to be of service in any way I can to help those interested in finding their own power within themselves.
Finally, the budget question. I’d like to spend as little as possible.
Most small business owners I meet can not answer these questions and do not have any marketing plan. This is simple and very powerful. The answers will give each business owner clarity, create a competitive advantage, provide what to do and why, and provide a focus for where they spend their time and efforts. It’s easy to commit to. I’m updating my marketing plan and this process will make it quick and easy. Thanks!
Rich and Jay,
Your effort is truly appreciated with the direction and simplicity of these
7 questions to help create a powerful marketing plan.
Yet,sometimes it is the simple things that are hard to do like answering these questions. What is my purpose, How am I unique, Who am I anyway, Who are they, Are they buying, How to find them with what tools, Do I have enough money to hold on long enough and what funnel do I direct this money to go ???????
Thank you, for the bottom line of needing commitment to succeed, which reminds me of “What are your 5 Why’s of Constraints that are holding you back from success?”
What comes first: Conquer the Constraints, Create the 7 Sentence Marketing Plan or Crave the commitment?
Again Grateful
Sherron
THESE ARE THE TYPES OF STRATEGIES/TOOLS I NEED…SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE AS 7 ?’S THAT POINT THE MIND IN A TARGETED/FOCUSED MARKETING DIRECTION…WHICH ARE EASY TO REFER TO/REMEMBER, STAY ON POINT AND MEET CUSTOMER NEEDS IN WAYS THAT X-CEED EXPECTATIONS!
Thanks for highlighting this. It is so clear. I’m onto it.
Wow!. The seven questions. So Simple. I had three basically covered, three more covered a little and the last not at all. Its all about focus. A major point is that budget determines what we do. So for maximum success, we need to define our target market well, craft our pitch and then use the most cost effective methods of marketing to get it out there, all according to the number of dollars we have to spend.
This one speaks to me. While we probably all know we need a marketing plan it helps to be reminded we should review it periodically to stay the course. I liked the simplicity of the 7 steps. Thanks.
KISS. Keep it simple stupid. These 7 steps certainly do that.
Thanks for this simple technique! I had to write a marketing plan for the management of a company I used to work for, and it was quite hard and time-consuming to put it all in a fancy, long document. The idea of creating the same for myself seems dreadful and I’d rather skip it. Now this simple way of putting it down will help me focus without the tediousness of a long and super-formal paper. Thanks!
The seven questions are all great questions, which help both with the message of your marketing and with bringing focus to who you are marketing to. I think the follow up would then be: based on the budget we set out, what are the most cost effective and successful methods of marketing to get our well defined message out to our well defined target market?
Thanks for that very simple approach.
Looking forward to even more KISS orientated stuff like this that I can actually use.
Best Wishes
This is very timely as we are in the process of setting up a new career planning consultancy for financial services professionals in the UK and this plan will help focus our minds on thought processes on what we really need to be doing regarding our marketing strategy.
Many thanks.
The 7 Steps are great. I will add an 8th step as recommended by others here – testing and tracking.
I feel there is one very important “first” step missing from this plan – the research needed to discover if my potential clients actually “want” my product or service. We can have an amazing idea for the best product, the best marketing, etc. and know people “need” what we have, but if they don’t want it, all is wasted effort.
Thanks for all the great info.
Gene
Jay, this is great! So simple, yet it makes so much sense. Thank you for sharing this planning technique.
I have written out my 7 answers, think I need a few more items in my marketing weapons and it is time to start on ACTION! Having read through some of the other replies there is also lots to learn from them so I intend going back through them all.
Passing this along to my brother – a small business owner. Seems like it will apply to offline business even more so then online.
This is very good. I think there should also be one element of monitoring or measuring because in most cases it is the execution of the plan which fails.
The questions are not surprising. Sitting down and actualy taking time to answer
them is what gives precious insight. I discovered I don’t even have the core
issues sorted out properly – something you want to find out sooner rather than
months later. Thanks for making something difficult brain dead simple!
Most excellent. The KISS principle applied to Marketing and to the coordination of efforts that derive therefrom. It’s amazing to consider the amount of wisdom that can be consolidated into so few words. There’s power in them there words. I truly look forward to reaping the results of this deceptively-simple brilliance. Thanks for sharing!
Perfect timing!
I now have a simple marketing plan.
Thank you.
Great list. The only thing I would add is track, track, track your results as much as possible. I’ve sold advertising and owned several companies, and it always amazed me that business owners never knew what their ROI was and/or if it was lowering their cost per new customer acquisition while increasing revenues per new client
I already sent the 7 steps for marketing. did you receive it?
The most beautiful things in nature are perfectly simple – I love it!
Thanks Jay – been reading your stuff for years. And with 7 figures to throw around on marketing this coming year it’s so nice to come back to the 7 simple questions that makes the marketing machine tick.
Love ya work!
Grover
The “7 question Marketing Plan,” proves that simplicity is best. Everything really can be simple, if you look in the right places. To answer another, who “dislikes the war analogies.” Wars are won by understanding and using the enemies weaknesses against your strengths. In Business, that means understanding the customers needs, and filling them. Which means working to make your strengths meet their needs (USP).
The commenter that believes “Marketing is obsolete,” doesn’t understand what marketing is. “Advertising is saying I have a generic answer to these problems. Marketing is saying I have an answer to these fairly _specific_ problems. (I.e. Car as opposed to van, or pickup, with specific features.) Selling is filling the actual need, not the theoretical need.”
The previous material is copyright WD and FBNGroup, in a book to be released for Micro Businesses, “Make your Advertising, Marketing and Selling more effective,” next January (tentative title and price $47).
I love well-stated concepts that clearly and concisely represent reality, which can be acted upon. Your comments ring true to what I know of marketing effectiveness and business success!
7 simple questions that really got me creating the essence of my marketing plan within minutes! It’s brilliant because all the marketing details in my head has been filtered into 7 essential points that I need to focus on.
Hi Rich/Jay,
the truth as you have both said is that truly successful businesses always get the fundamentals right first. They have a proper and solid base on which to grow.
There’s lots of promises of “instant success with the XYZ business in a box” which is normally a few strategies that can work for a time – but which have no real foundation.
Planning, strategy, and a thorough understanding of business and marketing fundamentals will always outperform the latest fad technique in the long run.
Thanks for the great reminder. It looks so simple and yet it’s a very powerful tool.
Nick
WOW Rich,
This is deja vu for me. My ezine last week was titled “What Marketing Plan? Budget, what budget?”
Jay’s “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan” is excellent and I am really enjoying the League of Extraordinary Minds
keep your powder dry,
Warren
Marketing can be a tough cookie to handle especially if a newbie…Mention a plan and you slap your forehead and ask,”What’s that?”
These 7 steps certainly bring to light what makes one needs for proper directions to have a successful venture in internet marketing…”Thanks again
Rich.”
7 sentence marketing is very helpful and will help any business get to the heart of their marketing.
That is very wise strategy. I own my one online apparel company that does custom company logos and many other things. It would be so easy for us to make things complicated but simple to the point is always best!
I am really enjoying listening to the League of Extraordinary Minds and have started to implement a few of the strategies into both our event marketing and a new business venture. I’m now looking forward to sitting down and going through these 7 simple steps and listening in to the next call. Thanks a million for opening my mind to new ideas!
Hi Rich, Thank you for sending me the concise Marketing steps needed to help my business. It is so great that you cut to the chase and keep it simple. Life is too busy to read through pages and pages to extract ideas. This is why I signed up for the action steps you make available after each teleseminar. Thank you again, Kent
When you are working flat out in a mad mad market it is all too easy to overlokk the obvious! This is good stuff!
Jay, thanks a million times. I should say that the spirit that enable you and a few other veterans to be there for the rset of us will enable your names to be written in the souls of men where they will remain forever. I remain grateful.
I can easily see how this could be the Number 1 mistake for small businesses, and Mr Levinson’s “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan” makes an ideal framework. Much easier than starting with a blank sheet of paper, and much less risky – with this to guide you, you’re not going to sabotage your own business efforts with a poorly-conceived plan.
Alex Jeffreys, recognising that having a proper plan is of paramount importance, places great emphasis on it in his excellent Internet Marketing business coaching. But as a student of Alex’s, I am one of many relative newcomers in the IM arena. And considering the competition, I think that many of us may find answering #2,(What main benefit do you offer that your competitors do not?), quite a challenge, if we’re honest about it. We can’t even claim that being honest about it makes us unique!
So I look forward to gaining insights into answering this question (which echoes aspects of the first League webcast) when I listen to the coming session.
Aside from that, having realised recently that I probably haven’t given
sufficient thought to defining my own target audience, I was startled to see the necessity to do so spelled out here on the page for me; so that’s certainly something I’ll be aiming to rectify in the coming days.
Thank you for the valuable lessons you’re making available to everyone.
Here’s your mac daddy wrap up and more folks! http://www.magicbullets.com/docs/Extraordinary_Minds_Transcript_2.pdf
Thanks this is great….
Right now I am in the process of restructuring the complete business with new funding. this exercise has focused me on the specific tools ( orderly) review with clarity my market and in particular, really what I offer. Who I am was quite educative and the harder nut was to justify or quickly come up with the percentage for budget. This is a page to keep in the daily reading bag.
Great so easy, makes you wonder why you didn’t think about it yourself.
Thank you for this most succinct approach. I will try it.
Thank you very much for these steps. Even I, who never got the whole picture of marketing understand this. Opening a shop started as a fun project. You gave me tools to think deeper obout the opportunities this fun project can turn into. Looking forward to how my plan will look like, and am happy to be able to keep it with me as a guide and reminder. Thank you!
p.s I share the opinion of leaving out the “war names”. We are so lucky that we have the freedom of opening and starting new businesses… and that we can do that in peace.
Love it! Clear and concise.
Thanks, Rich! Love the reminder: Even the most mediocre marketing WITH commitment will always outperform brilliant marketing WITHOUT commitment.
And the simplicity of using focused questions to bring clarity, a practice that can be applied again and again.
Look forward to the League Panel discussion tomorrow night!
Ahhhh! What a load off my brain. I’m in the process of putting together a project and was having indecision as to the direction. These 7 sentences have greatly simplified that process. Thank You, and will hear you tomorrow night,
Greg
Hi Jay,Thanks for this. So simple and clear and the timing couldn’t be better.
I am starting an on-line Travel Agency and now have clarity of mind to guide me.
Thank you sooo much!
Alan
I would like to thank Mr. Levinson for those 7 great questions which allowed me to look at my business and come up with some critical answers. I was amazed at how lucid my mind was even as I asked the questions, creatively revealing answers that I could hardly articulate 1 year ago. I would also like to encourage those who would question Mr. Levinson’s idea of these simple questions, to reflect on where they are in their life and be honest when looking for the answers. If we are Really truthful with ourselves, and open to all the universe is offering us, we would say a big “thank you” to him and to the founders of Extraordinary Minds for creating this broad array of talented individuals who have the ability to touch each individual mind, and help us in moving our lifes forward and show us how we can prosper in our businesses.
With Gratitude.
Thank you for this Jay. It was an evening of business soul-searching for me, and you have just reminded me that ordinary actions pursued day after day should bring extraordinary results. I will be listening to you guys tomorrow.
Thank you for these points.
They are like laser focusing on my mind and what i am already committed to. Now i can concentrate on where i am going with less distraction
The 7 Steps Marketing Plan is simple but very relevent to what I need.
I am going to answer all questions in detail (but will use KISS principle). I am sure it will bring clarity in my marketing efforts. I will let you know the results in 30 days.
During the panel discussion, can we get into actionable items for each questions, please.
Thanks to Dave, Rich & Jay.
Thanks Rich for the simple plan.
It may sound simple but it highlights critical areas of a business that need to be addressed first before spending any money on marketing. If you haven’t done your research on customers or competitors, worked out what you want to achieve then it’s likely that any marketing carried out will not be effective.
I’ll definately be using this plan when assessing my marketing projects to make sure my efforts achieve their goal.
Thanks again.
Excellent – really makes sense to do it and keep it simple
I have listened to Jay Levinson before and have incorporated his simple but genius marketing plan in my business. Can’t wait for tomorrow to hear more of his advice, he’s the best.
Rich, thank you once more. Some people focus on details, neglecting the bigger picture, others do the opposite. It’s our nature, who we are as individuals, what differentiates us. It could come down to 3 or even 1 major sentences, or it could be done in sequences – as long as it gets done!
I would have said: first priority, HAVE A PLAN. I mean, I’ve been there, done that – not having a plan, trying one way of marketing (direct mailing), not measuring, giving it up for networking, not measuring, giving it up for telemarketing… and so on.
Second – stick to the plan, implement it across the whole business, all processes, on daily basis, make it known to all your employees, clients, partners, etc. And all these ideas come from the likes of Rich, Jay, Sergio Zyman, Conrad and other brilliant minds – 54 of them sharing with us their insights… for free! If I implement only a part of all these great ideas, the game should have only one leader in my market…
On Focus, On Purpose, to get On Target! Thanks alot, this is great stuff!
Thanks for the info. These questions are a great way to get started and stay on track, however, they are not simple or quick and require in-depth research. The other thing I’d like to comment on is that I realize “Guerilla Marketing” uses the metaphor of fighting and war. I do object to the idea of marketing “weapons”. Who’s your enemy? Your potential clients? Your competitors? Neither one. One way to market is to align yourself with others in your field, which Rich and Jay are doing, right? I think it would help the world if we ditch the “war-like” vocabulary. It is a mindset that makes people think things are hard and a struggle and that there’s not enough good stuff to go around… Just a thought.
Hi Rich
I read the 7 questions for a marketing planner and was surprised that I didn’t have the answer to some of the question. I’m new to the game and I have a new website.
It’s time for me to get busy, thanks alot.
Simple but very relevent!
Thanks.
Hi, Thank you for this “7 sentence simple marketing plan”, and all the information you have given us so far.
It makes it simpler to set up a plan, and have the main points in that plan.
I am very new in business, my one concern is: “How do I know what makes myself or my products different from, or better than, my competetion?”
Thank you.
Hi Rich
I see the urgency of where you guys are heading with this. Possibly the final frontier in shifting us from learning to engaging into the action-feedback loop. It’s every person who teaches, coaches, consults worst fear that in spite of all the detailed information and insights that niggling question of now that there is this great info and knowledge can it be translated into committed action. Any action to begin with consistently.
And these seven steps are really simplifying things with laser precision so that we focus on getting to doing something now.
Marketing is to ‘generate streams of targeted qualified leads and then to position so as to make marketing superfluous’
It could be that we need to do whatever it takes at the start in order to really differentiate ourselves both in giving a irresistible offer and value via a convincing sincere passion for clients and convey this in every marketing ‘weapon’.
Thanks for this insight as always. Now where did I place my planner?
Thanks Alexander for your great response. I too thought the questions revealed some great insights into who we are being , how we do business. Here’s to your success!
Angela
Thanks for your amplification of Jay’s very clear and concise piece on developing and taking action on a simple doable marketing plan. I’ve done so much learning that I’ve been paralyzed with all of it. Now to start taking action!
I have already jotted down all my plans of action for my upcoming business, but i’ve not yet made a plan of action for my marketing.
These 7 questions and answers have opened a little hole that needs to be filled a.s.a.p. so I will get right on it!
Thanks,
Richie.
Thanks for helping me bring more clarity to my too elaborate marketing plans. I’ll be making substantial revisions.
This simple 7 sentences are the more solid foundations of a good business, because without a well articulated plan, we have no clear direction to follow, where alocate resources and how to separate the accessory of the essential.
These seven questions bring it down to the ” simple” of how to market and makes me define precisely the who and what and how….and it really ties in with last weeks message..Im starting an investor relations firm and your material is so timely its mind boggling!!!!
To have this insight and expertise available going forward is proving up to be priceless. Following this advice will ensure our success; I have no doubt…. All we have to do is model you guys.
This is a great work you all are doing….Thank you!!
You know,there’s a saying, Who do you listen to? My answer is people that have what I want!! Ya,ya,ya, listen to people with money.I want money, but that is not the only thing I want.I want to start my own company and give my niche the credit and access to the information that they need,and want.The fun part is that they don’t know what they don’t know! Honestly, my ‘I DON’T KNOW list is getting smaller.NO one is doing what I vision. I hope you realize how valuable your information is.I am quite confident that you do know.I have done a lot of research and have found that through your posts,emails and this site,you answer more questions than I have at any given time.Trust me that is an incredible feat to accomplish.I have been known to ask some very basic questions,and I see people laughing,what an idiot.When this happens I can’t help but to smile,because I know what I want.Aside from $ a lot of people do not even know what they want. I know what I want and also know where to get the information that is needed.Now that I have the 7 sentence simple marketing plan I will work on it until I feel confident that it is worded correctly for my market.Thanks
I like simple and easy to do. Complicated just stops me right in my tracks. So, needless to say, I really like this 7 Sentence Simple Marketing template. What I’m doing is copying and pasting these 7 points onto an 8×11 sheet and pondering each question. I will make note of any thoughts that come. I’ll use this simple process to develop my marketing plan. Once that’s done, then spend my time, focus and effort on implementation. No sense in having a plan that you will not work.
Thanks so much for the plan, Jay.
Is there a minimum money amount you suggest for marketing when you are just starting out and have no idea what the projected gross sales will be?
Lloyd
Sometimes we implement our marketing with the tools that worked in the past, just answering these 7 questions helped me realized that I need to think what I really need to stress about my company, & to diversify my budget to reach more prospects in order to obtain more clients. Thanks!
This is something worth trying, it give you a clarity of purposed and direction. Am convinced that this will bring a turnaround to my business.
This, and the 3 steps that John Carlton told Frank Kern re copywriting, make you realize that IM isn’t rocket science. But the DETAILS can make it more complex than an Apollo moon shot!
Getting traffic is the biggest problem for my sites. I have good conversion of the traffic – it’s just getting enough eyes on the page.
Every day, there’s a new avenue. Squidoo. Blogs. JV. SEO. And with SEO, there’s breaking into the competition of long-standing pages.
It’s always remarkable that the most successful can simplify what they do into several simple steps. One day, my karate teacher told me to move my foot 45-degrees before I threw a kick. The effect was instantaneous and remarkable! He just shrugged and said, “That’s what you pay me to do. Fix your little mistakes that you can’t see.”
Rick Carter
STRESS JUDO
Turning stress Into OPPORTUNITIES
You are aking me from a shotgun to a rifle in my hunt for community.
Thanks Guys .. I am also one of your top affialites promoting the League to my community.
I have started a site http://www.saythankstoheroes.com to send a soldier a Thank you card appreciating that I am free today because I have a soldier keeping the peace for me.
Its totally free for you to send the card and I pay for the postage too.
Thanks for sharing with your friends and making a difference in the lives of others, Ash
Yes, the number one mistake is to start marketing without a marketing plan. In this 7 sentences marketing plan, there are all important elements as a purpose, benefits, target market, weapons, personality, market niche and budget.
However, I think that there missed two elements. The missed element is a milestone in the list with weapons that will have what, when and how of each weapon.
The second missed element in this marketing plan in the same list of weapons is a measurement of success af each weapon. To be more effective with our marketing activities, we must measure all our activities.
Thanks for getting us back to basics. That really is a great exercise.
this information came at the perfect time and has simplified my marketing plan. i feel lighter!
This is great information to start with but it is missing one vital piece of information – “does your customer want this?”
It doesn’t matter how great your product, how great your marketing, how huge your list, what your competition is doing… IF you are selling something that people aren’t looking for.
Perhaps this could be question #8 “What is your customer looking for?”
Once you have this answer then you know exactly what you need to market using the 7 questions here as a starting point to building that marketing plan.
Kay Kinder
Ottawa, ON
Thanks Rich for putting together the 7 sentence marketing plan. It was very informative and my wife and I will be sure to revisit our marketing plan (which has most of your 7 elements, but requires some tune-up!
A note to Kay Kinder who mentioned there should be a #8: “What is your customer looking for?”. And while I agree whole-heartedly, I think (and I am assuming here) that #3 – “who is your target audience” really should answer this question. If you don’t know who is your target audience, and if you haven’t researched it to determine that there is indeed an audience/buyer for your product, then you are dead in the water.
Great suggestions Rich! Keep it up!
Although I like all the simple steps I find No 1 the most powerful. How often do people take out an advert because some clever salesperson says they can have it at a vastly reduced price without ever thinking through what they really want the add to do for them.
“common sense” tells you all the things these guys are saying, Arthur L. Williams said it best! Just Do It!!!
I really like the idea of the principles and simplicity of the 7 step Guerrilla Marketing plan and the flexibility that lets you look at it from the perspective of your overall business, a product-market combination or down to individual campaigns.
I agree with the first poster that these concepts can overlap.
That’s both a strength and a weakness depending on how you apply it.
It is a question of degrees since you need consistency and connection between 2) your main benefits, 3) your target audience and what they want and need, 5) your niche although I prefer the word positioning and 6) your identity which is very much who you really are. Forget some phony image that you are trying to project because you will be seen as a faker and show how your real personality ties in to what you offer.
Ive had a bad habit of both procrastination and getting distracted.This simple post really helped drive things home for me to concentrate on what is working.
I am somewhat confused because I think that numbers 2, 5, and 6 are asking the same question, just using different words for asking the question.
Regarding the #4, “weapons” question, it is stated early in the letter that 99% of people are going to waste their advertising money when spending their money on various media buys.
I do agree these are great questions to help a small business begin developing a marketing plan, so is this just another way of asking questions that are followed by a product that is designed to answer those questions? The average struggling, small business owner, will have a hard time answering these 7 simple questions.
Am I wrong about this?
That really was a great excersise. It simplified what I thought was going to be a complicated task. Thanks
One major item that is but isn’t a part of this plan. You must do your research beforehand. You can’t answer #2 ‘competative advantage’ without a great deal of work. Ditto #3 & #4 at the very least. I think this is where people most fundamentally begin the ‘disorganization’ of their own great ideas. Organizing a format for these steps is crucial. Then you bet, you can answer these questions in 5 minutes! And yippee! for that. But EASY doe NOT mean Simple. Many steps add up to complexity. The thing I love about this series so far is the one step at a time and don’t get over burdened in complexity. The complexity layers itself as you go about the tasks and you can understand it and work with it as it is created by your steps. Good on you guys!
It sounds really easy, but I think it goes deeper than that. I assume that the marketing ‘wepons’ will be driven by your marketing budget (or as in my case lack of) at least until sales start to climb. Time to start working onmy 7 sentances…. Thanks!
Mary,
The weapons that he’s referring to are the 200+ free and very low cost marketing tactics of Guerrilla Marketing that you can include in your marketing strategy.
Certainly the 7 steps is a great summary. This one issue I have found in all companies without exception is failure of the leadership to focus most of their time on profitable growth. Instead their time is spent on admin, paperwork and generally time wasting meetings.
Starting a new business can be so overwhelming, with so many things to do. These 7 questions help you to stop, take a breath and pick a direction to go. Thank you.
This “7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan” couldn’t have come at a better time in my life. I’ve been discovering my higher self and purpose and just rececently concluded what I want to be and accomplish. This has given me a clear direction and focus on how to build my business and my team. So simple yet highly effective. I know I am going to acheive great success. I will keep you posted on my progress.
Just getting clarity on who your target audience is and being as much specific about is as you can, will help you select your marketing weapons.
You should however test your assumptions and your choice of marketing techniques. For example, did you know that Kindle is very popular with senior citizens?
I’m going to pick 3 marketing strategies and test them against each other. Every 3 weeks I will add one more strategy and I will focus on the ones that are working.
Since I’m an affiliate for the League I will use the 7 sentences marketing plan to help spread the word about this essential program for entreprenuers. You can join affiliates by clicking on this link https://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/affr/lvdinc/ (this is my affiliate link and I will get benefits once you join).
If you are struggling to find your product, your web site, your niche, don’t worry about it for now. You can practice your marketing by driving traffic to this site as an affiliate. After apply your marketing knowledge to your products or services.
All you need on the internet is drive traffic and convert that traffic to sales. Since Jay and Rich are going to worry about converting traffic, all you need to do is bring traffic to the web site. And you can join by simply copying and pasting this link to your browser: https://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/affr/lvdinc/
This is one example of simple marketing “weapon”: writing posts on blogs. Not at all complicated and it just came to me as I was writing this post. Now I just need to add this “weapon” to my marketing plan and commit to do it every second day.
I also learned that you should put your link 3 times on the email you are sending yo your list, so as they read your message they can click on it at any time and not need to scroll up or down. I’m going to try that in this post.
Become an affiliate of The League of Extraordinary Minds
Rich, can you share 7 sentences marketing plan for The League of Extraordinary Minds?
As my mentor Alex Jeffreys likes to say – it’s not getting back to basics; it’s going forward to bascis.
Most people never try the simple basic stuff that works again and again, it has you more focused and is a lot simpler to commit to.
It’s the old 80/20 pareto rule – simplicity makes you focus on those 20% that make up 80% of your result. Sure it’s simple, but it’s the core.
As always, thanks for doing this. Amazing stuff
Gil
Nothing like back to basics. I wonder about #4, though. Does a list of “things to try” for “weapons” really constitute an orchestrated go to market plan? I’m betting that a lack of certainty about these methods and how they should be coordinated is what inhibits the construction of a plan more than anything, whether long or seven-sentences short.
40 years experience in business. Everytime when I had a clear simple plan … I was focused and … I won big. When not and listened to low quality experts I lost. Thanks for combining the best of the best in your program.
The seven steps are simple but profound tools for real profitable business. They are an eye opener to strategic marketing.
Love the simplicity, pure genius, strip away all the crap and all you need is a good idea, a clear plan and hard work. Thanks for the reminder
AKA: The Power of Simplicity… As simple as it may seem, the 7 Sentence Marketing Plan approach forces any business owner and marketing manager to stop running and re-start thinking. Brilliant.
Wow! Of course it makes sense, and I’m sure it will help me, as soon as I figure out a website, a product, script, HTML,and a million other things that I have absolutely NO IDEA anyone is talking about!!! I NEED HELP….at the basic level. Thanks for your time, and content. Sincerely, David Hake.
Hi Rich, this sure can help bring clarity, which gets distorted very easily in the normal course of entrepreneur journey. Thanks a lot!
Who would have thought that it could be so simple. Thanks for sharing the 7 Sentence Simple Marketing Plan.
Rich & Jay, thanks for sharing this! Creating a marketing plan can feel like a huge undertaking. The 7-step plan makes it much more manageable and actionable.
The 7 questions did what you promised: focused me toward the answers I needed. It also enabled me to be clearer on what I need to further research or decide. It’s a nice first-try …kind of like an executive summary, and serves the same purpose. Thanks.
Marketing plan looks amazing. What suggestions do you have for “business plan”. Thanks
I do think this 7 step plan brings clarity simply by breaking it down into 7 parts.I think it will bring positive results if followed through and ad hered to.Thanks so much for your valuable information. A.G.
Rich-
Thanks for this. So simple and clear and the timing couldn’t be better. i’m starting a campaign this week, and now i have simple clarity to guide me. Priceless!
I would like to know the #7 most: what is the appropriate budget for different stages of a start-up business. I was taking 50% or more at the beginning and 30-40% at a later stage. Not sure it is a good approach though. Thanks Rich for bringing these up.
whats the 7sentences about the marketing how do you do that i like to no how
As I am scouring the globe to locate a producer for my stage musical, I am also in the process of building my audience utilizing the power of the web and social media. Your seven sentence simple marketing plan was in my head – but thanks to this article it is now in my hand…and we’re going for it. Look out the next 30 days! Thank you!
Hello Peter,
I was drawn into your website in a most unusual way. Everything about your site feels good and seamless. I bet that’s a reflection of the way your life is being. I would like to know who created your website as I do need to update my own and would like to contact the company for a quotation.
I have no doubt that your dream for a producer for your musical is coming true. Just trust Divine timimg and know that even now God is and the right people, places and things are being put in place for you.
To your success.
Angela
Wonderful.
The 7 Sentence marketing plan looks amazing, and I can’t wait to draw mine up and give it a try.
Thanks Rich, and Jay :]
7 sentence is what I should have had when I started the business. Using it now should improve my business growth.