The 5 Things You Should Decide Before Starting a Marketing Campaign

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. "

--Benjamin Franklin

In marketing, as in many other disciplines, having a clear vision for what you want to accomplish with your campaign is essential. Based on my experience of kicking off over 200 different marketing or promotional campaigns, it is my belief that energy invested upfront will both streamline the planning process, and make the entire experience much more enjoyable!

Here are the five areas I recommend exploring:

1. What Is The Desired Marketing Objective?
Although you may want to "grow sales," this is likely not specific enough. What is the single-most important thing that you want to accomplish? Perhaps it is "receive two more calls per week from prospects" or "build awareness within the Washington County consulting community."

2. What Is The Desired Timing "In Market?"
Will your marketing effort run for a year, a month, or a week? When would you like your marketing plan to kick-off? It will likely take at least 60 days to develop the marketing plan and create the core marketing tactics.

3. What Does The Consumer Target Look Like?:
Who is the consumer? Fundamental demographics (e.g. age, ethnicity, education, gender, geographic location, employment status), can be helpful, but often behaviors and attitudes are even more important. Examples of behaviors: How does the target consumer make a purchase decision? How does the target use their social network in gathering information about coaching services? Examples of attitudes: What does the target believe about coaching? How does the target see themselves?

4. Who Will Be Your Focus Group?
As the business owner, you will have final say on what your marketing plan includes and what the actual campaign looks like to consumers. It can be invaluable to gather input from a "focus group" of your target audience. Think about people you know who would fall into your target -- you will want to gather them together in-person or virtually and show them your marketing campaign.

5. What Is Your Budget?
A general rule of thumb is for sales and marketing expenses to cost between 12-14% of total sales of a business or brand. Your budget likely will consist of a variety of costs: development, design, printing/production, media, distribution, and possibly redemption.