TRO has devoted the last few weeks to assisting agents in developing a 2009 Marketing Plan. Today’s installment is the last one in the series.
If you have followed along each day of this series on writing a Marketing Plan for 2009, you should now have a much more clear view of your marketing goals and the strategies that you will use in the year to come. You have taken your own story, the reasons you are in the travel industry and your own unique selling points, and infused your marketing plan with the passion that drives you forward. You have determined to communicate a consistent message to your clients and developed a foundation for sales through multiple channels of distribution. In short, you have a very solid map of the territory necessary to achieve your strategy of building your business during 2009.
Most importantly, you have captured your thinking in writing. The document you now have, however informal, will serve as a benchmark of your progress. You have a step-by-step guide that will serve as a business handbook. Your marketing plan will keep you on course and, combined with your marketing calendar, will give you early warning of when you are straying too far from your tactical plan. It will tell you when you need to pick up your efforts and when you are doing well. Your marketing plan should allow you to focus on details without losing sight of the “big picture” – you have spent the time every business requires working ON your business instead of merely IN your business.
Most importantly, the time you have spent creating your marketing plan can be amortized over far more than a single year. You have created a document that with adjustments can be used year after year in your business. You can benchmark 2010 off of 2009. As an organic, living document, with a little care and feeding, your marketing plan will serve you well for years to come.
Now, put it into action. Commit to living with your business plan and to being accountable to it. Your marketing plan gives you a document behind which you can rally. But, your business plan won’t work…you have to work it. Far too many business people think they are working their plan simply because they have a plan. Nothing will happen unless each and every day you put your marketing plan into action. The mere act of working your plan will provide you with the inspiration you need to make 2009 your best year ever.
This 365 Marketing Tip is sponsored by:
