Marketing your business can quickly become an overwhelming task, as well as a full time job. Taking the time to understand, evaluate and make educated decisions on each and every opportunity can easily take you away from doing what you do best, which is running your business!

With the media world changing on almost a daily basis; Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Websites, Magazines, Events, etc. it’s more challenging than ever to successfully fight through the clutter to get your message to a targeted audience. There are a few best practices to consider when establishing your plans:

• Diversify. There is no magic bullet or secret sauce to a successful marketing plan. Industry studies show the most successful media plans include a healthy balance of media including print, broadcast, online, sponsorships and events.  The top companies and brands have a responsible mix of media in their plans and have not made the mistake of completely abandoning one medium for another.
• Seek out advice. Marketing and advertising agencies are well versed in helping businesses identify their audience persona. It’s important to consider demographics as well as geographics in a marketing plan and this investment up front will save you money and time in the long run.
• All media is not created equally. When evaluating media buys, it’s important to use standardized industry measuring sticks such as CPM, CTR, bounce rates, Likes, Follows, etc. that can help you evaluate ROI.
• Keep your eye on the ball. Establishing a mix of media is important, and perhaps just as important is making sure you pay attention to results. For example, if you ran a print ad check your website traffic to gauge the spike in traffic. Customers are being driven to websites and into your business from a variety of touch points, and to make educated decisions of future marketing plans it’s important to have data to support decisions.
• Blogs. Sharing relevant and engaging stories with your customers not only creates loyalty and a deeper connection with them, but it will also help your website SEO and increase your visibility. You have a story to tell, so tell it well!

Establishing a well thought out plan for marketing your business just takes some expertise, time and discipline. Once you get started and have identified your audience, message and delivery channels, take the time to evaluate and learn. Sticking to a strategy eliminates much of the guess work and will keep you focused on running your business and catering to those new customers walking through your door!