The Simple Solution

In this economy, online marketing is a given.  You must be spending money on email marketing, internet marketing or direct marketing campaigns to get your name out there or you’ll fall prey to your market-savvy competition.

Yet if you’re marketing without a PLAN, I can guarantee you are wasting a ton of cash on your efforts.

Why?

Because a marketing plan is the only way to ensure you are strategic in your objectives and actually get a return on your money at the end of the year.

They also help you to see and monitor your day-to-day marketing goals so you can quickly ditch a plan that isn’t resonating with your target audience.

Plus your marketing plan allows you to see what tasks or goals can be handled in-house with your team and what needs to be outsourced to effectively get the job done.

Finally, your marketing plan shows you months in advance what you’ll need to create products or campaigns that WORK rather than throwing money at “trendy” or run-of the mill campaigns and merely hoping they stick.

And while I’m not going to cover the nitty- gritty of creating a great online marketing plan, here are a few attributes to let you know if you’re on the right track:

1. Your online marketing plan will tie into your overall business objectives- If your goal is to make 6 or 7-figures of revenue this year, your marketing plan should pin-point exactly how many leads you need to attract (and convert) to reach that dollar amount.  It should also track your marketing budget dollar- for-dollar to ensure your campaigns are contributing to that goal and not detracting from it at the end of the year.
2. Your marketing plan should communicate your objectives to your entire team and pull them into the process- Great companies ensure everyone is on board when it comes to marketing.  Everyone has a task and key piece of the puzzle to implement.  Your marketing plan, then, will give your staff the clear guidance and instruction they need to ensure your plans are being carried out and reaching your target market accordingly.
3. Your plan will help you stay on track and manage objectives- It’s so easy to get off track when a semi-good online marketing plan brings a few customers into the pipeline. Yet before you know it, that short burst of clients WILL dry up and you’ll be at square one all over again in your marketing efforts. Instead, resolve to keep your appointment book full at all times by creating a plan that keeps you on track and makes sure your campaigns go off each month without a hitch.

Of course, if you are totally overwhelmed with the thought of creating a marketing plan for your company or really aren’t sure where to start, please email me at help@legalmarketingmaven.com for a boost in the right direction!

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Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, internet marketing and being a virtual assistant for professionals on the web.  Her advice and internet marketing campaigns have helped many well-known professionals reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make online marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on virtual outsourcing and online marketing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email support@thesimplesolution.com