Handy free tool to get you started with a marketing plan

Cruising the web sometimes uncovers some handy tools. I've just come across The Small Business Mentoring Service's Marketing Plan guide. It isn't just a "fill the blanks" but gives you some guidance as to what should be included in a marketing plan.

Whilst preparing a full marketing plan isn't everyone's cup of tea, it can be a worthwhile exercise for anyone with a great idea, but little idea of how to move forward with it. If you come from a marketing background you may not need the help, but if you don't, you've probably identified marketing as a critical success area - since it's the area that will ensure you get some $$ coming in the door.

Preparing a marketing plan could even be more important than a business plan, which tend to be written without enough practical detail.

Download the Marketing Plan guide here>

How could certain charities have profited from Steve Job's death?

I was one of millions who was saddened when I learned of Steve Job's. Not only do I dearly love my Macbook & ipad & iphone; but as an entrepreneur I LOVE that he was kicked out of the company he started, only to come back and save it years later: taking it to SERIOUS success and a case of 'told you so'. Love it.

In the coverage of his demise, commentators did say that they expected awareness of pancreatic cancer to rise. In fact, the day of his death, Triple J featured an interview with a cancer researcher in their coverage of Steve's death.

So I was fascinated to read this post from Hitwise about search traffic on pancreatic cancer - and what they identified as a failed marketing effort from cancer charities.

"Cancer Information received 77% of its traffic from paid links in the week preceding Steve Jobs death, whereas in the week ending 8 October 55% of clicks came from a paid link. This might well be as a result of the increased natural traffic coming through because of the rise in overall searches, but if search volumes were increasing, Macmillan could have increased its PPC spend proportionally in order to maintain its market share of visits. However, the drop in market share indicates that this was a missed opportunity for the cancer charities, who could have increased their PPC spend on key pancreatic cancer search terms to ensure they were grabbing searchers at this peak time of interest."

Whilst rather macabre, their point is valid. Essentially is that in a "connected" online world, it's time to colour outside the lines, hell, we are all living totally outside the lines.

There are real opportunities in being in touch with what your market / community is discussing and capitalising on this in your online marketing. Any big event, anything people are talking about, is a momentary chance to capture their attention.

So the zero budget marketing tip for today is to think creatively about HOW you can use big events to generate traffic and sales for your business's website.

For example:

Massive storms predicted in the new - opportunity for roofers & plumbers (prepare or repair), video rental (stay safe inside), insurance (are you covered), etc.

PS. It could be that there's opportunities in "small events" too. This post from lujure talks about a "weird trick" to generate traffic and sales from what people are talking about on Facebook. The author uses the example of dropping a phone into water being a good search term for a phone sales company. Follow the steps, it does actually work!