Page 290 - Duct Tape Marketing
P. 290

Commit to Your Marketing with a Plan, Budget, and Calendar

    	 Printing costs
    	 Web design costs
    	 Web site related costs

    In addition to the fixed foundation–type costs associated with
these items, you need to determine the actual promotional expendi-
tures you plan to test primarily as part of your lead generation system.
You will need to acquire direct mail and advertising costs for the fol-
lowing expenditures as part of your overall marketing plan:

    	 Promotion-based expenses
    	 Direct mail costs
    	 Advertising costs
    	 Lead conversion costs
    	 Customer relationship costs

                          The Calendar

The next and final step in the Duct Tape Marketing system is to take
the planned marketing tactics combined with your marketing budget
and create a calendar to track your marketing activities and act as a
visual marketing project management system.

    In many cases you may simply pick out a marketing budget that
you feel your current level of business or cash reserves can support,
choose a number of marketing activities that you believe will generate
an increased level of business, and plan accordingly. That very system
has served many a start-up business adequately enough, but your long-
term plan should involve a plan based on predictable results.

Map the Marketing Year by Activity
    One of the best ways to lead your business down the path of pre-

dictable results is to map out an entire year’s worth of marketing activity

                                      271
   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295