Twas the night before Christmas and I was thinking about new rules of marketing!

As I read the first few lines of this poem online (we also have the book), I thought how strangely appropriate and timeless this work of art remains nearly 200 years after it was first written. There was indeed 'not a creature stirring' in my house, although there was some clicking from the computer mouse, which I don't think really counts.

To stay with the theme in my original post, let's start by looking at some basic marketing concepts and strategies that can help individuals and small business owners successfully reach their goals. To get this right, I'd like to start with a baseline in the form of a common definition for strategy. Having read many different interpretations, I've settled on strategy as 'plan of action to deploy resources in order to achieve desired objectives'. I like this statement because it spells out what every winning strategy should contain: well-defined objectives, a plan to get from here to there and showing commitment by allocating resources (time, people & money).

In 'The New Rules of Marketing & PR', David Meerman Scott talks about building an action plan that begins by asking yourself 'what is my goal?'. Since the target audience of upcoming radio show is writers and authors, I would assume the goal may be finding a publisher, selling a book online or creating a networking hub for authors and writers in the community. Defining an objective, allows one to take action and make incremental steps forward, sideways and back without losing sight of the ultimate goal. Additionally, knowing the goal is important when it's time to measure the results of the marketing strategy. If the goal is to sell books online, it would make sense to invest in creating an e-commerce friendly website.  Even without a lot of bells and whistles (cool sticky web design or fancy artwork), the marketing strategy should have a reasonable Payback period to be considered effective.  

According to David Scott, the second part of the plan should be 'understanding your buyer persona'. Over the years, I've met many business owners who were not exactly sure who was visiting their companies' websites and who was purchasing their products. Are your readers teens, stay at home moms, business professionals or men of a certain age and demographic? Clearly, the buyer persona has dramatic impact on the design of the marketing material, communications strategy and sales approach (if you are selling anything). Bringing together the buyer persona with your goals is the start of your successful marketing strategy.