Episode 51: What happens if you don't have a marketing plan?

Send us Fan MailI discussed why all businesses needed a marketing plan a few weeks ago. I'll link that episode in the resources section if you need a refresher!So, what happens if you don't have a marketing plan?Here are five things you will face if you don't work on that for your business:1. You won't have a clear direction. If you are anything like me, your shiny object syndrome will be off the charts! Instead of moving in a straight path towards an end goal, you will try various things that won't necessarily get you from A to B.2. You will not hit your goals. You will not hit your goals, partially because you didn't write them down. If I write down a goal, I have an easier time accomplishing the task. It's a way to keep things top of mind and keeps you focused and moving forward. 3. You will waste a lot of time. This is partly influenced by the lack of clear direction and the shiny object syndrome, but you will waste time. The fastest way between 2 points is a straight line. Unfortunately, you can not draw a straight line if you only have one point!4. You will change your offerings to meet the current day's goals. I run into this with clients all the time. For example, I read this email, and this group is saying X. Then someone else asks me if I do Y, so now I am creating a service to handle it. THEN another person comes to me saying they just got a referral to someone outside their target audience—and the new company is bigger and better or belongs to a different industry, and my website doesn't cover it.Changing to adjust to the flavor of the day will hurt you long-term. 5. Confusing your customers. Now, This is a big one! You always want to make sure your customers understand exactly what you offer. They can't do that if your offerings are all over the place. If you have too many messages in the marketplace, they might not know about a new product or service. They might become too confused to dig deeper and find your valuable offerings!Will you create a marketing plan to make sure you are successful this year? Still trying to figure out where to start? Reach out to me at [email protected]; I would love to hear from you!Resources:Who needs a marketing plan?30 days of social media post ideas (free downloadable)5 hacks to make content generation easier! (free downloadable) Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube. From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain. Watch here