If you haven’t been paying attention to the latest PR Typhoon raging on Twitter, it was brought to us by the PR naive (to put it politely) board of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. In December the Foundation decided to cease funding Planned Parenthood to the tune of $680,000. When that decision was made public on Tuesday, social networks EXPLODED with a wave of anger and very, very little support for Komen. Scanning their Facebook Page and Twitter feed, one was hard pressed to find ANY support.

The Foundation attempted to dampen the outrage claiming that the decision was not political and that they withdrew support because Planned Parenthood was under ‘investigation’ after Republican congressman Cliff Stearns of Florida launched an inquiry to see if Planned Parenthood was using public funds to provide abortions. Despite their claims the decision came across to the public as purely political.

A few hours ago The Susan G. Komen Foundation announced that it was reversing its decision. So far the Twitterverse does not appear very forgiving, and whomever is managing their account must be exhausted, frantically cutting and pasting the “Please read our latest statement” with a link to their website.

What baffles me as a PR Professional is why a foundation that is so successful would be so profoundly unprepared for the backlash that erupted. They made many pronouncements about the apolitical nature of their decision, but charities more than any other type of organization, have to understand that public perception is what drives their business. If your entire modus operendi is to get people to open their pockets and hand over their hard earned money to support your cause, doing ANYTHING that alienates or angers a majority of people is completely taboo. To take such a risk without understanding what may come means that you are devoid of any PR savvy whatsoever.

The moral of the story? Big changes in company policy must be analyzed, prior to them being made, not solely for what will happen to gross revenue, but for what PR impact they will have on your business. Watching Komen flounder for what very well may be years to recover their once pristine reputation should be a learning lesson to business and organizations of all sizes. Not having your finger on the pulse of your audience and blatantly offending many of them is simply terrible for business.

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In my heart of hearts I’m a ‘salesman.‘ Although my career has taken me far from the “boots on the ground” type of selling where I started, my soul will always be in Sales. If you’re good at sales someone always wants to promote you, and if you are a natural salesperson, you take that promotion in your never ending quest to “achieve more.” You find great Sales Hearts who wind up in all sorts of places; sometimes with great success… sometimes bemoaning the fact that they ever left the front line.

Through my career in Sales/Sales Management and now Marketing, I’ve been exposed to thousands upon thousands of Sales People, Sales Tactics, and Sales Strategy. Reading a fabulous post by S. Anthony Iannarino reminded me in a very compelling way about the 2 qualities successful sales requires:

COURAGE & PERSISTENCE

I cut my sales teeth in the Flooring Industry, not glamorous but full of gritty mom and pop stores where the basics of smart business meant the difference between doors open or doors closed forever. And I covered New England; anyone who has ever sold in that beautiful segment of the country knows that NO ONE is welcomed with arms wide open unless they’ve known each other’s families for generations. It was a great place to learn tough and learn quick; I was lucky to meet quite a few old timers who were willing to share their stories and advice with me. One of these stories has stuck with me for the last 20 years and I’ve probably retold it a hundred times. Here it is again:

One of the most successful stores in Southern New Hampshire literally dominates their area. I went in full of hope and enthusiasm and was determined to build my sales. Months went by; although the salespeople became quite friendly with me, I saw no orders. My prices were good… they liked my product, but I was getting NO traction. Frustrated, I went to speak with the owner and literally asked him “What am I doing wrong.” His reply, “Nothing, you’re doing everything right. Just keep doing it.”

Then he told me this story: He had another female rep. (we were a rarity in those days) who represented Armstrong Sheet Vinyl for a specific distributor. He informed the woman the first time she came into his store that he had been buying his Armstrong from the other distributor for 20 years, was great friends with the other rep., and although she was a very nice lady… she shouldn’t waste her time trying to get his business.

Most reps, who are counseled ad nausem by their managers about “efficiency,” would have thanked the owner for his frankness and spent their time developing other prospects, but she didn’t. Each quarter when new samples came out and were shipped to that store, she came in and updated the display. On her rounds she’d stop in and make sure the Salespeople had everything they needed it and checked in with the owner. He always asked her politely why she kept trying so hard when he gave her no business, and her response was always the same “one day you might.”

After about 18 months of this continued pattern the owner had a lead on a very big commercial job and could not get a hold of his long time rep. for a sharper price. After waiting 24 hours to hear back he called the other rep. and was taken care of on the spot. The next day he decided that she would get 50% of all of his company’s Armstrong business.

It may seem like a lot of work for half of the reward, but this store was HUGE and did a tremendous volume. That 50% was worth a gigantic spike in our persistent rep’s overall numbers.

It may seem like a simplistic tale, but it’s an honest one, and the lessons I learned through this other rep’s experience have made me stick with a prospect far longer than I would have without knowing this story. Most of the time it has worked to my benefit.

I am not advocating that you latch on to every prospect with this sort of tenacity; you would never have the time to do that and it would be nonsensical in some cases. However, there are some prospects whose shift of only 50% of their business to you would transform your company. Your job is to understand who they are and stick with it.

Your job is to also understand which of those clients you already have, and remind yourself that there may be another company out there as persistent as this woman in my story; you need to treat your current clients with persistent and excellent service to make sure they stay with you.

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I spend a lot of time helping my clients improve their business methods. Anyone who has worked with me knows that I am a Systems Fanatic. I learned long ago that unless there is discipline and a SYSTEM, important things fall through the cracks.

And yet, as focused as I am and as much time as I spend preaching discipline and focus, I struggle to spend my time doing the important things rather than the most visible things or putting out fires.

Jeremy Powers’ guest post on this blog last week got me back on track, again. So I sat down and did what needs to be done periodically to make sure that you are investing your time in a way that pays you back.

I revamped my calendar with as much accuracy as possible and literally scheduled all of my regular tasks.

If you want to see this picture clearly without the annoying side bar, click on it:

This may seem a little… ah… anal retentive, but these are the tasks I absolutely must do to keep my business functioning, keep the sales funnel full, and bring in a pay check. I’m involved in a lot of projects; some actually pay me but others are volunteer. If I’m not careful, the volunteer work can literally suck the paycheck right out of my week. So here’s my methodology:

1. Determine how many hours you actually have to spend in your office getting work done. We all have a figure we pretend is real – 40, 50, 80 hours a work week. But somewhere in that number is chat time on your cell, water cooler catching up, or the social media vortex where things like Words with Friends eat up an hour at a time without you even realizing or admitting it. Be honest and give yourself that recharge time in your calendar. I’m lucky, I work alone in my office and have other staff scattered throughout the country; in general we only speak when there is work to be done during the business day. If you are not so lucky you’ll need to create a policy about when you’re available for chit chat and when you must be left alone. Doing this ahead of time eliminates interruptions AND hard feelings on both sides

2. Make a list of exactly what MUST be done each week. It should include:

Social Media Activity
Actual project work with specific goals
Sales calls
Networking Time
Blogging Time
Analysis Time
Newsletter content

and any other thing that you do on a weekly or monthly basis.

Then figure out what you need to do MORE of. What makes you money? That has to come first, unless you’re independently wealthy in which case you can send some dinero to me at 9908 Gulf Drive, Anna Maria, Fl.

Seriously, at least 50% of your time HAS to be billable (aim for 60%). You probably think you bill for more. When you develop and stick to a calendar like this you’ll begin to see your gross revenue opportunity and reality more clearly. And remember, selling is not billable time – that’s you out fishing for work that will be billable if you land the project. Billable time is you working on something you will charge for.

3. Make a decision about how much time each task realistically requires, and then determine when is the best time to do it. I am all clarity and energy from really early in the morning until about 2pm. At that point I need to be engaging with people or doing design work; my heavy intellectual lifting must be in the morning. Plan your most important tasks for your most focused time of the day. Again, be honest. If your co-worker co-opts 20 minutes of your time each morning catching you up on her home life, don’t count that 20 minutes as time you’ll dedicate to a task.

4. Use a scheduling program to keep yourself on track. I use Outlook and it allows me to create recurring appointments. I also set alarm reminders for each one of them. Yes, it means I have the annoyance of the alarm popping up on my screen, nagging me if I haven’t completed the task… but it’s NECESSARY to keep me on point.

5. Set analysis time aside at least once a month. You never really know the value of your activities unless you take the time to analyze their effectiveness on a regular basis. Most sales types detest this; they just want to sell. Using the results of your efforts to adjust them is not only necessary, to do otherwise is insane. If you are spending 4 hours a week posting to Facebook and have not built your following nor had any engagement, you need to analyze both the WAY you’re using it and whether or not it’s the right social media platform for your business. You need to do this with every aspect of your calendar and make adjustments as you go.

It’s like a whole other job keeping organized at first, but eventually this becomes how you do your work and not a project in itself. There are very few highly successful business people who are disorganized and unfocused. Enacting these practices helps you measure the ROI of your week and maximize your own productivity. The feeling of sanity helps too.

What do you do to stay on track?

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If your business survived (or thrived?) 2011, you one of the goals you probably set for 2012 was to “get serious” about marketing on the web. That is a fairly broad goal, and without some boundaries, you will quickly feel overwhelmed.

The first decision you have to make is to determine what you plan to invest. How much time are you going to invest? How much money should you spend? (Equally important, of course, is who should you trust with your web marketing dollars?) For today, let’s focus on your financial budget.

Here are a few approaches you can use to determine your internet marketing budget:

1. Percentage of Past Sales – Cash Available method
Service businesses tend to be especially cash dependent. In these situations, what you should invest is often a matter of what you can legitimately afford to invest. I recommend a marketing spend of 10% of gross revenue for growth-oriented service businesses. Of course, you probably will want some of that money for offline marketing. Given the growing influence of the internet when selecting a service provider, however, you should plan to spend at least 40% of your marketing budget for web-related assets.
Example

A 3-person lawncare company grosses $375,000 in sales each year. (HUSTLE) Using our example above, 15% of $375,000 is $37,500. That represents the total marketing budget of the company. The web marketing portion of that marketing budget is $15,000. (37,500*40%)

2. Percentage of Profits – Cash Flow driven method
Our next example is just as simple, especially if you are focused on selling one particular service or item. In this example, you invest a percentage of your profits from each new sale back into the web marketing activities that generated the sale. This means more profitable marketing activities receive more ongoing investment than less profitable activities.
Example

A carpet cleaning company sells a “whole house” carpet cleaning service for $299. From each sale, the initial owner profit is 20%, or $59.80. The owner wants to grow his share in the local market quickly, and he is reinvesting 35% of all of his profits back into proven marketing platforms. For each sale generated from Facebook advertising, for example, the owner adds another $20.93 into his Facebook account. ($59.80 x 35%)

3. Planned Sales – Confidence required method
This last approach is the way most consultants talk about marketing investment. In this method you review the projected sales and marketing percent of sales required. Then you simply invest accordingly. Most new business owners lack the capital and confidence required for this approach.

Example
A new restaurant is opening in June of this year. During the 4 months leading up to the launch, the owner contracts a web marketing firm to build his website, plan his social media campaigns, and build a launch kit for his business online during the pending grand opening of the restaurant.
Which of these budgeting methods is best for you?
If you are planning to improve your web marketing in 2012, you will need to invest the help of a professional. That professional will need to be given some investment boundaries and results objectives. Which of these budgeting objectives works for your business? How have you determined your internet marketing budget in the past?

by Jeremy Powers
After nearly a decade of branding and marketing for large companies, Jeremy is now Principal at Winding Staircase, where he wants to help you with marketing your company.

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There is tremendous confusion among many people responsible for manning Small Business Facebook Pages concerning how much control their company should take on their own Facebook Business Page. I witness everything from total neglect – not even joining the conversation – to total dictatorship and actually stifling any real conversation.

Primarily this issue rears its head when there is a complaint or PR mishap on the part of the company. The natural reaction for many is to hit “delete” and attempt to bar negative conversation from snowballing on their page.

If that’s your tack, how wrong you are.

And even really smart, successful businesses are wrong about this regularly.

My very intelligent, internet savvy business owner friend actually stated the following to me when I told him that he could not have that total control, and that Facebook is successful because it is about free and open conversation among consumers and with companies:

“Yes it’s about conversation…but not in the way that they are using it. They can debate all they want on twitter, and their own accounts and profiles, but they are misusing the vehicle of Facebook in the way in which they are posting stuff now to this page.

The intent of a FB Page is to have you the owner put out the “Media” and for the “Likers” to have a conversation. Not for them to make your page into a discussion forum. There are many other sites that provide that service and FB Pages is not and was not intended for that.”

So along this line of thinking you, the owner of the company, starts the conversation and allows your audience to participate on those subjects you deem important; you direct the conversation.

WRONG AGAIN, smart friend.

If this is how you are using your Facebook Business Page I can guarantee that you have a small, disengaged following. That’s easy to check: go to your left column and you’ll see how many people are talking about your page.

But back to the real point: when should you, if ever, delete content that you don’t want on your page?

My answer: NEVER, unless there is vulgarity or threatening language on your page.

If your retort to me is that ‘it takes too much time’ to monitor and respond to complaints on your Facebook Page, then get off of Facebook. The entire point of Social Media is for your audience to be Social, and they’ll do it on their own time, thank you very much.

If your company has serious customer service issues that prompt complaints on your page you’d better do at least one of the following:

1. Respond to each complaint genuinely, apologizing if necessary, and stating that you appreciate all of your customers and are doing everything possible to rectify the situation.
2. Respond that you are sorry about the misunderstanding and clarify what actually happened in a VERY polite manner.
3. Repeat, again and again, that excellent customer service is your standard and you will continue to work towards making every single customer experience a positive one.

Do this ad nauseum as the situation requires. And yes, that may mean saying it again and again and again to unhappy customers.

Never ignore complaints and do not delete unfavorable comments. Any good sales person knows that a complaint or issue is actually a relationship building opportunity. Stick with it and show good faith, and you can change perception.

Here is the crux of the matter: You don’t own your Facebook Page. Facebook does technically, but really, your followers do. You own your website, your email newsletter, your direct mail campaigns and your own PR, but none of us own our own Social Media Pages.

Thinking you do assures that

a) you are wrong, and
b) your perception of what Social Media is for is very clouded.

It is NOT your marketing platform; it is your direct conversation platform. No one ever wants to entertain a one-sided conversation for very long.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how many times it’s ok to hit “delete.”

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Sitting happily at my desk in my new offices I realize that I get a TON more done than when I shared a space with my pal and GM, Sara. Isolated, I plow through my work and actually look forward to the infrequent visitors who wander in.

Today a gentleman came in to sell me his shiny new thing: Textable Business Cards.

Because I’m a New Media junkie (and if you want the lofty term, Marketing Consultant) I’m always open to hearing about any tech related tactic to market your business. Because I am also an old Sales Hand I LOVE being sold to because I know how tough it is; my years as a Sales Manager taught me to respect and value those who are good at it.

What happens next is the gentleman shows me his nicely designed text-able Business Card.

Me: “What is the difference between your ‘product’ and me just texting a jpeg of my card?”

Him: “Everyone says they can do it themselves, but you don’t bake your own bread do you?”

Me: “When would I text someone my card – how would that work and give me an example of WHY I would do that?”

Him: “What do you think happens when you give someone your Real Life Business Card?”

Me:”Hopefully they put me into their contacts and connect with me on Social Media. That’s what I do with the ones I get, and then I throw them out.”

Him: “They won’t throw out your digital card.”

Me: “But when would they look at it – wouldn’t they forget it’s in their gallery?”

As I sat there of course I googled his company and found out that someone else already owned the domain name www.textacard.com. He corrected me that his had hyphens – as in tex-a-card.com. “Ohhh I said, but you have NO SEO. What happens if someone meets you or hears about you and want’s to look you up?”

Him: “We don’t want to be found that way. We’re selling directly to big companies.”

At this point I said, “Well good luck. I do a lot of New Media Marketing and not a lot of texting in that way, so no thank you.”

Him: “You should start thinking out of the box.”

And so our exchange ended. I was bemused and he was very frustrated with me.

I didn’t torture the man because I enjoyed it – I was just very busy and wanted to quickly understand how his product would help me or my clients, and he couldn’t tell me exactly.

As always, it all goes back to Sales101:

1. Have your story down and be able to quickly, in a matter of a couple of minutes, explain to your target HOW your product will benefit them.
2. Ask questions about your client’s business and have some scenarios ready to explain your product working in real life situations (this man never asked one question).
3. Don’t become combative. No matter how great your product is it won’t work for everyone; it’s your job to make sure they remember you as friendly and helpful because they may know someone who would use your product. Never slam any door shut.

I realize Sales is a tough gig; loads of rejection can wear a person down. But it’s also High Reward, and it’s part of the J-O-B to accept rejection with grace. No one owes you anything, and they certainly don’t owe you a purchase. Some of your best customers will turn you down a few times before buying…. but they’ll never buy if you sour the deal even once by demeaning them.

Remember: every interaction you have is your PR.

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I’m a Social Media geek so it may surprise you that I am not always an early adaptor of technology. Of course I drool over the latest Apple offering, but, like so many crazy-busy Small Business owners, I don’t always have time to stop and LEARN the new gadget.

“Comfortable” is highly underrated by tech savvy folk.

Social Media came along and changed this ‘fear stance’ for me. I, like millions of others, quickly grasped that Social Media would allow a direct conversation line with my target audience and current customers, so I jumped right into Facebook, LinkedIn, and then Twitter. Parts of it became overwhelming – I mean, develop a custom Facebook Fan Page on my own??? That’s what programmers are for, right?

So I paid lots of guys lots of money to do all sorts of ‘programming’ for me. I got the iPhone and figured that part out, but as far as any sort of coding or programming I stayed FAR away. And I waited to buy most new gadgets until I had to…. Mostly because I didn’t want to slow down long enough to learn them.

But a funny thing happened over the past few months…. Out of necessity and opportunity I was FORCED to learn some basic coding for a website and I realized how un-scary it really was. With growing courage I learned more, and then more and I realized that simply because I was an English Lit freak from childhood did not mean that I couldn’t learn this new language. That’s all it really is – a different language, but not an unintelligible one.

And gadgets are not so tough either, as long as we slow down, give our self a moment’s peace and figure them out. The good ones free up our time and make life easier. The really good ones are intuitive and easily understood.

So for all those times you DIDN’T make the change (and that’s right I’m speaking to YOU dear client, who is STILL using AOL as your web browser), think again. Updating from Word2003 is really not so hard, and lots of new tools are at your fingertips. If you’re still using Outlook Express, or even worse, no email management program, make it a goal to get Tech organized this year too. And while we’re rolling, be brave and explore my short list of tech/software that can change your life:

1. Salesforce.com: If you have more than a couple salespeople THIS is your tool.
2. Basecamp: If you have multiple project with lots of employees or subcontractors involved on different aspects of the project, this is INSTANT ORGANIZATION.
3. GotoMeeting is an indispensible tool for busy, geographically challenged small business owners.
4. GotoMyPC: If you’re sick of saving everything to your desk top and laptop or having to stay at the office to finish work you’d like to do from home, this program allows you to keep everything on one computer and LOG IN from wherever you are. Believe me, when your laptop dies you’ll be THRILLED.
5. Carbonite: there are lots of other programs out there to back up your files online, but this one is SIMPLE and then automated so that you never have to worry about backing up again. When your desk top dies you’ll be even more thrilled you did it.

So take an hour out of your schedule and explore how these tools may CHANGE YOUR WORK LIFE.
Life will not slow down because of technology, but you’ll be able to handle it more efficiently. Trust me.

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In the ongoing debate about how often a company should send out their Email Marketing I can say for certain that no one has the “correct” answer. Over at Spin Sucks they raised this question a few weeks ago and 2 thing amazed me:

1. How many people had absolutely no idea.
2. How many people were absolutely certain that they had the right answer.

Of course there were the Email Haters who weighed in with their “Email is dead, why bother?” statements; I can tell you this much, The Email Haters are definitely wrong.

If your audience [list] thinks that what you are saying is valuable, the frequency of it doesn’t matter AT ALL. Most people will not want your email everyday, but I can tell you that there are great blogs that are read every single day by thousands upon thousands of people who receive notification of the latest post via email.

I am not advising you to start sending off messages daily or even weekly, but my personal belief is that once a month is too infrequent. If you only have something worthwhile to say once a month, people may stop listening; we always underestimate how valuable familiarity is. But again, none of us know the exact answer for our audience; let your content determine that.

And stop calling them Email Newsletters, I mean, could you think of a more boring way to describe your content? If you are providing interesting, useful information there has GOT to be a better description of what it can be for your clients. How about Must Have ____________ Tips, or Stay in the Know, or What’s Going on in ___________? ANYTHING but Newsletter, because who wants to read one of those?

The moral of the story? Stop worrying about the exact formula for timing your email marketing and focus a lot more on what you have to say AND what your clients need to here. THAT is the answer the the ongoing question of how often to hit ‘send.’

Full Credit to Doug Davidoff who actually said “Value Trumps Fequency” over there on Spin Sucks. Credit http://twitter.com/dougdavidoff on Spin Sucks.

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It is my job in Real Life to create smart marketing strategies for Small Business clients that suit their budget and brand. These days this almost always includes creating, or developing, their online marketing presence. Although it may appear that EVERYONE is on Social Media these days, it’s simply not true for many businesses. And many that are on don’t understand how to use the tools they’ve set up. Often the decision makers(s) is, to say the least, overwhelmed by Social Media in particular. My advice is always to put one foot in front of the other and master one platform at a time. Once you get your sea legs with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn… and now possibly Google+, you can start to determine which platforms work best for your business and focus your time in the right places.

If you decide that 2012 will be the year you really learn how to use social media to grow your business, and fine tune your skills, here are my Top 5 Marketing Minds to follow and learn from:

1. Chris Brogan Any of us who spend a lot of time in Social Media may believe that everyone already knows who Chris is; he’s one of the most ‘famous’ Social Media stars. But, if you’ve never used Social Media you probably don’t. His book Trust Agents (with Julien Smith) is still the first thing I recommend to clients so that they understand that Social Media is NOT a space to continually blast your marketing message. It’s about building trust and engaging with your audience.
2. Jay Baer: I discovered Jay about a year and a half ago and his blog, Convince and Convert, was one of the reasons I decided to narrow down the amount of information I was trying to consume and focus on engaging in a few excellent communities. Jay covers a wide range of topics, but he never mails in a mediocre post. Everyone of them is worthy of reading and re-reading, and the folks you find in the comment section are some of the smartest out there.
3. Gini Dietrich Founder and CEO of Amrent Dietriech, is one of the wittiest and positive online people I know. Her blog, Spin Sucks, offers daily doses of knowledge on a plethora of New Media tactics and often inspired and spirited discussion on PR and Marketing. The marketers I admire most I discovered on Spin Sucks, and although they may be Fortune 100 Marketers, PR mishaps happen to companies of all sizes everyday and the lessons learned here can save you from total disaster.
4. Danny Brown is one of those smart people I met on Spin Sucks, and his blog covers a range of Marketing and PR topics. Danny’s steady and thoughtful voice is absolutely priceless a midst the mania and wildfires that can blow up on Social Media. His new venture, Punk Views on Social Media, is the on the other end of the spectrum where you’ll encounter frank, often spicy discussion on Social Media.
5. Brian Clark’s Copyblogger is one of the Must Reads in my inbox. The reality is that you can have all of the megaphones (platforms) in the world, but if your content isn’t compelling you won’t build an audience. Copyblogger covers more than just how to write or recognize this copy, and if you pay attention you’ll also learn a whole lot more about how to build your social media traffic and SEO.

If this seems like a lot to follow consider this: how many email newsletters do you receive that you barely skim and delete? Why not slim down your overloaded inbox and really focus on learning, thoroughly, how to use the platforms you’ve set up?

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The year is ending and you are so frustrated with what you didn’t accomplish for your business that you can’t even really sit down and focus on planning for next year. You did this last year – started with a plan and committed to really following through. You pledged NOT to get distracted and to stick to the plan…. but then life and just running your business got in the way. Eventually, you fell so far off track you just bagged the plan and swam for your life.

I get it. Most of us do. Running a small business means you wear 15 hats and never have enough time.

I GET IT.

I also know that if you’re smart enough to have survived the past few years and remain self employed, you’re one of the REALLY smart ones. You are capable of taking the next step towards a focused, well thought out marketing strategy.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Organize everything now, and I don’t mean on a grand scale. I mean clean out your inbox and set up folders so that you can quickly stick the less important missives into a folder to read later (if ever). Unsubscribe from every blog/newsletter you don’t read WEEKLY; believe me, you won’t miss it. Clear off your desk and file everything where it belongs; if it’s been sitting there for 2 months and you haven’t done it you don’t need to do it.

2. Create your Calendar. Yes, its part of #1, but it is the KEY to sticking to your overall marketing plan. I want you to sit down, figure out how many hours you need to dedicate per week/month to your Social Media Efforts/Blog/Newsletter/Direct Mail etc. Then block this time out on your calendar, shut off your Inbox notification… disconnect from your cell phone and every other distraction and take that time regularly to get your marketing done. This hyper organization is the ONLY way you’ll be able to stick to a plan. At first it will seem like an extraordinary test of your will power, but you will begin to feel like sticking to the plan is the most natural thing in the world… like exercise it becomes easier over time.

3. Analyze 2011: What did you do to market your business this year? How did it work? Note: if you ‘tried’ email marketing for a couple of months and it didn’t work, it doesn’t count…. HOW did you craft those emails? When did you send them? How did you build your email list? Don’t throw out a tactic if you didn’t fully explore how to make it work for you.

4. Create the new plan. That simple sentence is obviously the hardest part. Need some tips – here’s how I see a good small business marketing plan laying out:

a. Branding Discipline: Is your logo consistently used everywhere?

b. Website Review and additions. This should be happening regularly but alas, it doesn’t. Do it now. Review, update, and schedule monthly reviews.

c. Email Marketing. If you haven’t succeeded, don’t give up. Hire a pro… do some learning… Email Marketing is the DIRECT line of communication with your client. It works when it’s done right.

d. Social Media Strategy: Facebook will have over 1 billion followers soon. If your Facebook Page is just sitting there and not growing and evolving, get on it. HOW do you get your followers to Engage and SHARE your company and your ideas? Who is in charge of creating the conversation? What is your Twitter Presence like? Have you set up Google+? Perhaps you need to hire a pro to set you up and point you in the right direction. But make a decision to tackle it yourself or hire that pro, and make it happen. Early. In January.

e. Traditional Marketing: Do you know how inexpensive TV ads are? In some markets prime spots cost as little as $25/spot. If you integrate it with Radio & Print and your New Media tactics, you can hammer your message home to your target audience. The best thing you can do? Hire an advertising pro – they can negotiate a great rate, set up your plan and get it moving, and take their commission FROM THE OTHER GUY.

f. Direct Mail: I know, lots of smart people have told you that Direct Mail was resting in its grave beside Email Marketing. WRONG on both counts. You may not run the kind of business that mass mailings will work for, and there’s no quicker way for a small business to blow their budget than an ineffective 10,000 piece mailer. However, you are the kind of business that an attractive, distinctive Post Card or Letter with a handwritten note, sent to your target clients, can work for. I like to call this Surgical Marketing, where you focus on hand recruiting select clients via a plan of Direct Mail, Email, Social Media connecting, a phone call and then a meeting. THIS IS NOT STALKING, so be careful. This is nurturing if done properly.

After you have your tactics in order, lastly and very importantly, you must have a system for TRACKING their individual effectiveness. One of the single most essential steps that is often overlooked by small business is MEASURING your marketing effectiveness. This requires a system that ALL of your employees understand, and enforcement of this system.

So if you haven’t done it yet, take time off during the holidays to review what tactics on this list, or others not mentioned, best suit your business. Then create a strategy that includes a dedicated budget, and put it in place. Next year this time you’ll be a lot smarter about marketing and a lot less frustrated.

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