Creating a Long Term Business Marketing Plan

How long are you planning on being in business? Now before you answer that question, look at these questions:

If you are a seasonal business, Are you going to be in business next year?
If you are nearing retirement, Do you have a succession plan?
If you are just starting, Are you feeling overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done, yesterday?

Unless you are out for a quick buck and not planning on sticking around town, and your primary skill qualify you as a con-man, you need to think Long Term with your marketing.

Long term does not mean weekly, monthly, quarterly, even annually. Long term should be thought of in terms of decades, and lifetimes.

Why?

Most successful businesses are built on relationships. And relationships take time, energy, and effort to cultivate.

I'm working with a few businesses that used to do short term marketing strategies and blew a lot of money on gimmicks that created bursts of activity, but then the marketing money ran out and, they were left with a half dozen gimmicky ideas and not a coherent, relationship based marketing plan.

Here's a quick way to evaluate if you are doing relationship based marketing, or not. Ask yourself if the advertising and other marketing efforts are based on your needs and desires, or are they based on your customers needs and desires.

Stop doing the gimmicks, create value, the value that your customers are looking for, and design each and every marketing and advertising campaign to enhance those relationships.