Business owners can learn a key strategy to their business' health from medical professionals. The message from doctors and pharmacists has been the same for decades – Finish your prescribed medicine! A medicinal campaign is prescribed to a person to help what ails them, and to keep them healthy and living. The failure to finish out the medicinal campaign can lead to further health problems, and in more serious situations, the death of the patient.
Business owners should follow this same rule when applied to their marketing campaigns. Too often a business owner dabbles a little here and a little there, not following a solid plan that will keep their business healthy and thriving.
Your marketing plan is to the health of your business as the doctor your doctor prescribes is to your personal health. Start to think of your marketing campaign as medicine to help keep your business healthy.
Imagine a person with a heart issue, one that can become very serious if the person does not follow their medicinal campaign on a regular basis. As long as they follow the strategy developed by the doctor, they can continue to maintain their desired lifestyle and do things they enjoy. Most likely, that person is going to ensure that they follow their doctor's strategy, because they understand that failure to do so could put their health at risk.
Intelligent people understand the risks of not completely completing the prescribed doses of an antibacterial medicine. Failure to finish the medicine as directed can lead to further, and more serious illnesses. Yet, many intelligent business owners do not follow this same direction when it comes to their marketing plans and campaigns.
Medicine is prescribed to a person after a physician completes a thorough examination of the patient's history and current status. The doctor determines what the best medicine will counteract the patient's ailments, provides the patient with a medicinal campaign, thus helping them become healthy and maintain their desired lifestyle.
A detailed Marketing Plan is the businesses equivalent of a patient's medical campaign. First, the business' history, current status and desired state are determined. A strategy is then developed to increase the business' ailments. If the strategy is followed and completed, the business will have a great chance at being healthy, leading to a long and prosperous life. If the strategy is not followed completely, then the risks of further ailments, even more serious ones, increase dramatically.
Now imagine a business that has been losing revenue, and needs to attract new customers in order to become healthy once again. The Marketing Plan is the prescription to reversing the ailments the business is suffering from. Following the developed strategy closely is critical to overcoming the root cause of the symptoms. You may not see results right away, but you need to stick with it.
In addition, health officials state that preventive medicine is vital to the overall health of our people. Echoing that same thought pattern, preventive marketing is vital to the overall health of our businesses. If you wait until the symptoms are too severe, your business may have a very tough road to recovery.
Just as you should go back to your doctor for regular check-ups, you should complete a Marketing Plan Check-Up. Business owners should update their marketing plan every six months. Marketing plans are not meant to be static documents. Things change in the market place: New competition moves in, new services and products are introduced, changes occur in your demographics, etc.
Your doctor will change your medicinal campaign based on changes to your health. Make sure you keep your business as healthy as possible by doing the same for your Marketing Plan. At minimum remember to finish your medicine. The long-term health of your business depends on it.
