Several of my marketing consulting clients came on board for the same reason. The story goes something like this. “I was so busy before, I could barely keep up. But, now the phone’s not ringing as much and I’m getting concerned.”

Usually they had only a few clients – often ones that simply fell into their lap for this reason or that. But, this handful kept them busy. Then something changed. One of their contacts changed and the new person tapped into their own designers. Or, their client’s business slowed down and they weren’t doing as many projects.

They were behind the eight ball before things slowed down for a couple of reasons. First, it’s dangerous to have any one client represent more than 30% of your total business revenues. Second, they figured the work would keep coming in, so they didn’t take time to promote their practice and now they're scrambling to play catch up.

Marketing takes time. It carries something of a snowball effect. Over time, various activities begin to work together to create a synergistic effect that greater than any individual tactic.

So, they found themselves overwhelmed, trying to make up for lost time and get the biggest bang for their buck. They’d try one thing and then another. Maybe they’d send out a letter or other mail piece, convinced it will bring in loads of clients, only to find they don’t receive a single response. They ran an ad with the same result. In the back of their head, they knew they needed to plan their efforts, but they didn’t have a clue where to start. The silent phone only increased their anxiety.

In the immortal words of Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, “It’s always best to start at the beginning.” At the beginning should be your goals and your plan to make them a reality. Without a set of goals and a plan in hand, you’ll wander aimlessly trying this or that tactic, going from feast to famine and back again.

For some, a marketing plan might be just a page or two. For others it might be a hefty document. Either way, it should contain some core information. The following is the short form.

Your goals
What are you trying to accomplish with your business? Increase revenue? Build a better mousetrap? Be tops in your field? All of the above?

Drafting your goals should be a thoughtful task. They should be meaningful, attainable and measurable. Here are a few examples:

• Add three new clients per month

• Increase market awareness by securing at least one press mention each quarter

• Create a press kit by December 31, 2006

Your niche
It’s been said that when one tries to be all things to all people, one ends up being nothing to everybody. Marketing becomes a lot easier when you have a well-defined target to focus in on.

Your niche needs to be big enough to be profitable, yet small enough so you’re not lost in a crowd of competitors. Plus, the prospects within your niche must need and want what you’re selling ... and have the cash to pay for it. That’s important. You won’t be able to sustain your business if the type of prospects you target aren’t willing and able to fork over the dinero.

Once you’ve found a niche or two, learn all you can about that market, common challenges, who the movers and shakers are, etc. Being informed about your prospects’ businesses and their industry increases your value, your ability to accurately solve their problems and your credibility.

Your value proposition
Your value proposition is what you bring to the table that provides real value and benefits for your clients. It should also be something(s) your competitors either don’t or can’t offer. It what differentiates you.

When you think about benefits, don’t confuse them with features. Think about what you’re really providing. For instance, a feature might be a speedy new computer and state-of-the-art software that runs like a jack rabbit after downing a half dozen espressos. The benefit is fast turnaround time. At the core of that benefit is saving your client time, less stress meeting a deadline and fewer woes from their boss.

Your benefits should focus on the core issues that hit home with people - creating comfort, safety, reduce worry or anxiety, making them look good to their bosses, etc. It’s important to remember that even if your client is a large company, you don’t market to a company. You market to people. When you make them look good, help make their job easier and less stressful, you’re in like Flint. Who the heck was Flint, anyway*?

The competition
A competitive analysis can get pretty complicated and time consuming. For an independent or small business, you should at least have a good idea who your key competitors are and what they’ve been up to. Visit their sites, look at their ads and other promo material you can get your hands on, read their news releases, talk to your prospects and clients. Odds are, if your competitors are any good they’ve been in contact with the same folks you have.

Your action plans
With your goals in hand, it’s time to put together some action plans to reach them. Your action plans might include creating a brochure or press kit, writing articles and press releases, cold/warm calls, postcards or other mailings, speaking engagements, etc.

It’s critical that you do a couple of things. First, create a method to remind yourself of what needs to be done and when. I use a contact manager with alerts. If you don’t have a software calendar/contact manager, at least jot things down on a traditional calendar and put it up where you’ll see it. Another low tech method is to simply write down what needs to be done the next day on a post-it note. Then, before you end your day, stick it on your monitor. The thing is, if you don’t have a reminder system, you’ll forget or put stuff off. The phone rings. The inbox jingles. Life happens.

Second, give a marketing tactic enough time to work. It takes time for things to build up some speed. If something is obviously not working after a reasonable amount of time, dump it and try something else. Different activities require different testing windows. For instance, if you do, say, three mailings over the course of three months and they haven’t generated jack, it’s probably time to either rethink your message or try something else. On the other hand, building up media relationships can take quite a while before you start to see results. With some time, you’ll find those activities that are a good fit for you.

Your budget
They say it takes money to make money. That’s true. You’ll need to be prepared to spend a certain amount to promote your practice. That might mean shelling out some shekels for printing mailers, or printing up some fresh letterheads and envelopes for a sales letter. If you’re cash-strapped, you’ll need to focus on low or no cost activities. These can be writing articles to submit to websites and/or trade publications, giving talks at business clubs, or simply making phone calls.

Based on your action plans, set up a spreadsheet for each activity and break them down into each element. For a mailer, it may include costs for writing, photography or illustration, renting a list, printing and mailing fees, etc.

When your budget is complete, you’ll know what you need to spend and when. Also, remember that you don’t need all the dough from the get go. If you’re planning is sound, it will yield results – new clients. The revenues from the work will help fuel your marketing machine.

And there you have it. Pretty simply, eh? Now roll up your sleeves, sharpen up that pencil and get to planning.

* The phrase originated as, “In like Flynn,” a reference to actor, Errol Flynn’s, ease in accomplishing cinematic feats. It also referred to his somewhat colorful and notorious romantic life, both on screen and off.

The phrase was modified as the title of the 1967 spy-spoof movie, “In like Flint,” starring James Coburn. The title was meant to allude to the “Flynn” phrase.