5 Minute Marketing Plan? What's Up?

The following is an example of a marketing plan tool offered in the follwing resource:
Marketing Kit for Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance) by Alexander Hiam, a very helpful resource for developing an effective marketing plan that fits your specific style. The book includes easy-to-understand tips and idea-generating templates. The book also includes a CD with examples, templates and other resources.

To use this plan, ask yourself each of the questions and jot down quick answers to each. Then revisit your answers at least once a week to make sure you’re pursuing any ideas they brought up.

And yes, time yourself and give each of the five sections just one minute. Because each section has two questions, you can spend only 30 seconds on each question, including both thinking and writing time. So this exercise requires almost instantaneous responses. You’ll have to scribble frantically to complete it in five minutes. As you’ll see when you try it, attacking these questions at very high speed loosens up the marketing imagination. Fresh ideas may pop up or you may find yourself bringing a long-standing assumption into question for the first time. So limber up that wrist, clear your head take a deep breath of fresh air, and then glance at the clock and get started.

Alexander Hiam’s Five Minute Marketing Plan

This is an idea-generating activity. Let the time pressure free you to scribble down as many good ideas as you can, no editing or second-guessing. Then see if any of them can actually be done in the short term. The goal is at least one actionable idea!

First Minute: Product

What could we do right now to improve the quality of our products/services in the eyes of our customers?

What additional product or service would our customers most like us to offer?

Second Minute: Price

What could we do right away to cut costs without hurting our quality?

What offers could we afford to make to encourage new customers to try us or encourage current customers to be more loyal?

Third Minute: Placement

What could we do right now to make our current distribution process work more efficiently or effectively for our customers?

What new approach could we try to reach different customers or reach current customers in a different way?

Fourth Minute: Promotion

What could we do right now to make our customer communications more clear and compelling?

What new ways of communicating with customers could we try right away?

Fifth Minute: People

What could we do to increase our motivation and enthusiasm?

What could we do to make our customers feel more enthusiastic and thankful toward us?

STOP! Your time is up.

Come up with any useful ideas? Have a look at what you wrote and see whether any of the ideas are worth pursuing. In the majority of cases, people come up with at least one good idea in the five minutes it takes to do this creative planning exercise.

And one good idea can be worth a lot of sales some day. That’s the nice thing about using your marketing imagination.

This is a sample of what is included in this valuable marketing plan resource.

Source:
Marketing Kit for Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance) by Alexander Hiam, a very helpful resource for developing an effective marketing plan that fits your specific style. The book includes easy-to-understand tips and idea-generating templates. The book also includes a CD with sample plans and other marketing plan resources.

Need a Marketing Plan?

You can develop your marketing plan by clicking here. This is a great resource.