Lessons

Lesson Info

Steps For Creating a Marketing Plan

at this point the common phrase everyone has seen it chat rooms social media and certainly in here in the studio is how am I going to get this stuff done I know the value of it I see the value that I c I can change people's lives I see how eleven of my customer and making them create that trust is going toe just change the way that I do things but how do I do it all so this is the step this is a part of the course where we put all together into a plan and I think the best way to do is just to dive right in and get into the details we're going to spend the next hour hour plus hour and a half really trying to flesh out of marketing plan for you because first we need to do is establish that system we'll keep it on the banner of the plan but the first thing is to flush out the system we're going to go through and the system we're gonna operate under and then putting together an entire plan this doesn't work if you don't plan it out you will drop the ball at some point we all will we're all...

human we're all going to drop the ball something's gonna come up and what you want is a plan that is not only able to allow you to do as much as possible but a plan that has a little bit of flexibility in it so that if something comes up if you have an emergency if you book more than one winning a weekend in sort of a reason you book three senior shoots that we consider your typical too if for whatever reason your website goes down and you have to figure out and spend a day getting to it it doesn't set you behind that's something that's really common when people come to us that she got it in the middle of busy season they will have had their workflow perfectly dialed in and they just didn't anticipate that one hiccup that one hiccup even if it's just a day something that takes up a day it sets them back and sets them behind and that somebody who has a great work flow until something goes wrong you know we talked a lot of what she done it for example who have a great plan they actually have somebody in house they've made the decision to hire somebody in house to handle their post production for them and they like I've checked that off the list I can focus on shooting in marketing now and then they go on they get sick for a week because people get sick and that sets them back so even the best the plans even when we choose to shoot and to mark it we still have to have a plan that has the flexibility that can roll with the punches that doesn't set everything off course when one little thing goes wrong and things are gonna happen in your business whether it's for you are outside of it or you know we just can't predict life and so we want to have a plan that allows us to get everything accomplish that we have to get done we want to have a plan that allows us to focus on the things that the most important shooting and marketing causes of the prophet producing tasks and the things that we could on lee authentically be bringing value in doing at our company and we also want a plan that doesn't just stress the heck out of us right we didn't get in this to stress out and to just to just have to be martyrs for working we all work more than the average forty our person I love when people say oh here that's cool I didn't know you own your own business it must be great game that's going to pick your own hours and I say yeah you're right it is great I get to pick which eighty hours a week I work way have to do everything and it's no easy task we have a passion for this we're doing this because we love it no one ever gotten a photography because the money is great not gotten a photography to get rich no I like something that we talked about jeff yocum but uh jeff welcome always I might butcher this quote but he always says you know nobody ever left brain surgery photographer for photography because the money was better you know we get into this business because I have a passion for it we love it we want to serve our clients in a way that we know we can add value but the same time in order to stay in business we have to face the reality of what we're up against right now today right now is about saying enough that plan to build our business going forward so let's talk about this marketing plan that we're going to put together how do I make it easy for people to talk about me that is the underpinning of good marketing that is the under pain of attract nurture and profit is when we create opportunities for people to be talking about this barn we talked a little bit earlier in the previous segment about how you with your guy would be create opportunities for them you're couples to share your message with pretty much everybody that's on their on their on their guest list how do we create eternities for people to talk about us at our at its core photography is a referral based business and so the majority of what we're doing in our marketing is to get the word out there to try to get the word out there as much as possible in front of our target market in order for the word to be spread blog's social media networking you must do all of that but you have a plan in order to succeed at it you have a plan in order to succeed at it and this into what today is about is about building that plan building something thatyou own building something that you could be responsible for so let's talk about the thirty thousand foot view I love talking about things from a thirty thousand foot view because it really crates and sets the stage for how we want to look at it from the start which is we wanna look down in our business as if it was laid out on the floor in front of us is that every part of our business on dh really for the sake of right now is conversation every part of our marketing was laid out on the floor in front of us and we're standing that thirty thousand feet we're in an airplane we're looking down all over it like when you fly over a city and you can kind of see the whole thing out in front you can see all the details not important that's the point we want to see the bigger things that tall buildings the big structures we have to start by writing down your target market you have to know your target market before you start building at all the plans all the little systems that you're going to use it has to start with your target market we spent the first day talking about that I'm not going to go in any more detail about it that's what you guys have the course to go back and watch for once you have your target market you now can flesh out what problems your target market has number problems are not the triage problems there the problems that you consol for them and it's not just in the form of guides like we're talking earlier it's all across the board how can you help how can you deliver value how can you build trust by solving problems by loving on them and by giving them the things that they need to grow and benefit in what they're doing that's what you want to do marketing nowadays is all about giving build a business that gives and this is one of the best easiest questions to ask yourself to frame how to give to frame how to give visible if you help better their lives you will be winning that is the new business model the new business model is about give give give before you ever ask it's about being bought not about selling remember that it's about being bought people want to buy people that they like that they trust that they love create that by helping them out right down polarizing details about your segment but your target market we talked about this and how important it is we looked at examples we looked examples of what people have done we talked about how important is that you focus on specifics about your target market I talked about how when I was shooting a bombing photographers I work best with professionals with a capital p doctors lawyers cpas dentists these types of people I learned that and that allowed me to get mohr and more focused on who my target market was you have to write down the details about them I knew that by saying that I was going to be working with professionals I was leaving off a whole chunk of other people I didn't work with people who just got out of college and hadn't established a career yet I didn't work great with artist but which is kind of surprising to say but you know again I was best suited to work with professionals with a capital p and then I understood them I knew how to serve them I knew how to take care of them number four we how do we merge the details that we came up with here in number three and the problems that we saw in number two that's the underpinning of marketing right there take what you know about them the polarizing unique details about them from that third bullet point here and take the second point which is basically saying how can I help them how could I give to them how can I give you what I know is unique about them how can I give in a way that I merge is what I know is unique about them that's what number four is same and every piece of content you produce in every story you tell every piece of education you put together every interaction you have even when you're networking when you're out with the other fellow vendors it's all about merging the polarizing details of your segment with solving their problems helping them out giving to them make the content you create make the interactions you create personable relevant thorough make sure you touch all the different things are inside of it as best you can with the limited resource is you have but every opportunity you have bring out your personality lean in the empathetic as you're solving the problems to that polarised market segment number five how will you get it in front of your target market now that you know all about them you know what makes them unique and you know how you can give to them you know how you can love on them you've got to make sure they see it they have to be able to see it and that's what the social media that's what the blawg that's what your website that's what's your email that's what your guys with all this stuff builds too is getting this wonderful love affect in front of the right target market now they're your customers you know them they're already your target market they already know who they are you already can communicate with them before they're your customer it takes a little more work you have to reach out you have to find where they live to find where they hang out good news birds of a feather flock together the more you khun build that true believer mentality the more you can arm your current amazing target market customers with stories to tell reasons to shout from the mountaintop about you the more you can give them the better that they're going to create referrals for you and that's what we know about content it creates an opportunity for your target market to talk about you cinema five is all about now that we have all this how are we going to get it out there and how we're gonna get in front of you we needed to get in front of number six is to create a system tau operate under so you could do it again and again and again and again and again systems have a natural wonderful byproduct that you're giving the same consistent product service and love effect to every single person that's what else the system helps here's what is a problem that I have we haven't uncovered yet that we haven't talked about yet what happens if you decide that you're going to get out of jarod's class here a creative live you're gonna go home and you're gonna love on all of your current customers you got twenty five weddings in the queue and it's timeto love bomb and she start love bombing them and boy it works they're so happy they're feeling the love they're getting guides there getting wonderful targeted block post they're getting all the stories fleshed out everything is going wonderfully they start talking about you you've given them stories to those screen for the mountaintop they start tunnel their friends about you you get phone calls from other friends they start booking you but you didn't really have a system and in busy season hits august comes around that's your busy season in the pacific northwest of shoot weddings so you you know you do what everybody else does since you didn't really have a system marketing tends to come last you didn't take care of trusting some specialist of getting the system down and so you dont that do all the other things that suck your resource is dry august comes around you don't spend much time loving on them now you have a lease book people that denton telling people you booked that you're your love bombed customers referred you but you're not loved bombing anymore yeah maybe I'll get back to it in january when it slows down but because you don't have a system you have not created consistent product a consistent experience and now you're worse off than you were before because all those customers came to you on the referral of the person who said that you're a lover that you're a giver that you just have love bombed and sort of the last few months and they were referred to you on that premise you have to have a system you must have a system for this you're gonna go home and start start hacking away and love bombing at giving to your customer at loving them with all this great content the stories you must have a system set up or else your fall apart and then you're in worse shape than you were before if you had never even tried it