A new year and a new decade are now upon us and we can’t think of a better time to start putting together a strategic marketing plan for your business! However, with all of the daily responsibilities that many business owners and managers face, most don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing a business for deliberate growth. Below are some insights that are guaranteed to get your 2010 marketing plan, and your business, off to a great start!

1. Make Marketing a Priority - Perhaps the single most important marketing strategy that should be practiced by all business owners is to make marketing a priority. Granted, there may be 1,000 different priorities vying for your attention at any given moment, but if you neglect your marketing efforts then you risk losing potential sales, being overtaken by the competition and placing self-imposed limitation on your income growth.

2. Consult with Experts and Set Realistic Goals - Work with a team of marketing experts to develop a marketing plan and set realistic goals! If you can get yourself to become just a little “obsessed” with marketing, you’ll soon discover just how important it is to have a fully-integrated plan that includes a number of communication channels. We recommend you research a number of strategies including; public relations, community relations, advertising, social media, e-mail marketing, digital marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

3. Establish Yourself as an Expert in Your Industry – Everyone wants to do business with people who are smart and trustworthy! Work with your public relations team to help create positive publicity surrounding your expertise in the field you are in. The credibility and recognition you will receive from this strategy can really help to give your business or practice a real boost.

4. Be Flexible – Continually ask questions and re-evaluate what you are doing. If your website is not getting the amount of traffic that it should, work with your marketing team to pinpoint its weakness and make the necessary changes. The same holds true for your print ads, public relations initiatives, email database deployments, etc.

5. Track and Measure Everything – The only way to know what is and is not working is to track it! Work with your marketing team to develop a tracking strategy so that you can be aware of what your ROI is when it comes to your marketing and public relations initiatives.