Introduction: 0:05

Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Huddle. Our show is all about taking action. We equip you with the marketing knowledge and confidence you need to make real progress. So let's huddle up and listen in to the latest episode with your host, Lily Richmond.

Lily Richmond: 0:30

Hey, this is Lily. Thank you for being here today. If you're already subscribed to the show, thank you so much. I do really appreciate you tuning in and I am stoked that you are taking some really proactive steps to take control of your marketing. And if this is the first time you're here, don't forget to hit follow or subscribe and your favourite podcast player, because today, like in every episode, I'm going to cover a marketing topic that I think that you really have to learn if you want to master your marketing. And make sure you listen in until the end, because I'm going to give you the details on how to download a really easy to follow template to create your own launch marketing plan. Well, it is time to celebrate.

Lily Richmond: 1:14

This is the seventh and final episode in the series on where to start with your marketing when you are just starting out in business, and today is all about your launch. This is super exciting. It's going to be a rapid fire episode and I'm going to walk you through how to create a simple prioritised launch marketing plan for your new business. But first let's recap what we've covered so far in the series. In part one, we talked all about how to make your product or service irresistible. Then, in part two, we uncovered your target market and ideal customer. Part three we crafted a single-minded statement on how you make your customer's life better. And in part four, we demystified how to set pricing so you could win business and make a profit. Part five I talked all about brand strategy and how you distill your brand essence down into three words. That was a cracker of an episode. And part six, it was all about distribution strategy and I gave you some strategies to consider when you get ready to get your product or service into the market. And I'm really excited about today, because this is where everything that you've learned in the last six episodes, that collective knowledge that you've built up, gets consolidated into your launch marketing plan. Yes, you, I see you, the person who's gone through and diligently completed each of those episodes. If you have, this whole process is going to be really easy. It is going to make so much more sense to you. So good on you. And if you haven't managed to do all of the exercises that I've set in the last six episodes, I'm going to drop a link in the episode description where you can get all of the workbooks.

Lily Richmond: 2:57

Okay, let's talk about launch marketing plans. Well, you really only just need to do a simple internet search for a launch marketing plan and there will be so many results Heck. You could even put the basic information about your business into ChatGPT and it could whiz you up a plan. But there is a pitfall with all of this it doesn't teach you those fundamental concepts of marketing that go into getting you to the point where you can create a meaningful launch marketing plan. You know. Before you start with that marketing plan, you've got to be really clear on who your target audience is, what your offering is, how you solve that customer's problem better than your competitors, how you make that customer's life better. Why do they want you in their life? And this neatly ties into the past six episodes of this series. That's why, when you see a blog post which has, say, the seven tactics you need to put in your launch marketing plan or something along that line, it's generic, it's not specific to your business or your industry or your target market or your brand or the local environment in which you compete. I think you're getting the picture, hopefully. So, yes, there might be some good ideas out there, but that is just it. They're ideas no-transcript, and anyone who tells you that they have the template on exactly what you need to do to launch your business, I'd run a mile, and that's why I'm really passionate about teaching you about how to do marketing so you get it right and it's right for your business. So there we go, got that out of the way. So what goes into a launch marketing plan? Well, I've got a pretty simple formula to keep it super simple for you, because it can be a little bit overwhelming when you're getting ready to launch your business or a new product or a new service. Oh my goodness me, there's like a thousand things to think about. So I've kept it really simple.

Lily Richmond: 4:49

In a launch marketing plan, you need a core goal. That, essentially, is what does success look like when you launch your business? That's a really good way to think about what your core goal might be. And then you need to think about what your overarching marketing priorities are, and these are your strategies. What strategies are you going to employ to achieve that goal? Then you've got marketing tactics and then you would calendarize a view of those various activities that you're going to do by various marketing channels, for example, social media, email marketing, advertising, press coverage. You get the idea and then the last bit is setting a budget so you know what you are in for and you can also use that to help you prioritize where you want to spend your money to have the biggest impact. So that seems pretty simple, right? So let's get some terminology sorted before we move on.

Lily Richmond: 5:43

What is the difference between strategy and tactics? And this often gets confused. Most often, tactics are getting called strategies, so the easiest way to think about it is this A strategy is what you want to do to achieve your goal, and the tactics are the actions or the marketing activities that you're going to do to deliver on that strategy. So I'll give you an example. Say, I've just started up a service-based consulting business in my local city. Now my overall goal of my launch marketing plan might be to secure five new clients in the first 30 days of launch. For me, that is what success is going to look like once I've completed everything on my marketing plan, and that's also a pretty easy goal for me to be able to measure as well, so I can look back at the end of my launch marketing and go did I secure those five clients in the first 30 days?

Lily Richmond: 6:40

Now, what would a strategy be to help me achieve that goal of securing those new clients in the first 30 days of launch? And one of my strategies to do that might be to build my business profile locally. And so how would I do that? How would I achieve that strategy? So what tactics would I put in place? Well, it might be about getting some great press coverage for me, and so some tactics that I might want to use to do that is okay.

Lily Richmond: 7:06

I'm going to hold a launch event at my new office and I'm going to identify an influential business person locally who I could invite to the event as a guest speaker to talk about a really hot topic. And then I might employ a range of marketing channels that are going to help me promote that event, such as email to my clients, contacts and the journalists locally, use LinkedIn to get the word out about my event, and then I might share the success of that event and send new connection requests to people who attend it. I might also hire a videographer for the event as well, who's going to come and film the event and that guest speaker speaking so that I can share this with local media outlets afterwards. But I can also get that out there on social media and because I've linked in with that influential business person locally, I'm able to tap into their network as well.

Lily Richmond: 7:50

And overall, when it comes to planning that calendar of activity, you want to start prior to launch and then you want to have a timeframe that works for your launch plan afterwards. For example, it might be 30 days before launch and then it's going to be say, 60 days after the business is live. You want to build up to that launch day. You don't want to start everything on the day that you launch, because you're already behind the eight ball and if it's a new business and you need to get cash flow in quickly, you need to be building that interest early. So that's why, for a launch marketing plan, I always recommend that you have a period of time before the business goes live that you're already starting to do some marketing. You'll know what's best for what you're trying to achieve. But I kind of as a loose guide, would say 30 days before. Okay.

Lily Richmond: 8:36

So that is a quick rundown on the mechanics of creating a launch marketing plan. What are some of the things that you need to keep in mind when you create yours? So, when it comes to the project of creating and launching your website, for example, I wouldn't put that in your launch marketing plan in itself. That is a project that you're doing as part of your business to get out into the world, and it could be that your website is actually your business. It's your distribution channel For your launch marketing plan. Your website is actually a marketing channel that you're going to use to deliver content, messages, products, etc. Your website should already really be ready for when that launch marketing plan kicks off. The second thing that I would keep in the back of your mind is that you put on your to-do list is that you secure all of your social media usernames and any website domains that might be closely related to your business before you launch. You know, even if you aren't going to use a particular social media channel, secure the username. That way, nobody else can, and if you decided to use it in future, then it's there for you.

Lily Richmond: 9:43

Now, after the break, I'm going to six actions that you are going to be able to take right away to help you come up with a launch marketing plan that is going to get you out into the market and it's going to help you achieve your launch goals. Okay, so let's get this business off the ground. So when I created the actions for this episode, when I was doing the prep for it, I realized that to make it as helpful as possible for you to implement, you actually needed a template. So I've created a really simple, easy to use launch marketing plan template in a spreadsheet. Now I will drop a link to that in the show notes for you to access and you can then go through and you can complete it. It's easy enough for you to add rows, change it up, whatever you need to, but it gives you the base of a plan that you can work with. Now I'll also make it available on my website. You can download it at co/startup7. That's number seven.

Lily Richmond: 10:45

Right, number one I want you to envisage what a successful business launch is going to look like for you. Once you've completed your launch and you look back and say 30 or 60 days, how will you know that it was successful and how could you measure that? So this is your goal for your launch marketing plan. Action number two what are your top one to three priorities or strategies that you're going to implement to achieve that vision of success? Now, remember, your strategy is how you're going to achieve your goal. Feel free to add more, but I do always think it's better to be focused and think really hard about what it is that you actually need to do and what's a nice to have. You can always start with more and then pair them back as you prioritize once you've completed the plan.

Lily Richmond: 11:30

Action number three do a little bit of brainstorming. You know I love a good brainstorm, right. So once you've got your three priorities or strategies, I want you to brainstorm all of the ways that you can achieve those top three priorities, you know. So what are all those marketing activities that you could do? Then, if you've got yourself quite a list there, I want you to review that list and I want you to pick the ones that are most likely to have the biggest impact and reach your ideal customers. So which ones do you anticipate are going to drive the biggest impact towards your launch goal?

Lily Richmond: 12:02

Action number four here I want you to think about what marketing channels you're going to use to get those tactics out into the world. You know, is it email marketing? Is it speaking at an industry conference? Is it being a guest on someone's podcast? Is it using social media? Is it advertising? And remember the channels you use need to be selected on the basis of where your target audience hangs out. There is no point posting on LinkedIn, for example, if your audience spends all of their time on TikTok and YouTube. If that was the case, you'd need to be creating both short and long form video content. Head back to the workbook from episode seven 7, where you uncovered your target market and your ideal customer. If you need to jog your memory on this Now, be sure to keep this top of mind at all times. Always have your customer there when you're thinking about the marketing that you're going to do.

Lily Richmond: 12:53

Action number five Now you need to determine the time frame for your launch. I always recommend you start your marketing for your business before you go live. This is the pre-launch phase, and then I'd say maybe 60 days after. This is the timeframe of your actual launch marketing. Now, in the template, I've suggested 30 days before and 60 days post launch. This is where you'll plot what marketing activities you need to do in those timeframes. That gives you a really clear plan of the work ahead.

Lily Richmond: 13:21

Lastly, action six I want you to define a budget for those activities. Now, some things won't have a budget right. If you're posting yourself on your Facebook page, there's no cost associated with that but I want you to define a budget for anything that you're going to need to pay for as part of this launch. It's really going to help you prioritize if you find that you're overspending, but, more than anything else, it's going to help you be realistic about what you need to invest to achieve the goals that you want to. When you launch your business, you've got to set yourself up in as good a position as possible, and it needs to be realistic about what you can do. Okay, that's it. You've done it and you are ready to get that business out into the world. I am really proud of you. Go get them. Thank you for being part of the huddle today. I do hope you enjoyed the episode and hopefully you're feeling really excited about getting your new product or service out into the world.

Lily Richmond: 14:14

Now don't forget to hit subscribe, because in the next episode, we're going to talk all about customer feedback the good, the bad and how you can harness it to make your marketing and your business better. You know all businesses get feedback and it can be challenging to handle it when it's negative. So this is a really important episode to help you get into the right mindset that feedback is actually a gift. And, as a quick reminder, visit the episode description to get access to today's launch marketing plan template, which is going to help you prioritize the most important marketing you need to do to launch your business successfully. Or you can head over to my website and grab the download there. It's at https://marketingondemand. co/startup7 . Thanks for listening and I'm going to catch you at the next episode of the Small Business Marketing Huddle. Now for the legal jargon. This podcast is for information and education purposes only. We make no business performance claims or guarantees in the information shared. The podcast content is general in nature and does not constitute advice for your unique business situation.