Marketing Your Home-Based Business: Developing a Marketing Plan

To be successful at marketing your business, you need a marketing plan. "How to Create a Marketing Plan" on Entrepreneur.com takes you through the steps to developing a personalized plan for your business. Here are a few of the tips covered in the article.

Plan for 12-months at a time. "For small companies, this is often the best way to think about marketing. Things change, people leave, markets evolve, customers come and go," the article states.

Give enough time to write the plan. Expect to spend several months on developing your plan, even if it's only a few pages.

Get input from others, either your co-workers, employees or friends. Have a few people look over your plan and offer suggestions or improvements.

Make your marketing plan mesh with your business plan. While these two things are completely separate, your marketing plan should adhere to the basic tenets of your overall business plan.

A marketing plan can be as simple or as complex as you need. But taking the time to create one can make a big difference in promoting your business.

Until next time,

Sarah