Just a quick note today to point out how important it is for a business to make a commitment to follow its marketing plan - for as long as it takes to make sales happen.

Too often a company, especially a small business, will not follow these important steps, or start to follow them and change the plan midstream:

1. Develop a marketing budget
2. Develop a marketing plan that fits the budget
3. Implement the marketing plan
4. Stick to the marketing plan

Let's say you decide you can afford newspaper advertising for your business. For the money you have to spend, you're given a choice of 10 big ads for 5 weeks, or 26 small ads that run for 20 consecutive weeks. Do you think bigger is better in this case, or maybe consistency would yield better results? In this case, your best bet is to run the smaller ad for a longer period of time, then rerun it for another 26 weeks after that. Maybe take a week off each month, but be committed to the plan and don't stop running the ad if after a few weeks the customers aren't beating down the doors. It takes at a minimum, 7 views of your ad to be remembered in most cases. And even after the 7th sighting, the reader/prospect may not need your services at that time.

Be consistent, be committed and show longevity. The longer you run, the more familiar the audience becomes with your name, product, service, look, and overall brand. Familiarity breeds trust, and trust breeds sales. So don't give up. Make a plan you can afford, invest in your marketing and stay committed to it. Inspired 2 Design, LLC