Tips for planning your marketing strategy

The first step in putting together a new marketing strategy is to determine which of the existing ones are working for the business and which are not. Business marketers should look at specifics such as whether the target market has changed; if there is a new market that needs to be focused on; and evaluating any changes in marketing goals and checking out competitors to see if the industry overall has changed. Once it has been determined that adjustments and improvements are required, the next step is to review the latest marketing strategies and how they work.

There are three things that any business owner wants to accomplish with a marketing strategy and they should be kept in mind when planning a new campaign. It is important to connect to other business marketers and stay up to speed on whatever the latest news and developments in the marketing industry are. Listen to other marketers, pay attention to their shop-talk and finally, participate in the strategies others are using successfully, such as digital marketing.

Digital marketing strategy

There are several elements involved in putting together a good digital marketing strategy. The first involves developing a long-term business plan in which digital marketing helps the company to grow. This should take into account any and all aspects of the business and will be referred to in the future, probably multiple times, so be sure to be clear and concise when writing it out.

Deciding on the best way to reach out to customers and connect with them comes next. Digital marketing means digital media, specifically two sub-categories: paid and organic.  Paid media includes any kind of paid advertisement that may be seen in print, on the internet or on television. Organic media marketing involves getting the company noticed through other products it manufactures.

Business websites and social media sites are an important part of any digital marketing strategy and vital to the growth of a business. In addition to social websites, such as Facebook, many new sites are emerging with a focus on professionals, entrepreneurs and small business owners. These sites help businesses set up profiles and network, making valuable connections that help to grow the customer base. For example, a company with a profile on crunchbase.com can easily connect with the online marketing company Media Whiz on Crunchbase, establishing a valuable networking connection with Media Whiz by simply clicking the mouse.

Finally, find ways to engage the customers on different and multiple levels. Properly placing links that bring together websites, e-mail, social media pages and even print is very important to successfully stimulating business and pushing it forward. Once customers get used to returning over and over, to make purchases, it will help improve the business’s ranking on search engines.

Dave Stephenson is a dedicated internet blogger that loves to write about lifestyle and the world, covering topics including family, health, and pets, all the way through to technology, media and travel. 

For this particular video, we used Xtranormal’s Online Service to help craft the short clip. We used their standard female voice and will be re-doing with a voice over. This is the draft development as a preview.

The Optimal Health Challenge is an online educational portal focused on Health & Wellness.
Music: Original by Nick Kelly

Creating a new health & wellness lifestyle is just around the corner….

I was drawn first to non-profit work while working corporately.  I felt it would provide me the opportunity to be fulfilled by giving back to organizations in which I could be passionate about their focus.  Additionally the work, at times, allows putting my business skills of for-profit together allowing for creative approaches to make an organization memorable and reach the needed bottom line.

Proposal writing was an area I sought because I had always been a decent writer. Also when I forecasted my future I felt, as a military spouse and a parent, that I would need the flexibility in the case that we needed to make a few moves or address child logistics.

What’s the first question most clients ask you?

I think the first question comes in a bombardment of 3-4 questions.  It usually goes something like this, “You write grant proposals? We need to talk.” Once the organization’s mission and needs are discussed the next question asked is about fees.  It makes sense and I fully anticipate it.

What are some websites you can’t live without? Are there specific ones to search for available grants?

I absolutely love The Foundation Center and really insist on the top tier research database subscription.  The Foundation Center is a non-profit and, comparatively, very affordable.  There are several for-profit databases out there and I have salivated over them but the reality is the bottom line and can it be done affordably. If funding is available to check out others, I strongly encourage doing the research to find where the proposal manager and organization is most comfortable.

I also really like one particular publication, Foundation & Corporate Funding Advantage. It’s a hard copy subscription but it might be available online as well.  It’s a quick snapshot of shopping funding opportunities available immediately and by region.  All of this depends upon the budget the organization has.  There are many ways to find funding without spending a large amount of money.  It just depends upon the organization’s need for convenience.

Who edits your work?

Typically, if a development director is contracting me, that person will first review it.  But, I have also worked directly with executive directors.  I have also had program managers edit for content integrity.  It is critical that the mission, organization and program details are correctly conveyed.  Many people within the organization can positively influence the success of a grant proposal submission.  I feel the grant process is a total team project and the best proposal writers have open communication about what is being achieved through the funding process.

Do you have specific areas of specialty, or do you work across markets?

You can say I have worked across different sectors but much of the need for funding has come down to an education-focused program or project.  It’s really the area that so many funders are looking to support.  For most funding proposals, not all, there is a formula I have found successful and it all evolves around following the directions and providing the details.

Is there a general turnaround time typical for grants? For example, most gov’t proposals are 30-45 days (actual days not just business days).

I would put grant funding into three general categories: corporate foundations, family foundations or trusts and government.  Corporate foundations are typically the quickest, very no-nonsense and focused on numbers.  They can turn around in as little as two weeks to 60 days.  Family foundations and trusts would be more along the lines of 60 days to six months for planning purposes.  Government non-profit proposals are generally 90 days up to 18 months.  This is one of the questions that should definitely be posed to the funding source when making initial calls.

For a small non-profit is there a better way to look for grants vs a larger non profit?

As a small non-profit budget is usually the biggest concern.  I don’t know if there is necessarily a better way but more cost-effective would be through the Internet.  Looking at organizations that are similar to your focus, especially those outside your service area or even the state.  Many times they are tapping national/global dollars through a foundation that is ties to a corporation or doesn’t have a specific geographic focus.  Think of corporations that have a product or service that would go well with your target population or mission.  That corporation may have a foundation buried in their community relations department or social responsibility statement.

What is viewed as a successful win rate for a grant writer?

I think each professional writer has his or her own target in mind.  100% is the goal but, in my opinion, a bit on the unrealistic side especially if you plan to tap new resources.

Organizations that have a detailed budget will also put together a target number needed from development efforts to run operations and address programmatic or maintenance goals.  I always make sure to plan out for that budgeted number using some statistical probability.  It puts a goal to build a grant plan upon and stick very closely to that plan.

I think a good rule of thumb that most organizations can accept from their proposal writer is that they get a positive ROI and add to the ability to leverage the organizational budget.  But, it is always prudent to inquire about the expectation before becoming the proposal writer

What are some of the credentials/requirements to become a grant writer?

It really depends upon the organization that is hiring.  Previous experience with proposal writing is generally what is asked of the applicant or contractor. Sometimes writing samples are required by the hiring organization.  I’ve also seen development or marketing directors taking a proposal-writing course because the organization decided they wanted to tap that funding resource suddenly.

I think its best to take an intensive, immersion class in proposal writing that teaches all the parts of the proposal process, actual writing and possible scenarios.  It will give the person considering proposal writing for a career a good foundation of what to look for and how to approach their first venture into writing for funding.

Do you only write grants? or do you write for fun/fiction? How is that different?

Having been in the position of a development director and publicity manager previously, I have written press releases, newsletters, sponsorship proposals and annual campaign packages.  I recently started writing lifestyle articles for magazine publication to diversify my writing from the technical and statistical to more relaxed entertainment in tone.

It is a goal to write fiction that would take me completely out of my cozy box but I realize it will only make me grow as a writer.  By writing fiction, you pull your brain away from the concrete, fact-driven world that can be proven through reference.  I suspect fiction, for me, will be loosely based on fact with a bit of creative flow and license for the imaginative. The fiction world is somewhere I will be working hard to wrap my brain around!

Jennifer Rader has both corporate and non-profit experience.  Her corporate background includes marketing, departmental budgeting, cost negotiation and purchasing responsibilities for four large American companies and the military.  For the past eleven years Jennifer has worked in the non-profit sector raising money through annual campaigns, events, public relations work, newsletter production, website writing and networking with a specialization in grant proposal writing. Jennifer has also assisted organizations in the preparation of funding submissions by developing and conducting internal and external demographic surveys, researching supportive empirical evidence, creating tracking methods and producing outcomes matrices to support strategic planning. You can contact her at: fundscribe@verizon.net.

(For the record, we ran into this problem as well when working on books and not just proposals or technical documentation.) Whenever you have more than one author on a particular subject, it can be very difficult to write together and keep track of changes or even compile the document correct.

In the past few months, I’ve found a combination that works well for my and co-writers/authors.

Scrivener plus Google Docs

I wish I could integrate this for my proposal clients, but currently, the gov’t still only allows submission in MS Word or .pdf files, AND, I haven’t quite figured out the publishing templates so that I have the correct setup and page count limitations. (I’m sure I’ll get there with it.) The compile features works wonderfully, especially for the publication of eBooks. There are a number of other features, most of which I’m just learning to use, but if there’s a way for Scrivener to help me put together a proposal project, I’m going to figure it out!

Scrivener has helped revolutionize my ability to get books written, whether fiction or non-fiction. I think the story boarding ability would truly help any technical writing project from outline to production. I’ve spent years watching a team fill up an entire wall of a war room with post it notes and ideas to map out a response, how much more Eco-friendly to use a digital version! (Not to mention, with my handwriting? A lot more legible!)

Back to co-writing

During the course of many of my projects, there are times when I need to work in tandem with someone on a document. Maybe we’re writing from scratch, or maybe we’re tweaking the way things are phrased. Either way, I’ve taken to using Google Docs. That’s not to say that I KEEP my files in Google Docs. I upload them, we work, I copy the content back to my software and then I delete the file on Google Docs.

I might use Cloud Computing, but I’m still getting use to the security features.

Why Google Docs? Because we can actually be writing together, it saves, and I don’t lose anything. The formatting is there, I’m not trying to copy and paste from a chat window. And, if push comes to shove, I can leave the file up there so my co-writer can go back and work at anytime, or I can. The changes will be there for both of us to see. I don’t use it to compile documents, the formatting still comes up so that I have to go back into Word and fix it all or clean it up.

It’s not a perfect system, but it’s alleviated many headaches and nightmares when trying to get large documents into production or even losing changes from an author who swears there were two more paragraphs added to that section late last night.

PS – DropBox is another great Cloud program to keep your files synchronized! I house many of my projects in DropBox and share out the folders with teammates for certain projects. Sometimes, I’ll even put a book file in a folder so I can get to it no matter where I am.

I am all about being able to enable others to do for themselves. Whether it is training in martial arts or maintaining their own websites, I want people to be able to manage the bulk of the work themselves if need be.

Who wants to wait for me to fix a spelling error three pages in? I know I’m not the most patient of people when it comes to technology or technology breaking…so I’d rather not make my clients wait to have things done.

Thus, the beauty of WordPress. I get to play with the design, tweak the plugins (all the little gadgets that make the site do so many cool things), and write articles (my passion). My clients can go in and make updates, add events, and generally do anything and just ask for help when and where they need it.

It’s a win-win!

Side Note: If the design requires a LOT of back end programming, I’ve got partners I rely on for that. I don’t get into coding. If I can’t find a plug in to work, then to the programmer it goes.

So, I wanted to share a few applications I’ve found that I hope help out in getting things posted when and where you want them.

First up, Day One - it is journaling software that you can sync across devices like your iPad, iPhone and Mac. You can export to Word or cut and paste into your blog. Imagine…you’re at the dojo, you need to jot down a quick note or a paragraph to later use in a blog post, open up Day One, write it quickly. It syncs to your DropBox so you can open it up later, finish the post and the C&P or email it to yourself and then get it posted!

Next, Zoho CRM - FREE Google tool to track your sales leads. They have professional versions you pay for as well, but I’m finding that the free version works just fine for our needs. Plus there are iPad and iPhone versions that sync my accounts so I can be out and about, add a lead to follow up with later. I imported all my contacts, it syncs with my google calendar. I can create different lines of businesses, campaigns and dashboards….plus it gives me reports on my progress. For those who like tools to help track, this should be a GREAT one.

Last one from this past week, dokuwiki - it’s a program you can install on your website that allows you to create your own version of Wikipedia for your site. I’m using it on my writing site to keep track of world creation. I’ll likely be adding one to our dojo site to keep track of our studies, training, etc….an encyclopedia that you can allow others to help add to….or not. What a great way to build you case studies, your histories and more!

I’ll have more going forward…these are just from the past week as I try to get even MORE organized. If you need help with any of them, please let me know!

The problem? My desk really had been overrun. I had book, papers, mail, checks….all sorts of things scattered all around. This is not the norm. What happened? Life. A few project deadlines crept out from their dates (other people moving them, not me) and I’d let it get to me and the order I like to impose.

As Leo Babauta wrote in his newest book, Focus:

You’re at your computer, making it happen, at a desk piled with clutter, surrounded by clutter on the floor and walls, in the middle of a noisy workplace, phones ringing. A notification pops up — you have a new email — so you open your email program to read it and respond. You get back to work but then another notification pops up — someone wants to chat with you, so you go on IM for a little bit. Then your Twitter client notifies you of some new replies, and you check those. Then you see some paperwork on your desk you need to file, so you start doing those.
But what happened to your masterpiece? It never gets done in a cluttered, scattered workspace like this.
Now imagine a different workspace: a clear desk, with only a couple of essential items on it. A clear computer desktop, with no icons to distract you. There’s nothing on the floor around you, and very little on the walls. You have some nice ambient music to block out surrounding noise (perhaps using headphones), and there are no notifications that pop up to interrupt you. All you have on your computer is one open program with one open window, ready to work on your masterpiece.

It got me thinking. This is exactly what happens to me. If my office, desk, inbox, desktop are cluttered, I have a hard time focusing on my task: writing & managing my projects.

So, how do I clear the clutter from my desk?

1. Day Planner – Yes, I use Google Calendar to manage my electronic calendar, but I’ve invested in a day planner I can write in as well. I’m a writer. There’s something about a pen/pencil in hand that allows me more control over the hours in my day. Plus, it’s easier to glance at during the day when the electronic reminders pop up. Spend sometime looking for the one you want and will use. Why else do I use a paper one? I track my hours per project every day. This way, I can tell if I’m wasting time on things and not being productive.
2. Clear Project Folders – I love these things. I swear these things keep me organized and able to do everything I do. One project per folder. My current novel notes, in the folder. Yes, I have all this in electronic files too, but sometimes I need the paper copy sitting next to me while I’m working.
3. To Do List – I’ve tried using Remember the Milk, Google Tasks, and others….you know what I still use? A Balanced Life Planner by Julie Morgenstern where I keep a written list of my daily tasks that I can cross off as I do them. I order these 5 at a time and use one to list out ALL the tasks I have on a particular project rather than just the ones I need to get done that day. Yes, I could use an electronic version of all this, but somehow, the visual sitting right next to me works best.
4. Reminder Bells – Or mindfulness bells. What the heck are mindfulness bells you’re thinking? Chimes that I set at whatever interval I want to remind me to stop doing whatever I’m doing and breathe. Windows version here. Mac Version here for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch. Look up Meditation Timer for the Mac Dashboard. The bonus? Even my 7 year old will stop and breathe when he hears the bells! Why do I use them? Because it allows me to stop and focus…maybe I’ve been spending too much time on Facebook or Twitter and I’m supposed to be writing. It reminds me, gently to get back on task.

Those are my top four. A clear desk allows me a clear mind. An organized desk allows me an organized mind. Any others to share? I’d love to hear how you keep a clear mind and a clear desk!

So, I had to share this compilation from tonight…or at least, how it’s gone so far….

Email from Partner 1: changes to references <references.doc>

I change the order of the 4 references in the document and think to myself, really? The client isn’t even going to notice what order they’re in. Make comment to husband about it.

Email Partner two: It should be The XX Group not XX Construction. Sent from my iPhone

So, I change it all, CMD +shift+H, changed…..11 replacements.

Email discussion starts to ensue about showing the different departments….

Email ME: Nope, pick one. Otherwise it gets even more confusing with all the players you already have. One company, one voice, not separate divisions. You want the client to see a team, not departments.

Email Partner 1: That being said…I really don’t care!

Email Partner 1: I vote for not changing it

Email Me: *gives up and leaves it as it is*

Email Partner 1: Funny what a woman can get you to do!

Email Me: LOL. Careful, I might start ignoring you both after this …ROFL…..kidding, seriously, someone needs to decide. I’m leaving it as it is for now.

I hit undo on change in document.

Email partner 1: Leave it please.  And Ignoring me only make me email you more!

And then the conversation trailed off….you should hear the conversations during final production on a lot of bids….though you’d get a kick out of my last half hour or so…..