Emerging from the Meltdown: Where Does Your Marketing Plan Fit In?

As you can see from my sparse blog entries, my business has suffered during the recession. From taking on full-time, "9 to 5" jobs, to temporarily closing our doors or even simply doing all of the work ourselves, survival has been the small business mantra for the past few months. But as we sort through the wreckage and hope for a better tomorrow, we have to ask ourselves what's happened to our marketing plan and where does it fit in this new economy?

My marketing simply fell to the wayside, in all honesty. I haven't done much marketing lately because I could not afford the time or the monetary expense. And now I'm faced with figuring out how to go back to it. With that in mind, we can remind ourselves to start small. What marketing can we do at little or no cost, both in time and money? Here are three great ways to get back in the marketing swing.

1. Update your web copy. A few pages of updated and edited copy won't cost much if you get a professional to rewrite it, especially if that professional caters to small businesses like I do. Keep your website current and fresh for a small investment.
   
2. What about sending out a simple sales letter? Again, a one-pager announcing your latest deals is not as costly as a full-blown sales package. And the one-pager can be done fairly quickly. If your brand has "slipped beneath the radar" during the murky months of the economic downturn, a nice letter reminding people that you're there and offering them a great deal on your product or service might be the way to go.
3. Postcards are also an effective way to get back into marketing. The professional that develops the card for you will probably need to be aware that your budget is small - and should be willing to accommodate a negotiation. You can buy a small mailing list from DirectMail.com or a similar provider, and even do the labels and postage yourself. This involves some manual labor after the card has been designed, bu those actions may pay off in the long run.
4. Updating your blog is probably one of the most inexpensive ways to re-enter the marketing race. A professional ghostwriter can create some entries for you and even develop an "editorial calendar" to keep you on track for the rest of the year. Think about what you would want to say to your clients and add in the offers you think will get your business back on track quickly.

Things are looking up! And all of us small business owners should emerge from the economic downturn with an affordable, "small steps" marketing plan. To find out how Blue Notebook Communications can help you with this, visit our website today.

Small Business: Why Should I Have Written Policies and Procedures?

A small business owner recently asked me this question. My gut response was, "Why not?", but this comes from a lifetime as a corporate training professional. I had to stop and think about the answer as a small business owner myself. Why would a small business want written policies and procedures, and why would they want to spend the money to have a consultant come in and write them?

First, look at the big picture. What if your small business becomes "not so small"? It's a great problem to have. If you grow, you'll want to have a written Policies and Procedures (P&P) Manual in place to ensure that everything keeps moving ahead correctly and efficiently. Plus, when your small business "grows up", you can use that written P&P as the basis for training programs in the future.

Second, as much as we want to believe we remember everything we do, I'm afraid to say we don't. Did that make sense? Sometimes the small details elude us just when we need them most. Things like who to contact for certain issues or what procedures we used to perform an uncommon task are those details that may go missing. A written P&P Manual would serve as your reference guide. Think about how much time you could save simply by looking up the detail and moving forward - instead of searching for sticky notes around the office or paging through endless emails.

Third, let's face it: turnover is going to occur in staffing. We've seen how our businesses have contracted, sighed, rolled over, or even shut down during the economic downturn. And with those maneuvers came staff changes. If your staff changes, you need to be able to point new arrivals in the right direction in terms of their responsibilities and every day operations. Your written Policies and Procedures Manual will do just that.

Keep in mind that a P&P Manual is a living, breathing work, that is, it must be maintained, updated, and changed as your business does the same. But the hardest part is facing that blank screen when it comes to writing the procedures. But don't worry, because a professional technical writer and training developer can help! This person can come into your business, observe your procedures, your systems, and your processes, and help you come up with a P&P Manual that 's easy to maintain and update. To see how Blue Notebook Communications can help you create a Policy & Procedures Manual, contact us today for a free consultation.

The ABC's of ADDIE

If you've been involved in a training project or have one coming up, you may have heard the term "ADDIE" to describe a method of training development. All of us training professionals love to use acronyms, but there's no need to fear this one. In fact, following the ADDIE model in designing a training program will keep you on track. So just who is this ADDIE? Let's find out.

Analysis. A training analysis can be a very complicated information gathering exercise, but there are a few basics which can help you through it. First, you must know who the audience is. Are they front line associates? Are they all accountants? Do they have the same educational and professional backgrounds, or do they vary? Is your audience technologically savvy or might they use a mouse like a sewing machine pedal? These may seem like easy questions, but they will point you in the right direction. In regard to analyzing for content, it's a best practice to understand what the audience is not doing or what the problem may be. If there is no identified problem, be sure that someone can explain what the expected outcome of training is. Does the audience need to learn a new process, a new system, a customer service protocol, or how to sell a new product? In addition to content, the analysis period is when you'll need to determine timelines and learning parameters. For instance, are you going to have to design classroom training that only lasts three hours, must be delivered in various locations, and needs to be completed within six months? Once you've taken the time to analyze, you're ready to move to the next step.

Design. In this phase, you'll need to determine your instructional strategy. Is the classroom course strictly a lecture format, or do you need to have group breakouts, activities, and case studies? Is the course going to be delivered online? Will you have a "tell, show, do" format for a technically-based course? You already know what the general outcome is supposed to be due to your analysis, but now is the time to break that outcome down into performance-based, measurable objectives. As you develop objectives, you'll also begin to strategize the testing format for each one: is this a live test, a written evaluation, a case study, or a demonstration? The overall look of course materials will begin to take shape here, also. If the course is to be delivered via online learning, designers will create a prototype for the course "look and feel" and will begin gathering visuals to accompany the content.

Development. This is the heavy work phase of the ADDIE process. Here, you'll start meeting with Subject Matter Experts, researching, and writing content. For online learning, the content will begin to appear in storyboards, or templates, from the design phase. Online designers may begin programming course features as the content is turned over to them. And of course, editing, proofing, and revising occur pretty regularly during this phase. You'll even need to write test materials, procedures, and standards during this phase.

Implementation. Before the actual rollout of the course to its target audience, you'll set up training for facilitators. It's not a good idea to simply start giving the course without preparation for the trainers, so the course designers and trainers should meet, talk about the course, and "teach" the course to each other. If the training is online, you'll probably want to have a small target group take the course and take the tests to make sure they function properly and make sense in the online environment. You'll also take the time to make sure that supplies, classrooms, computer systems, and A/V equipment are available and ready for delivery.

Evaluation. There are essentially two types of evaluation. Formative evaluation occurs throughout the ADDIE process in the form of revisions, reviews, train-the-trainer sessions, and prototype rollouts. In fact, you may want to consider not only rolling out online training to a "test market" but also classroom courses. Pull in highly experienced members of the target audience along with less experienced members of that audience. In addition, bring in your subject matter experts to attend class. Let them evaluate the course but also open up a roundtable discussion once the course is completed. Summative evaluation is also a continuous process. This evaluation occurs every time someone is tested and provides feedback on the course - but you have to know how to use the data you see. For example, if a large number of participants are answering a particular test question incorrectly, that's an indication to go back and look at the question and the content of the course. If course evaluations show any trends, this is also an indication to re-examine content, delivery, and testing.

Now that you know ADDIE, you can employ each step to build effective training programs.

Developing training programs is quite a task, especially in a troubled economy! Are you ready to outsource your training needs? Visit Blue Notebook Communications today for an assessment.