Once you've created the foundation for all of your marketing, and you know what your goals are, who you need to market to, what your marketing hook is (or what sets you apart) and what your key marketing message should be, you are ready to start marketing. Ironically, THIS is where many solo-professionals and small business owners start. But now you hopefully understand the reason NOT to start with this step.
Once you have chosen the marketing activities you plan to use to get the word out about your business, you need to lay out a plan of when you plan to do what. It's not just enough to say, "I will advertise, or I will publish a newsletter." You need to determine when, and how often, you will do each marketing activity you select.
This is where the next key step in creating your marketing plan comes in: creating your marketing schedule or calendar. By creating a marketing schedule, you can make sure you are using each marketing activity for maximum effectiveness. You can make sure your marketing activities are integrated, and that they support each other. Have you ever heard the phrase "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing"? Well, you don't want your marketing to be disorganized in this fashion.
I encourage you to take this important step of planning our your marketing schedule. It's so important I've devoted an entire step in my 10stepmarketing System to it. This system will help you develop and implement your marketing plan, in 10 simple steps - I've shared a few of these steps with you over the past few weeks.