Being skinny is so in!

I've gotten a lot of questions about a term I use in the book: “Skinny Marketing.” People want to know where it came from and what exactly it means. So, I'm going to answer those questions today.

As I was writing VA Secrets Revealed!, I was thinking about the whole process of marketing and how there are so many ways you can go about it. One hot topic I have discussed with other virtual assistants is the cost and how you never know if your marketing dollars will really do what you intend them to do until you’ve already spent them.

As small businesses, our marketing budgets are never really as extensive as we may like, so it comes down to balancing the investment you make with the marketing activities you are doing. Basically, doing cheap, or free, marketing activities and trying to get the biggest bang for your buck -- i.e. Skinny Marketing.

Here is how I define the term in the book:

Skinny Marketing is a process based on completing a set of activities that when taken as a whole gives your business the strongest positive impact achievable for the least amount of investment. The idea is that a well-planned and successfully executed targeted marketing campaign can be relatively quick and inexpensive.

The key to successfully executing a Skinny Marketing campaign is knowing who you are targeting and what activities have the most potential before you begin. That means you have to be prepared. Before you spend even $1 on marketing, you need to do a few things:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Get to know your target audience (not just who they are but why they do what they do)
3. Analyze your competitors
4. Develop a list of possible activities
5. Set your budget
6. Create a marketing plan (should include specific activities and a timeline for completing them)

Most of these activities are pretty self explanatory and most likely you have already done some of them as a part of your initial business planning. However, to make this work, you may need to go back to your original plan, drill down even further and get even more specific. This part of the process can be time consuming, but it will pay off!

So what are some things you can do as a part of your Skinny Marketing campaign? Stay tuned for my next marketing post which will list some specific activities.