So today I wanted to share a short list of things you should put together ASAP and have prepared on hand so you can get more marketing done with less effort.

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People often talk about your marketing plan being a roadmap. But definition doesn’t really do it justice.

Because when you write your marketing plan, you’re doing far more than just creating a roadmap. You’re preparing for your journey from struggling start-up to business success. And that involves way more than just choosing a route.

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There is a misguided search that almost everyone working in marketing around the world seems to be on. It involves seeking a golden example or case study that lays out perfectly how to achieve success with social media and be effective. In their minds, this case study would create the perfect argument for ROI, and offer a formula that could be duplicated by nearly any organization no matter their industry or audience or objectives.

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Keeping track of what customers are saying about your brand or business online is now an essential part of running a small business.

Participating in discussions across forums, twitter and facebook helps you stay connected with customers and address any concerns or queries they have.

While this might seem like quite a daunting task, thankfully Google Alerts which is one tool which makes this job quite easy. Google Alerts is a service which provides email updates of new content that Google has found across the web.

Setting up a Google Alert for your brand is easy:

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts
2. Enter your business name or brand into the search terms box
3. Select your update frequency (live/daily/weekly)
4. Enter the email address to receive the alerts

Done! Google will now send you summaries of all online activity related to your brand. This can include forum posts, twitter updates, new sites linking to you and any other new content that mentions your brand name.

Bonus Tip: Don’t stop at your brand name, expand your Google Alerts to include some other search terms. Some examples include,

• Your name
• Your products
• Your URL
• Your competitors