My family just recently had a new addition! Our little man was born at 8:00 pm on January 11th. He's a strapping 8 lbs and he has big hands. As any father would, I'm thinking he's going to be a future football star or famous musician. Actually, I'll be proud if he chooses to be a masseur or a mechanic - as long as he follows his passion.

Last night was tough. My child is experiencing gastro-intestinal pain and heís been crying non-stop for thirty-six straight hours. My wife, my two year old and I are all exhausted and irritable.

And that brings you to mind. You are small business owners and marketers who've just come through a tough year. 2011 has seen the unfolding of the American sub-prime crisis and the European debt crises, all of which has been hard to digest - an 'economic gastro-intestinal distress' if you will. And if you will permit me to extend the metaphor, your business, your child, may have been keeping YOU up at nights! Maybe you exhausted and irritable too!

A wise woman told me that I need to keep things simple in order to keep my sanity. Attend to the basics and focus on doing fewer things really well - the first being take good care of my child. 

My child needs shelter and food. You must pay your rent and ensure cash flow to keep your business alive. I must ensure my child has opportunities to grow. You must ensure your business attracts opportunities to do business with new customers through marketing.
How do we do these things and keep it simple? This article isn't about parenting, so let me suggest a few simple marketing strategies to help make your life a little easier:

1. Take the time to thoughtfully plan a marketing campaign that fits your budget. Planning is vital. In my experience, for marketing to be effective requires much more planning than most business people expect.

2. Put into place one element of your marketing at a time. Decide what realistic results you want from it, and put a system in place by which to measure the results. You will never know if a marketing campaign is effective if you are not paying attention to where your customers are coming from and why they are responding to your marketing.

3. Once your plan is in place, donít be swayed to ìtryî new things. Make note of any marketing ideas that interest you to be analyzed on the predetermined date.

4. Work with a team that will make sure ALL your marketing pieces work together synergistically, who will bring you tracking mechanisms, and who will help you make sure it runs smoothly.

My wish for you is that your business/child, will flourish this year, and I encourage you to keep things simple - especially your marketing!

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Mathieu Powell has been working with Senior Living Magazine since it started eight and a half years ago. If you want to talk to mature consumers, he or other members of the sales team are available to talk with you.