- The marketing plan defines your target audience, the most effective channels to reach it, and insights that will guide your future strategy.
- Companies need a comprehensive marketing plan to coordinate their campaigns and accurately measure their impact.
- Marketing is a combination of efforts, and a plan maximizes the value of each campaign for a strategy.
- This article is for small business owners who want to create an effective marketing plan that will attract more attention and grow their business.
Every successful business needs a well-thought-out business plan to explain its operations. Marketing strategy is an integral part of this plan: it defines important information, including how the business will differentiate itself from the competition and what the team wants to achieve.
Although marketing plans do not always bring immediate results, they are an important aspect of a business plan and should be carefully considered. A comprehensive and effective marketing strategy can identify opportunities in new audience segments, changes in pricing strategies, or brand differentiation from competitors.
Here's how to create an effective marketing plan for your business.
How to prepare a business marketing plan
A marketing plan has two goals. First, it's about maintaining customer engagement and loyalty, and second, it captures market share in a specific segment of your audience.
Your marketing plan outlines the strategies you'll use and the steps your marketing team will take to achieve your goals, such as specific delivery campaigns, channels to reach, required marketing budgets, and data-driven predictions of success. . .
Marketing is a science-based business that typically requires months of data to refine campaigns, and a clear marketing plan will keep your business on track with long-term goals.
All marketing principles boil down to four elements: product, price, place and promotion. The following suggestions are a starting point for developing the habit of constantly returning to these four principles.
1. Create a resume.
Marketing campaigns should not be seen as a separate feature. Marketing is the story your brand tells to customers; As with any story, the tone and characters must be consistent. The summary defines your marketing goals for the coming year and helps pull each campaign together
When you set your marketing goals, they should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, or SMART. These goals should work together to achieve internal and external alignment by telling a coherent story that communicates your unique message to customers based on the previous chapters.
For example, you could set a SMART goal to increase your company's social media traffic by 15% within 90 days and achieve this by creating four relevant, informative and quality posts per week on each platform. A branding suite for your company.
2. Define your target market.
Before writing a marketing plan, you need to find and understand your niche. Ask yourself which demographic you are targeting. For example, if your company sells 30-minute meals, your market may include people who work traditional 9-to-5 jobs. Find out about this group of people to understand their struggles and how your business can address this issue.
Truth: Targeting your audience can greatly increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and save you from wasting resources on fruitless campaigns.
3. Make your product stand out with inbound marketing.
It primarily uses internal tools such as content marketing, social media activity and search engine optimization (SEO) to attract customers' attention through online communication. Content marketing can include informative blog posts, interviews, podcasts with key industry statistics, or additional instructions on how to best use your product. For example, if you sell kitchen appliances, consider posting a variety of fun recipes that your appliances will help you cook during the holidays.
Each of these strategies encourages others in a cycle to achieve greater customer focus. A strong content offering can improve your search engine rankings, bringing more people to your website and social media pages. You can then share these enhanced content pieces with this larger audience, which will improve your search engine rankings. All of this can be done without the expense of celebrity endorsements or commercial advertising campaigns.
4. Identify competitors targeting your customers.
No matter how original your product or service is, there is always competition for your target customer's dollars. Small business owners don't take the time to research their competitors or identify companies outside their industry that could attract customers. Knowing who your competitors are, their key competitive advantages, and how they might respond to your offerings (such as lowering prices or increasing connectivity) will help you develop strategies to offset those losses.
By studying these competitors, you can develop ways to differentiate your business by offering consumers what your competitors lack. Track your competitors' progress to find ways to stand out and attract your target audience to your business.
According to SmallBizGenius , 19% of small businesses know that the reason they fail is because of competitors.
5. Communicate your product positioning to your target customers.
After all, your brand and what it represents to your customers is your strongest asset. You must be able to write a simple, descriptive sentence that meets the client's needs and gives you a leg up on the competition. The best positioning statements focus on solving the customer's problem in a way that delivers the best value.
6. Plan a budget.
Consider your marketing budget when developing a strategy. Marketing requires money for many reasons, including paid promotions, marketing software, events and outsourcing costs. Consider your budget when creating your plan so that you have money to spend on marketing strategies to achieve your goals.
When writing the plan and evaluating your actions, keep in mind the estimated costs, resources, and time needed to achieve your goals; It helps in preparing accurate estimated budget. Any goal you set can be achieved within a realistic budget.
Key : When creating a marketing plan, consider why consumers will use your product, what makes your brand different from the competition, and audit product presentation and messaging for consistency.
Channels to include in your marketing plan
Once you know the elements of your plan, the next step is to create a blueprint of how to reach your target customers. In addition to traditional print and broadcast media, there are three digital marketing channels that many business owners use.
social media
Every type of customer through social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is an integral part of business marketing plan on one platform or the other. You may feel overwhelmed by the options, but focus on the areas that bring the most value to your business
Internet marketing firm founder Brett Farmilo offers advice for social media startups on getting to know their customers and the platforms they use.
"See where your customers are spending their time and start shopping on those platforms," he told Business News Daily. "Create a content strategy that can be implemented across the company and then execute it by publishing branded content on select platforms."
Email address
While not as new as social media marketing, email marketing is an effective and popular option for small business owners. Companies can use email marketing strategies in a variety of ways, including newsletters, promotional campaigns, and marketing emails. For example, Mailchimp and Constant Contact help companies manage their mailing lists.
Added Farmiloe to differentiate your email marketing efforts by segmenting your markets.
"Not every customer wants the same explosion," he said. “Smart email marketers take the time to segment customers from the start and continue to segment based on customer activity. By segmenting, businesses can reduce unsubscribes, increase open rates, and most importantly, the number of actions taken per email. "
mobile phone
The popularity of cell phones and tablets has changed the way companies target consumers. Since people almost always have these devices with them, companies want to implement strategies to reach customers on their devices.
"Mobile marketing is disruptive," Fermillo says "Because of this ability, the retailer must allow the consumer to decide how and when to receive marketing materials. This is why almost all apps have the ability to turn notifications on or off. The consumer must be in control of mobile shopping."
Main conclusion. Use digital marketing channels such as social media, email and mobile devices to engage customers, but only after carefully researching each channel and developing strategies to capture consumer interest.
Results tracking
Well-defined budgets, goals and tasks (assigned to each appropriate employee) can make your marketing plan a reality. Consider how much money you are willing to spend, the expected results, and the activities required to achieve those results.
Analytics tools that track customer behavior and engagement rates can be a valuable guide to your marketing strategy. Unlike billboards or advertising, digital channels allow you to measure every step of the customer journey and understand the patterns and motives of individual prospects. Intent can be predicted quickly, allowing your marketing team to design campaigns that hit at the right time.
More tips for measuring marketing ROI can be found here.
Jordan Baer and Adrian Corcione contributed to the writing and preparation of this article. Source interviews were conducted for an earlier version of this article.
