It’s every business’s goal to generate more sales.
But cold calls and random ads are not enough to keep the cash flowing. To attract, convert, and delight customers — you need a solid marketing plan.
A marketing plan outlines your marketing strategy for a given time. You can use it as a stand-alone document, or as part of your business plan.
If you’re opening a new business, launching a new product, or want to revise your existing marketing plan — follow these steps.
What do you wish to achieve with your business?
Your marketing goals are your desired results. They give meaning to your marketing efforts — or why you’re doing them in the first place. They’re your driving force to reach success.
To develop smart goals, use the S.M.A.R.T. framework: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-based.
Here’s an example:
By April 2020, we want to increase the total number of marketing-qualified leads by 30% through free trials, software demos, and newsletters.
This example shares a specific timeframe, measurable goal, and the action needed to achieve the goal.
Are you anywhere close to achieving your marketing goals?
Setting and tracking the right marketing KPIs (key performance indicators) lets you measure your progress. It also helps you modify existing strategies and budgets.
So say your goal is to get a 30% increase in marketing-qualified leads.
Your KPI could be the traffic-to-lead ratio in a given timeframe. After generating this number, compare the before and after results to see how you fare.
If you get a positive result, congratulations! Continue to improve and monitor the strategies you have in place.
If not, don’t fret. You can always modify, adjust, and redo. For more on marketing KPIs, Impactbnd has an excellent list of KPIs you should be tracking right now.
As the famous quote says, marketing to everyone is marketing to no one.
Your target market is the foundation of your whole marketing plan. It helps you develop more specific and relatable marketing messages.
Define your target market by mapping out your buyer persona.
A buyer persona is a fictional profile that represents the characteristics of your ideal customer.
Detailing your buyer persona helps you craft a better picture of who you’re marketing to — and how to structure your content.
This way, you won’t waste your time, effort, and marketing budget.
To map out your buyer persona, follow these steps:
1. Gather data about your target audience.
Research on the demographics and interests of your current customer base. Here are some ways to do it:
Don’t have customers yet? Check out these tips:
2. Segment your audience.
Group your audience based on the data you’ve gathered. Arrange them according to demographics, psychographic characteristics, and buying behaviours.
3. Craft a persona profile for each segment.
Develop your persona profile by listing the following elements:
If you’ve defined your marketing goals and target audience, it’ll be easy to outline your strategies.
Marketing strategies are the actions needed to take to achieve your goals. Simply put, these are your specific marketing campaigns.
Let’s take our example from earlier:
By April 2020, we want to increase the total number of marketing-qualified leads by 30% through free trials, software demos, and newsletters.
A majority of marketing strategies involve trial and error — something that can be costly for small businesses.
So how do you know where to prioritise your spending? First, take a look at where your business stands.
Starting out? Set aside a budget for a logo and a company website.
As your business grows, so will your budget and need to grow your customer base.
Identify how your customers find you, what they need to know before clicking that BUY button, and the factors that influence their buying decision.
From there, you can create a marketing budget based on your current operational costs.
Remember, you don’t have to scrape every last dollar! There are marketing tools that you can get for free, and local events you can join without breaking the bank.
Who are your competitors? How do they promote their product/service?
No matter what industry or target audience, you’ll always have competitors. Studying them has its advantages, like giving you better insights about customer behaviour and letting you sharpen your unique selling points.
Some data samples you can get from competitors include:
You can even dig deeper by taking the SWOT approach:
For example:
For example:
How do you gather all these information?
Why should customers buy from you? This is where your USP comes in.
A USP is what sets you apart from your competitors. It could be a key feature of your product or service that others don’t offer — the one strong benefit that makes you memorable.
Without a USP, you’ll get lost in the crowd and lose your target audience’s attention.
How do you determine your USP?
Your brand identity is the consistent look and feel you want your brand to appear as. It’s also a great way to differentiate your business from competitors.
Think of it as your unique personality and trademark.
Build your brand identity with these essentials:
When working as a team, you’ll need to lay out a clear project management plan. This gets everyone working in sync, minimising delays and miscommunications.
Your marketing project has different stages: initiating, planning, execution, monitoring and closing.
On each stage, make sure to set:
A well-ironed marketing plan is like a roadmap to success. Think about it — it outlines all your marketing strategies from execution to finances.
Now that you’ve learned the different steps to creating a marketing plan, it’s time to gear up and start working on your own.
Other Cool Stuff