Create a Marketing Plan... #33
- Adrian Dionisio - business737 owner
- Sep 3, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: May 14, 2024
How to create a marketing plan
Your marketing plan is the map that you use to design, execute and track your marketing activities. It will help you understand your business and align marketing goals with business goals. It will help you make better decisions and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Ultimately, you want a marketing plan that provides a consistent flow of high quality leads to help fuel new sales and drive profits. So how do you design a marketing plan? Keep it simple. Start with a plan and commit to that plan. Test all assumptions and pivot when necessary.
A marketing plan can be extremely complex and intricate. There is really no need. There are 7 proven elements used to design a highly effective marketing plan;
1. Establish where you are
2. Review your offer
3. Define your target market
4. Clarify your positioning
5. Define the purpose of your marketing
6. Identify the marketing tools you will use
7. Allocate a Budget
1 Establish where you are
A good plan starts by asking questions
What is the current situation of my business?
What is my goal?
What benefits do I offer?
Who is my target market?
What are my competitive advantages?
What marketing tactics will I use? How will I execute my marketing plan?
How much will it cost?
What do I fear?
By asking these questions (read more) you will begin to really understand the nature of your business, your competitors, your market etc. Only then does it become easier to determine your strategy and make a coherent marketing plan.
Reflect upon your company’s mission, vision and values. Have a powerful and personalised core story (read here about the power of narrative). This will develop your identity and help define what your business is really about. It will enhance your business' personality. An honest identity is very important. It is different to an image, which can easily be fabricated, but has no substance.
If you’ve got a start-up business or are looking at a marketing plan for a totally new area, there are many research resources are available including online reports, insights via trends and conferences. This informs your business decision and ensures the plan is fundamentally sound.
2 Review your offer
Review your offer with respect of your objectives
Review the strengths and weaknesses of your offer
Review the strengths and weaknesses of your competition’s offer
Review your offer with respect to your target market
Review your offer with respect to the needs of the market
Review your offer with respect to the economic trends
It is important to analyse your current market situation in this way. Study your business, your offer, your competition – your strengths and weaknesses across the board. Review the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) with reference to your offer.
PEST analysis also helps you to identify the main opportunities and threats in your market:
Political and legal changes such as new regulations
Economic factors such as interest rates, exchange rates and consumer confidence
Social factors such as changing attitudes and lifestyles, and the ageing population
Technological factors such as new materials and growing use of the internet
Always have your customer in mind because everything you do should be geared towards your customer. Think about the value you offer them (read here) Use this approach helps to structure a marketing plan aligned to your business goals.
3 Define your target market
Who is your target market? The more markets you target the more profits you receive. Once you have identified all your target markets you must take careful aim at each one. Think why will a prospect be interested in your business (read more here).
What is important for your target market? Is it health, financial security, family, God, independence, leisure, financial success, social status? Determine the specific niche that your offering is intending to fill. Remember, target market, target audience, ideal customer, target personas etc is all basically the same thing. The important thing is to determine who exactly your business is serving.
Who wants and needs what you are offering? What are their demographics, characteristics, personality traits, financial resources etc. How can you be helpful to your customer if you don’t know your customer. You cannot. This is why you must take time to define and learn about them.
4 Clarify your positioning
What do you stand for in the minds of your prospects and customers? Marketing results depend on how your product or service is positioned. When you have a clear focus on your defined market you can clarify your market position. You should measure the position against four criteria
i) Does it offer a benefit that your target audience really wants / needs
ii) Is it a real problem-solving benefit
iii) Does it separate you from the competition?
iv) Is it unique / difficult to copy?
If you have satisfactory answers to these questions, it is likely that you will have a suitable and appropriate position. Positioning is the key to marketing (read more).
You can also use the four Ps to help you establish your position: promotion, price, place and product. These criteria will also determine how you are positioned.
It is important for every business to understand their positioning. Understand the value of your offer and the way it is explained. Understand what your business stands for and why people should purchase from it. This will lead you to your goals. An accurate market position requires clear constructive goals.
5 Define your goals
Outline your goals and objectives. It is better to use actual numbers rather than writing vague statements. What is the exact purpose of your marketing activities? What is the physical action you want your prospect to take such as clicking on your website, subscribing to your newsletter, visiting your store, enquiring about your product or service etc?
If, for example, your goal is to increase website traffic, have a specified numerical target that you can track and see if you achieved it or not. Examples of objectives can be to increase sales by 30%, increase customer engagement by 25% and so forth.
Remember to create SMART goals for your marketing plan. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable and seem to be out of reach.
Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.
Your goals will determine your strategy and your strategy will drive your goals. Different strategies will aim at varying outcomes such as promotion, conversion, joint venture and partnerships, referrals, retention, to name a few.
6 Identify the marketing tools you will use
What tools will be used for your marketing activities? You need to get your business in front of your market. Let your target market be your guide in deciding what marketing tools you'll use. Where does your market hangout? How can you entice them to check out your business?
There are many marketing materials at your disposal so choose what works best for you and your business. For example, if your market spends a lot of time on Facebook, you might consider having a Facebook fan page or group, or perhaps investing in Facebook advertising. If you're a service business catering to other businesses, you might want to write an article for a newsletter or magazine that targets that same business industry. Read about digital marketing here.
If you're doing social media, will you be using a social media management tool or hire a social media manager? Will you write a blog or create content to share on other websites, such as article marketing? If so, how often will you post or deliver content?
Examples of offline marketing:
Networking
Speaking
Meetings
Print Publications
Direct Mail
Cold Calls
Print Advertising
Associations/Trade Shows
Examples of online marketing:
Social Media
Webinar
Phone/Video
Blogs/Online Publications
Email
Search
Online Advertising
Groups/Online Conferences
Identify the tools, skills and infrastructure you will need. New techniques need new tools and infrastructure. Add any new ones you may need or revise those that aren’t up to date.
7 Allocate a Budget
The cost of marketing completes the plan. The marketing budget outlines the expenditure for the activities documented in the marketing plan. The marketing budget is a financial plan of marketing activities to be carried out e.g. promotional activities, cost of marketing materials and advertising, and so on.
Other considerations include expected product volume and price, production and delivery costs, and operating and financing costs.
The effectiveness of the marketing plan depends on the budget allocated for marketing expenditure. Typically is is around 10% of total revenue. The cost of marketing should be able to make the company break even and make profits.
Conclusion
Think big. Aim high. Marketing plans should be kept clear concise and simple. The goals should be easy and immediately understandable. Be clear and direct. The briefer the plan the easier it is to follow.
A good marketing plan should not allow for too much flexibility – the plan is created to be followed. It should summarise who you are, where you are going and how you will get there.
A marketing plan is a living, breathing document. Analysing your results and tweaking or changing your marketing strategies is an important task in keeping your marketing plan up to date and having it fulfil its purpose in helping reach your business goals.
Many factors can impact your marketing results and choices including market conditions, demand for your product or service, pricing issues, and new marketing methods (i.e. a new social media platform). It's important you stay aware of all of this and adjust your marketing plan accordingly. Studying your data, such as website analytics, sales numbers, and the trends will give you clues as to what's working and what isn't.
Just like the big corporations you must operate according to a strategy. This applies to you, no matter the size of your company, even if you are a solopreneur working from your home office. This is the way to succeed with marketing.
Comments