Long gone are the days that a business can set up shop, provide good service or a quality product and expect the customers to keep on coming. All businesses, large or small, need a marketing plan to effectively promote their business.
For many start-ups and small businesses, the thought of writing a marketing plan on their own is intimidating. One does not need an advanced degree to write an effective marketing plan. In 6 simple steps, you can create a marketing plan that will put you ahead of the competition.
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is a document that guides you and your business in everything that needs to be done to promote, or market your service or product. The length of the document is not important. Many small businesses can outline a marketing plan in a few pages. There is not a minimum number of pages required for the length of the plan as long as it delineates what needs to be done to accomplish goals, meet objectives and complete the necessary tasks.
An effective plan will span the course of a year and allow enough flexibility to adjust to a changing and fluid business environment.
Step 1: Understand and evaluate your business.
This first step is very simple for most business owners and is usually a very arduous task for marketing consultants as no one knows your business like you do. Chances are, you have had to evaluate and explain your business on numerous occasions during the creation of your business plan, in seeking funding and hiring employees.
A few things that must be considered are some of the company’s goals, the strengths, weaknesses. Consider challenges are posed and any significant obstacles that must be overcome soon. Are there any opportunities for growth? Any new markets to enter? If there are opportunities to launch a new product or offer a new service, this is the time to formulate that idea into an actionable plan.
Step 2: Determine your target audience or market.
Your target market is your intended customer. This portion of the marketing plan is crucial and is the basis for the remainder of your marketing initiatives. After all, getting the attention of your potential customers and creating conversions is the goal of your hard work.
In this portion, you will list demographics of your intended customers. Their age, education level, economic status, and gender. A successful marketing plan will also consider consumer behavior and sociological factors in determining their target audience. Evaluate the interests of the target audience. Do they gravitate towards certain social circles, interests, or hobbies?
The importance of asking these questions is to determine the usefulness of your product or service to your customer. It will also help in determining how your customer receives information.
An example would be an energy drink company. Their target audience may be 18-25-year-old males and they may want to become more appealing to college students. Their efforts will be focused on social media, placing a heavy emphasis on providing a product that will increase focus and energy during tedious lectures or late study sessions. This strategy will provide information to a demographic that is used to having massive amounts of information at their fingertips.
Step 3: Evaluate the competition
In the competitive market place most businesses operate in there is a very high probability that there are multiple businesses providing the same services or products as you. Markets are becoming increasingly crowded making effective and focused marketing very important. If you are the incredibly fortunate business owner that is the only one operating in your niche, you will not have to worry about outside business infringing on your market share, at least not yet. You will still need to continuously evaluate potential customers and will need a marketing plan to promote your developing brand.
For everyone facing stiff competition and a crowded consumer market, knowing details of the businesses vying for you customers will be valuable. By knowing exactly what the competition is offering, what their weaknesses are, their pricing, guarantees, customer service, and reputation will allow you to differentiate yourself from them. You will be able to inform customers what makes your business special, what you can offer that others can’t.
This is where you list the qualities that set you apart from the competition, it may be your affordability, your ability to provide personalized service, your location, being family owned, or any other factor that makes you unique and appealing to your target customers.
Step 4: Define your goals
This is where you will spell out what you wish to accomplish over the year for your company. Your goals can be based on sales, sales, revenue or merely increasing your brand awareness. Some examples of goals are doubling sales, increasing client list by 15%, carving out a larger market share, securing more revenue from investors. The business’ goal is dependent on your specific needs and requirements.
Goals can be on a small scale as well. It could be to double Instagram followers, obtain a few hundred You Tube subscribers, or to expand an email list to 500. Whatever your goal is, make sure it is attainable and demonstrative of the direction you intend your company to take.
Step 5: Outline your objectives and tasks that need to be completed to accomplish your goals.
This is where you will pull everything together. Where all your research will be put into a plan. Once your goals are established you need to set objectives or milestones that need to be met to accomplish the goal. Using the expanding you email list example, an objective could be to provide incentives that customers cannot refuse in exchange for their email address. It’s an objective that must be met to reach the goal and it is attainable.
The next step is to list the tasks that must be done to meet the objective. Task #1 would be to research and determine if a product is useful to the target audience and if it could be provided in a cost-effective manner. Task #2 would be to produce or purchase the product. If the product is an e-book, the next task would be to outsource or write the book.
There are other objectives that need to be met in order to accomplish the goal in the example above such as creating an easy to use form, having a site that is responsive and user friendly, the list could go on and each objective will require a different set of tasks.
Outlining the goals and a plan to accomplish them can be difficult and may require outside, expert assistance from an experienced and impartial marketing professional.
Step 6: Set your budget.
This may be the most difficult part of developing your marketing plan as it will require monetary expense in an area many new business owners are not comfortable operating in. The investment in your marketing initiatives is crucial and, if done right, will provide profits exponentially over the course of the plan. If ignored or done incorrectly it will doom even the highest quality product or service in a short amount of time.
You will need to determine how much each task lined out will cost over the next year and stick to that budget. During the budget process and in determining how much you can afford to devote to marketing, you may find yourself prioritizing your goals. If you have more than one goal, choosing to forgo ones that will have lesser impact on your bottom line will may become a necessity. By clearly outlining your goals, objectives and strategies, you will have a good understanding of the costs associated to reaching your marketing goals.
Get to work.
Now is the time to get to work. Whether your marketing plan will be exhaustive and hundreds of pages long or simple and only a few, you should have a better understanding of what needs to be done and how to put an effective plan together.