Did you just start a new business and need to create a marketing plan?
Or are you an established business that needs to revamp or refresh your existing marketing plan?
Whether you are starting at the beginning or just need to get serious about the marketing and promotion of your click-and-mortar or brick-and-mortar business, here are some marketing plan basics that will help you get going (and keep going) fast!
1. Goals
First things first, you need to establish some goals. What do you hope to accomplish with your marketing plan; in other words, what would success look like to you?
Increased traffic (either on foot or on the web?)
Increased sales, awareness, audience size, etc?
Once you know what you want to accomplish, then you can establish your S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals.
What are S.M.A.R.T.E.R goals? These are goals that are:
Specific.
Measurable.
Attainable.
Relevant.
Time-Based.
Ethical.
Recorded.
2. Establish Your Target Audience.
Who’s problems exactly are you trying to solve, or already solve? It doesn’t matter what you are selling or providing, you are solving a problem that your customer has, or doesn’t know they have yet, and you’re about to educate them!
Establishing your target audience requires market research, empathy mapping, focus groups, or other strategies to better understand who your target audience is so that you can develop the narrative that is going to reach them.
3. What has worked? What didn’t (Discover and Repeat)?
A marketing plan isn’t a one-and-done or throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks kind of event; you need to look at what your competitors are doing assess your current activities, and be willing to decide what you are going to start, stop, and/or keep doing!
Then, do it again! Audit your efforts, and keep fine-tuning and enhancing for greater impact as the lessons, results, and changing technology and methods keep coming up.
4. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint!
This bears repeating because it’s soooo important. And nothing perhaps is more enduring and worth fine-tuning than your company’s culture.
Why? Because your company culture IS your brand! People buy from those they know, like, and trust, so as you are performing your analysis, learning how to identify with your target audience, and creating the pricing, budget, and timeline for your marketing plan, don’t forget to be YOU!
The “you” we are talking about is…that’s right, your company culture! It’s not only what problems you are solving for your customers, but why you are solving them and how you are going to go about it that makes your customers recognize, relate, and eventually, buy, so don’t fast forward through this part; stay in it to win it.
5. Know when to bring in the big guns.
Understanding your core capabilities, the talents of your team, your bandwidth, and what you’d like to achieve are all essential components of creating and rolling out your marketing plan. More often than not, that might mean calling in the pros and enjoying all the rewards of working with a professional marketing agency.
If you are ready to start taking your marketing plan to the next level, we’re ready to get you started, get you going and hang in there for the long haul.
Are you in need of support from a professional, experienced marketing agency?
We can help!
Talk to us!
