Most entrepreneurs will have a strong focus on creating a solid business plan and know it inside out, but they often forget about the importance of a good marketing plan, but a marketing plan is just as, if not more important for a business to succeed. A marketing plan is more than thinking about how to advertise it’s about understanding and helping to hold onto your customers.
Have a look at these crucial areas that every business person should be considering when choreographing a marketing strategy:
Current Situation
The best place to start is with your current situation; all you need is a short overview of how your current marketing is performing. This is one of the most critical steps when creating your strategy. Think about things like:
- What your business is all about.
- What are your products and services?
- What’s your USP (unique selling point) may be the price, quality, new or convenience?
- What are your competitors doing? What are they doing right or wrong? Can you do better?
Your aim should be to create a situation analysis that’s an overview of your brand’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats more commonly known as SWOT analysis.
Target Audience
Now it’s time to think about your target audience. It’s highly essential that you identify what makes your target audience who they are and why some of the things to consider include:
- Demographic
- Needs
- Wants
- Preferences
- Views
The target audience is possibly the most influential factor when it comes to marketing as they determine the strategies and channels you use. You should think about what they are going to want to see and where. Are you perhaps going to reach more people through Instagram than Twitter or Email newsletters? Each business is going to be different, so it’s all about making it work for you. And, if it doesn’t work change it.
Goals
Your marketing goals, objectives, and predictions should always be inlined and focused on your business goals. Marketing will be able to affect your brand’s bottom line, hopefully for the better. You need to think about what your goal may be. It may be that you’re looking for brand awareness, social engagement, lead generation, organic CTR and Google rankings or to drive traffic to your website whatever it is purely, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place for it. When setting goals, it’s essential to make sure you’re using SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed).
Budget
It’s not unheard of for a marketing strategy to blow a companies budget; however, this is often for a good reason. Having a well-funded marketing scheme can help your bottom line, especially if you’re a start-up business. For you to achieve better results and faster, it’s, unfortunately, going to take some investment. If you’re unable to invest across the board, it’s highly recommended you choose just a few areas to focus your efforts on. Think about the strategies that would pay off more both in the short run and in the long term and then allocate a decent amount of budget to make them work.
Do you have any methods that should be considered when creating a marketing plan? Please share them in the comments section below.
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