Succeeding in business means achieving or exceeding your goals. Do you have a playbook for getting there? Divine Design & Marketing offers tips for how to create an effective marketing plan for any company, from small businesses to national and international enterprises.
What is a marketing plan?
A marketing plan is your step-by-step guide to creating, implementing, managing, assessing, and refining your marketing efforts, and also reflects corporate and small business growth strategies. Each of these tasks must be included, because a marketing plan is not a static document. Think of it as a roadmap. If you hit detours along the route, you need to rethink your moves to avoid bottlenecks.
Done correctly, an effective marketing plan is clear, detailed, and easy to follow for all of the people involved. It should be shared and reviewed during the development process so that you ensure the plan is comprehensive, and not based solely on the opinions of a few people.
Where do I start?
Start by creating a profile of your business.
- Mission statement: What is your business’s purpose? What do you do and, more importantly, what is the “why” that drives your actions? Consider how you began and the corporate culture that evolved from there.
- Company profile: What do you sell and how do you do it? Include an honest appraisal of your position in the marketplace.
- Target audience: Who is your primary demographic? Go beyond the numbers and look at the psychographics. Describe each user persona you currently serve. What life factors impact their buying behavior?
- Marketing goals: What do you want your marketing plan to achieve? Be specific by applying quantifiable goals, like a specific percent of new followers on social media. Be sure to distinguish sales and marketing tasks. Marketing, for example, does not generate sales; the team aims to drive traffic by generating leads.
- Metrics: How will you evaluate your achievements? What are the key performance indicators? Your marketing plan should articulate how you will measure each step. For example, if you want to improve your bounce rate, what’s your target number? How many new followers do you want per month on social media? How many unique visitors do you want to attract for landing pages?
- Budget: What is your bottom line for marketing expenses? It’s helpful to allocate specific funds to your individual marketing channels, like digital marketing (including paid ads), print marketing, social media, promotions, and special events. As with metrics, determine how you will track your budget performance.
Conduct market research.
Market research is a critical step in learning how to create an effective marketing plan. Prepare to do a deep dive into your business and the market you’re serving.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses? The SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) is a long-standing exercise in understanding your business position. Weaknesses present opportunities to improve and grow. Threats enable you to proactively prepare.
- What conditions are impacting the market now and in the foreseeable future? Do you rely on importing parts? Is skilled labor readily available? Have technology advances and cultural changes impacted your marketing position?
- What have you learned from your past marketing? What campaigns were successful, and why? Analyze your customer surveys, reviews, and comments on social posts. Look at your email campaign metrics and website analytics. Take an unbiased look to see what works, what didn’t, and where you can do better.
Create visuals.
Visuals are helpful when building a marketing plan. Infographics present facts in a visually pleasing way. Here are some ideas for infographics to create for your marketing plan:
- Current metrics per channel compared to goals for each
- Website analytics
- Changes in target audience, market, and buying behavior
- Your SWOT analysis
- Competitive analysis (you versus competitors, your products and services versus theirs)
- Budget breakdown
Build your plan.
Every bit of information you’ve gathered from completing these steps is like a piece in your puzzle. Now, it’s time to fit them together. You have a good view of where you are right now (Point A) and where you want to go (Point B). It’s time to map out the journey!
Begin with your strategy. How will you pursue your goals? Look at the data you have and the goals you’ve set. Start with your big picture—e.g., increase website traffic, improve paid ad metrics, explore new markets. Assign an urgency factor to each area, so you can focus on priorities.
For each area, create an action plan. These are the tasks required to see results. Be specific. Generalizations leave too much room for misinterpretation, which leads to missing your goals.
Next, how can you use your resources—particularly, your team—to reach your goals? Think about tasks like time management. Are some people under-utilized while others are working harder than anyone? Should you reallocate certain tasks to other people? Do you need to hire or outsource some roles?
Find the right marketing partner.
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have limitations for their marketing. They might lack the depth of experience that allows for broader thinking. SMB marketing handled internally may also be stuck in “the way we’ve always done it”, with team members hesitant to suggest new avenues and tactics.
When you need help with digital marketing ideas and strategies for building an effective marketing plan, consult with a specialist. Invest in a knowledgeable team that focuses on small business growth strategies and marketing services for small businesses. Remember, an investment delivers a return, so the outcome should be reviewed as ROI, not an expense.
Divine Design & Marketing offers an expansive range of digital marketing services for small businesses, all the way to global enterprises who count on us to support their in-house marketing professionals. We’ve made it easy to source the knowledge, creativity, and expertise for all of your marketing needs. Our in-house teams develop and produce websites (including e-commerce), customized landing pages, social media marketing, complete campaigns (print and digital), videos, presentations, and trade show graphics. Our strategists and project managers pay close attention to your business, not just tasks. We work as your partner.
Divine Design & Marketing is a women-owned business that specializes in customer service and affordable creativity and strategic thinking. Contact Divine Design & Marketing to see how we can support your growth!
