Developing a Marketing Plan

By 2016-01-04Featured

There are really only two things a business needs: a product or service and a marketing plan. After all, how is anyone going to know about your product or service if they don’t hear about it? Developing a marketing plan is arguably the second most important thing a business can do, and it must continually test and augment its marketing plan to suit its audience and improve ROI. Here’s how we suggest developing a marketing plan.

First, start with a snapshot of your current situation. Analyzing where your business is now will help in developing a marketing plan to get you where you want to be, and help you understand what makes you different compared to your competition. Think about it this way: if you don’t fully understand everything you offer, how will your potential customers? Begin with thinking about what makes your products or services superior to your competition’s, then consider any weaknesses. Consider any outside opportunities you can capitalize on, like what’s going on in your community, and juxtapose them against anything that might potentially hurt your business, like an over-saturated market. Then, think about the audience you want to reach. Sometimes this is easy—if you sell textbooks or baby clothes, for example—and other times it can be difficult. It’s important to have a finger on the pulse of what drives your audience. Ask yourself:

  • What am I selling?
  • Is it more convenient than my competitors?
  • Is it a higher quality than what my competitors offer?
  • Is it cheaper or more expensive?
  • Who will buy my products?

You can’t offer everything, but everything is important when you’re developing a marketing plan.

Next, write a profile or your ideal customer. In one paragraph, describe all aspects of who you want to reach in terms of demographics and lifestyle. Ask yourself:

  • Are they conservative or more innovative?
  • Are they leaders or followers?
  • Are they more reserved or aggressive?
  • How often will they purchase my offerings, and in what quantities?

If you’re a B2B business, consider your target’s size, type of business, location, and needs. No matter who or what your audience is, be specific in your profile of them as you’re developing a marketing plan.

Now it’s time to list your marketing goals. Simply, what do you want your marketing plan to achieve? It sounds easy, but it takes a lot of thought. Do you want your ROI to increase by 20 percent, or triple the number of sales in the next quarter? Whatever your goals, make them measurable so you can adjust your marketing plan if need be.

This step is crucial to developing a marketing plan: figure out what strategies you’ll use. This is where all of the information you’ve put together comes into play. An effective marketing plan reaches customers in all stages of the sales cycle. If you’re trying to reach a cold prospect—someone who has never heard of or purchased your product—traditional forms of marketing like advertising, PR, and direct marketing will probably work best. For warmer customers, permission-based outreach like emails, loyalty programs, and customer appreciation events will work. By knowing your audience, you’ll be able to create a list of marketing strategies that reach them where they live—online, in public, at home—which is why the first three steps are critical for successfully developing a marketing plan.

Finally, set your budget for marketing. If you want your business to grow, you have to invest in marketing, and the more you invest, the more it can grow. Of course, if you’re just starting out, it may seem as if you don’t have enough money to put into marketing, or you may want to hold off until you have more funds. Don’t. A marketing budget should be part of your expenses, just as much as turning the lights on. A good rule of thumb is to spend about 10 percent of gross revenue on marketing. Again, the more you spend, the more you’ll eventually make. As you’re developing a marketing plan, you may find that you’re exceeding your budget; that simply means it’s time to reevaluate one of them. Be smart, but not overly frugal, with your marketing budget.

Figure out what your goals are, put a plan together, and try it. Find out what works and what doesn’t. Keep tweaking and developing a fluid marketing plan until you find one that works for you, then branch from that to reach new audiences. And if you’re looking for a marketing firm to assist in developing a marketing plan and effectively implementing it, we suggest E.H. Anderson PR.