The key to marketing is understanding the needs of your audience and providing them with something that they value or need. It’s not about selling, it’s about serving. ” —Gary Vaynerchuk

 

Create a marketing plan for your business.

Your marketing plan is a key tool in helping you to successfully market your business. It will also help you to establish a clear strategy and goals for your business, which are critical to its success.

 

What Is A Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan is an organised list of short-term (1–12 month) and long-term (2–plus year) goals or plans that aim at achieving specific objectives for the business. In other words, it’s an outline of how you intend on getting customers in the door and keeping them coming back!

In addition, marketing plan is a written document that outlines your goals, strategies, and tactics for promoting your business or product. It’s important to remember that a marketing plan is not an executive summary or mission statement; it’s an actionable document that will guide you through the process of execution. A good marketing plan also helps you budget time and money for each campaign or project, so you can measure its success over time.

 

What Does a Marketing Plan Not Include?

A good marketing plan should include:

A description of who your target audience is (and why they would want to buy from you)

An overview of what makes your company unique compared to other businesses in the same field (or industry) as yours—this is called “positioning” by marketers; it’s how I would describe what we do at my company if someone asked me “so what exactly do you guys do?” (This could be as simple as describing how our products are made compared to similar products on the market today.) You’ll also want to include information about any products or services offerings that have already been successful for clients before launching them into new markets. “

Whether you’re starting a new business from scratch or you’re looking to change the way things are going in your current company, this post is for you!

 

Since I’ve been doing marketing for over 5 years now, I’m always being asked about how to create a good marketing plan. Whether it’s for an agency or for myself, my clients want to know what steps they should take when creating their marketing strategy.

The truth is that there are no shortcuts. However, there are some basic principles that will help any business owner build better strategies faster and more efficiently. Let’s take a look at each step of my 5-step process below:

 

Before I jump into how to create a marketing plan for your business, let’s take some time to do some homework:

This week you will be asked to complete a marketing plan template that includes the following:

• A problem statement details a current situation or opportunity in your market.
• An outline of your target audience, including demographics and psychographics
• A list of key competitors and how they differ from you (and what makes them successful).
• An overview of your brand’s positioning in relation to your competitors’ positions

If you haven’t completed these steps yet, now would be an ideal time to do so before we jump into creating a complete marketing plan for your business!

 

Here’s what we want to avoid doing when never going through the planning process.

• Not having a plan
• Not having a clear understanding of your goals
• Not having a clear understanding of your audience
• Not having a clear understanding of your business value proposition (BVP)
• Not having a clear understanding of your budget and pricing strategy.

 

1. First step: Define your goals and objectives (big picture).

Defining your goals and objectives is a critical first step in the marketing plan process. Your goal is to define the big picture of where you see your company in the next 3-5 years. Your objective will be to define what needs to be done to get there. The strategy you choose will dictate how you achieve your objectives, as well as how quickly and efficiently they can be reached through various tactics (i.e., marketing campaigns).

When defining these stages of your marketing plan, it’s important that they are specific enough so that any employee on your team can understand them without asking questions. It’s also important that they’re measurable so that once implemented, there won’t be any confusion about whether or not something worked or not.

Define your budget based on what resources are available at hand rather than reaching for unrealistic numbers just because someone told you something costs “X” amount of dollars per month/year/etcetera. You may find out later down the road that those resources aren’t necessary after all—or even worse—that there’s no way for them to be used effectively if too much money has been set aside up front.

 

2. Second, identify and understand your target audience(s).

The second step in the process is to understand your audience and their needs. You need to know who your target audience is, what you can do for them, and why they would want to buy from you.

For example, if you are launching a new product, who do you think will be interested in buying it? Do any of your existing customers use similar products? If so, find out what makes them different from your current offering. If not, who else might be interested in this new product or service? Maybe there’s a whole new market for which no one has thought about offering products or services yet!

 

3. Establish your buyable value proposition (BVP) in the third step.

The BVP is what makes your product or service unique, and in turn, valuable to the customer. It is a statement that conveys the reason why someone should choose you over your competitors.

A good BVP can be communicated in a single sentence that describes the benefits of your business to both customers and prospects. Here are some examples:

“Our job is to make sure that our clients have more time for themselves and their loved ones by handling all of their advertising needs for them.”

“We help businesses get found online by developing custom SEO strategies tailored specifically for them.”

You may have noticed I used the word “unique” when describing what makes a great BVP. This is because there’s no such thing as “one size fits all.” A good rule of thumb when creating yours is to ask yourself if everyone else offering similar products or services would say something similar about themselves. If so, then it’s probably not unique enough!

 

4. Determine your budget and pricing strategy in the fourth step.

This step is all about defining the budget for your marketing plan, including

• How much money do you have to spend on your marketing plan and what can you afford to spend?
• How much time can you allocate toward completing the marketing plan?
• The cost of any services or products that will be needed in order to fulfil the plan (e.g., website hosting fees).

You should also consider whether there are any restrictions on spending for your business based on its size or industry. This will help set clear boundaries on how much money is available for each marketing strategy element outlined in Step 1 of this process.

 

5. Fifth step: Develop a strategy and tactics that are in line with your objectives and resources.

The fifth step of the process is to determine your marketing strategy and tactics.

What do you want to accomplish?

How do you want to accomplish it?

When will you know if your plan is working or not?

By now, you should have defined all of the following:

• Your goals (long-term and short-term)
• Resources available for this project

 

Taking the time to thoroughly detail all aspects of your marketing strategy will serve as a roadmap for future success. It may seem overwhelming at first, but once you get started, you’ll realise it’s not so bad!

 

Conclusion 

The first step in the marketing plan process is to define your goals and objectives. You need to be as specific as possible about what you want to achieve with your business. This might seem overly simple, but this is where most people get stuck because they haven’t taken the time to evaluate their current resources and capabilities against their desired outcomes.

Once you have a clear vision of what it is you want from your business venture, it’s time to start thinking about how exactly you’re going to achieve those goals—this is where strategies come into play! There are many different ways for businesses (products or services) to market themselves—some take advantage of traditional print media like newspapers and magazines, while others use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter; some may even go so far as hiring someone on staff whose sole responsibility will be overseeing all aspects specifically related to advertising and marketing efforts, which would mean that person would need access.

 

We’re here for you!

If you’ve found yourself struggling with your marketing plan and need help, we’d love to help! We’ve helped hundreds of businesses create their marketing plans, and we’re confident that we can do the same for you. If you want more information on how our services can help yours grow faster than ever before, contact us today.