Developing The Marketing Plan For Your Brand and Business
A marketing plan may be part of an overall business plan. Solid marketing strategy is the foundation of a well-written marketing plan so that goals may be achieved. While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, without a sound strategic foundation, it is of little use to a business. A marketing plan can be defined as an operational document that outlines an advertising strategy that a company will implement to generate leads and communicate with its target market. The functions and components of a marketing plan include numerous individual tasks that when executed as a whole should form a cohesive strategy that delivers back to the business. COG branding are experts at building Business Strategy and Marketing Plans for Australian Small Businesses, we’ve built hundreds of actionable plans and strategy over the last 10 years.
So, why should you have a marketing plan. Having a marketing plan for your organisation can help you to:
- set goals and time frames for your marketing activities
- map out a strategy to reach your target audience, including the messages, channels and tools you’ll use
- identify your target market and how your product or service can benefit it
- identify how you might attract new customers
- encourage your existing customers to continue purchasing your product or service
- evaluate your marketing activities
- provide a marketing budget and see your return on investment.
Develop your marketing plan
The first draft marketing plan you create shouldn’t be considered the final one. It’s likely you’ll rough out a broader skeleton document and then go back and fill it in. Broader brush strokes and then refine it later, getting the bigger thinking down first is key, and not getting stuck on the detail will ensure you make good progress.
There are numerous templates online that will assist you starting out. Below are the COG Branding Top % Tips you should check out before you start developing your marketing plan.
The TOP 5!
Perform An Analyse your market
Some basic market research will assist you to understand your strengths, weaknesses and the opportunities that you can take advantage of. Analysing your own business and your competition will get you closer to identifying where your own brand and business will be positioned in the market place you want to enter.
The Art Of War by Sun Tu, a great read if you think you would like to take some simple philosophies about war and implement them into business. It’s important to analyse your competition to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and yes business is likened to war for the simple fact that those who have the best information often win. Researching the competition can not only allow you time to refine your marketing strategy but also provide some context around what’s unique about your business.
To determine where your business fits within the market along with your unique selling point, you can do a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. A SWOT, while basic, can help identify what your business is doing well and how you can improve (for an existing business).
Identifying and understanding your customers is an essential part of your marketing plan. Not everyone is your potential buyer, so it’s important to have a clear understanding of your target market early on.
Goal Setting And Focusing On Objectives
When you achieve some clarity around your business and its positioning, you can start to think about what you want to achieve. Think about your main business goals, whether it’s the size of your business, expansion plans or desired sales. Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound (SMART) goals to increase your chances of success in achieving them.
Outlining your marketing strategies can be done once you’ve set some goals, consider what marketing activity, process or price will help you achieve them.
Try and choose marketing activities that suit your business and your customers. For example, if you want to target young adults, newspaper advertising may not be as effective as a social media campaign.
Choosing multiple activities that complement each other is a good way to help you get your message across. For example, if you’re trying to establish a new product in the market, you may choose to advertise on the local radio, as well as setting up social media channels and introducing a low-cost pricing strategy for first-time buyers. When used together, these strategies complement each other and help you reach a broader market.
Refine The Marketing Strategy
After you’ve structured in some goals, consider what marketing activity, processes or pricing strategy will help you achieve them.
Do your best to select marketing activities that match your business and your customers. For instance, if you want to target young adults, newspaper advertising may not be as effective as a social media campaign strategy so you’ll need to understand the different types of social media channels, how they work and what sort of results and costs are expected.
Choosing a few activities that complement each other is a great way to help you get your messages across. For example, if you’re trying to establish a new product in the market, you may select radio advertising in combination with setting up social media channels and implementing a low-cost pricing strategy for first-time customers. When used in combination together, these strategies complement each other and assist you in reaching a broader market.
Lock In A Marketing Budget
Knowing how much you have to spend on marketing and how to spend it is critical to the success of your business. A marketing budget will ensure you accurately calculate your marketing campaign or advertising.
When developing your marketing budget, make sure you’re only spending money on the activities that contribute to your current marketing goals. Advertising and promotion can be expensive, such as some of COG Branding clients are purely coming to us as we’re experts at Digital Marketing For Australian Small Business and we know how to integrate the digital elements into the broader marketing plan. Make sure to pick options that will give you the best value while still reaching your target customers.
Allocating marketing funds before the business is turning over a reliable and consistent income is hard. Remember, you can also spend more, so start conservatively and accurately, and analyse the return closely on this smaller budget. After some time in business you’ll understand how much you have to spend on marketing, it won’t be mysterious forever. A marketing budget will ensure you accurately calculate your marketing campaign or advertising so the earlier on you understand how to allocate your budgets the better.
When creating your marketing budget, be sure to only allocate spend on the activities that contribute to your current marketing goals, again remain focused. Advertising and promotion can be expensive and it’s easy to have coast run away, especially through marketing technologies. Make sure to pick options that will give you the best value while still reaching your targeted customers.
Manage Your Marketing Plan
The marketing plan is a living breathing document, it needs to be updated and managed to ensure relevancy and accuracy. It’s a white paper document that acts like a passive business partner. It’s important to evaluate your marketing activities regularly and update your plan when needed. Analysing your results and being aware of new marketing trends is important to keeping your marketing plan up-to-date and reaching your business goals. It’s a good idea to set regular calendar dates that are reminders to address the marketing plan.
Keep your marketing plan up-to-date is key. It’s important to evaluate your marketing activities. Analysing your results and being aware of new marketing trends is important to keeping your marketing plan up-to-date and reaching your business goals. You should tweak and change your plan as your business and market grow and change.
Having a marketing plan that includes considerations to building brand equity can help you to:
- identify your target market and how your product or service can benefit it
- identify how you might attract new customers
- encourage your existing customers to continue purchasing your product or service
- set goals and time frames for your marketing activities
- map out a strategy to reach your target audience, including the messages, channels and tools you’ll use
- evaluate your marketing activities
- provide a marketing budget and see your return on investment.
So, are you ready to develop your marketing plan for your small business?
Contact us at COG Branding to discuss further how we can help you on your decision making journey and progress.
